Here we go again - M&S woes

Black, black and more black. Not a colour to be seen except in killer heels.

I think that bugs me as much as anything else - the drab, dreary colours (usually black, grey or beige); thank goodness for online shopping (mainly La Redoute at the moment).

I had largely given up on M&S clothes too due to the horrible fabrics they now seem to use. However, just this week I found 4 nice things that I actually really like. The variability is amazing though. I`ve discovered that some trousers I bought in the Summer as cheapo holiday things are really the most beautiful fabric and that I would have paid double for (yes really!) Other things have looked OK but felt horrible due to cheap & nasty fabrics being used.
BTW- Confession time- I think we`d starve without the M&S food hall

Talking of boring, I went into a Clark's shop last week.

Black, black and more black. Not a colour to be seen except in killer heels.

I've given up on M&S. Used to love their pyjamas tops and bottoms but they' re really boring now. Haven't spend any money there for a long time. Bought all my summer things from Next, fit is great and styles are much better

I got a lovely long tunic in their sale just before my holiday. I pulled it out of my case and there wasn't a wrinkle. I still like M&S but find them expensive compared to my old favourite Bon Marche.

I haven't used the website for a bit but I do go our local M & S outlet store. To date, I've bought linen trousers for a fiver and some bits and pieces such a maternity dress for my daughter, also a fiver. I reckon that most of the stuff is worth what I have paid for it but at least it hasn't shrunk upwards in the leg.
I go to the main store now and again but rarely see anything that takes my fancy and if I do I usually think it's overpriced! Their trousers (except the baggy ones) rarely fit - as others have said. I'm a size 8 and the hips are always too wide and the waist/hips too tight. At the moment Next gets my vote if I need trousers. I'm not prepared to pay M & S prices and then having to mess about taking stuff in. 100% wool garments I buy online from another supplier and they are OK for the price.
I find the colour palette that M & S use to violent. I'm so fed up with bright pink/blue/green etc.
Wish I could find clothes at reasonable prices that fit and have a little style. I admit I've gone off shopping for clothes altogether.

The website is rubbish - also most Impossible to useon the ipad. Service in the shops is no better! We recently stopped at the Havorfordwest branch to pick up something for lunch on our way home from the ferry. DH selected a sandwich and I chose a potentially interesting Harissa chicken salad. Got to the checkout and paid and then asked for a fork and napkin so that I could eat the salad. Not a fork spoon knife or napkin was to be. had. I then had a strop and told them I would grudgingly choose a sandwich DH moaned that he would then have to go back through the queue and checkout,but firmly fixing a stray employee in the eye I assured him that "this lady will sort it all out for us". And she did! I have got so much bolder since I have got older.
Back to quality in M & S.......the only thing I buy there nowadays for myself is knickers and jogging trousers and fleece tops. Sad really as I must have spent a small fortune there in yesteryear.

I generally agree with all the complaints about M & S. I've got used to the new website (you have to set up a new password if you haven't used it since the new site was launched) but miss the option to save items to a Wish List (I found this useful when there were discounts/I needed something).

I got M & S vouchers for my birthday in June and finally trotted off to the Marble Arch branch a couple of weeks ago, not very hopeful of finding slim black trousers and stretchy trousers for Pilates. I went early and, despite how horrid I always feel when trying on trousers in the very well lit changing rooms, with persistence (and finding out what treggings were + the fact that I need a regular rather than short in some styles even though I'm only 5'2"), I eventually found exactly what I wanted - good fit, good heavy quality material; plus I had a voucher left for a nice soft wool jumper. Yeah - success!

I have stopped looking in M & S. The last time I was visited there wasn't a single thing that I wanted to buy. I used to love the fit of their trousers/jeans, now they seem to be made for either giants or midgets.

I had the misfortune to have the pants advert emailed to me yesterday. At last I.have remembered to unsubscibe from.their emails. Went to M & S this morning to look.at jumpers. I was dismayed to find that they still havnt used up the job lot of glittery wool they must have bought 3 years ago.

