Well, honestly, Men's Wearhouse is a the Dollar Store of men's clothing, so I'm not hugely surprised.

wow - reminds me of the "Suit You" sketch from the Fast Show

we all have our days...

His beyonce, eh? Lucky man.

His beyonce? There's a new word for it now?

I've had nothing but great experiences at the Men's Wearhouse, they were actually very friendly and knowledgable. I guess there are rotten apples in every bunch, and it sounds like this lady won't be there much longer anyway. With an attitude like that, her commison job will be short lived.

@JustAGuy2: I can't disagree more.

Although I would never buy a suit there (I live near a Syms), I have gotten nothing but FANTASTIC service when I go there. I usually will bring in the jacket of the suit I am planning on wearing to something and then they will painstakingly pick out shirts and ties of various matching or complimentary colors until I pick the shirt and tie that I want. That is a lot of time and service to just sell 1 shirt and 1 tie...and they never have a problem doing it.

I am sure that this guy had a horrible experience with a crappy salesperson who probably should lose their job but, in my experience, this is a great exception to the norm.

The Men's Warehouse here is extremely pushy and they appear to be very much on commission. Their entire start to finish practices are very directed at the sales person's commission and making sure someone else doesn't snipe your commission. They also try to make sure you come back to your same sales person next time.

We went in there once to buy a shirt and a tie since they have talls. It was incredibly high pressure, lots of upsells and they did everything to keep price out of the decision. My guess is since they made it clear they were not buying today the sales person saw them as a total waste of time and acted like an ass.

Jos A Bank is fairly high pressure but they were really nice about helping figure out sizes and offering to order items in to save shipping.

@AdidasMJO: Agreed. Although I've had just one occasion to visit them (I hate suits!), they were excellent to me. I visited in the late evening the day before I needed to travel to a wake. The salesmen were very helpful and arranged rush alterations in order for me to be able to pick up the suit the next morning.

In my crowd, "biance" means boyfriend/fiance. Unless Clint is marrying a man or actually marrying Beyonce, I believe the term in this case should be "giancee".

@bohemian: Yes, they even try to upsell you on a "deluxe" cedar hanger for your new suit. I think they wanted $20 for it? I'll take the free plastic one that comes with it, m'kay?

@JustAGuy2: Eh? I've always found Men's Wearhouse's products to be good quality and relatively reasonably priced. They definitely don't qualify for a "Dollar Store" label.

I've never had a bad encounter with them, and I've bought a couple of suits and quite a few other clothes from them. And the ability to pick up a tux from one store and return it to any other store in the country came in quite handy!

Great picture in the middle of the quote! Very appropriate for that converstation.

[www.youtube.com]

I had two male smartass saleclerks crack jokes & told me to go to a notoriously cheap local retailer when I at an outrageous price for their leather coats. Miserable pricks!

I've bought suits there. The people that worked at the store near me where very helpful, attentive, and lived up to Zimmerman's word. The clothes from the sport jackets to the tuxes where all good quality and reasonably priced.

Even when I go back to have my suits pressed for free (a service they provide), they are polite and helpful. They do try to sell you other additional things (shoes, socks, ties, etc), but I've never seen them high pressure.

@forgottenpassword:

should read "when I balked at an outrageous price.."

Wow very strange, the last time I was there I had really good customer service. But you never know now days. I've gotten really good customer service at one place, come back a month later, and it's like someone pissed off the whole store.

Commission sales. What a company does when they have too many middle managers who have met their "Peter Principle."

@bohemian: Wanted an economical suit (ie sales rack). MW salesguy fails to prequalify me and tries to up-sell me for about an hour with new suit deal plus shirts, multiple accessories- like $700 total. Walked out thanking him and knowing where I would go if I win a lottery.

Sadly, went to Walmart, got Chinese (slave labor?) made suit for $70. Probably would have spent double that at MW if they had shown me a suit below $200.

My experiences with Men's Wearhouse have been mixed. It seems like the younger the sales clerk is, the more likely he/she is going to be aggressive and commission hungry. The older clerks seem to be more laid back and helpful.

my routine: Go to Brooks Brothers and pick out the suit that I like. Mark down all the sizes / styles. Then go to Brooks Brothers outlet and get a nearly identical suit for 1/2 the price.

@Kurtz: @axiomatic: God forbid a company pays for performance.

@Tracy Ham and Eggs as played by Walter Mondale: You can pay for performance other ways than high pressure commission sales. Think outside the box please.

Spend the extra hundred bucks and go to a family-owned suit store. Suits last twice as long, and shopping is a much better experience

@Tracy Ham and Eggs as played by Walter Mondale:

It is not about that really. If you piss someone off, you not only cost the company money, but the commission of someone else if they had come back. Word of mouth hurts companies. Think about this: If a person at a company is rude to you and you tell your family, they are not all so likely to shop there.

Now take it to this situation. If some has a wedding and many people needed to get suits for it, you just lost potential business that a competitor will now get, all because you could not take the time to help them. if people wanted to be treated like crap they would flush their faces in the toilet all day.

@bsalamon: I don't think we have any family owned suit stores...::imagines:: "Jim's Radiators, Bait N' Tackle and Menswear"

This suit is black....(pause).....NOT

I despise Men's Warehouse as well after being intimidated into buying a suit I didn't want or need. And they refused to take back a tie I didn't want because there was a strand of thread visible, even though it was still in the same bag they had put it in when I got it.

I hate it that I have to go back there sometime and get my jackets altered since I have lost weight. I think I'll just get all liquored up and go so I will be more relaxed dealing with those assholes.

@ShadowFalls: See, the sales person doesn't care if they lost sales for the store later on down the line. Even if you did come back with your whole wedding party to suits for everyone...they might not be the sales person on the floor that day. Comission sales people work month by month, those are the numbers they care about. Not what the total store does in a few months. Hell, they might not even be working there by then.

