"PM me for SA details and why"

gail13

gail13

O.G.
Dec 25, 2009
6,156
1,907
#1
If you are a avid follower of the 'Help me Find' or 'Authentic Finds' thread, you may wonder why a poster will make the request to "pm me for SA details"....It is because Chanel threatens to fire any SA who advertises merchandise on TPF or any other public forum. Chanel prefers for the SA's to show each person privately any goods etc. And TPF requires that we provide a retail name on all finds that we post. The only way around it is to name the retail location and privately send you the SA name/location etc.

Like many of you, I have some great SA contacts. They allow us to get special merchandise, first looks etc. I'm a Chanel a holic and a personal shopper and those contacts mean alot to me. I am happy to help out TPF members by sharing finds and other intel when I can because there are many other Chanel a holics just like me out there. It is fun to share the info and be a bad influence on each other. :smile:

Tonight, one of my best SA's confided in me she had found a GST in the back. I posted it on the AF forum, along with the note to please msg me for SA contact info. Within 5 minutes of posting that, a call instead came into the store directly and a woman on the phone asked only for the blue GST. The call went to a SA who didn't even know there was a GST, and it was a big disappointment to my SA who had gone out of her way to share it with me. I'm guessing a TPFer maybe doesn't know sales decorum or there was some other reason, but it was not the way to go about this. Because my profile shows LA, it's not that hard to figure out which Nordstrom had the bag. I suppose it's possible it's a really rare coincidence that someone happened to call asking for a blue GST but......

I'm sharing this info so perhaps we can prevent it from happening again. Many of us have our favorite SA's and we'd all like to give them business. The SA's totally respect that too-and would not want to take business away from each other. They do make a nice commission but as of late those are getting harder and harder to make. My SA's are complaining about the numbers being raised, I heard Chanel corp lowered the commission at 40 brick and mortar stores.

When one of us shares a find, please respect us by using our SA if you can. There are at times extenuating circumstances of course, but it will help us to keep showing you the best merchandise.
 
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#4
Wow sorry the situation turned out like this, feel really bad for your SA!

That said, thank you for sharing this (albeit in these unfortunate circumstances) - it has enlightened me quite abit!
I wonder if this applies to Chanel boutiques all over the world..
 
#5
I posted this info because I feel many may not know what goes on behind the scenes. As in any commissioned sales environment, not everyone is one big happy family. It is very competitive. There are times SA's have merchandise set aside for a customer that the other SA's may not know about. It works this way in every Chanel boutique or Chanel Dept store I know. And it's probably the same in other designer brand stores.

just because something is posted in the AF thread, it doesn't mean you have to use that SA or that specific store-I am more referring to a special one of a kind item that is in high demand. When we post something like that, chances are it's in the hands of one SA-that's why we may send you back to that person.

Chanel is serious about not mentioning any SA or specific location because the SA's are very worried their name will show up someplace. They are also not allowed to contribute to the Forum although I know many of them read it.

I'm happy to report that the first TPFer who called the store decided not to take the GST-and it's going to another lovely TPFer who did in fact msg me and was able to work with the appropriate SA. ;)
 
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#7
Thanks for posting as I really don't know what goes on "behind the scenes". I appreciate all the education that Tpf gives so it's a good reminder to respect the flow of information.
 
#8
Glad it turned out well! Im very intrigued by the whole system though[emoji38] how there cld be hidden high demand bags behind the store. Anw thanks for letting us know the SOPs around here:smile:
 
#10
gail13 said:
If you are a avid follower of the 'Help me Find' or 'Authentic Finds' thread, you may wonder why a poster will make the request to "pm me for SA details"....It is because Chanel threatens to fire any SA who advertises merchandise on TPF or any other public forum. Chanel prefers for the SA's to show each person privately any goods etc. And TPF requires that we provide a retail name on all finds that we post. The only way around it is to name the retail location and privately send you the SA name/location etc.

