The Bay - NOT my Canadian store anymore

...or should I call it The Hudson's Bay Company?  The Bay has been really busy over the last few years trying to rebrand itself to stay relevant with the ever growing luxury retailer Holt Renfrew & Co, and distance itself from Sears.  In my day,  Holt Renfrew was the hallmark of unattainable - the go-to retailer downtown  for the very distinguished (read: rich) older white lady who enjoyed tea in the in-house restaurant and bought broaches for their granddaughters' graduation gifts.  It certainly wasn't the place my mum would take me when I needed a new pair of corduroys.  That's where the other major retailers came into play - Simpsons, Eaton's and of course, The Bay.  Sears was always lurking in the back, personified as the not so trendy, not so extroverted plain jane cousin, tauting her thick book of things.  The Bay was a solid retailer for the middle class, everyday suburban family.  As a kid we got our Krickets clothes, Osh Kosh B'Gosh, Wrangler pants and Trim Fit hosiery at what my mum called a fair price.

Flash forward to today and the landscape has changed a bit.  Holt Renfrew & Co. is still the purveyor of luxury goods, but it is BIGGER.  Like a goldfish that was moved from a small bowl to a large tank it grew to adapt to the size of its surroundings.  That's what credit cards do!  All over town I see and talk to pretty young things who can barely afford to pay their rent or buy nutritious food to eat because they're sporting the new and on-trend Gucci bag.  The Bay has been busy this decade as well.  Zellers fell under its wing as the "value branded" category, and in the 90's, Simpson's was gobbled up by The Bay.  The number of retail stores doubled and Eaton's was left in the cold.  Eventually, Eaton's locations became Sears, and in time, Sears worked really hard to shed its "Sears" image and managed to distance itself from the burgeoning K-Mart.  Well into the first decade of the 21st century, discount retailers like Giant Tiger, Wal-Mart, and now Target have become the staples for everyday needs, including basic items and cosmetics.  What's a store like The Bay to do?  Look for competition!  Find another audience!  Go for more money!  But keep the shitty customer service where it is.  The bricks and mortar stores look better (though still like The Bay), have floors of their stores dedicated to particular brands and designers, but honestly - CAN I GET SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE HERE?  Why is it that when I feel this absurd need to spend $300 on a shirt there isn't a single person who can direct me to where I need to be?

The truth is, The Bay - to the core - hasn't changed.  I mean, yes - you have Bonnie "my voice sounds like nails screeching down a chalkboard" Brooks doing horrible Bay Day ads for the radio and they have elevated their lines to be in direct competition with Holt Renfrew - but honestly, same old same old.  Crappy customer service (with a smile) packaged in a semi-presentable store.

Just recently, I ordered from thebay.com and even though my sale went smoothly, I did not receive a confirmation e-mail (as promised) that the order went through.  I had to call their 1-800 number and talk to a CSR.  Though polite, I felt she did not quite understand the situation.  And her voice had a strange twang to it.  Now, the website says that if an order is placed before 1pm, then it will be shipped out that same business day.  Great!  But I did not receive an e-mail confirmation (as promised) to let me know that my package was on its way.  So again, I called the 1-800 number.  This time, another twangy lady voice told me that my package has shipped, but there are problems with the system and no e-mails are being sent.  Don't you think that a blanket statement on their website would be there to inform customers about this e-mail outage?  Nope.  My order was delivered yesterday, and when my husband tried on the pants, we found that they are cut smaller - lady sizes tend to get cut bigger and bigger, maybe men's get cut smaller and smaller.  So I thought, "No problem - I should be able to return the pants the way I got them.  By mailing them back to the e-store, on their dime.  After all, that's what Gap & Co do.  They send you a return shipping label in case something doesn't fit, or you change your mind.  And I got a return shipping label from The Bay as well!  Sweet!  But...the label did not have an expedited parcel number ID on it.  Back to The Bay customer service - a third lady told me that unless they made a mistake in packing the order, I have to ship it back at a cost to me.  And this is where old "The Bay" rears her ugly head in the modern age of online shopping.  I said, "Oh - that's too bad.  I know I can drag my butt out and return it to a retail location, but if I could do that I wouldn't order online.  By the way, is this call centre located in Canada?"

The sweet CSR lady cleared her throat and replied, "No Ma'am - we're located in the US.  The stores are in Canada, but we are in the states."

Why are we outsourcing call centre ops to the States?   But I guess everything good here ends up down there, literally and metaphorically.

The Hudson's Bay Company, incorporated May 2 1670 - a Canadian retail icon, just not my Canadian store anymore.