Paris trip for Hermes

[papertiger]

Please try to stay on topic. I realise because of the complexity of some of the posts members may veer off but in answer do not 'go there'.

For info and questions on US customs please post on the thread below: post https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/us-customs-discussion-airports-importing.905560/

or non-US destinations: https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/does-h-store-paris-wants-to-ship.605014/page-3

For questions relating to prices https://forum.purseblog.com/threads/reference-hermes-current-prices.102567/page-357

For traveling with boxes https://forum.purseblog.com/threads...me-hermes-boxes-when-traveling.1044553/page-5



I will leave this reminder as a sticky because tthis is often a thread that new members (or new Hermès lovers) post on - hopefully temporarily.

 

[princesscathryn]

Just got back in the States. Here are my story for bag #1

DH and I applied online starting Feb 7 - both failed on the first 4 attempts, tried to look for cancellations on Feb 12 at 3pm but the host couldn’t accommodate us unfortunately. I felt very discouraged as we had only two days left in Paris. Luckily DH got his 10:30am appt for Feb 13!

We got there 10 mins before the store opened. Once the store opened, it was chaos - people were all over the places. Finally we saw a line for 10:30am appts and met our SA. She prompted us to sit at the area near the belt section upstairs.

I drafted a list the night before and it was rather long. As I stood up and tried to approach her, she asked me to sit there and read it to her. She was extremely COLD.

I explained to her that my list was long (I listed the name of my color preferences with hardware color combo in very detail), she reluctantly read the first half of the list and went to check the stock. She didn’t offer us drinks.

Meanwhile there was a customer in front us asking for a Kelly and was shown a 24/24 and a herbag. The SA told her firmly that they ran out of all Kellys that morning. I started panicking as I was asking for a Kelly as well.

Our SA finally came back after 30 mins and asked us to follow her. I didn’t have high hopes at all. As she opened the box and said she found something on my list, I raised my eyebrows. Then she revealed it’s Kelly 28 Sellier in Etoupe with gold hardware! My jaw dropped!! How was that possible? I just couldn’t read her mind....

Then she showed me a fourbi and rodeo pm in all pink which I politely declined. I really wanted a rodeo, however since I already have a rodeo pm in pink, I really want it in different colors. I asked again if there is any other colors and she went “Like I told you before, this is the only color I have.”

She looked very upset with my decision of not taking the fourbi. She even said “It’s a shame that you don’t take the fourbi, it’s only three hundred something euro.” In my mind I was like WTF but I was holding my breath... I needed to take that Kelly home.

After that we went downstairs for twilly, she pulled out a tray of twillies and started looking elsewhere.... anyway I picked out a twilly in 2-3 mins and of coz I dare not ask her for anything else.

This concludes my story of bag #1... I just dunno what to think?!

Nevertheless the Kelly is beautiful

 

[princesscathryn]

After I got the Etoupe Kelly in the morning, the same night I received a text from Hermes that I got an appointment on Valentine’s Day which was our last full day in Paris!

My appointment got postponed from 1:50pm to 2, 3, 4... finally at 6:20pm!! I met a very nice SA and told her what happened, she was astonished. I guess it could be a system glitch... anyway she went straight to the business and asked me what I was looking for as the store was already closed at that time.

I told her I was looking for a mini Lindy in gold with ghw, 2nd choice would be red with ghw, and I’m also interested in sharp colors. Also I showed her some pics of rodeos that I like. She was taking notes quickly and we had some good conversations, then she went to the stockroom. She was much friendlier than the SA we met the day before.

She came back with 3 boxes in about 10 mins and I couldn’t tell what they are based on the sizes of the boxes. As she opened up the box, she said “This is the last mini Lindy I could find in the store” and I got very excited - it’s mini Lindy in Jaune Ambre with ghw! It’s a very pretty yellow in person!! I tried it on and love it right away.

She also showed me two rodeos, one of them was the color that I was looking for, however they were in size MM. She said to be honest these would be too big for the mini Lindy, she said it’s good for bag in maybe size 35. I said I have a Birkin 30, she said it could still be too big and suggested me not to force myself to buy it. I agreed and ended up purchasing the mini Lindy only.

