Ann Taylor

5 starts for collection.
2 stars for service.
5 stars for major sales.
This AT has one to the best collection. Because of the size of the store they have a lot more than the ones in South Bay. I found a few dresses here that were almost double the price online. The shop is well stocked and staged.
Service is a little lacking. They may or may not help out with sizes depending on how many staffs are available. The 2^nd floor is never ever staffed.
I really like the sales they have. Don’t just have to wait for thanksgiving and Christmas anymore. Also a plus, they had warmer weather nice tops even during their Christmas sale.

Wow, seems like a lot of service complaints. I don’t shop often, but for my two cents, this is the best AT on the Peninsula. In fact, I’m going out of my way tomorrow to drop in on them in P.A. because the one closest to me never has anything in stock I want or need. This one always has a huge sales selection, many things I’ve never seen online and to my recollection some of the best service.

Pure bad service. If I could, I would not even give one star. The middle age blonde lady with long hair in a low pony tail at the cashier did not greet me, I said Hi to her and heard nothing back in return. She just pushed my skirt to me on the counter with movement full of disdain. The same thing happened with the receipt. She just shove it to me. She made me feel like I was nothing. Just a really awful experience at AT Palo Alto while the guy cashier next to her was the total opposite. (smiling etc.) AT has to make sure not to hire this kind of person. This is a customer service job and she should be attentive to be customer service friendly. Zero out of 4 stars.

Ann Taylor is my favorite shop for working clothes. The price is right with good quality.

I have been an Ann Taylor customer for more than 2 decades. I followed it’s fashion closely ad had much pride in wearing Ann’s design.
Its sizes have been going bigger and bigger. I had to exchange pith dresses to smaller sizes this afternoon. The service from this store manager was unbelievable rude. Two sales associates refused to offer exchange service and ignored my presence by speaking to each other in Spanish. I had to ask them to communicate to me in English. One of the associates, Myra, literally threw the dress back to my face after my request to speak in English. Another store associate, Brenda, was so embarrassed that she apologized to me over and over again.
I am so disappointed at the store service. I will never go back to Ann Taylor again. I wonder who else should?

this store got a facelift not long ago, and they now have two stories, which makes the store appear quite big. the downstairs is for misses and women, as well as shoes and accessories, and the upstairs is dedicated to petites, which i very much appreciate since i am a shorter than average woman.
half a decade ago, my closet was filled almost exclusively with ann taylor suits and casual wear. however, i haven’t been as keen on their fashions in the past few years. their styles have become a bit too trendy and also a bit too colourful, which don’t work as well for a more conservative person like myself, who prefers to dress in more subdued colours. occasionally, they will still have the sheath dress or two-​piece suit that i appreciate and find tasteful. prices have definitely gone up, so if you choose to purchase your career wear here, be prepared to shell out the dough.

I called AT today to see if a particular dress was in stock and I was helped by Mariela (sorry if I spelled your name wrong). She took my number and called me right back after locating the dress. Her help was very appreciated and very nice. Sorry to hear all the bad reviews on this store. I hope they read this and make some positive changes. But my experience was very positive.

The service of this store is the worst I’ve ever seen in any Ann Taylor stores and I am a regular Ann Taylor customer. There’s no one upstairs in the petite department, so if you need to ask any questions, you have to go downstairs. It’s not as if there are many patrons in the store. 3 sales reps were standing at the cash register chatting among themselves. The sales girl helping me was nice but the ones in charge were not helpful at all.

Yup, terrible service. Lucky for Ann Taylor that they have hot pink blouses and slacks in their current collection. Colorblocking is pretty much the way I oomph up a business outfit, so I «had» to have this particular electric pink set the moment I set eyes on it.
1) Bad initial service. No greeting at the door. No offer to help search for a particular item. No offer to hold items in the dressing room. No offer to check available stock on particular items or to search them out. I ended up tracking down an employee who handed me off to someone else who later handed me off to someone else.
2) Stock is low. 00, 0, 2 in the pants, in any color, unavailable. So I couldn’t even try them on. Last 0 for the blouse was on the mannequin only and had a dark oil stain on the sleeve. No discount for the damage offered.
3) Stores not linked. Staff apparently had no system for checking availability of certain items at other Ann Taylor locations. Suggested I call in myself. However, they could «purchase» the items I wanted from another store and have it shipped to me… strange.
4) Shipping is charged. It is $ 7.99 and could /​would not be waived. There is no option for the store to order more of a particular item and have me come to pick it up. I decided to eat the extra $ 7.99 charge because I really did want the pants and blouse. You are not refunded shipping even if you return the items.
Upon review of my receipt, I noticed that my name was incorrect. Worried that this would impact shipping, I brought up my concern. Whereby I was told that I wouldn’t need to sign for the package, so the only thing that needed to be correct was my address. Well, okay then. So there is no signature confirmation included with the shipment. There is also no tracking. I’ve had complimentary shipping from other retailers than included both of these features. I’m unsure how an order like this would be protected should it get lost in the mail… Good thing I paid with credit card.
Two days later, I’m visiting a friend at Stanford Shopping Center, and notice that Ann Taylor is hosting an extra 20% off promotion for all items. Well then.

