Hello ladies,
I feel like I have benefited greatly from this thread, and would like to add my story from my recent Paris trip (ok not so recent as it was already 2 weeks ago). This is a going to be a long one...
I was there from the 14th of January (Monday) to 18th of January (Friday) with my husband for our anniversary trip and would hope to score something from the FSH store after reading all these stories. Before landing on Paris on Monday, we made an appointment on Saturday for Monday and both of us got rejected (not surprised). We had used both passport and 2 phone numbers. On Monday, we tried again, and to our surprise DH got it for an appointment for Tuesday Morning at 1030am. We were both so excited at how easy we got it after reading all these stories about how difficult it was to get an appointment.
So we got there at 1020am and there was already 5-10 people waiting in line, mostly asians. When the door opened at 1030am, all of us was ushered to the second floor to get ourselves checked in. I was immediately met with a male French SA. He was polite but didn't seem too friendly. So he got straight to the point and asked, how can I help you? I was pretty nervous as I felt like I had rehearsed this moment in my head a long time haha I told him that I was in Paris because its our anniversary and would like to experience the whole FSH experience by scoring something on my wish list, and then he listed down the items that I wanted. I said I wanted B/K in size 25, otherwise k28 or b30 in blue or neutral colours and I told him what are the colors that I already have, and off he went. He was back pretty shortly, probably like 5 mins or so and right there and then I knew it wasn't anything that I wanted. He came back with two boxes, one of which is a mini roulis in Rose Pourpre. He said, I am sorry I didn't have any B or K as there was no new stocks that came in yesterday. I could tell he wasn't going to give it to me as he wasn't "feeling" it but he brought other bags instead, he also mentioned that theres a croc c24 available when I asked if theres any C in stock. I was very tempted to get the mini roulis but it wasn't the color that I wanted so I said no and left. DH went down to see some shoes and while he was trying on shoes, I saw a Korean lady being offered a b30 in etoupe GHW as she got a really nice French SA lady. I was pretty envious and then I realised that this whole H game is just PURE LUCK. (Most of the 1030 am batch didn't get any B/K/C other than the Korean lady as I was in the store for about an hour)
ok moving on, after the not so fruitful trip, we made an appointment again for Wednesday using both DH and my passport. At this point, I didn't want to have my hopes too high as DH told me we would get a watch instead if we didn't win this H game. I was happy with a watch too. But to our surprise, we got an appointment for the next day again!!!!! This time was under my name. I was doing my happy dance then! hahaha I got the appointment for Wednesday at 1130pm. We had a quick breakfast and headed to the FSH store at 1120. We got ourselves checked in at the counter after the stairs and the lady told me I would be getting a text message when the SA is ready and that the SA would be meeting me there. I got a text about 1140 and came back to the meeting point after wandering around the store. At this point, I was really nervous. I prayed for a good and kind hearted SA. Shortly after, my SA arrived. He was a really young French gentleman. He took me to a section next to the men shoes, and he asked me how can I help you. I then went on to explain that I had gotten an appointment for the day before under DH's name and we weren't so lucky and did not get any B/K. He then asked for my preference and colors, and he listed them down. I wasn't so nervous this time and this guy seemed much friendlier than the previous SA. He asked if I would want yellow or red as I said I like blue and neutrals. From the tone of it, they might have yellow/red b/k available. Anyway he said he would be back, and then off he went. I didn't wait for too long maybe 5 minutes or so (Thank God), and he came back with a few H boxes stacked together. And he said, "I don't have your first choice, but I have your second choice!" at this time I was so excited I couldn't believe what I heard. I had put my first choice as k25 and second choice as b25. He said come with me, and he ushered us to a changing room on the second floor and closed the door. Gosh I loved that feeling. He then told me the color, it was b25 togo in blue zellinge in PHW. He said it would also look good in GHW and wanted to get me one but there wasn't one available then. You could tell he was so nice and that he really tried his best to fulfil and want to make your dream come true. He then pulled out the cute b25 from the box and I was thanking him profusely. IT WAS THE CUTEST THING EVER. He then showed me an insert for the bag and I politely declined it as I already have it. He then showed me two mini rodeos to pair it up with the bag. It was the yellow rodeo and the all black rodeo. He said the rodeos are rare and a lot of people are looking for them. I couldn't believe that he actually offered me those two. Long story short, we picked some twillys for the bag, a wallet and a pair of shoes. He was really patient and nice! It was a very pleasurable shopping experience with the right SA, and a good SA makes a whole world of a difference!
A few key takeaways from this shopping trip:
1) I am assuming based on what I read that there are about 500-800 people a day who try to sign up for an appointment and they only have approximately 70-80 slots a day. Out of that number, only 10%-20% of the people who actually got an appointment will be given a B/K/C as the demands will always be higher than the supply. So, don't be too disappointed if you aren't successful!
2) It is entirely up to the SA that you meet on that day whether he/she chooses to give you the bag of your dream.
3) You can dress like a million buck and not be given a B/K, so what and how you dress don't really matter. But of course, dress decently.
4) Be genuine about your request as my SA told me he usually have a gut feeling of who might be a reseller.
Ok thats all, sorry for the super long post!
Here is the picture of my new b25
