Actually the lady did say it was her first time visiting and that she was leaving the UK in a week, hence why I thought she was a tourist. I was also surprised that they just happened to have a few Kellys in the stock room unspoken for!
Hermes boutiques in London
- Thread starter Roxane
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Ah. Then this sounds like the start of a VERY fruitful relationship for the flagship. 
Are you looking for something rather high in demand? Or very specific? Re your SA's question. Could it be possible she was trying to tell you that perhaps she could place an online order for you via the store for future purchases? Just a guess.
Not the OP but this option only works for “ordinary” items rather than bags right? The bags are gone in seconds each time!
Bags are definitely more difficult than when I used to order online pre-Covid. True. Plus back then, it wasn't possible to do store orders for anything at all.
My wishlist is a medium/dark grey B30 with PHW. I’ve been asked to narrow it down to this so it’s specific because I’ve been asked to be but I don’t think it’s particularly rare. I see new Gris Meyer and Etain Birkins on resellers websites in UK all the time.
I’ve asked if my SA could order things for me from the website when I’ve been in and she’s only said yes once for a piece of fine jewellery that she said they haven’t had in stock for a while. Everything else she suggests I just order off the website myself and deliver to store or home. This is why I was a little surprised about her comment. She can also see what I’ve ordered online on my profile as I’ve seen online orders and even returns on my profile that she’s scrolled through previously.
I get that patience is necessary when shopping with H and I’m in this for the long run because I love the brand but I’m just not understanding where I stand. Right now it just feels like I’m not being a good enough client for the flagship.
Maybe they weren’t unspoken for but they wanted to attract this client but I can’t imagine the SA would be able to do this without the store director’s approval…?
Ok this is a little strange to me as well. I hope your bag arrives soon and I don't think you are not a good client. Mixed signals for sure.
I Went to a few boutiques yesterday. CP at opening had quite a few people asking straight up for bags and were all told no bags whatsoever to offer as they hadn’t received a delivery. Someone then asked to look at shoes and was told to “join a separate queue upstairs for shoes”. The store had quite a few rare pieces on display.
NBS wasn’t as busy as I’d expected. There was a lady sitting with an SA discussing how she really wanted a croc K25 before she left the UK in a week. The SA said “ok, croc could be a bit of a challenge but it’s just a matter of stock, I will get you a few options to consider”. Then he drew the curtain to make the area more private for her, left and came back with a couple of boxes. The lady was wearing a giant gold Niloticus bracelet (5 figures?) along with other H things, was a tourist, and from the sound of it she had no problem bypassing the wishlist system or the wait! Interesting to see
I tried a full gold Niloticus and diamond necklace fairly recently and it was 'only' £19K, so I doubt 5 figures.
There's no way of knowing the woman was a tourist. Not by appearance, accent or any other way. Many H clients that have relationships with London SA have multiple homes across the World and may have Non-dom/Pre-settled, Settled status in the UK or be a (Naturalised) Citizen. We are allowed to travel aboard too.
A new croc bag cannot be taken abroad (out of the UK) so a client from abroad could not get a CITES (dated) and then walk through customs pretending it was a previous purchase.
It could also be, she already had given-in a wishlist with a croc K25 and was 'reminding' her SA.
Oh exotic bags can only be used within the UK? Didn’t know that!
Really - you can’t take a croc bag out of the UK? When buying the croc strap for my watch I was told that I could take it out of the UK as long as I had the CITES with me without any problems.
I was responding to a post suggesting that a tourist was coming in to the UK and taking a croc home.
If you live in the UK (or using UK passport) you can travel with CITES/exotic and bring it home again. Many people have 2 (or more) passports and really abuse the system but anyway, different subject.
Apologies for any misunderstandings or alarm.
Believe there must be some misunderstanding over this. I’m not a UK citizen (I do however have residences in >1 country). I have a touch item that was purchased in London fairly recently and I was given a CITES for it so that I can travel globally with it. I’ve also purchased other full croc/gator pieces from the Americas and Asia and was given CITES for them.
Note: am not abusing the system with multiple passports. I only have one passport.
WRT that lucky lady, there may be more that meets the eye. In my wildest dream, she’s a rich socialite travelling to London to visit a boarding school for her kids. She rents a house and went to Hermes to buy the most expensive sofa costing £112K for her new home. So she’s offered nice bags. LOL.. it’s just a hypothetical scenario but you get the drift.. it could be anything. As they say, in the world of Hermes, anything is possible.