MYSTERY SHOPPING THREAD 18 - please don't mention client names or fees on here!!

serendipity2706

hfc53 wrote: »

Dear All,
I have been a mystery shopper for many years and I have just been let down really badly!
I took on a job for RE at a particular Dry cleaners.
I took along my beautiful winter coat and left it there. I was quite happy until I received the coat back. It was ruined. I mean absolutely ruined. What was once a comfy, cosy, long black cashmere coat with glorious red lining was now a wrinkled, shrunken mess. Bits had faded, shoulder pads were screwed up, buttons all over the place.
I contacted RE. Eventually they got back to me.
The Dry cleaners denied any wrongdoing, although when I took it to a different dry cleaners they took one look at it and said 'it's been washed not dry cleaned!'
Surely this should have been sufficient. but no.
The dry cleaners said that as I could not prove that it had happened as a result of their work, they would not accept liability.
The Mystery shopping company.... TWO MONTHS later eventually agreed to give me 50% of the cost of the coat back. This was a 'goodwill gesture as I didn't have the receipt!'
To be perfectly blunt, I wouldn't work for RE again, ever! They are very very rude, unhelpful and the operations director of RE actually told the woman in the dry cleaners that I was a mystery shopper!!!!!!!!! That really was the final straw for me.
So simply be very wary. If anything goes wrong you are on your own! They will drop you in it straight away!
You may enquire why I did not get in touch with the CEO? I did I sent him email after email after email. All to no avail. Either he doesn't exist or he is just a coward.
Please excuse my upset, but the coat cost me £299, after paying for a clean at £16.20, I received £5 for the report and £10.00 towards the clean, then £150 towards the cost of a new coat. Not including the six trips to the cleaners on the advice of RE and the two months of daily phone calls to RE and the cleaners. overall I'm massively out of pocket and massively out of patience with them.
If you work for them, good luck, I hope your experience is better than mine.
Hugs
hx

Threaten them with the small claims court
will only cost about £40 to raise the action (not sure the cost in england) and theyll pay up before the case comes to court, cos otherwise , if they lose, they'll have to pay your cost and interest as well
first send recorded delivery letter explaining what you are doing-
get the other cleaners to write saying it was washed not cleaned- most likely they'll pay up then, this is assuming you haven't accepted the compensation
if you have it's too late now (Sorry)

Money_maker

To be fair, I don't think any responsibility lies with RE at all. You are performing a job on their behalf but as far as the dry cleaners are concerned, you are an ordinary customer. It is all down to the dry cleaners. Mind you, I was a little concerned when I left my favourite winter coat there and advised the toggles may well crack. Still, it was only worth about a tenth of the price of your coat.

jen_br

This isn't RE's fault and to be fair you didn't have a receipt and your making a lot of claims here...

Im sorry your coat got ruined by whatever means but its not RE's problem im shocked they paid you anything for your coat.

Also,of COURSE re is going to tell them your an MSer.... because you have raised a complaint through them.

Becles

For something of that value, I would have raised it direct with the dry cleaners too. I don't think that it is RE's fault that the cleaners made a mistake.

hfc53

Thank you all for your words of support.
Just a quick point, I did try to proceed via the dry cleaners.
I even took the coat back to them so that they could do a 'technical report'.
After their technical report showed that they would return the shoulder pads to their correct placing as a goodwill gesture, (nothing else was actually looked at!)they stated that the only way they would believe that it was possibly their fault was if I could produce an 'unwashed, brand new version' of my coat and prove that the coat I had taken in was in perfect condition when I took it in. I even actually contacted the makers of the coat who said that unfortunately they would not be able to provide that which was requested by the dry cleaners but that they would provide as much information as required to show that they had not had any other coats from that batch, design etc returned as faulty.
I called and emailed the cleaners asking for someone to sort it out. They refused to take my calls, my emails and said that I would be more than welcome to go to their head office in Prescot, but that as I would not have a meeting arranged they would call security.
RE took it upon themselves to demand the coat from Johnsons, expose me as a mystery shopper, (there's several shops I can't go in again!) and then offer me the pittance they sent.
I wish I could take it up through the small claims court but unfortunately RE have the coat!
I have totally lost out on this one. I just want everyone to be aware that they will blow your cover when they feel like it and you are on your own when it goes wrong, so please don't put in anything of value.
hugs
hs

hfc53

I appreciate that the cleaning was not RE's fault.
Them demanding it from the cleaners, was. They destroyed any claim I had at that point.
I appreciate I am making a lot of claims here.
Especially as I do not even have the coat any longer. Thanks RE.
However, they do and I can substantiate absolutely everything. Granted I do not have the receipt. Do I have my House of Fraser Statement? Yes. Was that accepted as proof by RE? No! They totally sided with the cleaners.
100%

StacFace

I know people are saying it's not RE's fault but doesn't it say in a lot of their briefs that you are not to contact Head Office with complaints, and instead to go through them? I'm not saying it is in any way RE's fault but that will be the reason why RE became involved and you can't blame the poster for going through RE if that's what the brief says. I'm also guessing that the money offered got given to RE by the company itself to pass onto the shopper.

Depending on how long you'd had the coat and how much use out of it you'd had you may or may not get more compensation by threatening legal action. If it was in great condition and bought fairly recently by all means go ahead (a bank statement or similar suffices in place of a receipt, but only send a copy to the company if using it as evidence), but if you've had it for years and years (even if it was still in good condition) then they'll argue the value of the coat is no longer what you bought it for, as a heavily used but good condition coat is worth much less than a new one.

boyoboy1986

I think the 'proper' thing that should have happened here is you informed RE and they told you to pursue the complaint with the dry cleaners directly, they paid you the fee only and the branch was re-shopped.

Why RE got involved and paid you £150 is beyond me, especially when you couldn't provide a receipt for the goods. As Jen (I think) said earlier your best chance is threatening with the small claims court, or a letter to your local newspaper. Have you tried writing to the company rather than email and phone? Also is there another branch in the vicinity that you could visit and ask for contact details for and area or district manager?

squeaky1055

Mystic bank shows TNS money going in tomorrow

Lil_Me_2

StacFace wrote: »

I know people are saying it's not RE's fault but doesn't it say in a lot of their briefs that you are not to contact Head Office with complaints, and instead to go through them? I'm not saying it is in any way RE's fault but that will be the reason why RE became involved and you can't blame the poster for going through RE if that's what the brief says. I'm also guessing that the money offered got given to RE by the company itself to pass onto the shopper.

This is precisely why I would have not included RE and gone direct to the company! We know how tight RE are!

However it seems the poster tried this, and then resorted to contacting RE. Unfortunately it seems that RE now have the coat so that will stop them being able to take it further. They should have had a receipt though! I'm surprised RE didn't refuse to pay them for the job to top it off.