Ugh - I am sorry that you had to deal with this. I am very lucky - my SA has a great sense of colors and she is not afraid to tell me when a color is not working. Sometimes that means that I won’t be able to buy a pattern that I love, but if I make a color mistake then I know the scarf will live in the box permanently. I also trust her color sense so don’t ball at her suggestions. Wish they were all like that!!
Treatment in Hermes Stores
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Ugh - I am sorry that you had to deal with this. I am very lucky - my SA has a great sense of colors and she is not afraid to tell me when a color is not working. Sometimes that means that I won’t be able to buy a pattern that I love, but if I make a color mistake then I know the scarf will live in the box permanently. I also trust her color sense so don’t ball at her suggestions. Wish they were all like that!!
That sounds horrible. I’ve fortunately not met anyone like this in my limited experience with H, but I have in some other places. Mostly I tend to see the pushy type at beauty/cosmetics counters in department stores. I guess it's due to how the price per item is much lower when it comes to beauty, so they are perhaps under much higher pressure to sell a lot of items. I do have one single experience with another luxury brand SA being pushy, but she did eventually back off after I made it clear.
Still, with H it's a whole other level - with H, relationship with an SA is basically part of the "game". It's quite essential to your experience with the brand. So more than anywhere else, they should be hiring the right people and providing adequate training. Just like you said, I don't think SA is a job that anyone can be good at (actually I think I would make a pretty horrible one myself). Sadly it seems like here and there H is letting some people who are not a good fit for the job through...perhaps it can happen no matter how hard they try. I just hope it never becomes a trend or the norm!
Make-up SA's are probably a good analogy. After bouts of severe acne (oily skin runs in fam) I stopped wearing makeup entirely. In Nordies, I have to pass the makeup counter to get anywhere in the store -- I can practically see SA's salivating at the sight of me!
Oddly enough, early on in the encounter the H SA crossed paths with her manager and introduced me. I was positive. But as the afternoon wore on, something changed. I suspect she had another appointment and had no way to gracefully extricate herself from the situation and move on to another customer. I certainly didn't dawdle but I had a number of things I'd planned to buy. . . Oh well, maybe one day H will be bought out by Amazon like the rest of the world.
Make-up SA's are probably a good analogy. After bouts of severe acne (oily skin runs in fam) I stopped wearing makeup entirely. In Nordies, I have to pass the makeup counter to get anywhere in the store -- I can practically see SA's salivating at the sight of me!
Oddly enough, early on in the encounter the H SA crossed paths with her manager and introduced me. I was positive. But as the afternoon wore on, something changed. I suspect she had another appointment and had no way to gracefully extricate herself from the situation and move on to another customer. I certainly didn't dawdle but I had a number of things I'd planned to buy. . . Oh well, maybe one day H will be bought out by Amazon like the rest of the world.
“Alexa, buy me a Birkin”
“Alexa, buy me a Birkin”
I just jokingly told Alexa to buy me a Birkin, and this is what she added into my cart:
Back to the original topic, I had an experience with a pushy SA pressuring me to buy items that I didn’t like, and it just completely put me off wanting to shop from there. Eventually I left that boutique. A shopping experience should be pleasant and personal, especially in regards to luxury goods. I am lucky that I found a new SA in a different boutique that clicks well with me, and now I always enjoy my shopping experiences at that store.
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I fully agree with everything you said, Amka. My experience was my second time working with this SA. She was a roving SA. She really didn't know my tastes, preferences, whatever, it was just too soon, there wasn't any discussion that developed a rapport. I told her what I was looking for like a specific necklace, or a bangle with a particular design. She went and got it. It was a "take it or leave it" situation because I wasn't shown stuff other than what I specifically asked for. I wanted a wider bangle (which I had seen in the display case the day before) and she said, nope, that doesn't exist. Wha???? Moreover, there was no suggestion selling, no "this is new and it might interest you." This baffled me. In a way she was like a runner who takes orders and comes back with the merchandise, and then I check out. I don't see much difference between this situation and making impersonal web purchases. Why not do the latter? After all, I already know what I want.I just jokingly told Alexa to buy me a Birkin, and this is what she added into my cart:
View attachment 4586613
Back to the original topic, I had an experience with a pushy SA pressuring me to buy items that I didn’t like, and it just completely put me off wanting to shop from there. Eventually I left that boutique. A shopping experience should be pleasant and personal, especially in regards to luxury goods. I am lucky that I found a new SA in a different boutique that clicks well with me, and now I always enjoy my shopping experiences at that store.