Ann Taylor at Stanford shopping center carries better fancy clothing than any other locations. There was a huge sale going on Cashmere sweater a few days ago and They were only $ 23+tax !!!I saw a woman who bought 15 cashmere sweaters.
This means that you dont want to pay full for Ann Taylor product
Wait for sale season which comes every other month and then purchase.

Two words: Horrible service.
I hauled an arm load of stuff to the dressing room without being asked by a single associate if they could help me (The one I tried to ask for help snipped that she was already helping another customer). Once I finally got a room, I realized I needed a few different sizes. I asked the woman THREE times for an item and she still didn’t help me (but had plenty of time to help every other woman in the dressing rooms). I got the distinct feeling that my business wasn’t good enough for them.
I get that I’m not the «traditional» Ann Taylor client (with my tattoos aplenty and funky hair), but there’s nothing about me that says I bite. Usually if I find something I love at a store I buy it, poor service or not. But the service was so bad here I left two very cute dresses and a handful of tops behind to go to Nordstrom’s — where the service is always good at the worst.

They’ve redone this store into a «concept store», whatever that means. The store itself is beautifully decorated: it’s all done in white, it has high ceilings and the dressing rooms are lovely. The sale selection is pitiful, however. Ann Taylor has gotten pretty expensive lately (jackets normally $ 300-​$ 400, pants $ 100-​$ 200, dresses $ 150-​ish etc) and I’ve found the quality to be very poor, especially for the price. Fortunately pretty much everything goes on sale for 30−50% off regularly, so I wait for sales to make purchases. Ann Taylor has massive sales going on online right now, but the selection in this store was very bad — mostly ugly stuff & stuff that clearly wouldn’t fit well. The sales section is super disorganized too, with stuff not really sorted by size at all. It also irritates me that they don’t sell tall sizes in stores, especially since their dresses tend to run really short, and are ostensibly for work, so I would imagine quite a few women need tall sizes in the dresses to make them appropriate.

The «40% off entire purchase» sign lured me in. I left with a cute, cheap belt. Maybe I’ll find myself a regular in ten years, but for now, only another «40% off» sign will bring me back in.

This is for the Ann Taylor now on University, which I believe has taken over from the old store at Stanford
I heard that they were starting a new personal shopper type program and I was really excited because I thought it would make shopping for a suit that much easier (I hate shopping, especially for suits because I don’t understand heads or tails about them and REALLY am the perfect mark for a personal shopper) and made an appointment today at 7pm for some help.
Did I get help? Not really. They were really disorganized. One of them disappeared after the first 5 minutes to help another customer (who hadn’t made an appointment) and the other one got me a handful of camisoles that were 2 sizes too big and didn’t really do much else.
I’d like to be clear: If this was just a store that I walked into without any expectation of getting help I would have been thrilled with the fact that some of the clerks grabbed me some stuff. But because I had scheduled an appointment and was counting on getting some serious suit help. I was really disappointed and bummed.
I understand this is something new that they’re trying but the whole thing needs some work

Ann Taylor has really gone downhill in recent years.
I noticed a lot of other reviewers are saying the same thing.
I used to get a lot of nice clothes there — it was my favorite store — lots of nice petite clothes, pretty good quality.
Now, quality has gone way down. I read somewhere that you should not buy clothes that look rumpled and used on the rack — you’ll never get them to look better yourself. That is how most clothes at Ann Taylor look now. This is for two reasons: 1. they started using cheaper/​shoddier fabric. 2. the quality of stitching went down.
I used to rely on Ann Taylor for nice staples — cotton dress shirts, nice suits. Now, their clothes remind me of Express. Too much trying too hard to be trendy and not enough classics.
I think Ann Taylor is probably struggling and might even go out of business. I know I’ve stopped shopping there in favor of stores that still use cottons and silks instead of rayon, nylon, polyester, modal everything. They should really get back to offering high quality classics for women in a wide variety of sizes. Their vanity sizing is out of control — my size 8s from there from about 10 years ago are about the same size as their current 2s and 0s. I recently bought a 00p dress that is too large.
Even with modern vanity sizing I’m usually a 2. 00p too big? Who are they kidding? They’re just shorting the people who really need sizes that small. Really, how many size 2 and 4 ladies really want to wear 00?
Ann Taylor as we used to know it is gone. The returns policy has changed from a generous year (?) to 60 days. The stores no longer have a clean classy feeling. This is the same way I felt about Borders’ decline in recent years and I predict if Ann Taylor doesn’t change course soon they’re heading the same way.

