My opinion of Hermes is changing...

[loh]

I like the london stores and especially Bond Street. Honestly I think the people that work there, from the store manager to the security guards are great and they have to put up with a lot of s**t . Sometimes when I go there it’s crazy busy and sooo many people asking for bags or just being a general PITA. It’s so difficult.

Point taken. I respect you wanting to defend your local boutique. I would probably do the same. I think as a regular, you probably have a different experience than others may.

I can totally appreciate that it's difficult to work in a boutique, or any store for that matter, that has a lot of foot traffic. And I'm sure they've seen, and been subjected to, some outrageous things. If I were in their shoes, I'm pretty sure my tolerance would not be quite as high, and I wouldn't be able to respond with graciousness as I've seen some of them exhibit.

 

[maxroxxherhandbags]

I like the london stores and especially Bond Street. Honestly I think the people that work there, from the store manager to the security guards are great and they have to put up with a lot of s**t . Sometimes when I go there it’s crazy busy and sooo many people asking for bags or just being a general PITA. It’s so difficult.

I do realise the challenges the staff face and agree some customers can be demanding and rude.
HOWEVER-I work in luxury retail sales and the important thing to remember when working within this sector of sales is -No matter how demanding and rude the client may be your level of service must always be exceptional you must make them feel valued even if they are being a pain.
People with money can shop anywhere in the world but the service they tend to remember is either the exceptional or the terrible.
It can be the client that initally comes in just asking a lot of questions that then ultimately goes on to be your biggest spender.
I feel too often luxury brands (not just Hermes I stress) rely on the brand name and forget about the level of service and customer care to bring the money in.
That attitude goes against the grain with me.

 

[Notorious Pink]

Once upon a time, I ordered the Parures de Samourai CSGM online back in March 2018 as the cw I wanted wasn't in any stores. It arrived fresh from the warehouse with a pinhole on it

Well, I ordered another and returned the one with pin hole, only to receive this...

A red dot sticker right next to a stain, indicating that it's been flagged. Yet somehow, someone overlooked this and packed this into plastic packaging and sent it to warehouse as inventory.

Fast forward to present day, another order from H.com came with a red dot sticker with an X indicating its defect, a pull almost the entire length of the 90cm silk (the pull extends further upon closer inspection after taking this pic). The joys...
View attachment 4669478
In case you're wondering, yes this wasn't available in stores at the time of order, hence my order. Starting to think that I should limit my purchases to stores only, but then again, I already did that with my witch hunt for mousselines 3 years ago. (I went to every store in search of a flawless Iris mousseline).

I've since purchased far much less new season silks. But looks like I still managed to hit the jackpot with their non-existent quality control in my limited purchases.

Ooh, @Meta this is so unacceptable! I’ve never actually ordered online and this sort of thing is definitely not encouraging! I’m so sorry you have to deal with this ridiculousness.

 

[Notorious Pink]

Most of my experience has been within the US so my comments are about US boutiques. I shop at two boutiques. At one I am essentially “grandfathered in” and can work with any SA (although there is one I now prefer as we text a lot) and at the other I have a regular SA and the other SAs know that I work with him. That boutique is a flagship and to work with him I have to make an appointment. At the first boutique i tend to wander in at any and all times. Depending on how busy it is, I might have to wait quite a while, even being a longtime customer who gets bags there regularly. It really just depends on how busy it is. Lol, usually I entertain myself by playing with the scarves on display - I’m not shy to take them down and try them on!

I would say that most of the US boutiques - and I’ve been to many of them here - I have not had anyone snooty or anything like that (although my husband did in Beverly Hills when he stopped by mid-run to pick up a scarf for me), and sometimes incredible service, but sometimes you do have to practically tackle an SA to get help. It just depends, and I don’t think that is necessarily a good or bad thing because I don’t like to get hounded while I am looking around. I will also say that some stores are really focused on their local/usual clientele, which makes a difference.... There was a period of time when my children had a lesson near the boutique every Saturday, so every Saturday I would go to the boutique at about the same time, and most of those weeks I would run into the same people there, every week!

