Bad experiences with MR PORTER
Jacob
DenmarkPosts: 295MI6 Agent
I am writing this here because I know many forum members turn to MR PORTER for purchasing Bond items as they stock a lot of high-end brands. One of my experiences with them is with the purchase of a Bond item where I specifically was directed to MR PORTER from a thread on this forum, so I though sharing my experiences would be relevant.
If the forum administrators think differently, you are of course free to delete the thread. :-)
When the Rag&Bone white henley from NTTD was identified, AJB forum members listed MR PORTER as one source where you could purchase the screen accurate item.
I ordered the henley and received it all in due order. However, I quickly discovered that the shirt was damaged and had two holes close to each other in the fabric. Unfortunately, I only discovered this after removing the tags and hand-washing it (as in literally by hand) since I initially just tried it for size and didn't expect it necessary to inspect the shirt for any damages.
I contacted MR PORTER with a thorough explanation and pictures, and although this was a clear cut guarantee case, MR PORTER was not willing to refund or exchange the item in reference to their return policy which dictates that returned products must be new with tags. MR PORTER offered to cover a modest tailoring cost (thus admitting their responsibility partly), but anyone who've owned the R&B henley will know that you cannot tailor your way out of holes in the material.
I gave up on the case and now only use the henley as an undershirt.
We fast forward to this summer where I had forgotten about this experience with MR PORTER. I purchased a t-shirt from Frescobol Carioca on the website (€90) and wore it a couple of times before I - once again - noticed a fault in the shirt. The stitching which fastens the label in the neck had been sewed on completely crooked and was pulling the fabric, resulting in a small hole. I didn't notice it at first, but it's one of those things where, when you've seen it, you can't unsee it. There is no way this is not a manufacturing fault as it would have required me to remove the original stitching and sew on the label again to produce such a fault myself.
I contacted MR PORTER again with an explanation, pictures and my wish to invoke my guarantee rights. For the first few e-mails, I only received standard replies referring to their return policy - without the customer service rep acknowledging what I was writing whatsoever. When I asked to speak to someone else (as I suspected a language barrier might be the problem), I got to talk with another extremely obnoxious rep who also failed to acknowledge anything I wrote.
Now, I won't refer the entire lengthy e-mail conversation I had with MR PORTER; suffice to say it was like talking to a bot with a few condescending remarks here and there. They just kept repeating their return policy even when I highlighted their own terms and conditions regarding guarantee rights. Two times, they even used their answers to do marketing and inform me of new products on the website and that they would be happy to assist me in ordering the exact same t-shirt again (?).
In the end - mostly because of MR PORTER's obnoxious way of communicating and out of sheer principle - I started a (free) case with the EU consumer council against MR PORTER. The lawyers there say that there is no doubt about this being a guarantee case and my right for an exchange or refund. Since MR PORTER's terms and conditions dictate that any case against them shall take place in Italy, where they are headquartered, an Italian EU consumer council lawyer has contacted them several times to present the claim but has so far been ignored.
I hope with these stories I can save some people some time from dealing with MR PORTER's customer service. No doubt they have a lot of great products in stock, but what is it worth being a high-end retail store if you won't even live up to basic consumer rights and customer service.
Thanks for reading.
Comments
Sorry to hear about your experiences with Mr Porter. After your first purchase though, I’m surprised you didn’t inspect your second item for damage on receipt, rather than wear it a few times before noticing this.
For my part I’ve only had one less than ideal experience with them, when I bought a pair of OB Thunderball shorts from them that came without a swim bag. They tried to persuade me that they don’t come with a swim bag, before contradicting this argument by sending me one that wasn’t branded with 007 on it. In the end it all got sorted but took a few emails first.
Ive had a great experience generally with Mr P.
They offer free returns so always best to check the item carefully - I've lost out on grabbing an item so many times only for my size to magically reappear which I can presume is only because someone returned it.
My only problem is that they used to send to the Falklands from the UK site ex VAT so I used to bag some amazing deals. Sadly they changed Falklands to dollars (way more expensive in dollars) and ship from US site so now it is way more expensive and no 20% VAT savings. Complaints fell on deaf ears when I told them that my country uses pounds.
Also years back when they first stocked Tom Ford the VAT on this brand only was not being deducted - again I complained but they were too stupid to understand my point that only TF items were not calculating the VAT correctly (despite screenshots and comparisons). In the end after countless emails I hit a brick wall with "your complaint has been noted and will forward higher up for future reference"
Overall I have bagged some crazy amazing deals over the years in the sales and 20 quid DHL shipping to the Falklands which must be at a huge loss so I cannot complain. I would agree customer service is generally useless and like banging your head against a brick wall. I think they have simply turned into a giant over the last 10 years so service tends to go downhill when a company gets too big!
