Jos. A. Bank Complete failure of customer servuce for return of items ordered online Hampstead Maryland

This is an update to my original post.

After several rounds of emails and some telephone calls with Customer Service, I was finally able to get a refund for two pairs of pants that I returned to Jos. A. Bank.  A very nice woman named Rhea in the Houston corporate office resolved everything immediately, issuing a credit back to my credit card.  (Now that Jos. A. Bank is owned by Men's Wearhhouse, their coporate functions are located in Houston, not Maryland.)

This resolution took nearly 3 months for a simple refund for items returned that had been ordered online.  It also took - I suspect - my email to Jos. A. Bank's president to get things moving.  In a funny postscript, at the same time Rhea helped me get the credit, I received - you guessed it - two pair of pants from the Jos. A. Bank warehouse.  I had explicitly told the Jos. A. Bank warehouse representative almost 3 months earlier that I wanted the credit, not repalcement merchandise.  Rhea told me I could keep the pants or return them to any Jos. A. Bank store and they would send them back for me.  I still didn't want them, even though now they were essentially free, so I took them to the local store.  Rhea even called the manager of the closest store to make sure they were aware that the items would be dropped at their store for return shipping.  With that, the experience was finally over.

It was interesting to note that about 3 weeks after this resolution, Men's Wearhouse announced significant layoffs at Jos. A. Bank's former corporate HQ in Maryland.  No doubt, many of these positions were seen as duplicative after the acquisition.  Did it have anything to do with this exhibition of poor communications?  I will never know.

Even though the matter has now been settled per my satisfaction, my initial complaint still stands.  I cannot recommend buying online from any company that makes routine returns and refunds such an endurance test.  My experience with Jos. A. Bank was that no one seemed to communicate with anyone else internally.  And no one seemed empowered to reolve this seemingly simple and routine request.

Perhaps the corporate management at Men's Wearhouse HQ became aware of this and took steps towards resolving this through staff reduction.  (Of course, since I have not purchased online from Men's Wearhouse, nor tried to return anything, I can't say if that expeirence would be any better or any worse than what I went through with Jos. A. Bank.)  I'm just glad its all over.  It will make me think twice before walking into another Jos. A. Bank store again.  And I certianly do not anticipate ever ordering anything online from them.

JP (Dallas, TX)