Poor Travis, the guy can’t win for losing. His University days were spent like many a fine young scholar, tanking up on beer. When he graduated he bought two suits from the Men’s Wearhouse in Topeka, Kansas which on its website offers free alterations, “Because you never know when you’re going to gain or lose a few pounds..” He decided it was time to do something about his unseemly 35 pound (16 kilo, 1.2 stone) weight gain. So to his credit he worked out and lost the beer gut. 35 pounds is a fair chunk but in tailoring terms not that much. As Travis said to the website Consumerist.com:

“Men’s Wearhouse wants to charge me $50 per pant alteration because I lost “too much weight” and they will have to “cut” the pants, whatever the hell that means, and “cutting” is not included in free alterations. On top of it all, they would need more than a week to do the alterations. You would think I went from morbidly obese to extremely thin as big of a deal they were making it. Nevertheless, I took my pants and left. Forget that.”

So fit and healthy Travis either has to invest the money elsewhere, (psst a decent tailor won’t charge you more than about $20 each) or invest in new suits. Clearly the store erred in judgement on this one first by refusing to honour their own guarantee and then trying to extort $100, £50 for an alteration that they made sound like they were doing him a great favour.

Now those reading this across the EU are thinking so…?

Alteration/tailoring services in higher end men’s clothing stores come as part of the sales. A salesman works for a large percentage of his or her income on a “commission” or percentage of sales basis so the best keep extensive lists of customers with whom they communicate when items come in that may suit them (pardon the pun). The retail chain Nordstroms in the USA is especially known for their diligent attention to detail and excellent after service sales.

Tailoring is offered as a break-even in-store service “goody” the diligent sales professional tacks on (pardon this pun as well) out of his or her own margin to service the customer. Most sales professionals understand that a happy customer is the gift that keeps on giving year on year. A dissatisfied customer will tell 12 people about their experience whilst a satisfied one tells 3. It’s not fair but it is reflective of human nature.

In a recent article about the men’s clothier Rochester Big and Tall, I talked about the lengths that chain goes to ensure customer satisfaction enshrining their senior service representative Holly Roe into the customer service Hall of Fame for sheer tenacity on my behalf.

Travis was treated as a kid not likely to buy any more suits there. Get him in, take his money and then next customer! In this economy, looking at any customer walking through the door with anything less than a multi-thousand dollar lifetime bounty on their head is just dumb. He was jerked around during the sale buying expensive add-ons and other things not needed then had the rug pulled out when he needed them most.

My guess is Travis will buy a few more suits in his lifetime. “I’ll definitely never shop at Men’s Wearhouse, or even return for alterations. Especially the location in Topeka, Kans, who initially exploited my lack of suit knowledge to tack on many unnecessary additions to my purchase with guilt trips and more (”Anybody interviewing for a position HAS to have…[product]“) and the location in Addison, Texas for telling me I’ve lost too much weight over the past year.”

The Consumerist website wanted to know what would have happened if he came in once a month over that year he lost the weight, would there have been a problem then?

Good question. Bad move on Men’s Wearhouse part though. I just told many multiples more than 12 people. Oh well, they have a bid advertising budget, they’ll lure in more and treat them badly too…

ONCE.