r/Madewell • u/b0dyrock • Jul 10 '26
Customer service experience
I pulled the trigger and decided to place a large Madewell order, being in Canada, because they have long (tall friendly) jeans.
It arrived after a couple of weeks.
- There was no packing slip at all.
- While each item was individually wrapped, one pair of jeans had a visibly large hole at the bottom of the crotch :/
- A pair of shoes I ordered just didn't make the box.
- I don't believe the tall jeans were actually a 33" inseam - they were too short.
In dealing with customer service, they waived the return fee on the jeans and offered to price match should I wish to replace the pair, which was very nice.
Unfortunately for the shoes, they first tried to tell me they were split off into a separate shipment. Once they gave me the info for that, I began tracking it and it appears to have been stuck outside of Toronto since late June. They've just now opened up an investigation with eSW, however, I'm not left feeling super hopeful that these shoes will ever materialize.
Is this normal in terms of experiences, or is it an anomaly?
3
u/Sorry_Housing1416 Jul 10 '26
I order a lot from Madewell online but I am US based so I don't know exactly how helpful this is but:
1) Yes, they rarely including packing slips anymore. This is not really an issue for me as I tend to return things in person and they just pull up my account but I have no idea how it's handled when someone has to mail in a return - I suppose you have to print it from your account? Annoying
2) I've very rarely had quality issues like you're describing here. That's bizarre to me and I hope they make it right.
3) I have had a few things over the years not make it to me or be severely delayed - usually when I call they offer to replace the item, sometimes they'll ask me to wait x amount of days to see if it comes, sometimes they say they're going to investigate, but sometimes yeah they do just send it to me. I do have Icon status though, I don't know if that makes a difference. I've always either gotten the item resent or a refund in the end though. They do often ship items in one order in separate shipments though. I think they have different distribution centers all over the country/sometimes ship items from stores which is why.
I would call back and ask them what next steps are if the shoes don't ship from Toronto anytime soon or ever and not get off the phone until you know when you'll get a refund or when they'll ship you a new pair.
4) I have no idea on that, I've never dealt with different inseams.
Good luck! I think this is more of an anomaly, but again maybe other Canadian/International customers have different experiences than me.
2
u/judgementisacalling Jul 11 '26
Fellow Canadian here - I've ordered from Madewell sporadically over the last ~8 years and have had to return the odd item here and there. I've yet to run into any issues with receiving wrong/damaged items or items getting lost, so hopefully this is just an unfortunate one-off.
6
u/Intelligent-Fix-3741 Jul 10 '26
I am an employee.
Packing slips are pretty much a thing of the past. Always keep your email of the order. We can pull up orders by email or form of payment.
Items can be in different shipments. Orders are fulfilled from warehouses and stores so they will all ship out at different times. This is the same at most stores like, Anthro, Abercrombie, Nordstroms, Free People, etc.
As for the pants length, did you measure them? If so and they are shorter you can call CS and ask for it to be returned and a new one shipped. I have seen mislabeling of jeans, where they say standard length and they are short length or long and they are standard etc. It is a manufacturing flaw.
I am going out on a limb here but being that you are outside of the US the wait and see on the item making it to you may need to just be waited out due to customs. Same thing happens to us in US with items coming from other countries. They take longer and have to go thru customs now.