T.J. Maxx — Local services in Portsmouth

I'm giving a 4 star review for Noella, and Noella specifically. And also because guys must never shop there because the selection of medium shirts were pretty good to my uncool, once every 2 years, millennial dude standards.

So the clothes were good (for me, an 'NPC'), and my final interaction was soul soothing and reassuring. Noella believes everything is going to be OK for me (I assume, she didn't say it). So you know what? I believe that too.

This store closes at 9:30. Ok. Then close at 9:30.

I walked in at 8:45, went through all the medium shirts, picked a ton, and then went through the...5?...pairs of pants they had in average-dude 32's, then went to the changing rooms.

Why are there no guy's pants? In my limited TJ Maxx experience, I feel like pants are a much more limited resource. (TJ--you can exploit this market! Buy more pants, and just put them in the $20-30 range! If a guy actually walks in needing pants, he'll just buy them.)

I'm not here to pretend I'm not using that giftcard my mom gave me for christmas 8 months ago.

So I got a cart.

One of the customer-forward Gen Z girls loudly called me an NPC as I did so, clunkily, or whatever. "Or, a Sim". Doesn't matter, right? He doesn't know what that means.

Noella would never do that. (So don't go calling me anti-Gen Z.)

I went to the changing rooms, the lights were off. It's 9pm. 30 minutes before close.

The girl there was awkward but not unkind. I asked to use the changing rooms. She said she had to call her manager. But before she can, the 'NPC' girl showed up.

We went back and forth. She agreed, after some coercion, to let me use the changing rooms.

"Is it ok if I only put the mirror lights on?" I guess the lights were tired that night.

Sure, I don't care.

Ok, I totally had like 30 pieces of clothing. And I get that you are only allowed to have 10 pieces at a time, which I totally accepted, no questions asked. Or a few (there are no saints here). And I understand that the average TJ customer might take, say, way more than 20 minutes to try on all those one. But also, clearly, by the plethora of unsold male medium shirts, I am not their average customer.

"You guys obviously need to sell these shirts," I tell them. And about that, she didn't disagree.

I start--with the efficiency of a guy that almost never goes shopping--to try on everything I brought up in my cart. In 10-items-at-a-time segments. Putting everything back on their hangers, like a hero.

A few shirts in, the rest of the lights magically go on. Thanks, but I kinda liked the stage-lighting.

I bring the first set of 10 back out, putting what I want in my basket, hanging the rest appropriately. "See? Am I not moving efficiently?" (the first set of clothing had all the pants, a slower try) "What time is it?"

"9:10"

"And you close at 9:30"

"I go HOME at 9:30"

"So you're telling me I have 16 minutes."

I go back and keep trying on clothes. Halfway through clothes number 10-20 (of 30) she says "Hey, HOMIE, you have, LIKE, 10 minutes."

It was four minutes past when we had last spoken--there were no pants to try on. It was 9:14.

"Hey, Homette, I'm halfway done."

Awkward Girl comes to take my discards away, and NPC says loudly, 'You might as well take them all away" (meaning also the final round I haven't tried on). But Awkward Girl is both a rule follower, and a Hero in her own right. She leaves me my final batch of clothes.

Through all of this, every 4.5 minutes, the manager would make an announcement that they close at 9:30, but would open back up at 9:30 the next day.

I didn't have tomorrow. We only have Today.

At 9:17 I come out with the second batch of clothes and bring in the final 10. I finish trying them all on by 9:23.

"Thanks. Great customer service around here. And no NPC's to be found," I say, coming out of the changing room, with eye contact.

The manager didn't ring me out at checkout, she stood there talking to another employee, even though her light was on. But Noella?...

I've had mixed experiences , usually not bad however , I was talked into the rewards program and when I asked specific details including does this run like a credit card ? Is there a monthly fee every month aside from what you use and pay back ? Is the payment process fast? Is there interest etc. I was LIED to . 1st off after using the card it took 3 days to even allow me to make a payment and my payment i made 4 days ago is still processing and it FORCED me to add my bank woth routing and acct number rather then jist using my debit card. Oh AND THERE IS A 27.00 MINIMUM MONTHLY FEE !!! WHICH I ASKED THE MANAGER 3 TIMES IF THAT WAS PART OF THIS AND A SHE SAID NO! Im canceling the stupid thing the minute my payment processes . She told me some people Use it and immediately pay it off on their way out the store thats a load of CRAP its been...

I bought pants, and didn't realize that they were ripped until I brought them home. I returned them the next day, and proceeded to shop around for something similar. I watched as one of the associates put the ripped pants back on a rack, and out of interest I took a look at them to see if they had been marked down. The were still at full price, and put back on the rack for another customer to make the same mistake as I did. I even explained to the cashier that they were ripped, so it's not like they didn't know. I think that sometimes the company tries to put in as little effort as possible, which comes...