L'Etoile's Customer Support Fails to Deliver

Hello!

I'm writing to share a frustrating experience with the customer service department at L'Etoile.

I've always been satisfied with the store itself, despite the limited selection lately, which I attribute to global supply chain issues. My orders have always arrived on time, and I've never had any issues with couriers or operators.

But everything changed in January 2026 when my colleagues gifted me a certificate at this store.

Here's what happened:

1. Receiving the gift certificate.

On January 6th, I received a text message notifying me that I'd received a gift certificate.

When I logged into my account, it was immediately displayed, along with the amount, a message from the giver, and the sender's name.

The process was smooth, and I've received gift certificates from this store before, with no issues.There's a convenient option to send the certificate to the recipient at a specified time, which is great, especially since my friends are in different time zones.

That's where the positives end.

2. Using the gift certificate.

I'm still trying to understand what went wrong, but for the first time, the gift certificate wasn't applied during checkout.

Honestly, I'm stumped, since everything seemed straightforward.

When you're placing an order, you just need to scroll through the slider to deduct the amount.

I placed my order in the evening, but I didn't notice that the full amount was deducted from my card, minus the discount - no bank notifications, no need to confirm the transaction, it was all automatic.By the next day, when the courier delivered my order, I received a notification and an invoice by mail, and I was shocked - the discount hadn't been applied, and the bank statement showed that the full amount had been deducted.

3. Attempts to resolve the issue over the phone.

I immediately called the hotline, despite it being a holiday period. I explained the situation and asked what I should do, and the operator told me to write a complaint to identify whose fault it was.

I asked how that would help, but the operator didn't give me a clear answer.

Then I suggested returning the item to the store, getting my money back, and reordering with the discount applied.

The operator created a complaint and told me to wait, but didn't give me a timeframe.

My complaint was immediately displayed in my personal account.

3. Second call to the hotline.

I wasn't entirely satisfied with the wording of the complaint, but that's a minor detail.

After thinking it over, I decided to clarify whether I could simply request a refund for the discount, as it would be easier than going through the return process and waiting for a longer period for the refund. The item is still unopened, by the way.

The operator told me that it's impossible. Apparently, the discount is electronic, and only the giver (the person who paid for it) can request a refund, while if I had a physical discount card, I could request a cash refund myself.

4. Requesting a Return.

I have to admit, I was a bit hesitant to bother the giver, but I had to reach out and ask them to write a formal request.

It's pretty funny, considering we're living in a digital age and most companies have switched to remote work, L'Etoile still asks for a handwritten request – a regular online application just isn't enough.

Here's what it looks like:

Of course, this is just an internal organizational thing, so I politely asked and they accommodated my request.

The request was submitted on January 8th, and I added 'requisites attached' to the 'requisites' section and sent it to the store along with the requisites on a separate form.

5. Reviewing Requests.

Once I found out the giver had submitted a return request, I closed my own request and waited for the store's decision on the second open request.

My colleague mentioned that the store's chat support said it would take 10 working days to review the request.

I'm not sure where they got that from, but I know the law 'On Consumer Rights Protection' sets the review period at 10 calendar days, not working days.

I made multiple calls to the hotline over the next 10 days, asking when the decision would be made, and the operator kept saying it would be on the 18th – 10 calendar days, not working days.

However, on the 18th, 19th, and 20th, I still hadn't received a response from the store.

6. Contacting Chat Support.

On January 20th (12 days after the initial request), I reached out to the store again through the chat support.

Let me warn you, friends – this conversation went on for a few days and was completely pointless.

I'm grateful to my colleague for handling the communication and providing the screenshots.

The information from the hotline and chat support operators was inconsistent.

Essentially, it's just 'wait and don't panic.' Okay.

Also, on January 20th, there's a request to make corrections to the application, specifically to hand-write the recipient's details.

'Why?' you'll ask again. And I don't know. The donor doesn't know. Russian legislation doesn't know. But the operator knows: 'it's required by our accounting.' Okay. We hand-wrote the recipient's details (although at this point, we could've stood up and demanded an official request) and sent it again.

And from this point on, it's complete chaos.

7. Delayed timeframe, a nervous operator, refusal to consider.

On January 23rd, my colleague writes in the chat again, but the operator's responses this time are, to say the least, shocking in both content and style.

The operator politely informs us that the timeframe has been pushed back because the review period has been extended (I assume the clock started ticking again). I immediately note that the application date hasn't changed - it still says January 8th.

The donor wasn't too pleased with this response, as the timeframe had expired, and the request was invalid (the recipient's details were provided on the day of the application). The nuances of the store's documentation shouldn't concern the customer - what's going on in your accounting department is none of our business.

I'm not getting a clear answer here. I can almost think it's a bot, but the last nervous message tells me otherwise. What's the point of this information? Sorry, but I'm not interested in your email exchanges with colleagues. I need results, not excuses. Anyone who deals with complaints or customers should understand my frustration. Imagine a client reaches out to you, asking you to speed up the process, but you're the one who messed up. You respond with something like, 'Our accounting department isn't accepting it, they don't want to, well, there's the law, but accounting is a separate entity.' Or, 'What can I do? I don't have the authority, I just write to specialists via email, and they give me runaround letters like I'm a spammer, not their colleague.' How would you like that? My company would have fired me for that, at the very least.Letual, do you seriously think customers care about how your departments interact with each other? 8. My next steps.

As soon as my colleague told me they were being ignored and not helped, I called the customer hotline, recited the case number, and asked what was going on.

The operator said we'd have to count 10 more days from January 22nd, since the customer had provided the corrected application with the required details on January 22nd.

I lost my cool.

I warned the operator that I'd leave a review about the store's work, and they just said, 'That's your right.'

I tried to contact the specialist, but apparently, they're the 'office-in-the-woods' type, because the new decision deadline is January 28th.

9. The verdict.

I'm finishing up this review and getting ready to file a complaint with my colleague. We'll also be submitting a formal complaint to Rospotrebnadzor, as our documents were sent on January 8th. The store's refusal to provide a new statement is unjustified, and they're engaging in unfair enrichment by dragging out our concerns. To make matters worse, they're not even willing to work with us.

xa0

I have to say, there are stores that are lightyears ahead of L'Etoile in terms of customer support and addressing our issues. Based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend shopping at L'Etoile, despite their improved sales staff and some nice perks, like faster shipping. But the unnecessary delays have completely put me off from making any future purchases from this store.