Stress with next

ben_m_g

What was supposed to be a simple transaction has turned into a national game of hide and seek with next.

We where shopping in our local store last week, finding a suit that fitted perfectly (an achievement in itself) and was exactly what we where looking for with our upcoming wedding. We brought the first one and enquired about the availability of more sizes.

I actually asked the questions; is this a current brand? is this style going to be discontinued? and are you expecting more stock?

The sales girl checked her system and yes! the store was out of stock on some sizes, but they expected delivery of more soon.


Cut forward to the next day and with sizes in hand, I ring up the customer support number and .. the suits are discontinued and no showing no stock.

Worse, is that they have no idea of the actual stock levels around the country, shop may have had some in, but other than contacting them individually we would have no assurances they would still be there.

Even if we did manage to find them and wanted to purchase them, we would have to drive over the country to pick them up.
Next will not transfer products between stores.

What a let down from a major store, no clue what they sell and can't even move stock around.

notanewuser

Take the suit back. Find some somewhere else.

(You went shopping while Next's biggest sale of the year was on and expected a minimum-wage shop worker to know what lines were being discontinued?!)

keyser666

I know lets go shopping in Next after they have had their biggest sale of the year before the new clobber comes in

ben_m_g

If the "minimum wage employee" didn't know or couldn't find out, there is a simple solution, say so!

Next is not a cheep outlet, we paid good money and expect decent customer service. Being expected to run around the country to find items that we where told would be easy to obtain, is a valid reason to be annoyed. Especially when it is an important purchase.

Having a large national company being completely unable to move stock between stores, is crazy, and is totally reasonable to share this information, especially when others may be in the same situation.

Not that it matters, but no, this was nothing to do with the sale nor was the item reduced, stores change designs throughout the year for several reasons. This was just down to trends and affected several stores selling these types of materials.


I had a valid vent and I shared it, I don't see the value in picking at other peoples posts on a consumer website, it helps no one.

lincroft1710

ben_m_g wrote: »

I don't see the value in picking at other peoples posts on a consumer website, it helps no one.

If the poster does not understand any relevant law or states something that is incorrect, is unfairly critical or is wasting everybody's time, then there is good reason to comment adversely on their post(s).

Posting the above does not necessarily mean that I think the OP's posts fall into these categories.

bod1467

ben_m_g wrote: »

...

Being expected to run around the country to find items that we where told would be easy to obtain, is a valid reason to be annoyed.

......

I don't see the value in picking at other peoples posts on a consumer website, it helps no one.

Were not Where.

notanewuser

bod1467 wrote: »

Were not Where.

You forgot "cheap".

ben_m_g wrote: »

Next is not a cheep outlet,

Pollycat

ben_m_g wrote: »

If the "minimum wage employee" didn't know or couldn't find out, there is a simple solution, say so!

I think in fairness to the sales assistant, you said she did check the system and it showed that more stock would be coming in soon.

I agree that the information was incorrect but at least put the blame in the right place.

Unless you are 100% sure that the sales assistant either didn't check correctly or blatantly lied.

ben_m_g wrote: »

I actually asked the questions; is this a current brand? is this style going to be discontinued? and are you expecting more stock?

The sales girl checked her system and yes! the store was out of stock on some sizes, but they expected delivery of more soon.

I appreciate that you are disappointed but at least you can return the one suit you've bought for a full refund and start again.

Do many other large national companies move stock between stores?

I am surprised that they couldn't tell you what stock other branches had in.
I enquired in BHS about some bedding and the SA checked and told me it was in several other local-ish stores.

tykesi

Next is not a cheep outlet, we paid good money and expect decent customer service

It is.

And if you didn't manage to buy a suit how can you have 'paid good money'?

gunsandbanjos

Pollycat wrote: »

Do many other large national companies move stock between stores?

I am surprised that they couldn't tell you what stock other branches had in.
I enquired in BHS about some bedding and the SA checked and told me it was in several other local-ish stores.

I worked for next many(!) years ago so I'd assume their system may have changed, but when I was there they could check stock in other stores but it wasn't a 'live' system. Not sure how often it got reconciled, we could see how many of an item were in another store but there was some lag so if an item got sold recently in another store we had no idea.

No point telling a customer that there are some in other stores when they may be sold.

We would check online for a rough idea of nearby stores with stock and possibly phone to check. However I can't see the stores being able to phone and check in the midst of the Christmas sale!

Pollycat

tykesi wrote: »

And if you didn't manage to buy a suit how can you have 'paid good money'?

The OP did buy a suit:

ben_m_g wrote: »

We where shopping in our local store last week, finding a suit that fitted perfectly (an achievement in itself) and was exactly what we where looking for with our upcoming wedding. We brought the first one and enquired about the availability of more sizes.

I guess the others were for other important people who were going to attend the wedding, although I'd have thought that it was more usual to hire suits.