Marks and Sparks

I too am on the panel and I still see the items I've said are hideous.
I popped in yesterday and there were rails and rails of unsold sale clothes, which basically were not worth the money.

harrigran I am also on the M & S review panel and I am sure they take little or no notice.

They do ask for our opinions AlexG, I made a comment further up the thread about being on a panel that reports back to M&S. Several times a year they send pictures of products and ask us to review them and say what we like and dislike about the product.
I am brutally honest and often tell them, as a person in their 70s, I wouldn't be seen dead in the colours and styles. They still appear on the rails so clearly think they are all things to all people and not providing for the grey pound.
Do they not look around the shops to see who is shopping there ?

Why oh why don't M&S ask their shoppers (or trying to be shoppers if only the clothing was decent) for their opinions? For several years now their clothing has been awful. My best friend and I meet regularly for shopping and always have a trot around M&S but I don't know when either of us bought anything. And she rang me yesterday and said that she had been in by herself and guess what, nearly everything in the clothing is in their sale, which is what we predicted in the Autumn! And we regularly have discussions in the store with ladies of similar ages to ourselves as to why M&S have so lost their way with the clothing. They need an advice panel of ladies who would like to shop there but heartily dislike the items on offer over the last few years

Well I think quality control applies (re garments not necessarily work place conditions) now in Taiwan, China and Sri Lanka where a lot of clothes seem to be made. They will become more expensive if made in UK as labour costs will be greater. Do not think fabric industry is huge in UK either so either starting up new productions or importing.

Ha ha ha Hildagard! Not a cat in hell’s chance ???

I meant where clothing is sourced PECS.

Not sure it would make it any easier to do returns if Brexit happens. That is company policy and not to do with where items are made.

I think there are many positive things about M&S and I would miss it if it disappeared as I think they still have some value for money quality clothes which generally wash and wear well, if you are selective. I agree that their customer service has deteriorated, they used to offer no quibble returns. Other stores have overtaken them in this respect, JL is a case in point. I think the reason they access much of their clothing from abroad rather than UK is cost and availability. Perhaps after Brexit this will change? Sorry to bring up the B word on this forum

Squiffy not at all, I didn’t check if there was a previous thread, just started a new rant. Thank you for your action on this topic. Hate to think what rants are going to be on GN after vote in parliament on Tuesday are you willing to take action on those too?? Squiffy for PM!!

seriously thinking of stock piling

Hildagard I thought of doing the same with knickers!! Might explore the sock section, too!

Hope you don't think I've been taking over 'your' thread, but I've been in touch with M & S since a thread was started last year. Wall, head, banging, brick . . . . . Platitudes are the best I've had, really.

Squiffy And so it continues! I sussed out Tu today and bought a top. Unfortunately didn’t like the look of their underwear. I am seriously thinking of stock piling the bras I do like in Marks in case.......... of what could happen if things do not improve.

Mr Squiffy was in our local store today and discovered that:

There’s no longer a dedicated Collection/Returns point. You have to queue at any till, so that means waiting while the assistant traipses upstairs to the storeroom to find your ordered goods.

Mr S heard on the radio that, apparently, ‘they’ are concentrating on online sales, which is why the goods in-store are somewhat lacking!

So, that’s all right then! ??

I had a mooch in my local store while DH was upgrading his underwear.
I found it frustrating that not much is priced, neither on the item nor on the shelf. So I couldn’t make a decision about sheets, but did buy some nail varnish after asking a member of staff to check the price.
And incidentally, when I got home I found my necklace had dropped off so phoned the store a couple of times. On neither occasion did anyone answer.

Just to add my two-penny-worth, I was in M&S Bromley recently, looking for footglove shoes. They no longer stock these. Nearly every pair of size 5 shoes I tried on were either too big, too small, too narrow, too wide. Nothing seems to conform to "standard" sizing. I know it's true of other retailers but, for the prices they charge, I may as well go elsewhere.

I have just ordered on line a sports bra and 2 running tops, will let you know what they are like.

Gosh, thanks for all the responses, especially Squiffy for taking it to the top, well done. I didn’t realise that I would have stirred up such a hornets nest.

I also think M&S have far too many lines to adequately deal with stock control. It’s extremely rare for me to ever find my bra size in any M&S shop in a design I like (it’s not an unusual size!). Racks and racks of clothes I wouldn’t dream of buying being mostly frumpy.

