Lululemon is making customers 'bend over to verify sheerness' of recalled yoga pants before issuing a refund



Lululemon is forcing customers to 'bend over' before they are given a refund for the company's black Luon yoga pants , which were recalled last week due to an unacceptable 'level of sheerness .'

According to Jezebel , Lululemon store associates are asking customers to put the pants on and bend over, so they could check the pants are in fact sheer, and therefore faulty.



Christina Phillips, a customer from Toronto, wrote on Lululemon's Facebook page: 'The sales associate perused my butt in the dim lighting of the change room and deemed them "not sheer". I felt degraded that this is how the recall is being handled.



Too revealing: Lululemon Athletica recalled its Luon yoga pants because the sheer material exposes too much, and are now ordering customers to 'bend over' to ensure they are 'really' sheer before a refund is given



'I called the GEC to confirm this is their protocol, and they verified that yes, the "educators" will verify sheerness by asking the customer to bend over,' she added.



GEC stands for Guest Education Center, and is the name of Lululemon's customer service call center.



While the company have released a statement saying the 'bend over' test is not a standard company procedure, Lululemon's CEO, Christine Day, told Bloomberg.com: 'The truth of the matter is the only way you can actually test for the issue is to put the pants on and bend over.'

And similar accounts from customers have popped up on Twitter, Facebook and blogs such as Lulu Addict , after the company began offering full refunds or exchanges to customers who bought the pants from March 1.



Other posts highlight problems with Lululemon's fabric dyeing, leading to color bleeding and transfer.

Too sheer: Lululemon has released a statement saying the 'bend over' test is not a standard company procedure - 'no downward-facing dog is necessary' the company said

Loss for Lululemon: Similar accounts from customers have popped up on Twitter, Facebook and blogs such as Lululemon Addict, after the company began offering full refunds to customers from March 1

And in 2007, the New York Times tested fabric that Lululemon was marketing as made from one quarter seaweed and found it contained no seaweed at all, and was chemically indistinguishable from cotton.

The company said that it is not sure why the pants are so sheer, since they haven't changed the materials used, or changed manufacturers .



The Taiwanese supplier behind the pants told Reuters last week that it had followed design specifications and the Canadian retailer had merely misjudged customer tastes.

Eclat Textile Co Ltd, a supplier for Lululemon for more than ten years, said that 'a gap between Lululemon's expectations and reaction from the market' was the cause of the problem.

Downward turn: Lululemon said that it believes the pants affected by the recall make up about 17per cent of all women's pants in its stores -which could cost the company $20million in lost sales

'We checked our orders this morning and indeed, we did follow their instructions to make the product,' said Roger Lo, a spokesperson at Eclat.



'Lulu has some new ideas every year, such as taking different approaches for fashion-related purposes.

'Lululemon introduced the product to the market and their customers are not comfortable with its opacity.'

