I wanted to return a new item with tags (didn't fit) that was received as a gift over the holidays. The item was purchased in advance of the holidays. People usually do their shopping "before" Christmas. I was told that they would take an exchange (even though I was planning to exchange it for an even more expensive item). So I'm stuck with a sweater that doesn't fit. Although I appreciated their quality in the past, I will never buy from them. They don't honor the fact that people have busy lives.. Service Returns Date of experience: February 13, 2023I'm a big believer in you get what you pay for, well not with Madewell. Their products are not cheap in the slightest and their shipping was terrible. I usually buy Madewell from Nordstrom; this was my first time buying directly from them. I did not understand they had different ways to get your item shipped so I was confused as to why my product was taking so long to ship. When I contact them, they were completely unhelpful and just copied and pasted a response. When I order from Chanel, I have a tracking number by the end of the day. If you are ordering $150 jeans, you should be able to count on great service. I will never order from Madewell again. It's back to Nordstrom for me! Tip for consumers:Buy your products from Nordstrom. Products used:I purchased jeans. Service Value Shipping Date of experience: August 20, 2023They cancel your order after taking the money (expensive items on sale to make it interesting). Then no way to access your account, or the customer service. You can ask password reset but enter a loop. The emails to customer service cannot be delivered. This is a SCAM site: https://www.madewell.com/ Products used:nothing arrived, they cancelled without reason and they took the money Service Date of experience: December 19, 2023I am very disappointed with the customer service of Madewell. I bought my jeans over a year ago, and unfortunately, Madewell only looks at the 'calendar age' and not the physical age of a product. I provided photos of the jeans and there are no signs of wear and tear anywhere, while there is a perfect rip in the denim along a seam of one of the back pockets. I rotate these jeans among many others and I wash them minimally and always with cold water. This way my jeans last me about 10 years. None of this matters to Madewell, which to me means they don't stand for their product. They lost my loyalty for sure. Products used:The Perfect Vintage Straight Crop Jean Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: September 11, 2023Bought this shirt at after season sale last summer. Consequently didn't wear it until this summer. Wore once- button broke. I sewed an extra they had included (( hate sewing). Wore the adorable comfortable shirt. This time 4 buttons broke. I called Madewell they don't consider this defective. They did credit 50% refund but still, for less than 4 wearings? It's defective. Beware of Madewell buttons! Date of experience: June 29, 2023I've had two pairs of jeans from Madewell that I have had to throw out within 6 months. The first pair ripped in the crotch area and the zipper broke on the other pair. I also had a shirt from there where the sleeves started to fall apart at the seams. And it's not like their stuff is cheap. Products used:Jeans and a shirt Service Value Quality Date of experience: October 19, 2022I bought a suede bucket bag from them. It's very nice looking and exactly what I want — except the bag arrived with a foul odor. Online research suggests that bad smelling leather comes from cheap and/or unethical manufacturing processes. Chat and email to Madewell resulted in an immediate issue of a return label. I actually want to keep the bag, but I do want to know why it smells and how to remove the odor. No response. There is no way to connect with someone by phone, and no attention to listening to the customer. You only get chatbot a, virtual assistants, or humans trained to function as bots. When I told my daughter I'd ordered something from Madewell, she told me about their dicey reputation. This confirms it. Date of experience: October 14, 2023I have requested to be removed from their email lists over 50+ times now - and they continue to bombard me with at least one email a day - which I have now marked as spam. DON'T sign up for their email list unless you want to experience this. Service Date of experience: September 28, 2023They had 70% off sale and I placed an order. My credit card was charged on the third day but I never received shipping confirmation. Two weeks passed I had to contact customer service. They said due to system error they couldn't process my order and will cancel my order. Easy excuse. Why did you charge me in the first place? They still have the item in stock. So they just use the sale to scam you into placing orders so they can charge you and get the money. They refund you later but they had your money for at least a few weeks. Date of experience: January 30, 2023My new jeans had a fabric defect that caused a split by the back pocket after 6 months of light wear. As the fabric was clearly the problem I took them back asking for a replacement or repair. The rude salesgirls were unwilling to make it right in any way. Madecrappy is more like it! Taking my dollars elsewhere. Date of experience: May 23, 2023Madewell is just not trustworthy or easy. They don't deliver. Trying to get credit for products they didn't ddeliveris a nightmare. 3 times they have sent the wrong product or size. Amazon, Quince, Nordstroms are all simple, straightforward and deliver products as promised. Date of experience: December 31, 2023First time I ordered a pair of shoes, they arrived and they didn't fit. Madewell said I needed to place a new order to get a new size, they were out of stock and couldn't help. Okay, crummy luck… but oh well. A month later I ordered 3 pairs of pants, when they arrived I received 2 pairs of jeans that I did not order. When I contacted customer service they said I had to place a new order. But guess what, the items I originally ordered are now out of stock for the next 4-5 months! Madewell did nothing to compensate for the inconvenience and instead gave me label and told me to return the items they wrongly sent. I get mistakes happen, but honestly not worth the hassle shopping here. Date of experience: December 20, 2023Incredibly overpriced Chinese- and Vietnamese-made junk. Returns take FOREVER...if you don't have a Madewell brick-and-mortar store near you, you will have to make your returns via USPS, and you'll wait an eternity for your money back. It's just not worth the trouble for such ordinary items. Date of experience: December 18, 2023I tried reducing the number of emails. Then I tried unsubscribing entirely -- several times. Then I tried emailing customer service -- several times. I am STILL getting daily emails. Spam is illegal, Madewell. Date of experience: February 2, 2024They just processed my refund and