Thanks to the poster who reminded me that my £40 of vouchers were nearing their use by date. I nipped into our local M&S on my way home from work today and there were racks and racks of clothes on rails, all reduced by up to 70%. I found a chunky cable knit sweater and a woollen polo neck sweater on the sale rail, both marked down from almost £30 to £17 & £12 respectively. No problem waiting in a queue to be served because the shop looked deserted.
A lot of their ready meals were also marked down in the Food Hall. Their profit margins must be getting slimmer and slimmer.

Update!

As predicted, the reply from my last email is from a different Executive!

"Thank you for coming back to us.

I am sorry if our response implied we only consider feedback from customers who contact us directly. That's certainly not the case and I can assure you our buying and design teams will have research tools to gather customer feedback from various sources.

The reason why this was suggested is because if a customer emails our Executive team directly with their views, it's included in our regular reviews with the CEO, Chairman and Board, as well as our technologists and buyers for each specific department.

We know our customers care about M&S and find it frustrating when they want to shop with us, but can't find the perfect pieces to add to their current wardrobe. We are therefore focusing on listening more closely to the feedback and suggestions we receive.

We know that quality, fit and price are all areas we are working on, as well as our clothing styles. Although we aren't there yet, we have started to see customer influence across our clothing collections in store and online.



For example, we were told we did not offer many dresses with sleeves, and some of our sizes were much harder to find than others. Since then we added sleeves to more than 80% of our dresses and improved the availability of the sizes our customers often contacted us about.

It is good to know what you and other customers are looking for from M&S and your suggestions and comments are very welcome. I am confident you will see more of the styles you like in our stores soon, so I hope we will see you shopping with us again in the future.



Thank you again for taking the time to email.

Kind regards"

I've also been reading this thread, (procrastinating, avoiding other dull but necessary paperwork ). I agree Grammaretto, their customer service has declined from helpful (years ago) to utter disinterest and downright rudeness. (But I cannot fault the excellent JL customer service, (Cambridge store).)
Tu clothing? As in Sainsbury's Tu? DH bought some trousers which faded badly in the first wash, and the knee high socks I bought developed holes within weeks of purchase.
As to M & S products, I used to buy 1 new M & S cashmere sweater each winter, (only 1, due to hefty price tag of cashmere), but no longer! Last year's purchase was so disappointingly thin and dismal, by comparison to the luxurious warmth of the well worn sweater of 6 year's ago. The quality declined year on year!
The Roma 'rise' trousers, (yes, a daft name) fit beautifully, and so far wash well, but finding the right, size shape etc (12 S) in their jeans is so mind numbing I can't be bothered. Their t-shirts are pretty good, though, was and wear over and over. And a wool camel coat from last year is beautifully warm and been complimented on.
But their dresses, well, 'frumpy' comes to mind as an adequate adjective. Did try a 'Twiggy' endorsed waterfall long wool jacket - the seams unravelled - hopeless!
Once upon a time M & S was the go-to shop for the basics of a wardrobe and for quality and a fair price.
Sadly it's just too much of a pot luck feast now!
If these 6 pages of comments so far are a reflection of their core customer opinion across the UK, M & S won't be around much longer. Time to stock up on heatgen tops (love 'em here in the chilly east,) & 'no VPL' knickers before the "Store for Rent/Sale" signs go up.

I've been reading through this thread. (displacement activity) and it seems their main problem is lack of customer service.
We could forgive them some of the other errors. It was never a shop of choice for fashion.
John Lewis is going has gone the same way.
I fear it is caused by the upsurge of online shopping so that nobody is trained properly any more. Cutbacks you know.
I can remember 40 yrs ago when food producer friends managed to sell their product range to M&S. They were thrilled as it was the ultimate mark of approval. M&S standards were tops.

Oh dear, too late Elegran! I read it through and didn't pick up on the missing comma. It made sense to me, so, hopefully, it will make sense to whoever receives the email. No doubt, it will be another 'Executive'!

Should have said same paragraph, sorry. Accuracy is important when you are having a politely acid dig.

It was a barely polite brush-off, probably from a whizz kid of 20 or so.

If you do use that post to reply to them, there should be a comma between "clothes" and "are" in the sentence "Places like this forum, where people chat informally about shopping for clothes are as valuable a source of information about reactions to your stock as letters from customers." and on reading the whole thing again, in a later paragraph I would change "These women are unlikely . . " to " These "old women" are unlikely . . " Might as well emphasise that "old women" are a financial and social force to be reckoned with.