Also the sales items are more selective now (less good stuff gets deducted)
I’ve only ever had good experiences so I’m sorry to hear things have not gone well for you. Some advice on the R&B Henley - I developed a hole in the material and they guarantee the quality of their products so I contacted them directly and sent them pictures and they responded and gave me a code to use to buy a brand new Henley so it was amazing service. You could try contacting them directly to see if they will do anything for you.
Purchased quite a few Bond items from Mr porter over the years and be fair they've always been helpful and efficient .
I've never had an issue with them on any exchanges or refunds.
Mind you I've learned to be super observant on all these luxury items now whoever i receive them from.
If I spot 1 thing I send it back immediately for a replacement as once the labels come off you've had it.
Sorry you've had a bad experience
I have also never had a problem with Mr Porter. I have returned a fair number of items that just didn't fit properly and the refund and/or exchange process was as easy as it could possibly be, even when I had bought items at ridiculously cheap sale prices.
I’ve always had a good experience with Mr Porter, though I have had problems with R&B products, one being the henley. I actually ordered one from Mr Porter and one from R&B direct, the one from Mr Porter was perfect but the one from R&B actually had a hole in it just under the collar placket, so I returned it. It may be worth contacting R&B directly, as they have a great quality guarantee. I actually bought a pair of jeans from them that I only wore a few times over the course of a year. The last time I wore them I really noticed one of the side seams was completely twisted so they weren’t very comfortable to wear. I contacted R&B and sent photos and they authorised a full refund even though I’d worn them and had them for roughly a year!
I owe an update to my experiences as I was recently contacted my MR PORTER.
A couple of days ago, MR PORTER contacted me again regarding my complaint about the faulty t-shirt they had sent me. I was a bit surprised for them to contact me more than two months after we last spoke where they thoroughly rejected my claim for exchange or refund. I can only assume that their message to me now is a result of the repeated contact attempts to MR PORTER by the lawyers from the EU consumer council (all of which MR PORTER ignored).
In their message, MR PORTER informed me that they should have handled the case in a more effective manner and that they have made a partial refund of 50% to my payment card because I only discovered the defect after removing the tags (which, according to the law, is completely irrelevant).
I was pretty annoyed by this step by MR PORTER as I find it unacceptable that they, surely to get out of a court case which they would most certainly lose, decide to make a partial refund two moths later without conferring with me or seeking my consent at all - especially when I have a rightful claim for a 100% refund, which was also informed to them by the lawyers.
I informed MR PORTER about my opinion and that I would avoid them in the future, and that I will not pursue the case further as I don't want to waste any more time claiming the remaining €45.
Best
You opened a court case against Mr Porter after you noticed somed defects AFTER you removed the tags and wore the items a few times? It is quite clear you are not supposed to remove the tags so I find your reaction extreme to say the least. Customers like you are the ones who cause so many issues that retailers go out of business or cause price increases for everyone else to cater for the incurred legal expenses. I don’t see why you felt the need to slag off Mr Porter on a forum publicly when you could have resolved this privately yourself. If you don’t like shopping with them then don’t use them again!!
Dear sunny01
Thank you for your input, angry as it comes off.
I don’t know where you are located, but I refer you to familiarise yourself with basic EU consumer laws before blaming me for the bankruptcy of retailers and worldwide inflation. Removing tags has nothing to do with manufacturing defects.
As you may - or may not - have read, I did indeed attempt to resolve this privately with MR PORTER, but since they outright refused to offer any exchange or refund (which they even state in their own terms and conditions that they are obligated to), I wrote what I feel is a quite balanced and constructive review of my experiences with them. I don’t think it is extreme to ask that the products I buy are not faulty.
As I wrote, I opened a case with the EU consumer council. That is not a court.
As I wrote, I will avoid shopping there anymore - but thank you for your advice.
I hope you will have a great evening despite the apparent blood pressure increase my review has incurred with you. :-)
Best
By the way, just to save time for anyone potentially preparing to murder me :-)
If anyone found the description of my experiences useful or informative in any way, cool. If anyone didn’t and think I am an idiot, that’s alright too. I won’t lose any sleep over it and neither should anyone, which is why I suggest in that case that you just move on with your day. I am sure MR PORTER will survive :-)
Let me share with you how these things work in Europe (I.e. in the civilised world). In Europe, we have strong consumer protection. We recognise the imbalance in the relationship between retailers and consumer customers and so take steps to prevent consumers being taken advantage of. One of those, dramatic and alarming as it seems, is that goods must be of good quality and fit for purpose. So you can’t sell a motorcycle crash helmet made of glass just as it’s frowned upon to sell shirts with holes in them.
