Jos A. Bank — Local services in Huntsville

I would caution anyone interested in buying a custom suit from Jos. A. Bank - or at least from the Huntsville Bridge Street location, in particular. I have a Jos. A. Bank custom suit that I purchased from a location in Florida, and I absolutely love it. Hence, when it came time to buy another suit, I went back to Jos. A. Bank, this time to the Huntsville Bridge Street location. I was concerned when the suit arrived for the alterations fitting and was quite a long ways from the correct fit - - it seemed odd that a suit for which the salesman had taken custom measurements would be so far from fitting correctly. When I returned after the final alterations had been made, there was a large snag in the material on one of the sleeves - directly on the front, where it will be noticed by anyone with whom I am engaged in conversation. Additionally, it still did not drape as nicely on the body as a suit - especially, a custom suit - should. When I came out of the dressing room, the salesman asked how I liked the suit, and I told him I was not thrilled but that I was not hopeful anything could be done to fix the suit, given that they had already done the “final” fitting and alteration. His response was, “Ok, I will get her wrapped up for you.” Not an offer to try to figure out how to fix the fit of the suit, nor an apology. When we walked up to the front of the store, he started placing the suit in one of the disposable garment bags. I asked him if Jos. A. Bank had stopped using the nicer garment bags for custom suits, and he said they were out of them and that they were on order; again, I found this odd that a bespoke suit would not arrive with a bag especially for that suit. I asked if I could come back and get the higher-quality garment bag (needed, due to how extensively I travel and the short lifespan of the cheap plastic garment bags), and the salesman replied that I could if they ever get any in again; this conflicted with his previous statement that the bags were simply out of stock and an order had been placed, sounding more as if they don’t have any hope of ever getting any more in stock. When he handed me the suit, there was no apology for it not fitting properly, no apology for not having the correct garment bag, and no thanks for buying one of the more expensive items the store sells. I have exclusively worn Jos. A. Bank dress clothes for over a decade, but I will do my best to avoid the Huntsville Bridge Street location, in the future. I have no problems waiting longer for orders and alterations, completely understanding supply and labor shortages; however, the poor customer service and apathetic approach displayed at this location are not the sort of business practices I want to support with my...

I buy a lot of work shirts from here. The prices are pretty reasonable, especially when you get the "buy 3 for 1" deal. Now I will admit that the quality of the shirts aren't necessarily the "best", but they serve their purpose, and they look nice. People are always complimenting me on my shirts.

The customer service at this particular store is decent; I think I've had better at, say, Old Navy, though (those little teenage girls working there are just insanely chipper). Nonetheless, the overall experience is fine enough, especially if you're just there to purchase a few shirts. I've never bought a suit (or planned a wedding using their services) so I can only speak about simple transactions.

This last time my wife and I went, though, was particularly interesting. We had a cashier who was extremely slow! After shopping, we had to wait what seemed like 10 to 15 minutes before we could check out. The problem was that the cashier was taking so long with the only other customer in the store. What's worse, the customer had been there working with this same cashier the entire time we were shopping--probably a good 15, 20 minutes. So, my wife and I just waited patiently--no big deal we said. For the life of us, though, we couldn't figure out what was taking so long. Well, that was until it was our turn to check out. The cashier (who was probably in his late fifties or early sixties) could not type. When he started entering my name and email address--information that he asked for (ironic, right?)--he would peck away at each key with only one finger while frantically searching for the next. You should have seen this man trying to find the "@" key. It was awkward, actually. I wanted so badly to ask the guy if he wanted me to type it for him. But since I work in retail, I did my best to make him feel comfortable. After another 5 minutes (that is not an exaggeration) we were finally done with our transaction.

Now, while this experience wasn't ideal, it didn't make my wife and I particularly upset. What can I say, we are patient people--and we both work with the public for a living. But I do write about it to let others know that if you're in a rush or don't like waiting in line long, you may want to think twice about going here if there is an older gentleman checking people out. Even more, if things don't seem to be moving as quickly as they should, you may want to drop what you are doing and come back at another time.

Overall, though, I like this...

Part 2: (See Part 1 in Brookwood Mall Birmingham, AL for an even worse Jos. A. Bank)

After what happened to me in Birmingham, someone convinced me to go to the one here. They were partly correct.

I got way better service when I went. The guy could communicate, was helpful, and knew how to properly fit someone in a suit. He also got us a better deal than the buy 3 get 1 free, so we didn't have to buy all 12 suits for my wedding right then and there. I left feeling like Jos. A Bank was alright...for a little while.

I never got called back when my suit arrived. I waited and waited and called to check a few times. Finally after a month and a half went by, I called and they said that it had been there for a while. This happened to half of my groomsmen, but the worst of them all was the situation with the father of the bride.

They took months to get him his suit. He called and called, and finally one day they told him they had it for weeks, but now they needed the group number even though we were told that we wouldn't need that if we went to the same store. He found it and finally got his suit just before the wedding.

Once again, more details, but I gotta wrap this up. Meet me in Part 3 back at Birmingham in the Summit store. I wouldn't dare go back to the...