Now, the question is, would Alexa be nicer to me? I'm willing to give Alexa a chance. What do I have to lose?
I imagine that it takes a special kind of person to sell luxury. And I suppose there are even levels of luxury salespersons. But anyway... On one hand, you have to be fairly pulled together, and even elegant and sophisticated and stylish. You have to know your products and the products of the “competition” too. You have to be well-spoken, intelligent, and educated because you are often working often with clients who are the same. You have to be secure in who you are because you are selling products that, unless you have a trust fund, you mostly can’t afford to buy (much of, anyway) on the salary you are making. The luxury houses have demanding sales goals plus you need your commission, so you have to be organized and detail oriented and be able to read people quickly and communicate well, and without offending anyone somehow you have to figure out who is going to buy something and who is just wasting your time. You have to be able to stand long hours and deal with people who are wonderful and kind as well as people who are weird, bratty and entitled. And all of this for about 1/3 of what you could make taking all of these skills to another profession. Plus, the really successful sales people really like people and enjoy their jobs and want to help them—so add empathy and understanding and a charming personality to that. That’s a pretty tall order.
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Many, many moons ago I worked at Nordstrom. Christmas Eve, 5 mins before closing a man asked why I was working on a holiday. I said, b/c you’re here (nicely). It takes all kinds, in this world.
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I do agree with you though Eagle that there are people who have the personality of a rock and should never have a job working with the public, let alone in sales. She probably got the job because she knew someone. If you’re having to work too hard, it’s perfectly okay to cut the interaction short, ask her to leave the piece at the register, and then go wander around and find someone else to help. The experience should be fun, not intimidating or frustrating.
I find that H in Europe is definitely more of.a wildcard and spending doesn’t always net bag offers. If you want to link purchases to immediate bag offers, then H in Asia (Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore) is generally a better bet. But expected spend is also higher (1.5x of bag amount in non-bag spend on average). Thats why I save my larger purchases (esp fine jewellery) for home-store spending and just tend to buy things abroad that I can’t get at home (since prices are overall lower in Europe, it’s still win-win for me).
I get so confused when trying to choose a colorway for scarf/shawl designs. I blame H lighting. Everything looks so good in-store and whatever shawl I drape on seems to always go perfectly with my outfit that day. Given my indecisiveness, I’m forced to rely on my SA for telling me what works. On the whole, she’s been v good and almost everything I bring home I’m happy with, even things I wouldn’t necessarily have chosen myself. But on my most recent visit, she persuaded me to get the Maison des Carres CSGM140 in a colorway that’s completely outside my comfort zone (looked fab in the store). I still love It but sadly can’t see myself wearing it anytime soon.
Etriers, you are absolutely right. On every point. Especially about leaving something at the register that I am ambivalent about then maybe browsing on my own for a bit.
My H SA is bilingual, English and French. In that sense, H is a good place for her to work. She chatted away en francais with at least 4 SA's that were in different departments where I was getting something. Each time she said to me that she was going to speak to the other SA in French (well, fine) then launched into a conversation. I have no idea what she was saying, she never told me. I started to wonder if this was a form of one-upmanship: I can speak French and you can't.. (I had French in college but my vestigial skill is reading not speaking). My transactions weren't complex, they were all basically do you have this item in this color/size?
Oh well, it's over with. The next day I went to another store, not Hermes, and the owner/designer was very pleasant, what I expected her to be. .I'm trying to focus on that. Thanks for allowing me to vent.