What the Heck, Ann Taylor?

Three months ago, I had a shady experience shopping at Ann Taylor online…and I found out I wasn’t alone. I’ve been meaning to share my experience since then to help fellow shoppers who might be dealing with the same situation with Ann Taylor and shipping delays.

I had placed an order on Cyber Monday, November 30th, for two sweaters for work – the petite ruffle neck peplum sweater (pictured above), and the petite cropped mock neck sweater (below). I knew from shopping at other online retailers that shipping and delivery times were longer than usual due to COVID. That wasn’t a problem for me. I had placed an order with H&M that said their delayed shipping time was 11 days, but my order didn’t ship until 3 weeks had passed, and that was A-Okay.

On December 8th, my order had shipped – quicker than I thought! Then on December 11th, I received an email from Ann Taylor apologizing for potential shipping delays – pretty typical for businesses now, not a big deal. But wait. Let’s skip to about half way down this message.

“While the orders were processed and left our warehouse, neither we nor you, our customers, can currently see the status of where they are in the shipping process.”

Um…what?

Anyhow, I waited. How bad could it be?

The problem begins…

Five days later, on December 16th, I could see that my package had arrived at a shipping partner facility called Pitney Bowes, a couple states over. A week went by, and the package hadn’t moved. So I started a chat with a customer service rep on December 23rd to see if this was normal for them. The rep told me that they were experiencing shipping delays, but assured me that all packages for all customers would arrive in time for the holiday. Ummmm…all packages for all their customers are going to arrive by tomorrow? Obviously, I knew that wasn’t going to be true, but it was fine. It was the holiday season, and I’m sure carriers were swamped with work. Not the end of the world if I don’t get my sweaters before the holiday.

A few days after the holiday, on December 28th, the package still hadn’t moved, and I decided to start another chat. The rep apologized for the delay, and said, “we forwarded this to our fulfillment team for further investigation. Someone will contact you through email, as soon as possible with the best resolution.”

The copied and pasted response…

I then asked a few more follow up questions. Did she know how long on average it’s taken for their packages to be delivered to their customers? If neither AT nor the customer can see the details of the shipping progress, how would AT know if a package is lost, and what would they do about it? The rep’s response was ‘”[w]e are sorry for any concern the status of your order has caused. As COVID-19 continues to impact our communities, as well as being in the midst of the holiday season, our shipping carriers are experiencing some delays beyond normal. Your patience during this time is greatly appreciated.”‘ SHE LITERALLY LEFT THE QUOTATION MARKS IN HER RESPONSE. SHE COPIED AND PASTED THE ANSWER FROM SOMEWHERE AND DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO TAKE OUT THE QUOTATION MARKS. After almost 30 days, this is when I finally start to feel irritated.

January 4th – my package is finally delivered. But wait, it gets better! Remember how the rep said someone would contact me with a resolution? They did. On January 16th. Fourteen days after my package was already delivered.

To sum up…

Phew, that was a lengthy story. To sum it up, I wasn’t frustrated at all that it took over a month to receive my package. But I was extremely frustrated by the lack of transparency and ownership of the problem on AT’s part. When I had a similar problem (with a return) with Nordstrom, customer service said that since the package hadn’t moved in over a week, it was probably lost, and they refunded me the money even though they never received the items back.

Here, AT wasn’t even entertaining the possibility that items might be lost, nor would they address what the resolution would be if customers never received their packages. They kept saying to wait, gave beat-around-the-bush answers, and blatantly copied and pasted what they were told to say. I had read comments on an AT forum, where customers said their packages still hadn’t arrived after months, it was impossible to get someone on the phone who could help, and when they could connect to a rep, they would refuse to refund the order. Unfortunately, it seemed like this was an ongoing problem with AT.

I’m not sure what’s happening with Ann Taylor and shipping delays right now, and I hope they overcome whatever business hurdles they’re experiencing during COVID. But if you are planning on placing an order with them right now, please do it with caution. Your packages may arrive very late, or like some customers in the forum, they may not arrive at all. You won’t know if the packages are delayed or if they are lost, and it won’t be easy to ask for a refund.

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Thanks for reading!