Hermes Phone Orders
- Thread starter palmbeachpink
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
If this really is about resellers, all H has done is INCREASE sales for them. So many of us cannot stop by a boutique to buy what we need to be shipped or held, but resellers can. We will end up having to rely more on them, than H. What a stupid decision from Hermes. They have stilted one of their most loyal customer bases!
Yesterday, my SA said that she could still take phone orders and ship non-leather goods, such as scarves, etc. and she is holding a leather item for me to pick up next week. She mentioned that the new policy with leather goods is that the buyer has to be there in person and have there credit card swiped. My guess is that H is trying to protect themselves against the major resellers in the market. I feel for TPFers that aren't near a well-stocked store, as this really hits them hard.
Stores are not supposed to even hold merchandise in the back that has already been paid for. Once you buy it, you have to take it with you. There are probably some variations on this rule depending on the store but yes, this is another change. For those who have SAs willing to make one last shipment for what has already been paid for, consider yourselves lucky. Some stores are notifying customers that if you don't come in and pick up your purchased items in store within a certain number of days, they will issue you a refund (not store credit) and the items will be made available for sale.
Sounds like an excuse. They are selling a $9200 purse on H.com right now. Do they expect the buyer to come pick it up? What about the $39000 Kelly bracelet? They need to get their story straight.My SA told me that if I like an item, I can pay for it via bank transfer, but they will not be able to ship it (apparently one of their shipments got stolen so they decided to stop shipping anywhere anymore).
So that means that you can buy it, and they will keep it for you until you pick it up.
I guess whatever I buy from her would have to stay in the store for about a 6 months before I go back and collect it....
I agree. My SA in SF takes down the items that I want and is still able to call me to pick it up. She told me that she is grateful for established client business. Some newer SA that solely depended on tourists for sales is in trouble. The most coveted bags will only be sold to the existing local clients. No phone orders. I know that is the case with the SA I worked with in Las Vegas.
charmesh said:
From what I understand, the online portion of a store/company operates as a different entity from the retail stores, because it technically does not have a physical store. Thus with H.com, there is the return policy that differs from the stores, and I'm certain the continued ability to ship items.
Actually, some of these new policies are ones that I remember being told by stores four or five years ago when I started shopping at Hermes. I was told that they absolutely would not ship bags, nor could they even tell me what bags they had over the phone (obviously that changed once I had a regular SA). Also. I remember reading on tpf way back when, that if you ordered a bag, Hermes gave you a set number of hours (48?) to get to the store to pick it up. Who knows what the motive is behind what is happening now, but it could be as simple as corporate cracking the whip on stores that got too lax with the rules. Probably someone got in trouble, got sued, lost money, and now they realize how many stores were doing the same thing.
I think you are on to something here. Because some of the rumblings I am reading here sounds familiar to me from years past.
Good luck and I hope to see good news from you. Should not be hard to find a BE Lindy in the US or at least know which store has an order that they will be receiving soon. I hope they don't just give you an explanation and offer you a full refund.
Thank you for a great post
A lot of these policies had been there since the beginning.
my H store don't ship bags, full stop, even if I already paid for it. They won't do "charge and send" either. They would not discuss Birkin or Kelly inventory with anybody on the phone. They will make "the call" to inform you your ordered merchandise is ready for picking up. But you will need to go in person to pay and pick it up. Strictly 1 B/K per customer per season (unless if you are VVVIP of course). They don't normally transfer bags either. So nothing here is news to me. I am based in Europe and I would say the only exception is FSH. I do appreciate some store in the U.S. do long distance transaction though because after all it's a geographically huge country. Not everybody can get to a boutique easily.