I should be smack in the middle of the Laura Ashley demographic. Or at least L should. We even live in the kind of country idyll that they use in their catalogues. But every time we try to give them money we bounce off.
Recent encounters have been as follows: I went into my local store, saw a nice mirror with a good discount in the sale, chatted to the assistant about it and then said “I’ll go home, talk about it and come in next week if we want one”. I did, we did and so I went in on the following week only to be told that the sale finished at the weekend. Yes they knew last week. No, they didn’t think to mention it.
Sales people should get fired for not closing a sale with information like that.
However, two months later, the sale is back on – just for a few days it appears – so we order the mirror on the website. Or try to. It won’t take any cards. The error message says words to the effect of “card declined”. So L sends an email. Two days later we get an email back saying they will reply to our email by email within seven days. When we eventually get a reply (by phone, four days later in the middle of the school run) we learn the payment bit of the website was just broken, however, there’s no attempt to help us order the damned mirror.
“Oh, we’re having another sale in a few days, you could try again then.”
If I was shopping at Poundstretcher, then maybe – just maybe – I’d expect this. But Laura Ashley position themselves as purveyors of English Country Taste to the middle class, a bunch picky often to the point of obnoxiousness. If you want to continue to take their money, you’re going to have to be better than this. If someone from Laura Ashley’s retail training team reads this, might I suggest you take your staff to a Barker & Stonehouse store and see how it’s done. Better still, Leather Chairs of Bath whose handmade heirloom leather sofas cost less than yours?
And did I mention that the mirrors take TEN (or seven or nine, maybe) weeks to arrive?
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