This is a complaint letter which described what I experienced in Zara store and it was sent to Zara Headquarter.
ZARA Store
Alexa Shopping Centre am Alexanderplatz
Grunerstraße 20
D-10179 Berlin
Tel: +49 30 24047022
Date: 14 October 2010
Time: 16:00
Ich werde auf Englisch schreiben, da Deutsch nicht meine Muttersprache ist. Ich würde aber eine auf Deutsch verfasste Antwort verstehen.
Many clothes of mine were bought from Zara because I like the style and design of this brand. I never had any bad experience at a Zara shop until today, when I went to the Zara store in the Alexa shopping center in Berlin. Since I stepped into the shop, the doorman looked at me and followed me to the male section and observed me all the time while I tried on some clothes. Indeed, it was his job to do so. I understand that. After that I went downstairs to the female section without bringing anything from the male section with me except my own backpack that has a size little bigger than A4 paper ( I use it to carry my stationery for my university). After 5 minutes walking around the female division in order to look for some clothes for my (female) friends, the same door man came to me and told me that “Sie haben Hausverbot” that meant I was banned from this store. I wanted to talk to the manager or any sales officer because I did not know what I might have done wrong and why I should leave the shop. The doorman said, he was the boss (“Chef”) and I could not talk with any other staff member. Many other staff members were around at that time, but no one came to talk with me or tried to explain to me what happened. There were many customers gossiping about me. It was extremely embarrassing for me and I never would have expected such an awful situation happening to me. Being kicked out off the shop without even knowing what I was supposedly doing wrong.
I went to another Zara store in Berlin Friedrich Str in order to talk to the manager. She was very helpful and called the store in Alexa and asked what happened. The answer though was astonishing: She found out, that I have been banned from the shop, but no one would actually know the reason for that. Someone remembered my face appearing similar to “the guy” who was banned. Later on I called the Zara Call Center in Hamburg (040-3096220). So the Call Center contacted the Zara store at the Alexa center once again. I was informed that the woman who knew about this story would be ill. In the end of the conversation I still had no clue about what I might have done wrong. At that moment, I wondered, whether it was fair or not that some staff member thought he/she would have recognized my face from a banning list but did not know the reason for whatever the (actual) person had done.
Around 18:30 I went back to the store with a German friend, because I was afraid that I would not be allowed to enter the store. I waited outside the store, at this time we finally could meet the manager. She said that she was not there when the situation occurred. However, we could talk with one staff member who knew about what happened at late afternoon. He said it might be a misunderstanding, that my face would look like someone who was banned before, that he would not understand why a man would walk through the female section, and that my backpack appeared empty. This is why they felt uncomfortable with me and for this they asked me to leave. However, they said, I should not take it personally since it had nothing to do with me. But what about my feelings? I do take that personally, since I was deeply embarrassed by that situation. I believe anyone can imagine the shame, when you are asked to leave a shop, customers around you gossiping about you and what you might have stolen.
This is why, with this I am complaining about
1) The unprofessional way I have been treated when I was asked to leave the store. Why I was not brought to a place with less or without customers around while having that conversation and why I was not allowed to talk to the sales officer or manager? Besides that, the staff member should have taken a closer look at my face, it is not possible to recognize a face from a 50 Meters distance.
2) The unacceptable reasons they gave – only after an odyssey of asking questions- for me being expelled of the store. Is it an illegal manner for a man walking through the female section or if he/she brings an empty backpack with her/him? What exactly made my behavior unacceptable or suspicious? In case they suspected me to shop-lift at that moment, why they did not ask me to open my backpack?
From now on I will not buy anything from this or any other Zara store. The 300-400 Euro per year I used to spend is tiny money for a million million business like Zara. However, I will send this letter to all my friends and share this embarrassing experience to others in my university in Berlin.
I hope next time Zara will treat customers more respectful.
Sincerely Yours,
Eknarin Pongarunrat
contact: mreknarin (at) gmail.com
Beside, I copied a part of the code of conduct of “INDITEX Group”. Zara is one of its store formats.
Relationship among employees and with customers
All employees are bound to act, as regards their employment relationships with other employees and with the customers, pursuant to the principles of respect, dignity and justice, taking into account the different cultural sensitivity of each individual and not allowing any manner of violence, harassment or abuse in their work, nor any discrimination against because of their race, religion, age, nationality, sex, or any personal or social traits statutorily forbidden other than their own merit and capacities, in pursuit, especially of the attention and assimilation into working life of disabled or handicapped people.
source: INDITEX Group – Code of conduct
Eknarin wrote: 22 October 2010 12:20 hrs
Hallo, Readers ! I gratefully appreciate your comments and your time, reading my story.
after one week, I called ZARA in Hamburg, Germany to follow up my case. ZARA told me that someone who involved in this situation was on vacation. They are waiting for her return and will call me back later.
