My horrific experience at Jc Penney

[everprincess]

I also would not let my son or daughter into a dressing room by himself. My mom has to walk into the dressing room with my brother since he can't dress himself. Sure hope my mom never goes to Penny's and this happens because she wouldn't be sooo nice about it.

[mandigirl_12879]

There's no law against this. However, DH works at Kohl's and the male store manager polled the employees last week over whether or not men should go into the ladies' dressing rooms and vice versa. The ladies had issues with men being in their dressing room but the men seemed okay with women in theirs.

The mgr and the employee are both wrong in this situation. Common sense would tell anyone that an 8-year-old kid trying on clothes with an adult female standing outside the door would be okay. It's not like he's 18.

[meems]

Funny you mention Kohls..I go in & out of the mens dressing rooms w/ DH all the time, bring him in this, take back that...

[sjwossilek]

I am a fitting room attendant at Penneys in Ohio - believe me - we see some really bad stuff - but I would never be rude to a customer in the circumstanse you described - but I will tell you that people are just ridiculous - women go into fitting rooms with their boyfriends in the same stall - and we hear laughing etc --- and men come in to see how things look on their wives - girlfriends - while others are changing and wanting to see how things look in the big mirror - it really is a no win situation for us to say something to people - I just hope people realize to just use common sense - fine with children but no such a good idea for grown ups-- if you know what I mean - but again I never ever am rude to customer - if we don't have customers - then I don't get any work hours!! It pays to be nice and helpful to every customer that comes into my area so that they come back again soon! We ask our customers to do the Customer Service survey and earn a 15% off coupon for next visit - and rank our service as Highly Satisfied - that then reflects how we are doing at our store for our corporate office! Please do not judge all Penney's as what you described - Thank You!

[Kenzey's Mom]

I understand that you're upset; the employee and the manager both acted unprofessionally. It should have been taken care of quietly and privately. "For liability reasons, we absolutely cannot have women in the men's fitting rooms or vice versa. If you want to see how your son's pants fit, you can have him walk out to the fitting room entrance."

But if you send a wall of text like this to corporate, replete with spelling and grammatical errors, they're likely going to dismiss you as some ranting lunatic. Especially if you tell them you're thinking of taking legal action - they might have embarrassed you, but you have no legal right to be protected from humiliation. Busting out the "the customer is always right" line isn't going to help, either.

If you clean it up a little and try to sound reasonable, they might send you a gift card or something, but they're not going to fire the employee or write up the manager, and even if they did, they're not going to tell you about it.

No offense, but you should read the OP's signature, the letter was well written all things considering.

Op I am so sorry this happened to you. I would've been as embarrassed as you if some employee was yelling at me from across the store. My mom used to drag my brothers into the Women's fitting room when she needed them to try on clothes. They used to always put up a fit, but she didn't feel safe allowing them to be in a fitting room alone.

[hdcat]

Here is my horrible trip to Jc Penney tonight and my letter to them:

Tonight I visted your Bellingham WA location to buy my son a pair of shorts. He found some that he liked so he proceed to try them on, once he finished I stepped across the door to see how they fit. There were no other customers in the changing room at that time. As I am trying to see how well the shorts fit my son I hear a voice yelling "Miss, Miss" very loudly from across the young men's depatment. As I turn around there is a employee aparently yelling at me. Continuing to yell from acoss the men's wear she yells "you have to come out of the fitting room it is for men only" I was stunned and embarrassed before I could leave the fitting room she yelled again "I said get out of the men's fitting room you are a women not a man" As I exited the fitting room with a blank face of astonishment she continue to yell at me this time she approched me and yelled directly at me "you can not be in the men's fitting room!" I tried to explain there was no one else in the fitting room but again it did not matter she was so livid and angry I thought she might become violent so I let it go.

So you can't check on your son, but apparently JCP allows female employees to staff the dressing room? So its okay for her to go in there, even while your son was changing, but not you? JCP is crazy

On the whole men/woman's dressing rooms, it seems like most places now have solid doors so it isn't much of an issue to me. My only concern is that not all doors/walls go all the way to the point someone who is particular tall couldn't see over...and since men tend be the one's over 6", its not so much an issue of them being in there as it is I don't want someone looking over the wall/door. I also don't appreciate little kids of either sex climbing under the walls/door when I'm in there either

[Mrs. Berman]

Here is my horrible trip to Jc Penney tonight and my letter to them:

Tonight I visted your Bellingham WA location to buy my son a pair of shorts. He found some that he liked so he proceed to try them on, once he finished I stepped across the door to see how they fit. There were no other customers in the changing room at that time. As I am trying to see how well the shorts fit my son I hear a voice yelling "Miss, Miss" very loudly from across the young men's depatment. As I turn around there is a employee aparently yelling at me. Continuing to yell from acoss the men's wear she yells "you have to come out of the fitting room it is for men only" I was stunned and embarrassed before I could leave the fitting room she yelled again "I said get out of the men's fitting room you are a women not a man" As I exited the fitting room with a blank face of astonishment she continue to yell at me this time she approched me and yelled directly at me "you can not be in the men's fitting room!" I tried to explain there was no one else in the fitting room but again it did not matter she was so livid and angry I thought she might become violent so I let it go. I told my son to change and I went and got the Manager on duty, once the manager approached I explained what had happened at the same time here come the employee yelling "that's not true I did not" I asked her if she was going to stand there and yell at me in front of the manager. The manager proceeded to tell her to go and then told me that I was in the wrong and that,thast sort of thing did not happen. The manager shook her head at me in disbelief and was angry with the fact that I had even bothered her to complain about this inncident. I was stunned that not only did I not get an appology but they made me feel guilty for shopping in their store. I told my son to put back the shorts and that we were leaving! As he put back the shorts and I walked out of the store the manager, the employee and some other employees were talking about me and how they were unhappy with customers like me. I did nothing wrong and was mortified by the way this situation was handled. I will never shop in any of your Jc Penny stores again!!! I have never been so embarrassed and ashamed in my whole life!! I feel that I was disciminated against and am very tempted to file some legal action against your company. Please contact me to discuss this matter further. I would like to know what disipline action is goping to take place against these emplyoyees. I tried to tell them the customer is supposed to always be right but the manager shook her head and told me no not always and not this time.
Thank you for you time to read my horrible experience

Sorry to chime in so late as I usually don't post, but I'll tell you what....you are way nicer than me, because all heckfire would have broke loose that night if I were in your shoes!
I live here in San Diego Ca and I would never let my son go into any dressing room alone. I sit right outside his door, if I am not inside the room with him. Back in 1998 or so right up the street from us there was a 9 year old boy, Matthew Cecchi, in a parks public restroom who was brutally slain while his aunt waited right outside the door. We have all seen these restrooms, they are very open with the vents and such, but yet his aunt heard NOTHING and by golly it is your duty to protect your son.
Beyond that, I agree with the other poster who stated that YOU pay for the clothes. I would have taken names and had them dial corporate right then and there. There is also a district manager to go to and I would e-mail your letter, as is (perfect), to every e-mail addy that you can pull up on google in ref to "JC Penny Corporate Officers". I have done this on occasion and I ALWAYS get a response!!
And if you are anything like me, lets call it closure, take a copy of the letter and hand deliver it to both of those ladies with a pleasant smile.
I wish you well! :)

[cybilx10]

Here is my horrible trip to Jc Penney tonight and my letter to them:

Tonight I visted your Bellingham WA location to buy my son a pair of shorts. He found some that he liked so he proceed to try them on, once he finished I stepped across the door to see how they fit. There were no other customers in the changing room at that time. As I am trying to see how well the shorts fit my son I hear a voice yelling "Miss, Miss" very loudly from across the young men's depatment. As I turn around there is a employee aparently yelling at me. Continuing to yell from acoss the men's wear she yells "you have to come out of the fitting room it is for men only" I was stunned and embarrassed before I could leave the fitting room she yelled again "I said get out of the men's fitting room you are a women not a man" As I exited the fitting room with a blank face of astonishment she continue to yell at me this time she approched me and yelled directly at me "you can not be in the men's fitting room!" I tried to explain there was no one else in the fitting room but again it did not matter she was so livid and angry I thought she might become violent so I let it go. I told my son to change and I went and got the Manager on duty, once the manager approached I explained what had happened at the same time here come the employee yelling "that's not true I did not" I asked her if she was going to stand there and yell at me in front of the manager. The manager proceeded to tell her to go and then told me that I was in the wrong and that,thast sort of thing did not happen. The manager shook her head at me in disbelief and was angry with the fact that I had even bothered her to complain about this inncident. I was stunned that not only did I not get an appology but they made me feel guilty for shopping in their store. I told my son to put back the shorts and that we were leaving! As he put back the shorts and I walked out of the store the manager, the employee and some other employees were talking about me and how they were unhappy with customers like me. I did nothing wrong and was mortified by the way this situation was handled. I will never shop in any of your Jc Penny stores again!!! I have never been so embarrassed and ashamed in my whole life!! I feel that I was disciminated against and am very tempted to file some legal action against your company. Please contact me to discuss this matter further. I would like to know what disipline action is goping to take place against these emplyoyees. I tried to tell them the customer is supposed to always be right but the manager shook her head and told me no not always and not this time.
Thank you for you time to read my horrible experience

Cearhart, have you heard anything back from corporate office or the Store Manager yet? If you havent I would call back and complain that it has been a while and you havent received any type of response. Keep pressuring them.

[CouponSAHM]

If they want to have a "rule" as to opposite genders in fitting rooms, then it should be clearly marked on the outside of EVERY fitting room, in EVERY JCP store, in EVERY state.

To the PP who said take the letters and hand deliver them to the employees who were so rude......that is priceless!!! I love it!!! I will forever follow that advice when dealing with an issue!

PS
to all my fellow female shoppers, I would like to apologize for my 4yo looking under the stalls at you. We are desperatly trying to correct this problem