A bit of gossip: which luxury houses have the best treatment and which ones the worst ?

[Sa26]

Hey luxury buyers, I have a question for all you : which luxury houses have the best treatment and which ones the worst for regular people ( for the costumers who aren’t rich and save their hard earned money to get luxury).

I know Chanel, Hermes and Luis Vuitton hate the common costumer and won’t treat you well if you don’t go with your perfect hair and make up but I’ve heard Saint Laurent is much more inviting to the average middle class costumer And won’t mind you going in a regular t shirt and jeans.


but I want the gossip with which brands we all should start and get our first luxury bag and aren’t judgmental with the dressing code in luxury shopping.

 

[brnicutie]

I get the best treatment at LV. All my SAs at these boutiques are nice though. If they weren't, I wouldn't use. them. I usually go in jeans and a T-shirt, or a simple dress. I wear my hair in a bun and mascara. That's it. I live in Hawaii and everyone dresses like that. I've seen people shop in swimwear and coverings. Luckily, we don't get discriminated on how we look because we all look basic.

 

[Sa26]

I get the best treatment at LV. All my SAs at these boutiques are nice though. If they weren't, I wouldn't use. them. I usually go in jeans and a T-shirt, or a simple dress. I wear my hair in a bun and mascara. That's it. I live in Hawaii and everyone dresses like that. I've seen people shop in swimwear and coverings. Luckily, we don't get discriminated on how we look because we all look basic.

thats great to know your LV boutique doesn’t judge On people’s clothing, I’ve heard many stories on people being treated badly because of how they dress.
Im really glad you have been so lucky.

 

[saligator]

It depends on who is working that day!

 

[Swanky]

I disagree about Chanel.
I get the best service at Chanel, Goyard, Cartier and Hublot.

Would have to think of the worst… I haven’t had any terrible experiences really I guess.

 

[A bottle of Red]

Amazing experience (pre-covid) Ralph lauren madison ave, even though i was dressed in old clothes, hair in bun etc. The one in palm beach was also great.
I was slightly more dressed & still treated very well by vca & bvlgari both in short hills as well.
Dior varied by location; fendi was polite but distant etc.
Chanel in store (after waiting outside) was nice but never responded to me even though i was given a card to follow up about making another purchase.

 

[diva4521]

I have gotten good treatment everywhere.
I sometimes shop during the day on my lunch so I’m usually dressed well

even on an off day and I’m not wearing all designer clothes I’ve always had my watch and jewelry on so maybe that the reason.

 

[lill_canele]

Hmm that’s a bit hard to say.
I pretty much only shop locally and so I have developed a good relationship with my sales associates and the managers.
My first impressions with YSL, Burberry and Dior had the best experiences and I have stuck with them for years.
I do also enjoy Chloe and Fendi.
My Hermes experience is also always lovely and professional.

But I pretty much work exclusively with my SA’s who already know me. And I feel that can make a big difference with how I am treated.

Chanel experiences are mostly indifferent/neutral (except once in Neiman Marcus) and LV experiences have been lackluster. But I do not have a regular SA at either of those places. I very rarely shop at Chanel and pretty much stopped going to LV 4 years ago.

While treatment and service should be equal or at least respectful across the board, I feel that have a consistent and solid purchase history is an important factor to consider.

Today I went to my YSL store and requested a pair of shoes to be transferred. I was wearing my YSL shorts that I bought last year. (They broke earlier this year, in May, the zipper detached at the end of the fly. They repaired it free of charge.) I left the store to use the restroom and the zipper broke again (no hard tugging or pulling) and could not be zipped up. I went back to YSL and let my SA know and she was very apologetic. She spoke to the manager and I literally got a pair of new shorts on the spot and walked out wearing them.
Keep in mind, I didn’t wear them often, they broke in the past and broke again, yet I got these shorts last year! So I felt it was very kind of them to exchange for a brand new one pretty much immediately. I have been a long time client and I cannot help but think that my purchase history did play a part in that somehow.

Having said that, I rarely buy from Dior and yet my SA is always very kind and accommodating. Treats me well and it does not matter to him if I decide to buy that day or not.

So again, it’s hard to say. I believe, at the end of the day, it’s more about the people you know than the brand or the store.

 

[loves]

I think it highly depends on the person assisting you, I had a really lousy Dior SA experience after my regular one left and that girl put me off the brand for life despite the store manager stepping in and trying to mitigate the situation. I am more SA loyal than brand loyal tbh.
So far I have great service from Prada, BV, H, Chanel after I changed SAs ( thank you mspiggy). Also Farfetch I cannot recommend it enough, their private client service is fabulous (shoutout to Jon). These people make shopping a joy and shopping should be joyful and not frustrating.

 

[Liberté]

I haven't had any truly bad experiences in any of the big brands, just slow service sometimes. I've had much worse service in smaller or independent stores on average, but it doesn't happen a lot at all I find people are usually helpful and nice.

I don't doubt that people have genuinely bad experiences, but I also think a certain subset of the bad experiences, judging from some of the stories on here, can be attributed to very high expectations and/or some insecurities or nervousness on the clients' side. If you already feel uncomfortable visiting the store or expect the SAs to be arrogant, it's more likely that you'll find what you're looking for than if you are not expecting it. Again I don't think all bad experiences fall into this category.