I really enjoyed the shopping experience this time! She was not pushy, gave me honest opinions and put the customers’ best interest first. When we left the store, she wished us happy Valentine’s Day. This is definitely a perfect ending to our Paris trip.

Here are the pics of the lovely mini Lindy! 2nd pic is size comparison to Evelyne tpm. Thanks for letting me share!

 

[kosin30]

Question for you ladies, is it important to bring an Hermes bag with you? I have a Kelly, Constance, Lindy and Evelyn. Do I need to bring my Kelly to have a greater chance of being considered?

 

[Hillychristie]

Question for you ladies, is it important to bring an Hermes bag with you? I have a Kelly, Constance, Lindy and Evelyn. Do I need to bring my Kelly to have a greater chance of being considered?

I don't think so, success rate seems quite random. I've listed the bags I wore on the 3 visits I scored:
Burberry tote - scored noir B30 togo ghw
Herbag - scored abricot K28 evercolour ghw
Michael Korrs crossbody - scored etain K25 sellier ghw
I did accessorise with H scarves and bracelets but I'm more concerned about my safety, so I'm usually discreet.
Hope this helps and all the best.

 

[af068]

Question for you ladies, is it important to bring an Hermes bag with you? I have a Kelly, Constance, Lindy and Evelyn. Do I need to bring my Kelly to have a greater chance of being considered?

No, not at all. The SAs, at least here in Paris, do not care if you have an Hermès bag on you. It is not a factor in getting a quota bag. When I got my first B35 in étain with PHW, I had no previous purchase history with Hermès and was not carrying a purse.

I was also told by a friend that if they ask to look up your client purchase history, it has nothing to do with how much you've already spent as opposed to whether you've already, recently in the past month or so, purchased a quota bag. The general rule seems to be 2 per year, but this also can depend on the seniority of the SA (and whether they're willing to look the other way; I believe this really has more to do whether you are a reseller or not.)

I don't think so, success rate seems quite random. I've listed the bags I wore on the 3 visits I scored:
Burberry tote - scored noir B30 togo ghw
Herbag - scored abricot K28 evercolour ghw
Michael Korrs crossbody - scored etain K25 sellier ghw
I did accessorise with H scarves and bracelets but I'm more concerned about my safety, so I'm usually discreet.
Hope this helps and all the best.

Yes, please remember to accessorize appropriately when you're out and visiting in the city! No need to attract unwanted attention in the métro.

If you plan on visiting the city after a purchase, do remember to ask for a white bag in which your orange one can be placed in. This is almost always done for a local, even without requesting it. But it's not systematically done for visitors.

 

[af068]

Just got back in the States. Here are my story for bag #1

DH and I applied online starting Feb 7 - both failed on the first 4 attempts, tried to look for cancellations on Feb 12 at 3pm but the host couldn’t accommodate us unfortunately. I felt very discouraged as we had only two days left in Paris. Luckily DH got his 10:30am appt for Feb 13!

We got there 10 mins before the store opened. Once the store opened, it was chaos - people were all over the places. Finally we saw a line for 10:30am appts and met our SA. She prompted us to sit at the area near the belt section upstairs.

I drafted a list the night before and it was rather long. As I stood up and tried to approach her, she asked me to sit there and read it to her. She was extremely COLD.

I explained to her that my list was long (I listed the name of my color preferences with hardware color combo in very detail), she reluctantly read the first half of the list and went to check the stock. She didn’t offer us drinks.

Meanwhile there was a customer in front us asking for a Kelly and was shown a 24/24 and a herbag. The SA told her firmly that they ran out of all Kellys that morning. I started panicking as I was asking for a Kelly as well.

Our SA finally came back after 30 mins and asked us to follow her. I didn’t have high hopes at all. As she opened the box and said she found something on my list, I raised my eyebrows. Then she revealed it’s Kelly 28 Sellier in Etoupe with gold hardware! My jaw dropped!! How was that possible? I just couldn’t read her mind....