Stay tuned!
Eknarin
Wrote 01 Nov 15:00
I called ZARA again. More than 2 weeks after this embarrassing story happened to me. They could say only “sorry, we still not be able to reach someone who involved in this situation, we will contact you back”. no one has updated me, no one has called me, but I am the only who call them. I think it is time for Legal process or go to press!
Eknarin
Wrote 01 nov 1800
Surprisingly, I got a call from ZARA in Hamburg. They would like to apologize that the investigation took time and wanted to confirm that they did not forget my complaint but they wanted to talk to all staff who were in this situation. This call have shown that there still be some professional staff in ZARA.
Eknarin
Again , around 12:39(04 nov 2010) I got a call from Zara in Hamburg, They updated me about their investigation and they promised that next Monday, They will tell me the result of their investigation. I am getting excited what Zara will cope with this issue.
Eknarin
Letter to Zara 
Zara – please take appropriate actions and apologize. This will affect my traditional Christmas Shopping at your store!
Yes, the apology would be appropriate.
Wow i’m shocked, i’m angry, i’m actually mad!!! What right do they have to do that? I mean i always knew that there is absolutely NO service in Germany and very few people are slightly familiar with the term, but to have such an apathy for potential clients? It appears that they do not really care if they will lose one or 100 customers, the staff is unorganized, all they ever knew and will know is how to fold clothes and put them back to their places. I wasnt buying that much from ZARA as you did Eknarin, but i can assure you that no foot of mine or Daniel’s will ever step into this store in Alexa or any other branch of theirs. People who have absolutely no compassion and respect for others first as people and then even worse as employees in a SERVICE field of work – are nothing else but robots, dumb robots who sadly wont even understand even if someone will wave with their mistakes in front of their noses. Growing up in a country that has a very high level of service everywhere to everyone- i can only feel sorry for Germany, for having such situations happening in her capital city, Berlin.
I’m with you,all the way.
Hugs,
Anita
OMG!!! From your case, I can clearly see, that Zara treated customers apparently opposite from their code of conduct!! Shame on you ” Zara “!!! You’d better apologize for your shameless act towards customers!!
maybe ZARA should look into it’s employee since this maybe an isolate case. However, this whole thing looks very discriminating since even with German service attitude, it’s not enough to say that someone is on a banned list and there is no reason for it. Everything has a reason. In this whole story, I have not seen anybody from ZARA in whatever level apologize for this mistreatment. Seems they still think they did the right thing. If you make a mistake, correct it! But if the company is supporting this behaviour what would this mean? So anyone of us could expect a humiliating and discriminating situation if we want to go strolling in a ZARA shop? I love ZARA but if you are already succesful enough to afford treating any customer badly then I may have to pass. Human dignity is still important to me!
Eknarin wrote: 22 October 2010 12:20 hrs
Hallo, Readers. after one week, I called ZARA in Hamburg, Germany to follow up my case. ZARA told me that someone who involved in this situation was on vacation. They are waiting for her return and call me back later.
Stay tuned!
Eknarin
I was shocked of what happened, I would not be surprised if it would have happened elsewhere But not at Zara!!! we all are your customers, I didnt expect that to happen at all. Such a shame for top brand with the bad manner of employee!!
We are all looking forward to hearing what your company can manage on that.. it is totally not right!
I live just 500 m next to this store and I find it absolutely unprofessional and inacceptable from the ZARA staff!!
Thanks for posting this and I’m actually looking forward to the next time I gonna be at the mall. I will talk to them about this personally if you don’t mind.
It’s great we have blogs and social networks to share experiences like that! You might spend “just 300 EUR” a year on ZARA, but there will be a lot of people reading about what happened to you.
Schick mir doch ‘ne Mail mit dem Namen der Person, die Dir Hausverbot erteilt hat (falls er Dir bekannt ist) bzw. mit dem Namen der Managerin! Grüße
@ Stefan.. sadly i did not have any name of them but the date and the time that I wrote, it would be easy to identify who was on duty on that day.
Finally, I got an apology letter from ZARA.
KG ZARA Deutschland B.V. & Co.