 

[akakai]

I have stopped at multiple stores in the US and only really shopped at my home store. When looking for bags, I did make an attempt both in NY and SF while on trips, both times I didn't get an offer but was treated warmly. At my home store, I work with a SA and she's amazing. So far I've not encountered anything but exceptional service. Before getting into Hermès I've heard about some people's negative experiences at the store. But personally I've experienced worse treatment at Chanel. So I think it all really depends.

 

[maxroxxherhandbags]

Most of my experience has been within the US so my comments are about US boutiques. I shop at two boutiques. At one I am essentially “grandfathered in” and can work with any SA (although there is one I now prefer as we text a lot) and at the other I have a regular SA and the other SAs know that I work with him. That boutique is a flagship and to work with him I have to make an appointment. At the first boutique i tend to wander in at any and all times. Depending on how busy it is, I might have to wait quite a while, even being a longtime customer who gets bags there regularly. It really just depends on how busy it is. Lol, usually I entertain myself by playing with the scarves on display - I’m not shy to take them down and try them on!

I would say that most of the US boutiques - and I’ve been to many of them here - I have not had anyone snooty or anything like that (although my husband did in Beverly Hills when he stopped by mid-run to pick up a scarf for me), and sometimes incredible service, but sometimes you do have to practically tackle an SA to get help. It just depends, and I don’t think that is necessarily a good or bad thing because I don’t like to get hounded while I am looking around. I will also say that some stores are really focused on their local/usual clientele, which makes a difference.... There was a period of time when my children had a lesson near the boutique every Saturday, so every Saturday I would go to the boutique at about the same time, and most of those weeks I would run into the same people there, every week!

Although I cannot speak for Hermes stores in the US having never shopped H there I have found that stores in the US are generally much more service (as in good service) focussed than in Europe.
In my former job I used to have to visit the US a lot and I always found service in Miami,NYC, LA,Boston,and SF boutiques be they luxury or mid market to be much friendlier and more willing to help than my experience in European cities maybe this is because we share a common language so its easier for me to engage with them? My jury is out on this.

 

[ladysarah]

The worst experience I ever had was in Thailand. Not sure why but the shop assistant there was extremely Standoffish. I visited with my husband and were dressed in holiday clothes so perhaps that did not help.

 

[Meta]

Ooh, @Meta this is so unacceptable! I’ve never actually ordered online and this sort of thing is definitely not encouraging! I’m so sorry you have to deal with this ridiculousness.

Thank you for your kind words I’m happy to update that my second order was flawless, as any order should’ve been. That however, still doesn’t change my opinion that H quality control is really lacking or rather non-existent in many cases these days.

 

[Flowerlily]

My experience with Hermes quality/service:
https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/hermes-2002-bag-love-or-hate.975495/page-14#post-33605678

 

[shrpthorn]

My opinion of H has really been lowered based on recent experience with C'est La Fete double sided scarfs. As many have posted on the SS 2020 scarf thread (myself included) there seems to be a lot of quality issues with this scarf in the cws with turquoise and ciel/orange (don't know about prune since I didn't see one & my country didn't order the olive/ochre). My country's boutique (1 franchise owner for all) doesn't offer refunds at all anymore - only store credit (you used to be able to be able to get a full refund if a scarf was returned unused and with the price tag & label attached within 1 week of original purchase) - so this peeves me off - especially since the scarf was visibly flawed, was $777 cad incl tax, and I noticed the pulls within 2 days of getting it home when I did a final check before planning to take the price tag off & wear it. Returned for store credit. To add to my annoyance, my SA then emails me a week later and says that she won't be able to get me another CLF because Canada has returned them all back to France because of quality control issues! But I'm still left with only a store credit - not a refund - when responsibility for the problem clearly lies with Hermes. Then I see on the thread about personalizing a scarf that the OP had had a scarf printed with her initials but there was a visible pull at the hem - but she couldn't return the scarf because it had been personalized. Really? To me that takes the cake. Just my opinion, but perhaps I am at the tipping point where the beauty of H-scarfs is offset by the current quality control hassle of needing to check them so very carefully before I spend my hard earned bucks to buy. H sells expensive (at least to me) luxury goods - I don't expect them to be flawed when I buy a scarf fresh out of the cellophane wrapped box, as was the case with CLF.

