What's up with the Coach SA's???

luralee

luralee

Changes mind always!
O.G.
Aug 25, 2007
2,262
9
#1
I have been hearing a lot of people say that certain Coach stores and/or the SA's have not been as nice lately. I know I have to take my return/exchange to a store farther away from me because that store will accommodate me and mine won't because of some new policy.
Well, my cousin's bf came to visit her last weekend from Indiana. She had a coach bag to return so she went to the store I usually go to. And guess what?! They were very unpleasant to her because she was returning a bag. And she is from out of town! What a glowing recommendation for St. Louis!!!:cursing: Not to mention Coach!
Anyway, I'm thinking I may just have to be on a ban from Coach boutiques and stick to outlets. When I went to the outlet in Tuscola, IL a few weeks ago, they were MORE than nice to me.
Sorry for the rant!!!
 
#2
I haven't purchased anything Coach since I had a terrible experience at the nearest outlet. Since then... eh... for some reason, I just don't lust after it the way I used to. When you were at the outlet, were you returning something or just shopping? They are much nicer when you are buying... when you have to make a return they get all aggro. :sad:

Sorry they were mean to you and your cousin's bf. How hard is it for them to realize that they will end up losing customers if they continue on like that?
 
#4
I don't ever go to the boutiques but the SAs at my outlet are SUPER SUPER friendly all the time and ALL of them are... not just a few and they are still friendly when I'm making a return or exchange. They are supportive of EVERY purchase or if I say I don't like a particular line then they won't show me those items anymore as to not waste my time. I'm sorry if you are having bad service but I don't think generalizations should be made about all Coach SAs as they are all different and working for different bosses which may have more influence on how their SAs are treating people. I wish better service for you in the future!
 
#5
I am Coach SA and I hate hearing about all these bad experiences! Not that I don't believe any of them, I just hate it that we are getting such bad reps! I try so hard for each customer. I have many customers who only shop with me and will schedule appoints just to shop with me! I hate that I am so well liked and do such a great job and then hear about all these rude people! I am sorry to all that have had bad experiences with the Coach Boutiques. I guarantee that if you give them another chance that you will be able to find a SA inside each boutique that will work well for and with you!
 
#6
^^ Glad you are doing a great job. It would be wonderful if they were all as nice as you. My SA is a doll. I have nothing but great things to say about her.
 
#7
This worries me, too. I haven't gotten a bad experience yet (although I often feel uncomfortable at times when they just watch me), I hope this doesn't happen too often, though. Otherwise I might have to shy away from the Boutiques.

I returned a brown/khaki signature swingpack last year, after using it for two weeks and realizing that the bag wasn't for me. It went smooth though, the SA's were having a conversation with each other while the one helping me was looking through the bag to make sure it's clean. It was. But she easily returned it and it went smooth. Thank god. I got so nervous but I'm glad she accepted the bag.

They were very nice though. I hope I don't run into those kinds of SA's that are mean though. I'll cry.
 
#9
sari_luna said:
This worries me, too. I haven't gotten a bad experience yet (although I often feel uncomfortable at times when they just watch me), I hope this doesn't happen too often, though. Otherwise I might have to shy away from the Boutiques.

I returned a brown/khaki signature swingpack last year, after using it for two weeks and realizing that the bag wasn't for me. It went smooth though, the SA's were having a conversation with each other while the one helping me was looking through the bag to make sure it's clean. It was. But she easily returned it and it went smooth. Thank god. I got so nervous but I'm glad she accepted the bag.

They were very nice though. I hope I don't run into those kinds of SA's that are mean though. I'll cry.
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AWE! I HOPE NONE OF THEM MAKE YOU CRY! That is so not cool!
 
#10
AWE! I HOPE NONE OF THEM MAKE YOU CRY! That is so not cool!
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I know. And you know what? The more and more I spend time here, the more I'm afraid I might run into them. This is why I'm always afraid to return things to them. I wish there would be more friendlier SA's like you. It isn't easy for me to return a purse without using it at least for a few weeks. Oh well.

Sadly, I haven't gotten myself my very own SA yet, since I'm still unsure of how that works. I usually just go in there and have any available SA help me out. I'm still pretty new to this and I'm usually quiet, so I'm afraid to actually walk up ask him/her to become my SA. I'm not very social, which is a big problem for me. :sweatdrop:
 
#11
I'm so sorry for the problems at your local store! I just had a really weird situation, and TBH other than my SA that I normally use, I'm not that impressed. But they are at least not rude...it's the 800-number CS I cannot deal with. I'm near explosion point because it doesn't seem to matter who I deal with, they are worthless and/or rude. I have talked to one person who actually took the time to find out the appropriate info. and really helped me! It's like some of them think they are better than everyone else just because they work at Coach. I quit one boutique because of this already. Mostly I will only deal with one SA if possible, and I'm loyal (meaning if she's not there, I still try to give her credit for the sale). However, after the last few encounters, I'm considering giving more business to Nordstrom and less to the boutiques. I agree that outlet shopping is absolutely the best..at least you see what you are purchasing there, and it's a heck of a lot cheaper!! I also find the SAs and managers much nicer at the outlets than at the boutiques, but I thought it was because I going to the ones in PA rather than NJ (I find the people/businesses in PA to be much nicer in general than in NJ).
 
