My name is Michele and I have been a customer of Zalando for several years. I have spent over 2,000 euros on the site only in the past few months. I am shocked by what has just happened to me and, as a marketing professional for a huge multinational company, I take complaints very seriously and I see them as a tool to improve customer relations and, thus, retention. I am negatively surprised by how Zalando managed my last item return, especially being a loyal customer who spent thousands of euros on the company and was planning to continue to do so. I returned some slides because I had a problem with them, which I will explain later in this message, while also returning other items that were perfectly fine and I only decided to return them because either I did not like them or they did not fit me perfectly (meaning I did not wear them even once). On the other hand, I did wear the slides for a couple of days and I experienced deambulation pain. I went and saw a podologist (certainly not for free) who said that the slides were shaped in such a way that caused serious damage to my inferior limbs. They also caused my feet to bleed, which has, of course, stained the slides. I washed them, removed the stains, and returned them to Zalando. Despite the serious damage they caused, I would have totally understood if the Italian customer service had decided not to refund the money (which, by the way, is a mere 20 euros – ridiculous compared to even just my monthly spending on Zalando). However, instead of a professional and politely-written e-mail, I received the following message: We are not accepting your return because the slides stink as if they were used for a long time, and so do all the other items in the package. When I shipped them, they did not stink but, however, if they really do stink, that is probably because the courier came very early in the morning and the slides were not completely dry yet, for which I take full responsibility and I apologise. This has, however, nothing to do with the other items that were sealed in a vacuum plastic bag and had never been worn. As a fellow marketer, and as a professional who works hard every day to make companies and brands look sustainable, who also values customer satisfaction and is highly concerned about the potential (either positive, or in this case negative) word-of-mouth this could produce, do you think this is the answer a customer service team should give a loyal customer who has filed a complaint and returned a product? I do not. And I also do not think that a company should deny a return of 3 products that have never been even worn because a forth product in the same package stinks (and, by the way, I am citing and trusting their words, as nothing was stinking when I shipped the package). Everything, except the slides, was brand new, never even worn. Once again, I am not writing this email to get the 20 euros for the slides back. I am happy to have them back and donate them to a charity. I am writing because the way I have been treated is humiliating and shocked me. From what I understand from your email, if the slides had dried out on time and, thus, did not smell, you would have sold them to someone else despite me pointing out that they caused bleeding. The whole email was, indeed, not about the problem they caused me as a customer or the fact that I literally bled in them, but only about the fact that they stank and could, therefore, not be sold. I am very disappointed and this email is the last attempt to change my mind on the quality of their customer support, which I once trusted. I have even made another purchase very recently which is on its way, but I would not be happy to deal with Zalando or even recommend it to anyone if I am aware that I, or other customers, could experience such misadventures again. AT LEAST a refund of the products that I returned intact, perfectly new and clean, which had nothing to do with the slides.
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