My First Hollister Experience Will Be My Last

I don’t normally shop at Hollister or go inside whatsoever, since I am a plus size woman and they do not run anything in my size, style, or price range. Today, however, I was with my sister at the Westfarms Mall in Meriden, CT, and she wanted to get a matching outfit with her friend. I told her that I would wait for her at the comfy chairs that were by the register. Sat down, twiddled on my phone, no issues.

Then, her friends came over and sat down across from me. Still no issues. Nobody said anything to each other; we were simply waiting for other people, quietly using our phones and keeping to ourselves. This was fine. Then, suddenly and without warning, the music in the store turned off. If you’ve been to Hollister you’ll know that they play loud and overbearing music, so for it to cut off so suddenly we were all perplexed.

One of my sister’s friends turned to the woman who was behind the counter and calmly asked why the music had gone off. The woman, who turned out to be the store manager, responded very rudely and unprofessionally that it was store policy to turn off the music thirty minutes before closing, and that if we had a problem with that we should call customer service and complain to them about it. She then left the area to do something else.

We were surprised at the level of rudeness in her tone over a simple question, and were calmly talking about it to ourselves. We were not being rude, loud, or obnoxious in our conversation about what had happened. A few minutes later, another employee walks behind the register and begins to check people out. When the other customers had left, he literally shouts at us - who are no farther than five feet away, mind you – that we should not be “bad mouthing” the store, and that if we had a problem with their policies that we should leave. Not only was he being incredibly rude, he was shouting at us! His voice was literally echoing throughout the store because of how loud he felt he needed to be. I calmly responded that it was none of his business what we were talking about, as we were not making a scene about anything. The store manager then comes back and shouts at us along with her employee about how we should leave the store if we don’t like their “policies.” At this point, I was getting very upset about their unprofessional and rude behavior and asked for their first names, so that I may report them to whomever is higher than the store manager. Not only did they refuse to give me their first names – “We aren’t obligated to give you our names,”  the store manager told me – they also refused to give me the number of customer service or their regional manager, as they were not “obligated” to share that information with me, either. The store manager then decided to call mall security and try to have me removed for being “disruptive” when I, mind you, was speaking in calm, conversational tones and they were the ones with shouting voices.

The behavior of the store manager and her employee was completely uncalled for, not to mention unprofessional for a sales representative. I have been working in retail for four years, at least, and have never seen or experienced such bad customer service. Not only will I never shop in that store, I will never purchase items from their branch whatsoever. I will never step foot in that or any Hollister or Abercrombie & Fitch store again.