#12
I truly think the friendliness of the SA's just varies from store to store. I've got a Coach store about 10 minutes from my house and the SA's are incredible. In fact, I was shopping with one of my friends and I told her if one girl was working, she'd call me by name when I walked in. Well, we opened the door to the store and she was working, plus two other SA's came over and said hi. One popped a page out of the orange binder and walked over to show me something that was coming out that she thought I might like. It was the royal treatment! Now, before this store opened, I only had one store, 45 minutes from my house. In that store, you could be the only person in the store and the SA's would hang out by the check out desk and ignore me. A few months ago I was in that area and went into the store and nothing has changed. I even asked a question about something to go with my tote and they told me that my tote was from 2006, in a very snobby way, even though it was a limited edition from late 2007. I walked out thinking I'd never got there again, and I was sticking to my closer store with the nice, informed SA's!

With my local outlet, it's hit or miss. I've had a few helpful, informed SA's, but most of the time they seem like SA's who barely know their product.
 
#13
I appreciate you sharing your experiences. I know it's not all SA's, but as a fairly newbie (1 year) to Coach, I am disillusioned. I was only going to one SA, but I don't know if he quit or what, but he is never there. So I started going to another and she is a doll. But after I ordered the patent turquoise Gigi and had it come to the store, went in and decided I didn't like it, she was pretty rude. Then, unbelievably, I got one of those handwritten thank you's from her telling me how I have such good taste, blah, blah, blah!!!!!
I refuse to keep something that I don't like. Especially at those prices! If they had the product in the store so I could try it on there before ordering, then maybe I could see her side. But I had never seen the Gigi before IRL. Even the patent one was too big and too heavy for me.
I have never had this issue with Macy's. I haven't really shopped much at Nordstrom's, but every time I have been in there, the SA's have been so helpful.
I probably have spent over $3000 in the past year on Coach, which is a LOT for me, but it shouldn't matter. Even if a person goes in there and buys one $20 item, the customer service should be excellent.
JMHO.
 
#14
oriolesfan22 said:
I truly think the friendliness of the SA's just varies from store to store. I've got a Coach store about 10 minutes from my house and the SA's are incredible. In fact, I was shopping with one of my friends and I told her if one girl was working, she'd call me by name when I walked in. Well, we opened the door to the store and she was working, plus two other SA's came over and said hi. One popped a page out of the orange binder and walked over to show me something that was coming out that she thought I might like. It was the royal treatment! Now, before this store opened, I only had one store, 45 minutes from my house. In that store, you could be the only person in the store and the SA's would hang out by the check out desk and ignore me. A few months ago I was in that area and went into the store and nothing has changed. I even asked a question about something to go with my tote and they told me that my tote was from 2006, in a very snobby way, even though it was a limited edition from late 2007. I walked out thinking I'd never got there again, and I was sticking to my closer store with the nice, informed SA's!

With my local outlet, it's hit or miss. I've had a few helpful, informed SA's, but most of the time they seem like SA's who barely know their product.
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This part is definitely true, and I find it at both the boutiques and outlets. My only conclusion is that Coach does not require their SAs to be knowledgeable about their products (must be no training, etc), and most probably hate their jobs and don't care. There are only a handful of SAs that I have met that know specifics for even the absolute current items, let alone anything that has been recently discontinued or is old. Also, with the 800-number CS, you get a hundred diff. answers for each question depending on who you talk to.

The outlet SAs rarely know anything about retail items. They hardly ever recognize my bag, and last time I went to the outlet I was wearing my rose Bridgit. I was asked the collection, style name, and color. I think they knew from the hang tag it was Coach, but nothing else. I think once you learn the basic lines, it's actually easy to look at a bag and tell the line without necessarily knowing futher specifics like color options, etc. Even at my boutique on Sat, the SA argued with me that the new Soho satchel was a Legacy item...I can't believe she thought it was a Legacy piece! It wasn't even in the Legacy section of the store, but with the other Sohos. TBH, I'm not criticizing except in the sense that this bothers me a bit on several levels. One is that I have been given misinformation before because of this, and it's cost me time as well as prompted me to make bad purchase decisions. It's happened far too frequently IMO! But beyond that, I have to say that given some people's inability to tell fakes from the real (especially dept store SAs)...I wonder how many SAs have been scammed with returns?? I've seen some clever ones at places like TJ Maxx. I would hope this does not happen at any Coach store, but the way some of the employees act at a few locations, I would not be surprised to hear if it did!

I really think Coach should require their SAs (and employees) to be more knowledgeable and helpful. I don't know what kind of training or meetings they have, but they need more! As a real estate agent in a very litigious society, I can tell you that lawsuits are more common than you realize, and this kind of thing usually doesn't fly for very long.... there's always the possibility of losing your license by simply giving bad/wrong information!
 
#15
LegacyStripes said:
AWE! I HOPE NONE OF THEM MAKE YOU CRY! That is so not cool!
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I have no complaints about my SA's here in Chicago, in the loop. They are hands down very nice and cool! They even called me when one of the managers recently got her new pleated ergo tote in - i mean how cool is that. they knew i liked the bag and remembered to call me.... that is customer service. i wish i recd that kind of service everywhere. :tup:
 
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