Zara — Poor quality check & horrible customer service

Address:

Maharashtra

Let me start with a statement from your Zara website: “The customer is at the heart of our unique business model, which includes design, production, distribution and sales through our extensive retail network.” And this is precisely what I felt lacking in the entire experience I had with your product and store service in Mumbai.

The cotton pants that I bought from your Zara store at Palladium Mall in Mumbai, is bleeding color even after 5 months and 12 washes! The blue colored pants have on numerous occasions colored my other dresses with its color and have destroyed them completely. When I took the Zara product to the store and appealed to the staff there, they told me to wash it a couple of times more as the fabric is designed and produced to bleed color! They even had the audacity to inform me with a smirk that since it is a cotton product it will bleed color and that is a fashion garment and as a seasoned shopper I should have known this. Wow! That is how the staff at your store treats and educates the customer, who you claim is at the heart of your unique business model. Your staff should have told me about this washing instruction at my time of purchase. Better still a tag instructing me to wash it ten times ‘separately’ should have been put up on the product.

Zara to me was an aspirational brand always. On my various visits outside of India I had visited Zara stores, in the United States, Dubai, etc. I was attracted to the brand to such an extent that I had become a fan of ‘Zara’. And so when you opened stores in India I was very happy thinking that I will be able to shop at Indian prices for quality fashion products. I never left out an opportunity to visit a Zara store whenever I could and check out the range and designs. Last year on my birthday I coerced my friends to gift me a Zara Shopping Card, which I used to buy a dress and these ill-fated pants! I happily went to your Zara store to shop and, Alas! this was the experience. No doubt the designs were and are still top of the line, but I am sorry to say the quality of the product and your store staff don’t match up to your name.

Now you must be wondering what is that I want. To make it clear, the following is what I expect from the top most global fashion store:
1) Replace these bleeding pants with something that keeps up to your promise and stature.
2) Re-train and educate your store staff on customer management and complaint handing. The staff who attended to my complaint is Nafees at the Zara store at Palladium Mall, Mumbai. He had even promised to call me back within 4 to 5 days and update me on my complaint. It is over a week and the call has not yet come.
3) Have a stringent quality check on your products. And in case of certain specific washing and storing instructions, instruct your staff to inform the customers or tag the products accordingly.

I hope, you being a global responsible company and brand you would take note of the above and do the needful.

Regards,
Vidhi Shah
shah.[protected]@gmail.com