Where do you buy your (new) CLs from?

[itsprincesspri]

I’m in a large city, so our mall has CLs at Saks, Neimans, and an free standing boutique. I bought my first 2 pairs from Neimans, as they were on sale and I figured it was the best way to try it them out. For future pairs, I’m debating if I want to continue w NM or go to the free standing store.

NM pros are the service, the person who helped me was very honest in his opinions of the shoes I tried and their fit. He also gave me his cell to text him. There was a lot of room to try on the shoes, bright lighting, etc. On the downside, I don’t know that they get every style and size in store. I’m also worried about fakes (the other thread said someone received fake shoes from NM!).

CL boutique has very dim lighting, loud music, and fairly poor service (though maybe they realized I wasn’t planning on buying something that day). I do like that it’s less likely to be fake, and they’ll have more styles/sizes available.

Thoughts?

 

[lxrac]

his website............

 

[itsprincesspri]

his website............

I prefer in person because I haven’t figured out my sizing and (generally) like the experience.

 

[LavenderIce]

It sounds like you have a great SA at NM. Whether it's NM or the boutiques, if they do not have your size or style in store, as long as it's within the system, they should be able to get it for you. As for fakes, I have never received fake anything from NM.
In regards to styles available in comparison to the boutiques, I find that there is an overlap in the styles NM, Saks, etc. have with what the boutiques have. i.e. classic such as So Kate in nude and black patent usually can be found at both. The variance may be a seasonal style the retailers will have in one color, whereas the boutiques will have in another.

 

[MegaMilez]

Having worked there (NM) in Ladies Shoes, and being the person who received the fake pair in the other thread, I figured I'd share my opinion.

I always tried my best to give great service as you explained above. I would say that being a pro at customer service isn't attached to NM, but rather the individual. In fact, I worked at Nordstrom and when it came to customer service, NM was nowhere near the same level (not sure if that is true present day as I believe Nordstrom has declined in that regard as well). For example, the NM store card had colored tiers based on spend level. One customer came in to return a pair of Louboutins - which I had no problem with doing. However, the system required a managerial approval. The shoes were worn, but it was something along the lines of it was rubbing blisters or something that you wouldn't realize until after the fact.

The manager denied her return. She was furious and said (to the manager as she wasn't mad at me) "Do you know how much I spend here?" - I didn't, so I looked up her store card tier after she left. Her tier was something like 500-700k/yr, and they chose to deny a $500 shoe return. Idiotic. (This tier system might have changed since I worked there - but we had a chart in the back of the different spend tiers)

As I mentioned in my thread, I am now making enough money to afford to purchase a luxury item here and there, and chose to do business with NM for the fear of fakes - as I mentioned in my thread. While it is likely that what happened to me is a rarity, it happened - and I probably wasn't the first. I'm sure some don't even realize they were sold fakes for the same reason, they shopped at a "reputable" store.

As far as customer service went for my experience. It was non-existent. Even the sales associate I called (gave him an easy sale instead of having the online rep process the purchase when re-ordering the correct pair) didn't exhibit any superior customer service. In fact, he was irritated that my card didn't process the first time due to a fraud alert ("did you just purchase $X from...").

Louboutin's support suggested that I purchase directly through them in the future to avoid any risks.

So, if you are concerned about fakes, purchase directly or take the time in person to look for signs that it is. Now that I've seen both in person, I could tell (at least when it comes to sneakers).

If you don't mind a slight risk of fakes in exchange for good customer service, then I'd continue shopping at the local retailer. I'd be sure to examine the box to see if it was previously purchased (usually has an additional sticker on it if it wasn't taken off) because I feel like what might happen is someone purchases the real shoe, replaces it with a replica and then returns it. Then it ends up being sold to someone like me. I'm speculating here, but when I worked at NM, we weren't instructed to examine for fakes, but rather just check if the shoe was worn or not.

Hope that helps!

 

[cinnabom]

I agree with the person above. Nordstrom's is definitely a much better shopping experience. They literally have workers all over their shoe section, and you can tell exactly who they are. Also their shoe section is much larger than any NM's I've been to. With that said, I purchased my CL from matches fashion because my credit card was offering reward points.