 

[Daosabao]

I do realise the challenges the staff face and agree some customers can be demanding and rude.
HOWEVER-I work in luxury retail sales and the important thing to remember when working within this sector of sales is -No matter how demanding and rude the client may be your level of service must always be exceptional you must make them feel valued even if they are being a pain.
People with money can shop anywhere in the world but the service they tend to remember is either the exceptional or the terrible.
It can be the client that initally comes in just asking a lot of questions that then ultimately goes on to be your biggest spender.
I feel too often luxury brands (not just Hermes I stress) rely on the brand name and forget about the level of service and customer care to bring the money in.
That attitude goes against the grain with me.

Im totally with you. Stress, demanding customers, competitive co-workers are everywhere in the sales profession. If we talk about crowds, LV and Chanel have very long queues too. But I love the 10/10 products at H so I put up with the 6/10 customer service I get (it used to be 4/10 but it got better after I stuck around and spent more). I’m so envious of people who have great and warm Sas at H.

 

[Bereal]

I’m not sure if this belongs here but it annoyed me that I just couldn’t go up to an SA in NYC and ask for a Kelly 28. When I go to any other luxury brand I ask them for bags ex Chanel medium flaps, they tell me they are not available and I don’t get offended. Why can’t it be as simple in Hermès?

 

[EllenTsai]

I’m not sure if this belongs here but it annoyed me that I just couldn’t go up to an SA in NYC and ask for a Kelly 28. When I go to any other luxury brand I ask them for bags ex Chanel medium flaps, they tell me they are not available and I don’t get offended. Why can’t it be as simple in Hermès?

You can…
I see people ask for B/K in Harrods all the time. But SA will also tell you that they’re not available…

 

[_kiki119_]

I’m not sure if this belongs here but it annoyed me that I just couldn’t go up to an SA in NYC and ask for a Kelly 28. When I go to any other luxury brand I ask them for bags ex Chanel medium flaps, they tell me they are not available and I don’t get offended. Why can’t it be as simple in Hermès?

Welcome to the Hermes sale strategy... or the game that we refer to here

 

[af068]

Australian Hermes has changed massively in the last 10 years: now virtually all the SA's are native Chinese speakers and the focus is pretty much 100% on keeping mainland Chinese clients (who are visitors to Australia) happy. It has been about 5 years since I came across a French employee and none of the current SA's appear to speak French. In general they have absolutely no clue what silk scarves are on the website, and even less of a clue when it comes to what's in the current season scarf booklet.

I hope someone from Hermes Australia is reading this: I am a scarf collector and I expect the employees to be equipped with basic information. Yes the boutiques are great and yes the service is individual, but this is not the service I need. I agree it is a bit funny when I go in requesting the only colour way of a scarf that hasn't been delivered to Australia (Mountain Zebra CW13), but when I ask for 'The new Florence Manlik scarf (Reverie Solitaire)' I expect a bit more than a desperate scrabble at the iPad. It's perfectly fine that it hasn't hit the stores but the fact that in the first instance nobody knows who Florence Manlik is and then they bring me a Robe du Soir is somewhat exasperating. For AUD$700 (108 Big Macs), I expect more.

Honestly, if it makes you feel better, I’ve always had the impression that some of the SAs even at FSH aren’t that knowledgeable about their products. The number of times I’ve been met with a blank stare when asking for a seasonal scarf are more than I can remember (granted, there are many each year). I wouldn’t mind as much if they were at least able to explain the inspiration behind the design but this has also been lacking even here in Paris.