Jack was trying to replace the second of two defective Kate Spade handbags from Bloomingdale’s.

When one customer service rep failed to fix his issue, he kicked it up to the CEO, using contact information we supplied.

Shit rolls downhill, so if you want yours to have the most potential energy, start at the top…

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Jack writes on Jan 23:

Ben–wondering if you could help out here … do you have a contact, address, etc., for executive customer service at bloomingdale’s?

reason i ask is … i purchased a kate spade handbag for my wife over the phone last summer. the handle came loose and i was able to exchange it. the same defect afflicted the second bag. so i called bloomie’s last month and spoke with a csa who told me to send the bag back and a new one would be shipped out post-haste. she assured me that the bag, which is now deadstock, was still available and still in stock.

so we returned the old bag, then nothing. my most recent credit card had a credit for the bag, which was not a good sign.

i phoned them today and was told that the bag is not available, will not be available, etc. i mentioned my wife’s major disappointment, was put on hold, and the csa contacted kate spade trying to find a replacement, or to at least find the defective bag that bloomie’s sent to spade. no luck.

my only options: 10% off my next purchase OR free shipping on the same.

kind of a difficult case, especially since they issued a credit. but what rankles us is that we NEVER would have returned the bag to bloomie’s if we knew it was not in stock. we would have instead sent it to kate spade for possible repair.

any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks. – jack

We went right for the top and got the contact info for the CEO of Bloomingdale’s. It wasn’t easy, he doesn’t exactly have a Myspace page, but with a little social engineering we were able to write back on Jan 26:

: Jack, I think this may help

Michael Gould CEO
212-705-7566, ask for Mr. Gould’s office
or
michael.gould@bloomingdales.com

That should get you in touch with the executive customer service crew.

If they’re not helpful, I wonder if you might have luck looking for the same bag on eBay. – Ben

Feb 14: Ben–brief update … mr. gould passed me to an assistant. after the usual back and forth over a couple of weeks, we were asked to select a bag from the web site and asked for details of how we would like to pay for it. i simply declined, repeating that the situation was not of our doing and that bloomie’s was at fault. left it at that. time to move on, at least for me! thank for your help. -jack

Feb 20: ben–don’t know if you received my message from last week, but after it seemed that my saga involving my wife’s handbag purchased from bloomie’s direct was over … a package arrived via fedex yesterday.

lovely box and wrapping. but what’s better is the note from the president of bloomie’s direct, franz. w. weiglein, apologizing for the situation. they had asked my wife to pick out something else she liked (and then asked for payment). this time, mr. weiglein said he hoped things would be made right by providing us with a furla bag,
free of charge.

wonderful customer service. if you’re interested, in would be happy to scan the letter and ship it off to you. bloomingdale’s direct deserves some kudos, in my humble opinion.

thanks for your help. i look forward to hearing from you. – jack

Feb 20:

Hey Jack, that’s great! Goes to show what a little consumer proactivity can do. We would be interested in seeing the letter, yes. – Ben

Feb 20: you folks are kind of like having my mom sitting on my shoulder saying … write a letter to the president, write a letter to the president. go to the top. truer words never been spoken. -jack

Feb 21:

Great, looks good. Could we trouble you for a shot of the bag (along with the box and wrapping if you still got it, if not, no worries)?

Feb 21: ben–i’ll try for the bag, but it’s been awful hard to pry it from my wife’s cold fingers. and the thing is she works during the day and i work at night. i’ll shoot a note to my son and get him on the case. j

We do believe this qualifies for one of them fancy “Above and Beyond” accolades. Props to Michael for pushing the issue to Franz, and to Franz for getting so involved. Would customer service improve if more executive information was publicly available instead of people squirreling through phone trees to get it? That’s our hypothesis and that’s why we’ll continue to post it. — BEN POPKEN

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