Then she showed me a fourbi and rodeo pm in all pink which I politely declined. I really wanted a rodeo, however since I already have a rodeo pm in pink, I really want it in different colors. I asked again if there is any other colors and she went “Like I told you before, this is the only color I have.”

She looked very upset with my decision of not taking the fourbi. She even said “It’s a shame that you don’t take the fourbi, it’s only three hundred something euro.” In my mind I was like WTF but I was holding my breath... I needed to take that Kelly home.

After that we went downstairs for twilly, she pulled out a tray of twillies and started looking elsewhere.... anyway I picked out a twilly in 2-3 mins and of coz I dare not ask her for anything else.

This concludes my story of bag #1... I just dunno what to think?!

Nevertheless the Kelly is beautiful

I think it went pretty well considering that you scored a bag on your wish list! And regardless of how you felt about her, she clearly thought that you were polite and respectful if she came out with a Kelly.

 

[Alexandra.freilich]

Question for you ladies, is it important to bring an Hermes bag with you? I have a Kelly, Constance, Lindy and Evelyn. Do I need to bring my Kelly to have a greater chance of being considered?

I think that bringing a Hermes bag can help yes! You seems to have a nice collection no need to take your Kelly or Constance but maybe one of your others. It will show that you have some kind of loyalty to the brand. Xx

 

[Alexandra.freilich]

Just got back in the States. Here are my story for bag #1

DH and I applied online starting Feb 7 - both failed on the first 4 attempts, tried to look for cancellations on Feb 12 at 3pm but the host couldn’t accommodate us unfortunately. I felt very discouraged as we had only two days left in Paris. Luckily DH got his 10:30am appt for Feb 13!

We got there 10 mins before the store opened. Once the store opened, it was chaos - people were all over the places. Finally we saw a line for 10:30am appts and met our SA. She prompted us to sit at the area near the belt section upstairs.

I drafted a list the night before and it was rather long. As I stood up and tried to approach her, she asked me to sit there and read it to her. She was extremely COLD.

I explained to her that my list was long (I listed the name of my color preferences with hardware color combo in very detail), she reluctantly read the first half of the list and went to check the stock. She didn’t offer us drinks.

Meanwhile there was a customer in front us asking for a Kelly and was shown a 24/24 and a herbag. The SA told her firmly that they ran out of all Kellys that morning. I started panicking as I was asking for a Kelly as well.

Our SA finally came back after 30 mins and asked us to follow her. I didn’t have high hopes at all. As she opened the box and said she found something on my list, I raised my eyebrows. Then she revealed it’s Kelly 28 Sellier in Etoupe with gold hardware! My jaw dropped!! How was that possible? I just couldn’t read her mind....

Then she showed me a fourbi and rodeo pm in all pink which I politely declined. I really wanted a rodeo, however since I already have a rodeo pm in pink, I really want it in different colors. I asked again if there is any other colors and she went “Like I told you before, this is the only color I have.”

She looked very upset with my decision of not taking the fourbi. She even said “It’s a shame that you don’t take the fourbi, it’s only three hundred something euro.” In my mind I was like WTF but I was holding my breath... I needed to take that Kelly home.

After that we went downstairs for twilly, she pulled out a tray of twillies and started looking elsewhere.... anyway I picked out a twilly in 2-3 mins and of coz I dare not ask her for anything else.

This concludes my story of bag #1... I just dunno what to think?!

Nevertheless the Kelly is beautiful

What a beauty, congrats!
I had quite the same experience then you with the SA how serve me but she didn’t had the nerve to say price and get that extra attitude.
By curiosity was a female SA in her 30’ brunette curly hair? Xx

 

[daisyjo]

Question for you ladies, is it important to bring an Hermes bag with you? I have a Kelly, Constance, Lindy and Evelyn. Do I need to bring my Kelly to have a greater chance of being considered?

I believe it makes no difference at all. It seems that every time I visit my SA it is raining and so I am carrying a Longchamp pliage bag.

 

[princesscathryn]

What a beauty, congrats!
I had quite the same experience then you with the SA how serve me but she didn’t had the nerve to say price and get that extra attitude.
By curiosity was a female SA in her 30’ brunette curly hair? Xx

Thank you. My first SA was a brunette straight hair in early 40s I believe. I saw her the next day with other customers and she was much nicer. Perhaps she was having a bad day that morning...

