Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store — Attraction in Niagara-on-the-Lake

The woman who was helping me was very sweet and made the experience fun. However once I got to the checkout my experience went down hill. I had asked about one tax since my son is 13 but he is very tall for his age and doesn’t fit into anything but men’s clothes. The Polo store back home (Vancouver) does one tax and all you have to do is sign a form so I thought to ask. The girl seemed confused so I just asked if she could speak to the manager. She went over and said it’s only for kids clothes and it didn’t seem as though she was understanding what I was meaning to say so I didn’t bother. I bought my items and left the store when I looked at the bill I was unsure about the price so I went back inside to double check where the shirts had been. This is when I overheard the manager say “it isn’t our fault your son is overweight” while laughing with the girl. She said this without realizing I was walking by. I have never had such a horrible experience. The assumption was made that my child was overweight and this was coming from a manager. What can you expect from the people working there if their boss is speaking about customers like this. This experience has ruined the brand for me. I was able to get their names from an employee. It was Jody and Kerry. My son was very upset about this. If you shop here be aware of the manager and this other girl. I have seen other reviews about racism towards brown people from the staff at this location. DO...

Worst customer experience ever! Don't go here for any returns or exchanges! The staff do not know how to process them properly. I was not greeted when I walked in. The staff member was behind the counter, playing on his cell phone, looked at me and then went back to looking at his phone. Normally I wouldn't care, but then I approached the counter to do an exchange and I had to wait for him to finish whatever he was doing on his personal cell phone before "helping" me. I was doing a simple exchange for a gift I received for Christmas. I needed a bigger size. He tried to process it as a return and told me to swipe my card. I asked which card and he said "the one you paid originally with." I had to explain to him what a gift was and why I had a GIFT RECEIPT! So he cancelled that and said just go get the bigger size and come back to me. So I went but they didn't have the same style. I asked for a refund to be put on a gift card as store credit. Instead he refunded the money to the gifters credit card! So now I am out the gift and the money... Oh and when I tried to give feedback on the receipt he gave me, it's for USA only, even though we are in Canada...LOL!...

The manager at this store, Jodie Frumusa, was shockingly rude and completely unhelpful. We asked a simple question about their return policy: if I purchase an item using a digital gift card and gift it to someone, and they want to return it, can the refund be issued as store credit or to a new gift card? Her response was honestly baffling - and I’ve worked in retail myself. She insisted that even with a receipt (original or gift receipt), the refund would go back to the original gift card. That makes no sense - why would I gift someone an item only for the refund to end up back on my card if they don’t want it?

On top of that, her attitude was unnecessarily dismissive. She kept interrupting us with, “Let me finish,” even though we were listening respectfully the entire time. It was an incredibly frustrating experience, and I honestly don’t see myself returning to this...