I think even my "worst experience" wasn't due any bad service it was just a misunderstanding. Some items were supposed to be altered and when I came back, they clearly hadn't been touched, yet the SA insisted it was done. Thankfully it was pretty clear when I tried it on that the sleeves were not right, and they fixed it within a few hours.

 

[880]

know Chanel, Hermes and Luis Vuitton hate the common costumer and won’t treat you well if you don’t go with your perfect hair and make up

I get the best treatment at LV

I disagree about Chanel

It’s probably different for all of us. agree with @lill_canele that it’s the people you know.

i get the best treatment at my local chanel, dior, brunello. I love my H SA, but Madison is general isn’t warm and fuzzy. Abroad, I think dior trains their SAs to greet and interact similarly, so very friendly. Chanel in London, Hermes in Italy were neutral.

At home or abroad, Bulgari and VCA are very nice, I assume, bc it is harder to sell luxury jewelry, IDK

i get the worst treatment at LV (I will now only go into the kiosk at Saks); Tiffany (I get ignored); and Cartier (though it was very different when I went with a friend who is a regular)

@Liberté , service, especially tailoring, is slow everywhere, lol.

ETA: a friend once asked DH and me to go to LV corporate to view furniture by appt. Totally different scenario. LV contacted us to ask if we wanted a ride (It’s a ten minute walk so no) and then sent us, unsolicited, the day after, a large custom three tiered box of huge LV petite fours. (I gave them away). This treatment was to coax prospective clients to be more inclined to buy a six figure designer collaboration table from their nomades collection. I was surprised that their furniture, in some cases, was more expensive than Hermes. But I don’t think the wide disparity of client experience reflects well on the brand.

i did once years ago, during the Stephen sprouse black and white graffiti collection have a very nice LV SA. He also sold me an LV raincoat, that LV refused to service in their aftercare. So that was the beginning and end of my RTW adventure there.

 

[brnicutie]

It’s probably different for all of us

i get the best treatment at my local chanel, dior, brunello. I love my H SA, but Madison is general isn’t warm and fuzzy. Abroad, I think dior trains their SAs to greet and interact similarly, so very friendly. Chanel in London, Hermes in Italy were neutral.

At home or abroad, Bulgari and VCA are very nice, I assume, bc it is harder to sell luxury jewelry, IDK

i get the worst treatment at LV (I will now only go into the kiosk at Saks); Tiffany (I get ignored); and Cartier (though it was very different when I went with a friend which is a regular)

@Liberté , service, especially tailoring, is slow everywhere, lol.

I'm sad to hear that you get the worst service at LV. I'm closest with my LV CA, so that's where I prefer to go. When I shop luxury it's mostly at my home stores. I live in Hawaii where most of the brands give a 10% discount and our tax rate is one of the lowest in the country. It doesn't make sense for me to buy it anywhere else, unless it's a country exclusive.

 

[880]

I'm sad to hear that you get the worst service at LV. I'm closest with my LV CA, so that's where I prefer to go. When I shop luxury it's mostly at my home stores. I live in Hawaii where most of the brands give a 10% discount and our tax rate is one of the lowest in the country. It doesn't make sense for me to buy it anywhere else, unless it's a country exclusive.

I am so happy for you that you get great service at LV CA! The 10% discount in Hawaii also sounds absolutely lovely!

 

[papertiger]

I have good and bad service everywhere. London has a) fast store-staff turnaround

Some SAs don't mind coasting, they're mind is obviously on the super-duper life they're dreaming of living one day I almost feel bad they have to work for a living. Picking-up something at Cartier (I'd already paid for) was horrendous last time I went in (not my reg SA). I think I may change my reg Cartier store completely because of the experience. Tiffany was also off-putting. Jessica McCormack has some really lovely staff but I find their jewellery expensive (even if it is a little more exclusive) than the big jewellery brands.

Back in the here and now and land of accessories and RTW, Chloe was prob one of the worst, I have never been ignored so blatantly, but obviously it's fine if they don't want my money. I wouldn't want to beg for them to take my card.

The very worst service recently was in a gentleman grooming store called D.R. Harris for some gifts, the ridiculousness of and would be too long to list, but it's such a shame because the business is one of the oldest companies in London (if not Britain) and I don't like that ill-manners of 2 staff reflect on a whole company. It was so bad, Unsolicited, I wrote to them on Insta (not that I got a reply). I can only imagine their staff training is "1. Ignore your customer even though no one else is in the shop, 2. Know nothing about stock (or pretend you know nothing) 3. Tell customers incorrect prices even after looking them up 4. Overcharge customers for correct items 5. Charge customers for something they never asked for 6. Pretend you don't know how to process a refund 7. Pick up the phone whilst in the middle of serving 8. To get rid of foreigners, pretend you can't understand what they're saying even with electronic translation 9. To get rid of women, start serving any man in the shop even though the woman was first"

Obviously, the best treatment I get is at Gucci or Hermes (and Asprey) and Saint Laurent. But YSL/SLP and Gucci (both Kering) reg customers get the opportunity to review their SAs service after almost every visit (even if a transaction hasn't been made). Probably an incentive to be nice, some of the questions are a little OTT and/or unnecessary IMO.

 

[A bottle of Red]

Of course once you know them, it makes sense to hopefully get good service. The tricky part is getting good service before you're an established client, or in a diff location.