 

[princesscathryn]

I just left Paris this morning and Customs was open at 6am when I went to detaxe. Of course the 9k vat didnt pass the machine so I had to see an officer. He asked if I had the items with me and I replied “yes, would you like to see them”? He said know and I was done. I scanned it into my tax free app so I can track it and dropped it in the mail box located at the back wall behind tax free machines.

We might have met at the airport that morning. I was there at the detaxe area at 6am as well and it was pretty empty.

My almost 8k purchase passed the Pablo machine though. Last time we had a 11k purchase that didn’t pass, so I guess the cutoff might be somewhere between 8k-9k.

 

[eagle1002us]

Just got back in the States. Here are my story for bag #1

DH and I applied online starting Feb 7 - both failed on the first 4 attempts, tried to look for cancellations on Feb 12 at 3pm but the host couldn’t accommodate us unfortunately. I felt very discouraged as we had only two days left in Paris. Luckily DH got his 10:30am appt for Feb 13!

We got there 10 mins before the store opened. Once the store opened, it was chaos - people were all over the places. Finally we saw a line for 10:30am appts and met our SA. She prompted us to sit at the area near the belt section upstairs.

I drafted a list the night before and it was rather long. As I stood up and tried to approach her, she asked me to sit there and read it to her. She was extremely COLD.

I explained to her that my list was long (I listed the name of my color preferences with hardware color combo in very detail), she reluctantly read the first half of the list and went to check the stock. She didn’t offer us drinks.

Meanwhile there was a customer in front us asking for a Kelly and was shown a 24/24 and a herbag. The SA told her firmly that they ran out of all Kellys that morning. I started panicking as I was asking for a Kelly as well.

Our SA finally came back after 30 mins and asked us to follow her. I didn’t have high hopes at all. As she opened the box and said she found something on my list, I raised my eyebrows. Then she revealed it’s Kelly 28 Sellier in Etoupe with gold hardware! My jaw dropped!! How was that possible? I just couldn’t read her mind....

Then she showed me a fourbi and rodeo pm in all pink which I politely declined. I really wanted a rodeo, however since I already have a rodeo pm in pink, I really want it in different colors. I asked again if there is any other colors and she went “Like I told you before, this is the only color I have.”

She looked very upset with my decision of not taking the fourbi. She even said “It’s a shame that you don’t take the fourbi, it’s only three hundred something euro.” In my mind I was like WTF but I was holding my breath... I needed to take that Kelly home.

After that we went downstairs for twilly, she pulled out a tray of twillies and started looking elsewhere.... anyway I picked out a twilly in 2-3 mins and of coz I dare not ask her for anything else.

This concludes my story of bag #1... I just dunno what to think?!

Nevertheless the Kelly is beautiful

Fortunately, the SA misread you. Evidently she presumed that if you got a TDF kelly you'd get the fourbi too.

 

[princesscathryn]

Fortunately, the SA misread you. Evidently she presumed that if you got a TDF kelly you'd get the fourbi too.

I purchased a B30 and K35 at the same store few years ago. The SA who offered K35 showed me fourbi as well and I politely declined. She was totally cool.

I’d gladly take it if the SA offered me a rodeo in different colors, but I just really don’t like fourbi...

 

[dianaetc]

I want to report back from our Valentine’s Day trip to Paris. I was looking for K25/K28 (preferably Sellier), B25/B30 in either craie, pink (rose sakura/rose d’ete), or anything neutral like etoupe or etain.

Landed on 2/14 Friday early morning, both husband and I applied for an appt. the day before for this day and were both rejected. It didn’t bothered me as I had an appointment with my SA at Sèvres store that day at 3pm which I very much looked forward to. She helped me a few years ago with a quota bag and was able to give me an appt for this trip. We arrived at our appt at Sevres and was in shock to find that she was not there and had been out that week. She also did not notify me. Another SA took over the appt and informed us no stock after we gave my wishlist. We then dropped by FSH, where the leather appt host was borderline rude sternly reciting a robotic script how there was no walk-in appt available and needed an online appt.

