Remember the reader who tried to return pants to Hello! SkinnyJeans, only to receive brusque notes and sassy phone support? Did you wonder what the other side of the story might be? Wonder no more: Hello! SkinnyJeans sent us a press release.

In response to a Consumerist.com blog story, owner of hello! Skinny Jeans was inundated by emails from angry readers about how this situation was handled. Unfortunately Consumerist only had one side of the story, below is the response from the owner and a simple question – what would you do in her position?

The jeans cost $178 and we charged the lowest possible packing and shipping fee of $6.95. The customer ordered “BlackWash” jeans and got BlackWash jeans just as pictured on the website – they are black jeans. She returned them with her packing slip which requested a refund and a note that she “didn?t realize the jeans would be black.” Huh?

We would have refunded her for that or any reason but the problem was the jeans had been worn so much that there were bright shiny patches on the knees. She wanted her money back (in any event I couldn?t have refunded or exchanged her because she had returned used merchandise). She called me and tried to get me to send her money under veiled threat of her consumer power, asking me if this is really how I wanted things to be. I said I simply could not take back worn merchandise and that of all the jillions of pairs of jeans I have looked at I had never seen a brand new pair of jeans with bright shiny worn patches on the knees so naturally I asked her what she had been doing on her knees. The customer never once denied wearing the jeans— her spiel was that she wanted a new pair of jeans or her money back.

We all looked at the jeans and everyone agreed that the jeans had been worn and could not be resold. We have a very liberal return policy and will take back jeans for any reason and state clearly on the website that we will NOT accept merchandise that has been worn. As I couldn?t sell the jeans and as the customer had obviously worn the jeans, I simply mailed the jeans back to her with the packing slip and a note that “we cannot accept jeans that have been worn” and with a question – “you ordered black jeans, how could you not realize they would be black?” So she has her worn jeans back.

So, dear readers, what do you think?

hello! SkinnyJeans Tells Their Side Of The Story [SNAP Publicity]

(Photo: thivierr)

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.