That's why I do all my shopping at Grace Brothers. Sometimes the clothing is a little big, but it does ride up with wear.

Overpriced for what you get.

I have bought all of my suits from Men's Warehouse and have found that the staff is very nice and professional. They have been very helpful and have even called me at home to check and see how everything was doing with the suit.
The employee was just a bad apple. Best thing for you to do is to email corporate. They will definitely look into it and call you back.
Also, another great place for suits in Burlington Coat Factory. Their suits are 1/2 price of those from men's warehouse.

@brendanm14: Ya beat me to it!

Let's be a bit forgiving here...any sales environment is always a little bit hostile, especially when there's comissions to be had. People can, and will be, jerks and they are bound to work everywhere, not just the lower-priced places like Men's...

Zimmer has the worst rug. It's so funny how they shoot the commercials so that the camera rarely goes above his forehead.

That said, I agree with the guy who recommended shopping at a family-owned store.... unless you live in Petticoat Junction or Mayberry, perhaps.

I used Men's Wearhouse for my wedding last summer and had a good experience with them. It's difficult to cast aspersions at an entire company because of a single bitchy employee.

@stinkingbob: Burlington is a great store! Granted, for me it is often hit or miss, but all my coats, many of my boots, and all my sweaters are from there.

This is why I wear only overalls. I get 'em at Sears. No pressure. No salespeople, really. I just take them to the hardware desk, and they ring 'em up along with the ammunition.

MW is a store I tend to avoid. I don't care for the clothing or the sales staff. The Brooks Bros. suggestion above is a good one, if you happen to have an outlet nearby, and you like your suits very conservative. The outlet prices may still be a bit high for some (not knowing Clint's budget).

Lands' End dress clothing is good quality, and the jackets and pants are sold separately so you can get a better fit. They run about $200-400 for both pieces. Banana Republic sells separates the same way, their stuff is a little more stylish than Lands' End and a bit more expensive, say $400-500 for both pieces. It also tends to have a more modern (slimmer) cut, if that's your thing.

I bought my own wedding suit from Lord & Taylor. I was visiting a friend in New York, so we went to the big store on 5th Ave. Told them I was only in town for a couple of days, they did the alterations in 24 hours, no extra charge.

This post is about one person's experience with one bad employee. Mine have all been positive.

Recently I brought in a shirt to be tapered by their tailors. The salesperson took it and went over to get me a new, wrinkle free, pre-tapered shirt. Instead of charging me $18 for the tapering, he exchanged the brand new shirt for the 1+ year old shirt. No charge. He would have exchanged others, but they didn't have matching colors. The free pressing is great too, especially after they clothes have been stuck in a suitcase for hours.

Regarding the sales experience, I know what I like/want. This helps and the sales staff actually saves me time by getting me to what I'm looking for quickly. They always make suggestions for other options I might not have considered, which I appreciate. Some I accept, but other I don't. High pressure depends in part on a buyer's attitude. If you don't want it, just say no.

@smitty1123: Are you free Mr. Smittty1123?

I was just at a wedding where the groomsmen's suits were from Men's Wearhouse. They made it clear that they wanted suits and ties, no vests. MW did NOT make it clear that the ties would be made for kindergarteners. So they had to keep their jackets closed all evening.

@godawgs7:

I just buy them at Brooks. My sales guy calls me when the semi-annual sale is coming up, I tell him what I want, and he puts it aside. I also buy gift cards on eBay to get an extra 20% or so off. Usually get $900 suits for about $550 including tax.

@godawgs7: Unfortunately, it seems these days the Brooks Bros outlets are no longer heavily discounted. The most I've seen off lately is maybe 25-33%. On some occasions, you can get bargains, but they're just too rare to make it worth browsing regularly.

Which is a shame, since I love Brooks Bros suits and their non-iron shirts are top of the line (although LLBean's are very nice too).

I've only had good service at Men's Wear House in the past, so this is surprising (but obviously not impossible). Mind you, this was in Manhattan back when Today's Man was still in operation, so there was competition in the same narrow market back then.

@rrich: i probably shouldn't admit to knowing this, but petticoat junction took place in a town called "hooterville."

I find customer service at Men's Wearhouse questionable from my experience as well. Frankly, we had only needed to get our measurements since my to-be brother-in-law was going to pick up the suit from a vendor closer to the wedding site.

None-the-less, the kids who worked there were over-eager to take our measurement, which I assumed was the "easiest thing" to do around the store. in fact, three of their employees were helping us at one point. and of course, the manager comes over, talks to one of them, finds out that we were there only to get measurements that day and demanded them to "Stop wasting their time. Finish up and help the paying customers..."

uhm...excuse me? we obviously did not even consider getting a suit from them after that.

Years ago, I purchased suits at The Mens Wearhouse, but no more. At Syms, I get equivalent quality merchandise for about the half the price of TMW. The only problem is that Syms does only basic tailoring, but even if you have to take the suit to an outside tailor, you'll be way ahead of TMW.

@sleze69: We also have good experiences there (and ditto on the color-matching and tie-picking-outing). The store manager at ours has a particularly stylish eye and he gets my husband into some very chic and flattering tie-and-shirt combos he'd never pick out on his own.

We've never had a high-pressure pitch there. They're also one of the few local stores where I can call ahead with my husband's size, what kind of thing he's looking for, and what time I think he'll get there, and they'll pull half a dozen suits and have them ready when he arrives.

I also have very good luck "haggling" there -- I got a pair of suits retailing at $1450 for $700. Neither was on sale.

@smitty1123: It took 29 comments for a AYBS? reference? I thought consumerist readers were faster ;-)