Customer Service Review – Hollister

For those of you who are new to the Hollister brand, let me give you some background. Originally from America, Hollister has managed to make a name for itself on our shores within the last decade. Most of you have probably walked right past the store without even noticing it’s there, since the lights are so dim it rarely looks open.

When I was at University, I remember being told that Hollister was the best place to go for workout clothing. Having never shopped there before, I was intrigued and so wandered speculatively into the black abyss. Black abyss is barely an exaggeration, as there were corners of the shop where you could hide and quite literally never be found.

As you can imagine, the first big challenge with shopping in no light is not being able to find the type of clothing you want. As with all shops there are male and female sections, as well as fashion and sportswear. The major obstacle here was in finding the section you’re looking for, unless you have a sixth sense for this sort of thing. Of course, the easiest thing to do is usually to ask the customer service assistants, who in this case, were virtually invisible among the customers.

When I finally found the joggers I’d come for, I ran into my second problem: the tags. I know what clothing size I am and I know that sometimes I can flit between a 10 and a 12, but at no point will I ever be a size 0. Other shops can make you feel self-conscious, flicking past all the small sizes to almost the back of the rail for more realistic sizes. However, seeing that this shop doesn’t stock size 12 is just embarrassing!

At this point, the invisible customer service assistant asked me if I needed help. I told her that I was looking for a size 12 in the dark joggers. Moving closer, so that she was almost visible by squinting, she threw me a confused expression and corrected my mistake by explaining that the sizes in America were different from the UK – which I guess put us in America. Naively, I asked the assistant what size I should be looking at if I was a UK size 12. Without a moment of hesitation, she informed me that the best way would be to try on a few different sizes to see which fit. That sounded very much like trial and error to me?

This was cemented when I found out that – once you’ve eventually worked out what size bottoms you need – you then have to find out your top size in the S, M or L system. Oh, and did I mention that you’re still in the dark from the rack to the fitting room? The only thing guiding you is the voice of your customer service assistant a few steps ahead of you getting further away by the second!

Getting to the till signalled the home stretch of my epic journey. Then I ran into problem number 3 – the price was in dollars and I didn’t have a currency exchange app handy to make the necessary calculations. In all honesty, by this point I didn’t care how much it cost. I just paid and left the shop as fast as I could. Perhaps a little too fast, as I walked straight into a table. As I looked back hoping no-one noticed, I saw another customer walk into the same table, which eased my pain slightly as I knew I was not alone!

All in all, the joggers are great and still going strong, but I have a word of advice for future customers. If your children love Hollister or, like me, you’re a Hollister virgin, there are a few tips you’ll need before you should even consider this particular shopping trip. Memorise the American to UK size guide, know the dollar to pound exchange rate and don’t forget to bring a torch!