2/15 Sat- applied for appt on 2/14 for this day and both rejected again. We lined up at the Sèvres store around 10am and was seen by another SA right away once store was opened. Same thing, the SA said “no stock” as it was a Saturday. We dropped by FSH after lunch hoping to get a walk-in appt. We got lucky because even though the rude host from the day before was there, there was another host who helped us and granted a walk-in appt. We were seen by a SA right away. He seemed genuine and informed us no stock but offered me a C18 bleu electric GHW. I politely declined as I did not love that color and blue was not on my list. I then bought a pair of sandals from another SA in the shoes dept. I have to say I was pretty disappointed at this point, not only my SA cancelled on me the day before and now been rejected online appts and got no offers three times in person.

2/17 Monday - applied online on sat and we were rejected again. Lined up at the Sèvres store around 10:15am. This time we were not seen right away and waited until around 11:45am to be seen. Got another SA and he said no stock as the store is under renovation so stock is lower than usual since they don’t have the storage space they had before. After lunch we dropped by FSH and got the same rude host as 2/14 and was told no appt. At this point I was completely defeated and mentally prepared myself going home empty handed. Regardless, we had a great trip and since we’ve been in Paris many times, it did not affect our sightseeing plans.

2/18 Tuesday - we both were rejected online appt for the 4th attempt (8 total). Initially, I felt the urge to line up at George V as I felt I would regret had I not tried to line up one more time. But my husband didn’t not want me to line up so I decided to have a relaxing morning with him instead of rushing to stand in line. Even though I didn’t have any hope, a voice inside (God) told me to just go to FSH store after we took our time getting up and had breakfast. The same host who declined us a walk-in appt on 2/14 and 2/17 was not there at the moment which was a great sign. This other host looked me up and said I had an appt (which I did - walk-in on sat), then was reluctant to give me one. My wise husband quickly chimed in asking to look him up and was able to get an appt under his name. Few minutes after this exchange, the rude host we previously dealt with returned from her break, so thank God we barely dodged her. (Side note - it seems to me H really want 1 FSH appt per person per trip. Of course, there are exceptions to any H rule but I think those who got online appts will not likely be granted another if they applied online again.) We were told to wait w/o a designated time so we browsed wallets for my hubby while we waited. When we received a text that our leather SA was almost ready, we informed our SLG SA. The SLG SA then send us off to our leather SA. Hubby tentatively picked out a card holder.

Our SA was nice and took us upstairs. She asked what we were looking for. We gave her my wishlist and 20mins or so she returned with some orange boxes. One of them in small bag box size which was a good sign. She said she had something for me even though it is not exactly what I was looking for. “I don’t have the colors you are looking for but something close to it,” she said. Seriously, at this point I didn’t even care if it is not the exact color, I was just thankful I was offered something. She opened the dust bag and lo and behold, I saw the most beautiful bag, my dream bag - K28 craie Sellier GHW. It has the exact specs I wanted on my #1 wishlist. I was in disbelief that she was joking with me that she didn’t have the exact specs and offered me my dream bag. I was so defeated/disappointed and this moment felt like the rainbow after a rain storm, a magical dream. I know, sounds a bit bag crazy but some of you could relate. Still in shock, I naturally got very emotional, teared up, and profusely thanked her. Never in my H journey had I gotten the exact combo specs I wanted and my sweet SA made my ultimate H dream come true. Like light at the end of a tunnel, all efforts we went through were not in vain. If we were offered other colors, we wouldn't have bought the a fourbi 20 she offered. However, due to the light color of craie, I decided it was a good idea to get it to protect the interior. We also picked up other small items and hubby's card holder.

In sum, the reality is it has gotten harder and harder throughout the years, not only getting a BKC but even so just getting an appointment in Paris. Stars have to align to get an appointment, then an offer. Reading success stories here gave me hope but the truth is that there are many times more of unsuccessful stories not being reported. The rejections are difficult and for me it dampers the vacation regardless of being okay going home empty handed. While I’m soooo grateful for this happy ending and dream offer, I don't think I would go through this again.