The FastDay Forum

Having had a meeting in town (Newcastle) which finished early, I took the chance and went to look at more dresses in Fenwicks and John Lewis ...

I had seen some Arianna Papell dresses online on the John Lewis site and was curious to see what they were like and maybe try them on ... I found that John Lewis was not busy, and an almost empty Occasion wear section, right next to a fitting room and Personal Shopper area ... So picked out about 8 dresses to try on. No one about and I was informed by ana assistant that the fitting room was closed, and I had to go 'over there' - which after walking with 8 dresses in my arms (heavy!) I discovered to be the changing rooms of the lingerie section. The girl there was obviously not pleased, counted my dresses, informing me by-the- by and in a very perfunctory manner that she wouldn't be able to help me with alternative sizing, as 'dresses weren't her section' ...

BIG MISTAKE. BIG. HUGE.

I said 'ok' in that high little voice which denotes non-agreement and surprise. I took all the garments into the rather nice large changing room with good mirrors ...

Right. There was a buzzer and a sign saying ,please ring for alternative sizes ' or some such. Well I had just been told I couldn't do that. Also was overhearing her dealing with another customer advising on BRAS and saying cheerily 'please don't hesitate to ask if you need a change of size ...'

RIGHT. EIGHT DRESSES TO TRY. Those of you on here who read the previous post will know my comments about zipper-uppers...

Over the next 30minutes I had her come and zip up or unzip me SIXTEEN TIMES. Oh and one more for luck, as I tried one dress on twice ...

Then I waltzed out saying, 'oh just trying on today, I have left all the dresses in the cubicle, if that's ok ...'

I like your style!!

Excellent! At least you got some revenge by getting her to zip/unzip

I had this in Debenhams recently, took various brands of clothes in, only to be told that she could only change one make for a different size. Guess what, it was the most expensive

How stupid is that.

As it was quiet one assistant let me take whatever I wanted in, and this other rather rude one stuck at the limit you take in one go and wouldn't budge.

Customer service was not her thing.

So SD, any of these dresses a maybe to buy ? We need details

I agree - I was taking £1200 worth of dresses into the fitting rooms to try on ... I must admit this is the first time I have experienced such poor customer care from John Lewis - it is usually my go-to store for online and real-life shopping.

The shop was virtually empty (unlike Fenwicks next door) and was open until 8pm, and this was around 4pm ... Not a happy bunny! Yes revenge was sweet ...

And re the dresses, several were BANDAGE DRESSES - @Ballerina are you listening?? And I fitted into most of the size 12s ... What I have done is order four online, to be delivered to my Mum's, where will have a massive try-on the night before the party. I did think when I was in the fitting room 'what a shame Mum is not here, she would enjoy all this' ... She too would have sorted out the assistant, but with her it would have been a verbal or written complaint, and talking to the managers etc ...

Watch this space ... for Part Three

There seem to be a lot of us now reaching the new clothes / fitting into old clothes - see @Manderley and her thread this morning about her leather jacket ...

It would be much cheaper to buy a box of bandages from the chemist and ask your mum to wrap you up

Few safety pins here and there and you will be wearing the next 'Liz Hurley' Versace dress

Hahaaaa! Love it @Minigill!! in my dreams I think!

Actually I think the official term is 'banded' or 'body- con' - haha! 'Conning your body' into looking slimmer LOL! There are some which are tighter than others, but these weren't those ... thank goodness! I think making these sort of dresses must be real 'fashion engineering' a bit like making good bras!

Anyway, we'll see whether I can still fit into 'em later this week. Fast day on Tuesday, last before a week of meals out ...

Way to go, SilverDarling! I hope the clerk was smart enough to get the point.

I had to look up bandage dress. Do they have any with long sleeves for us oldies? I think OH would approve now that I'm slimmer.

@marybeth the ones that I tried on were by what turned out to be a fashion company based in New York -

http://www.adriannapapell.com

I'm sure they will have some with long sleeves, and you're probably more liable to have stockists nearby in upstate NY.

Yes I think the sales assistant had got the point by the time she'd zipped me into about the 4th dress ...

@marybeth the ones that I tried on were by what turned out to be a fashion company based in New York -

http://www.adriannapapell.com

Oooo, some rather nice outfits in the link

Thanks, SilverDarling, lovely clothes and I see a nearby store carries the brand. I'll be looking soon. We have a wedding coming up in January, a "Senior Citizens' Prom", in March, and 55th high school reunion next summer.

I had a similar experience this weekend and I am a little ashamed to say I behaved a little badly. I had 10 articles of clothes to try on...8 were jeans, mine are all too baggy now, yeah. Well the limit was 8 in the dressing room...no problem, I took eight back and tried them on. Then I brought out two items to switch for the other two in my cart. One saleslady seemed to be fine with it, the salesman said I would need to bring all 8 back and get a new number. I said, I just want to exchange two for two...he restated the policy, and I said he was more than welcome to follow me back while I tried on the last two items!

Did buy the last two items...not so lucky on the jeans. I need a 10 in the waist and an 8 in the rear...and they need to be Long.

I had a similar experience this weekend and I am a little ashamed to say I behaved a little badly. I had 10 articles of clothes to try on...8 were jeans, mine are all too baggy now, yeah. Well the limit was 8 in the dressing room...no problem, I took eight back and tried them on. Then I brought out two items to switch for the other two in my cart. One saleslady seemed to be fine with it, the salesman said I would need to bring all 8 back and get a new number. I said, I just want to exchange two for two...he restated the policy, and I said he was more than welcome to follow me back while I tried on the last two items!

Did buy the last two items...not so lucky on the jeans. I need a 10 in the waist and an 8 in the rear...and they need to be Long.

Don't think that's behaving badly! Just common sense and standing your ground! And you got what you wanted