Nowhere in any European legislation is it a requirement that customers keeps the tags on. That’s a retail construct to make returns difficult. The OP’s statutory rights don’t require this and nor should they. So when the retailer sold the OP a ropey shirt, they contravened the consumer regulations applicable to the agreement. This is what makes their conduct unacceptable to anyone reading this sorry tale from Europe. The OP seems to have made contact with the seller, who haven’t given him the time of day. He shouldn’t take the hit and shut up, that wasn’t the deal
The OP isn’t putting retailers out of business and he isn’t increasing costs to anyone. Retailers in this situation harm themselves and the increase in costs appears to be something you drew from the sky. Quite frankly if it forced the seller to increase spend on customer service, that could only be a good thing
I was interested to read the OP’s experience, I felt this was entirely fair comment, I don’t think he acted in any way unreasonably and I found your lack of empathy to be curmudgeonly and indicative of a small and selfish mindset. Hopefully you’ll reflect on your attitude and amend it accordingly.
I'm not usually much of a 1-upper...
but today I am...
I hope this makes the OP feel a little better after reading this...
I bought a size 50 Tom Ford Grey Prince of Wales NTTD blazer last week from Mr Porter for $3,600.
I received it today...right when I pulled it out of the box I noticed a snag...wait...a tear? No, definitely a hole in the back of the suit.
I almost threw up. I actually felt nauseous and light-headed. I've never spent that much money on the top half of a suit before.
Thankfully I didn't remove the Mr Porter tags and I called customer service straight away. I did also inform them that I'm not the
first person to complain about holes in their clothing. As far as deductive reasoning, I came to the conclusion that in order to
prevent theft they are punching huge plastic security tags through the fabric of these items in their warehouse much like dept. stores do,
and when it comes time to remove them, they are ripping them off carelessly and tearing the fabric if the original punch-through didn't
tear it first.
I really let the rep. have it, she was sweet so I did not take it out on her, but I very much emphasized that this is not the first time
this problem has occurred and I'm hesitant to give Mr Porter repeat business if they don't investigate and figure out the problem.
Personally I have only ever found Mr Porter to be incredibly good at returns and I have been with them since the beginning, that said I have never had to return anything in this situation with them to know how they handle it.
It should be noted that consumer law in most, if not all countries (certainly in the UK and EU), unequivocally trumps the terms and conditions of any businesses own made up rules, this includes businesses who state non return of sale/discount items for example, that I frequently see.
Therefore removing the tags will not in anyway invalidate a consumer warranty covered under consumer law, where a contract between the seller and buyer is formed as the contract is there to guarantee in exchange for receiving payment the item/s purchased;
a) Match the description of the item on the website, and:
b) Is fault free and remains that way for a nominated or reasonable period of time.
Note: specifically for clothing items that are perishable there is no set time limit for this in my region, I would suspect the EU would be the same.
Even though the OP bought, removed tags, wore and washed the top twice it is far from what any general consumer would deem a reasonable amount of time allowing for the item to develop a fault through general wear and tear or ownership.
Therefore the OP from what I see should be entitled to choose a repair, full refund or replacement.
As an example I had a pair of Spring Court shoes. I wore them on and off for 9 months and due to COVID restrictions, realistically they probably got about 2 months of full wear outside. The glue on the shoes deteriorated after about 8 months of ownership to the point they were literally falling apart. I contacted the online retailer stating 2 months usage (and even 9 months if they wanted to argue it) is not a reasonable amount of time for a consumer to expect shoes to start falling apart through general wear and tear.
At first I was offered a pretty poor "gratuitous" voucher to be used with retailer. However, after consulting my local trading standard office and citing the above found in consumer law, I was offered a full refund.
I find this kind of stuff quite fascinating. It's usually a bit of a David vs Goliath scenario, which is exactly why consumer laws exist, to protect all parties in a dispute.
I don't believe Mr Porter should be considered directly at fault for the product failure. However as a reseller of the item and brand, they have an obligation to ensure it is fault free and per website description when selling it. The contract for this is formed between themselves and the OP, no one else.
Good luck with the endeavour, Jacob. I hope you get a satisfactory outcome.
Jacob,
if you paid with paypal, their buyer protection trumps Mr. Porter's policies.
You have 140 days to open a claim if you received an item "not as described"
call them up and they will get Mr Porter's attention.
Thank you for the inputs, everyone.
As I have already informed MR PORTER that I would not pursue the matter any further I will stick to that.
Best