I've continued to follow this thread and just didn't post my thoughts b/c I kinda wince whenever the title is bumped to the top... but here's the thing, for me, anyway. I love Hermes products, to the point where I just don't feel interested in spending money on other things anymore. So no, (even though I do realize the above quote wasn't directed at me) I personally wouldn't buy from other brands. But it's just been so unhappy for me every time I walk into an Hermes store, even when the service turns out to be friendly, because I walk in with so much dread that I might encounter meanness and criticism. Just recently I wanted to return a gift my DH had purchased for me - and by policy the H boutique had to accept the return -
and the entire time the SA and manager talked about me like I wasn't there, criticizing my taste and shopping habits (I hadn't mentioned that it was a gift from DH). I said nothing the entire time, because I hate confrontations and didn't think anything could be gained from interjecting, but I am never walking in there again. Why is it so awful for me to return something? I can return things anywhere else without a problem. I don't happen to think that color worked on me - why was it such a huge deal for me to exchange it with another color? I don't know, but the event left me simmering, and I just... I have enough stress in my life, and I don't need MORE stress when I go to get nice things for myself.
I started buying a lot from H.com, even though I'm smack dab in the middle of an area with THREE H boutiques, just to avoid unfriendly service. As has been pointed out, luxury shopping
should be a pleasant experience. And yes, there are "other" stores, but when you've tried 3 stores and have had really poor experiences or heard about poor experiences from other people who've developed long-standing relationships with those stores, at some point you're just not quite as eager to keep searching for a good store, and yes, you start thinking of H as an unpleasant place to shop. Right now I have no hope of placing the SO that I dreamed of getting, because I'm just so frustrated with my boutique experience that I just can't bring myself to "build up" a relationship with a store or SA, and because I've heard of other SO false promises from my nearby stores and SAs. I'm just going to wait on eBay for my particular leather and color combo to come up. It'll probably take about the same amount of time as an SO, anyway, and won't give me the grief.
I try to be uber-polite to everyone wherever I go. As I said before, I tend towards NOT saying anything - I'm not super chatty, but I don't complain or demand, either. I feel like there's an undercurrent of assumption that customers who receive poor service somehow "deserve" it... that they came off as demanding or thinking they needed to be treated like the Queen of England just because they've purchased something previously at the store. I don't want to be treated like a Queen, and who knows, maybe I just "look" like I shouldn't be buying H products, but whatever. I don't like reading negative posts all the time, either, especially about my favorite brand, but part of me is RELIEVED that it's not just me (i.e., not because I in particular deserve to be treated this way, but other people have received the same treatment I have). And maybe, just maybe at some point, with enough support from dissatisfied customers, treatment at H stores will begin to change so that it WILL be a pleasant experience to shop there. Maybe H corporate will read these posts and care enough to do something; maybe the dissatisfied customers posting here will get together and write a joint letter... I don't know. I'm just saying that not all negativity is unconstructive, and maybe some of it is even worth listening to.
(Okay, that was a novel - if anyone actually read it all they deserve some kind of prize!!
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