I had a quality issue on six Spanx Air Essentials items I bought last year. They pilled after a few washes and wears. The pilling got worse and the items look worn and older than they are. Four of the items were bought directly from Spanx, and two from Nordstrom. I took up the quality issue with both companies. 

I reached out to Spanx customer service. They didn’t respond so I filled out an online Spanx survey. An automatic reply indicated that someone would follow up with me, but no-one did. I received the survey a second time and dutifully filled it out again. This time, I mentioned I had written a blog post about the quality issue. Whether it was mentioning the blog post or just an accumulation of all my messages, I received an email from a person in customer service the next day.

Spanx customer service asked for photos of the pilled items, which I provided. I made it very clear that I did not want replacements of the exact Air Essentials items because I no longer trusted the fabric. Spanx was very apologetic, saying they would let their product development team know about the quality issues.

They couldn’t refund my orders because about 5 months had elapsed between purchase and my complaints. Instead, they could give me a store credit in the form of a gift voucher. I would have preferred a refund, but I’m satisfied with the credit. It shows goodwill from Spanx. I’ll spend my Spanx credit on woven Spanx items. I am done with their knits for a while.

I took the other two Spanx items back to Nordstrom, who, as I expected, refunded the items right away. No questions asked. They were very apologetic about the quality issue, and would take it up with Spanx. This is the type of customer service I expect from Nordstrom and I appreciate it enormously.

Reach out to Spanx customer service if your Air Essentials sweats have pilled. Or take them back to Nordstrom if you bought them there. Hopefully it will be a good outcome for you too.