Mönckebergstraße 10
20095 Hamburg
Tel.:+ 49 40 xxxx
Fax.:+ 49 40 xxxx
http://www.zara.com
Herr Eknarin Pongarunrat
Hamburg, 24.November 2010
Beschwerde Filiale Berlin Alexa
Sehr geehrter Herr Pongunrat,
zunächst einmal möchten wir uns für bei Ihnen für Ihre Geduld bedanken.
Wir bedauern, dass es bei Ihrem Besuch am 14. Oktober 2010 in unserer Filiale in Berlin zu dem von Ihnen geschilderten Vorfall gekommen ist.
Wir sind ständig bemüht, unseren Kunden den bestmöglichen Service anzubieten und schulen daher unsere Mitarbeiter im Sinne unseres firmenweiten Verhaltenskodex im höflichen Umgang mit Kunden, Geschäftspartnern und Kollegen. Diesen erwarten wir selbstverständlich ebenso von Mitarbeitern externer Firmen, die für uns tätig werden.Leider kommt es ab und an vor, dass wir unserem eigenen Anspruch nicht gerecht werden- in der Hektik des Alltags können menschliche Fehler entstehen.
Nach Rücksprache mit der Filiale müssen wir annehmen, dass es bei Ihrem Besuch durch den Mitarbeiter der Sicherheitsfirma, mit der wir dort zusammenarbeiten, zu einer unglücklichen Verwechslung mit einer ihm bekannten Person gekommen ist, gegen die zuvor ein Hausverbot ausgesprochen worden war. Aus diesem Irrtum heraus hat der
Doorman Sie der Filiale verwiesen.
Wir können persönlich Ihre Verärgerung darüber gut nachvollziehen, dass Ihnen aus Ihrer Sicht keine Möglichkeit gegeben wurde, die Situation aufzuklären und dass Sie sich dadurch in einer für Sie unangenehmen Lage befunden haben. Wir sind nicht zufrieden, dass Sie den Besuch in unserer Filiale so negativ empfunden haben. Das Verhalten unserer Mitarbeiter halten wir für inakzeptabel und können uns dafür nur in aller Form bei Ihnen entschuldigen.
Ihre Email haben wir umgehend zum Anlass genommen, gegenüber der Filiale sowie der Sicherheitsfirma noch einmal unsere Service-Gedanken zu betonen und Konsequenzen aus dem Vorfall zu ziehen.
Wir hoffen, Sie nehmen unsere Entschuldigung an und dass wir Sie bei Ihrem nächsten Besuch in einer unserer Filialen wieder positiv von uns überzeugen können.
Für weitere Fragen, Anregungen oder Informationen können Sie uns auch gern unter der Telefonnummer 040 309 xxxx oder reception@xxxx erreichen.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
That’s a bit better…
Nicht schlecht. Jetzt noch 10% auf den nächsten Einkauf als Schmankerl 🙂 wäre perfekt gewesen. Aber wir wollen ja nicht zu hoch greifen!
Dear Eknarin –
I would like to use your experience as an example in my management class this semester. Would it be possible to get the letter from Zara translated?
Thanks,
Aj. Mary
I will never shop at Zara because of this and my experience. http://www.lefrot.com/why-i-will-never-shop-at-zara-again/
go and see the pictures: https://pinterest.com/taiheonchoi/zara-cheated/
It’s perfect time to make some plans for the long run and it’s time to be happy.
I have learn this publish and if I may I wish to counsel you few fascinating things or tips.
Perhaps you could write subsequent articles referring to this article.
I desire to read more things approximately it!
I did not have any problems until now too.
I have been shopping with them for years and spend at least $5000 a year at stores and online.
I recently purchased several items and returned 3 out of the 7. I only received credit for 2 out of the 3. I called and was told someone would call me back with a resolution and I did not receive a call. I then sent an email and received a canned response that they did not receive the item and that no credit would be issued. I tried calling again and all the reps do is apologize and say there is nothing they can do. I asked to speak to management and they say, it has already escalated to management and they will not issue a return. They wouldn’t give me an address where I could appeal either. I asked 4 times and all the rep would say is sorry we don’t have an address.
My years of shopping with them can show them I am not a scammer who is looking to pull a fast one. I literally shop with them every week. To feel that this type of thing happens will prevent me from shopping with them again. It is not good business practice and is unethical.