Like many of you, I have some great SA contacts. They allow us to get special merchandise, first looks etc. I'm a Chanel a holic and a personal shopper and those contacts mean alot to me. I am happy to help out TPF members by sharing finds and other intel when I can because there are many other Chanel a holics just like me out there. It is fun to share the info and be a bad influence on each other. :smile:

Tonight, one of my best SA's confided in me she had found a GST in the back. I posted it on the AF forum, along with the note to please msg me for SA contact info. Within 5 minutes of posting that, a call instead came into the store directly and a woman on the phone asked only for the blue GST. The call went to a SA who didn't even know there was a GST, and it was a big disappointment to my SA who had gone out of her way to share it with me. I'm guessing a TPFer maybe doesn't know sales decorum or there was some other reason, but it was not the way to go about this. Because my profile shows LA, it's not that hard to figure out which Nordstrom had the bag. I suppose it's possible it's a really rare coincidence that someone happened to call asking for a blue GST but......

I'm sharing this info so perhaps we can prevent it from happening again. Many of us have our favorite SA's and we'd all like to give them business. The SA's totally respect that too-and would not want to take business away from each other. They do make a nice commission but as of late those are getting harder and harder to make. My SA's are complaining about the numbers being raised, I heard Chanel corp lowered the commission at 40 brick and mortar stores.

When one of us shares a find, please respect us by using our SA if you can. There are at times extenuating circumstances of course, but it will help us to keep showing you the best merchandise.
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I completely agree and feel so bad that this happened. THANKS TO YOU i found my unicorn and it would not have been possible without you reaching out to me and making my bag dream come true.:heart::heart::heart::heart::hugs::hugs: you are always so kind with all your intel and its a shame it wasn't used properly. xoxo
 
#11
kwikspice said:
I completely agree and feel so bad that this happened. THANKS TO YOU i found my unicorn and it would not have been possible without you reaching out to me and making my bag dream come true.:heart::heart::heart::heart::hugs::hugs: you are always so kind with all your intel and its a shame it wasn't used properly. xoxo
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I hope you wear it in good health and love it! So glad you got it. I know there were a few others that wanted it too, and I will post if another comes along, you never know.:sneaky:
 
#12
Very interesting stuff. Thank you for sharing, and it is very noble of you to assert this on behalf of your and all other SAs who work so hard.

Note to self:
1) I need to read Authentic Finds more often
2) I need to PM gail13 more often!
 
#13
Thank you for posting and sharing. I am with you about being loyal and thoughtful to your SA who has been kind to you. Also appreciate the behind the scene explanation so we can better appreciate the insight, care and thought many of you so generously give.

Am glad things worked out in the end. Also am grateful to all those who post in the AF thread.
 
#14
Here's some behind the scenes here. . .
SA's DO absolutely join here and advertise and we give them warnings and/or ban them when we find them. It's unethical IMO that they come here and pretend to be customers just to advertise and to promote themselves and BTW it's a lot of people's favorite SAs. Very annoying. Often they reregister time and time again.

IMO the Finds thread is a risk kind of like the AT thread. People have long been disappointed to find out the auction has sold after they post for authentication because of the exposure the item gets.
Obviously there's no true obligation to use a specific SA and I think the SA's benefit greatly in the big picture from tPF.
Hopefully people will continue to post about their good finds as an effort to help others :smile:
 
#15
Swanky Mama Of Three said:
Here's some behind the scenes here. . .
SA's DO absolutely join here and advertise and we give them warnings and/or ban them when we find them. It's unethical IMO that they come here and pretend to be customers just to advertise and to promote themselves and BTW it's a lot of people's favorite SAs. Very annoying. Often they reregister time and time again.

IMO the Finds thread is a risk kind of like the AT thread. People have long been disappointed to find out the auction has sold after they post for authentication because of the exposure the item gets.
Obviously there's no true obligation to use a specific SA and I think the SA's benefit greatly in the big picture from tPF.
Hopefully people will continue to post about their good finds as an effort to help others :smile:
Click to expand...

Agreed, but I still think it's courteous to PM the person for their SA, instead of doing and end-run and calling the store direct, especially if it's a rare find and that specific SA is holding it.
 
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