On another note - I was due to 'collect in store' today. Yet again, I received a phone call to say that my item would not be in store until tomorrow .

Firstly, why isn't it 'in store' on the day it is due? No reason given, of course.

Secondly, what is the point in phoning, with a recorded message, on the day of collection - when I have already left to collect it?

This keeps happening lately

WAKE UP M & S !!! There are plenty of other stores out there offering better products and better reliable service

Sense of déjà vu with these pants. Then I remembered. A little while ago, in a urinal at a motorway service station I found my self unavoidably staring at an advertisement for some very smart pants for men with bladder problems.......

I showed the adverts to DH, who had managed to read 2 national newspapers yesterday without noticing them. He was equally bemused by the adverts. The only people he could think of who would not find the ads off putting were the gay equivalent of men who leer over page 3 women.

Making the assumption that this advertising campaign is aimed at young men, many of whom will be young, unattached and buy their own underwear or possibly their young women partners, where they are attached, is a double page ad in all the national newspapers the best way of reaching this demographic, the vast majority of whom do not read a daily paper?

can these really be normal old m and s y-fronts?

Why don't I recognise them?

Saw the ad in the Telegraph today. I can only think that the pants must be grossly over priced as the cost of hiring someone who seems to be famous (who is he?) plus these huge double page ads in lots of papers will be paid for by the folk who buy them.

FlicketyB and trendygran... I'd like to add another 'Yuk'! Prefer Joe any day...

I have got several jackets that I have bought in M&S over thelast ten years or so. The tailoring usually good in the more expensive ones and I wait for the sales and use my staff discount. (Cheapskate? Moi?)

Missed the advert - what have I missed?

I bought two jackets last year from a discount store and it rained so much I haven't worn one of them yet. That is me sorted.

Fishing out a shirt which must be 20 years old from M&S to use as a cover-up on holiday. Still OK!

The new advert is not good, it wouldn't entice me into the shop.

I only go if I'm in the shopping centre and going somewhere else but I do like to look in, if I buy something its got to be reasonable price and got to last to fit in with my budget so I will be looking in in the next few weeks but if the stuff is no better than last years I wont be buying.

I do have some M&S cardis and t shirts from years ago and the quality is amazing (20 yrs old), hope the new stuff is as good as this.

FLICKETY B. Had the same reaction to the latest 'male' advert! YUK!

Have to admit that M+ S is not exactly making me want to buy any new autumn type clothes right now. (maybe just as well!)I looked round my local store yesterday and thought what a load of boring items were in there. Even in Per Una, which I generally quite like, there was nothing to appeal. I did spot a couple of nice looking coats ,which I don't need and some ok lingerie, but otherwise , nothing.
The café is ok, but service sometimes slow even when not especially busy. I SHALL continue to go there as I enjoy the buzz , the sandwiches
and the coffee.

I gritted my teeth this afternoon and gave the double page spread a considered viewing. I could see nothing in it that was either attractive or interesting.

We are told this man is a top model, so big he gets his name on his underpants and in the advert . To me he looked like a very ordinary bloke who spends too much time in the gym. His underwear was pretty dull too.

Thank goodness DH buys his (more colourful) underwear in Sainsbury's.

Exactly Flickety who wants to look at that? What's more, he looks so smug with it!

Lona, it is not as if the advert was even done in an attractive way. Hard porn poses, but with underpants. I think this is why I just turned over fast. My reaction was not a 'shock, horror, delicate sensibilities distressed' reaction. It was quite simply a 'Yuk' reaction.

they do need to get the quality sorted. They may save money long term if they brought the work back to this country rather than paying slave wages overseas.

That is my biggest complaint about M&S - the quality is so poor now; sizes seem to vary as well and I agree with the comment about trousers looking like jodhpurs. Mind you, the local shop owners are delighted and stated that their 'business is now thriving since M&S shot themselves in the foot by transferring to cheap manufacturing abroad'.

When I pop into M&S (usually just the food section now), it looks deserted, even on Saturdays (apart from the food section which is very popular).