I wore a pair of brand new jeans from zara once, tried them back on and they completed ripped down the leg. Brought them back into the store, and they told me I couldn’t return them without a recipe (i got them as a gift and don’t have the receipt). They said i needed to go to customer service in order to deal with this. They are such a pain. Not happy. I would like someone to contact me.
Dear CEO of Zara,
This references email below from the customer care department.
My wife and I have been associated with the Zara brand even before it was launched in India. We have pride in wearing Zara apparels and it is because the company that has its values for customers and goes overboard to ensure that customers get value for their spending. However, your reply below has disturbed me to rethink about my association with Zara.
I am still not sure if my wife picked the bill from cash counter that day or not and/or if she misplaced it in the transit. But the fact is that we bought from zara and the credit card statement has reference for this purchase from Zara, Pacific Mall, Tagore Garden. I have already shared the bank statement with your concerned staff.
Needless to mention that the intention was to have the goods exchanged last month, but we were returned twice by the store for not having invoice. It is our hard earned money and we would like an esteem organization like zara to understand its moral values in view of money spent by the customer. If you have a little bit of doubt that this was not purchased from your store please go ahead and forfeit the complete amount. However, if the goods have been bought and can be confirmed from the computer with cash counter, please give the credit for the amount spent and not the price of the product today.
I want to buy something in fresh and so it will be a hardship on me. Please understand the situation and I would expect CEO to intervene and allow me a credit for what I paid to help me buy product from fresh items in store.
I hope you understand. Please let me know and I can go tomorrow evening post office to have this exchanged. I hope my rust in brand zara and its management remains.
Regards,
Rajesh
Mobile 9868106482
Dear Sir/Madam,
On 17/18/21/22 August. I bought some stuff S No. 86285/ 442453/ 87021/ 613826, I made this purchase at Zara – Cairo festival city and Mall of Egypt and as I have the right to change it within 30 days I went to other branch of Zara store in [ City Stars ] and I have told the sales person who work inside the store that M. Khaled i think… for some reason I would like to exchange it with any stuff available in the store and After giving him the receipt I have experienced such rude treatment from that person and his as he thought that I wearing this Items .
I refuse to tolerate it any longer and I trust that you will speak to him about polite customer service.
I would like this problem to be resolved ASAP. However if you are unable to resolve the matter I will refer to the office of fair trading.
Looking forward to hearing from you
Thanks and regards
I have been purchasing from Zara for as a long as I remember the company being around. I love zara and their clothing style, it’s probably the only place I ever shop at. Today I experienced something really horrible, I was Embarrassed and shocked. I never really return at zara and I don’t remember the last time I actually returned becauae thief clothing is perfect. I had bought a jacket online and it was my first time ever buying from zara.com and a cologne from the store, both brand new. When I went into the store today to return I got denied. Apparently if you buy something from zara.com and it’s passed 30 days they won’t give you store credit it has to go back throug zara.com, the inconvenience! And they won’t take back the cologne because the plastic is taken off. I told the manager if there anyway way you can make an exception because I had no idea, she said no and sorry. I waited 30 mins in line because the line was extremely long and there was only one cashier. I live far away from zara about 30 miles. I left the store very upset and disappointed. I had 3 items in my hand all totaling to Almost $300 left them all
And left the store. This is unfair zara, really bad experience
Is being 3 weeks now since I’m trying to get help from Zara(online shopping) and it seems like they don’t care,I spoke with lots of customer service personal for the past 3 weeks the only thing they have asked me was my reference number and my name, after that no one has comes back to me with the solution,I have call the head office number 0113021500 just ringing no one is answering,the last person I chatted with was Roslyn and she also didn’t come back to me,I have ordered clothes online and I only received few of my clothes and I’m waiting for the rest of my clothes since I have ordered them on the 18 May,
Does anyone know how to contact the ceo of zara Uk?
I was given a pair of trousers from Zara as a birthday present and need to exchange the size, the item is in perfect conditions with all the tags and I have the receipt however I was not able to bring to a store because of the lockdown, I was not able to return the item online because the purchase was made as a guest not a user. I attempted to contact Zara several times and no response/ solution. I was even told yesterday by a customer service advisor on the phone that he is not there to resolve my problems. I just want to be able to exchange the pair of trousers for another one that will fit me.
I am due to try complain regarding a similar experience. I was treated extremely rude by a member of staff in Bournemouth store. I asked to see manager to raise a complaint. This was refused?!
I then asked for the name of the staff member in order to complain and again refused!
To my surprise I was then frog marched to the door and told to leave!!!!! My crime was asking to voice a complaint!?!?!