The Ann Taylor has moved from Stanford Mall to 180 University Ave, it is in a temp location until the new store is built. Grand opening of the new store is now slated for the first week in October.

Love the store, and the prices.

I think the clothes at Ann Taylor are decent at best; even the 00P sometimes they are too big.
As far as this store, I think the people working here do not know anything about customer service. I could be in the store for 5 minutes or 20 minutes, no one ever, ever ask me if they can help me find something.
The one in Hillsdale is much better. Unfortunately, I live really close to Stanford.

I think the clothes here are fine. In fact my mom and mother-​in-​law are fans. But my beef is not with Ann Taylor itself, but rather the employees at this store. I’m not sure if it’s Palo Alto thing, but it’s really no excuse to be snooty. I expect it at Neiman’s but Ann Taylor?! Come on. I came here to return an article of clothing once and the lady gave me this snooty attitude, like she couldn’t believe I was returning it. Sorry lady, I changed my mind! On a separate occasion I came here with my younger brother who was sweet enough to buy my mom a present. But he forgot to ask for a gift receipt. After the lady rang it up, he asked for a gift receipt and the lady just snapped and said, «I already asked you if you needed one». My brother apologized for not hearing her. But hello — I couldn’t even hear the lady asked my brother if needed one.
It’s hard to rate this store on just clothes, since what really should differentiate one chain store from the next is the service and I’m sorry but the service here at this particular Ann Taylor is HORRIBLE. They treat their customers like they’re lesser human beings and that is unacceptable. I don’t care if you’re in Palo Alto or in East San Jose, you simply can not treat your customers like they are lesser than you!

This store used to be great, but the last few years I have been so disappointed with the service here that I have to give this store only one star.
Back in 2004: My first trip to the Palo Alto store was in law school. I had just been invited to sit through my first deposition and (back then) I thought this was a red letter day. I needed a new, sharp, professional outfit. I went to some other stores, and couldn’t find a thing. It was almost closing time, and the depo was at 9:00 a.m. At ten minutes until closing, I arrived at the PA Ann Taylor store in tears. A nice woman found me a perfect suit with a perfect shirt, and I looked like a million bucks.
Move forward to 2006, 2007, and 2008:
In each subsequent year I visited the store once, most recently this weekend. Each trip was pretty much the same, so I’ll just describe this trip in detail, and I think you’ll get the idea.
I arrive at the store wearing my typical Saturday-​wear: jeans, tshirt (purchased at another ann Taylor store) and tailored jacket. I’m casual but no scrub.
I walk into the store with a mission. There’s a particular dress I saw at another store. Foolishly, I didn’t buy it, and now I want it. I want it for dinner that night.
I walk into the store and for 10 minutes I walk around looking for the dress. During this ENTIRE time no one even greets me, but instead employees rush by.
Finally, I flag down a sale person and ask about a dress hanging on display. Where is the dress? She explains that there is one in the store, «over there.» I ask her to take me there, and with a sigh she leads me across the room.
As soon as we get to the dress, the woman is gone. I find another associate, and explain the one dress they have is the wrong size. She’s nice (and THE ONE GOOD THING at the store). When I ask if she can see if there’s another store near by with the dress in my size, she runs over to the register and starts looking.
She finds me another dress at a store about 40 miles away. I ask her to have it sent to me. (I’ve done this a dozen times with other items.) She spends the next 12 minutes filling out some form. I realize she’s new, and I’m patient. Hey, she’s trying!
Then she walks me to the other register. Then, this annoying guy spends another 12 minutes ordering my dress. At the end, I ask him for a receipt. The same receipt I’ve gotten the last dozen time I’ve asked Ann Taylor to send me something.
I get another sigh. And he tells me that I need to wait while he gets a receipt.
Another person, who in the meanwhile has been making lots of statements over a walky-​talky, asks me if I would step aside, so she can help other customers. This in itself would be fine… except that her tone changed so much in the .5 seconds between talking to a couple buying $ 1K+ items and me (buying a $ 150 dress) was so different that it was offensive.
Another 3 – 5 minutes later, I got my receipt.
I’m never going back there.
The sales people are either unhelpful or snooty.
And, this has nothing to do with my feelings about Ann Taylor generally. I love the store. This is the ONLY store that I can by suits (now that I’m actually a lawyer) off the rack without alteration in my size. I love this place and the style and generally think this brand is great!
Update March 19, 2008: My dress arrived today. It’s the wrong size, dirty, and they did not include the $ 50-​off coupons that I should have gotten with my purchase. I called to complain, waiting on hold for over 10 minutes, and then was disconnected.