are refunding me not even half of the original price paid (including the shipping). I ordered shorts in size 26 and could literally fold them around me in HALF! And Madewell has the gall to charge me £30 for returning the item to their facilities in Southampton from London (after having paid £15 for "international" shipping...). SERIOUSLY? Will be taking this up with my bank, because this screams illegal to me. They are outright stealing from customers! I highly advise anyone considering ordering from them against doing so. The authorities should take a thorough look at these companies' (J. Crew and Madewell) business practices. Wish I could report them to the SEC or something. Tip for consumers:Do not use this site, do not buy from them. Avoid completely. Products used:None, because the shorts were so big, I fit into one leg (size "26") Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: July 1, 2021So I like the clothes ok (although a few of the t-shirts I bought developed holes after 2 washes) BUT I tried to return some jeans (which I spent over $100 on) that didn't fit and I CAN'T! Due to being an international order the only return instructions they provide is to email julie@ madewell. So I did this - multiple times with absolutely no reply! I've tried to get responses via multiple other avenues and nothing. They don't provide an address I can send my return item to so basically I just can't return it and I've wasted my money. What BS! This company is crap. There's plenty of other companies that actually value their customers. Plus their clothes are no better quality than any where else - it's just a marketing angle. Won't bother spending my money here again. They have also disabled reviews on their facebook page and won't accept review on their website about their service, which is pretty telling. Date of experience: December 13, 2018I ordered a bikini from Madewell and was sent half of it in a timely fashion. It has been a month and I am still waiting on the swimsuit top. Despite multiple attempts to contact Madewell, they have no interest in ensuring that I will be a returning customer and continue repeating that the timeframe listed on the website when you buy something is not guaranteed. Service Value Shipping Quality Date of experience: May 25, 2022I ordered men's jeans in the fall of 2020. They were worn a handful of times before they suddenly split about 6" on the back pocket area. When I contacted Madewell, they told me I was outside the return window of 30 days so I was out of luck. They questioned if my boyfriend was doing construction work in the jeans (he works as a media director at a church - mostly a computer job & also didn't wear jeans too much during his work from home time during the pandemic). After sending a couple of emails with my dissatisfaction with their product & wondering why a company with the name "made well" had a faulty product, they had me send the jeans back. Despite being out of their strict 30 day return window, they sent me a store credit in the amount I paid for the jeans. I'm glad they stood by their product! I will continue shopping with them! Tip for consumers:If you are having issues with quality outside the 30 day return window, keep being a squeaky wheel Products used:Jeans Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: February 7, 2021Their clothing as the name suggests is actually made quite well and I am glad to spend a few extra dollars on pieces that will last as opposed to spending money on fast fashion garbage! Love everything I've bought so far from them! Date of experience: November 13, 2018Listen, I love Madewell and their clothing and the girls in the shops are always so nice... The online customer service however? Is the literal worst. I've worked online retail, I get it, but they literally will never even break a sweat to at least look like they want to help. I've had to contact them 4 times... every. Single. Time. "Sorry can't help!" Then why are you hired? Their policies are terrible and they just don't care. It shows. Come on Madewell, be better. Do better. Date of experience: November 15, 2020Free returns are a joke. Supposedly 30 days but it starts when they mail it out and must be received back in their computer system by the end of 40 days. They told me it can take 2 weeks once you send it back to be received! My return always seemed to be processed 2-3 days after the 40 day window. Nearest store is 2 hrs away. I'm done shopping there- will choose the stores with good customer service. Date of experience: June 25, 2019Ordered Madewell jeans for my wife before Christmas after seeing very strong reviews on a number of online sites (she has trouble finding jeans that fit); unfortunately Madewell took over three weeks to send anything to me (after I paid extra for delivery within 5 days) and gave me completely the wrong item. Throughout the process, their customer service has been extremely poor and I am still waiting for them to send me forms to allow me to return the item. They also are not confirming that they will refund the extra postage cost for the speedy delivery, and consistently ignore my emails. Without a doubt the worst customer service I have ever had from a retailer! Date of experience: January 5, 2019Just to reiterate the other reviews here, they have horrible shop policies. You have 30 days for returns, even if you ship it 10 days before the due date, they don't receive it. Then you get a gift card, JCrew does the same, over them. Also, I've gotten three pairs of pants and the fits are awful. Service Value Shipping Returns Quality Date of experience: July 28, 2022Absolutely amazing customer service! Unmatched by any clothing stores I shop at. My jeans had torn and I went in assuming I would just get a discount on a new pair or something. But, they gave me a brand new replacement pair for free! Made my week and definitely convinced me to keep shopping there for good! Service Value Shipping Quality Date of experience: February 24, 2020I have been ordering from Madewell for about two years now and I am very happy with their customer service. I did have a few concerns about a few of my Christmas orders and I did have to wait on hold for a long while but it was worth it. Once I was connected the customer service representatives were extremely helpful and very respectful. I had to be on the phone talking to them for at least twenty minutes and not once did they rush me off the phone. They even went so far as to connect me to their supervisor to inquire about an order I was concerned about. Plus my phone died and they called me back Not something I have encountered for many years from other high end stores. I usually don't write a review but it was a pleasure dealing with your customer service people and supervisors. Other high end stores should follow your lead, even with the long wait. Thank you to your customer service people job well done. Date of experience: December 15, 2018