to be disappointed about luxury store customer service?

[yolofish]

My DD1 has just turned 21, so today we went to vv expensive, luxury shop to buy her possibly the 3rd cheapest thing they offer - agreed pressie, actually not too expensive in the scheme of things.

We were both reasonably dressed - possibly more so than the tourists wandering around - yet we were not treated that well. Apparently the system is you give your name at the door - no one asked us that, so we wandered around until I found a sales lady who said she would add our names to the list.

20 mins later we were then served by the most incredibly sullen youth I have ever come across. Absolutely no interest in us - slapped the chosen item on the counter, didn't bother to point out any its features or why it would be so desirable. No kind of "is this a special purchase" or any interest at all actually. The packaging was eventually lovely, and hopefully she will get beautiful emails from the store in question and maybe the odd glossy brochure in the future after we'd filled in all the inevitable details.

I feel mugged!

We still bought it, because she'd set her heart on it, but she was disappointed by the whole experience because of the way we were treated. She loves the present, but the experience was such a bloody disappointment!

The snobbery in this thread is amazing - gave me some great laughs this morning! Pretentious twats do have a use after all.

When I buy expensive makeup I go to the counters instead of ordering online so I can talk to other people who love makeup and feel a bit fawned over. It's also a great ASMR experience. For me, the customer service is included in the price of the item - if I didn't get the CS, I'd buy something cheaper.

Some really mean posters on here. Why the need to be sniffy about a 21yr old girl wanting something that she's coveted for ages as a gift?

I'm not bothered by designer 'gear' but wouldn't be so mean to someone who wanted to spend their money on an item I wasn't particularly fussed by.

My own teenage ds saved birthday and Christmas money and asked me to take him to Westfield to spend it. He was treated very well in LV store and brought a belt. The assistant let him try on a variety of belts and discussed them all with humans made suggestions for alternatives. Then even let ds try on some trainers knowing that he didn't have enough money to buy both.

So I would say do complain as despite being a small purchase all customers should be treated equally. And yes for a lot of shoppers shopping at these so called luxury stores it is about the experience. The nicely wrapped and boxed item placed in tissue in a sturdy card bag. I saw rain covers being placed on the larger carrier bags!!!

YANBU.

Apart from anything else, as others have said, it's bad business sense. I've given up buying things in high end shops - they don't want me to buy the clothes as I don't fit the "brand image" (i.e. I'm short, and by fashion standards fat), and I had a lot of bad experiences in my twenties being sneered at by shop assistants. So I'm damned if I'm giving them my hard-earned cash for bags or shoes either. Over the twenty years of my working life, that's tens of thousands of pounds that I haven't spent in designer shops. (I look for stuff made with quality materials elsewhere, and get some things made for me.)

I have had one of those little LV keychain purses for about 15 years and it still looks brand new.
It's worth the money paid for it!
Hope she loves it for years to come.

Apologies OP.. missed your response re the emails. And to the PP who said " give over" re the emails I wasn't having a go, I genuinely didn't understand

I'm not sure who I despise more. The people who sneer at OP for buying the cheapest LV thing or the people tripping over themselves to boast that they don't fall for that kind of marketing crap.

Yes. The first is pure one up manship and the second is showing how clever they are. Think I need to hide this thread.

It's not boasting about how clever you are, it's more talking about seeing the light.

This consumerist lifestyle is fine if you can afford it, but many can't an personal debt is reaching peak levels again. People laugh at shopoholics but it can be very debilitating if you seriously have it.

Eating disorders have sored with beauty managzines that promote only certain looks and I feel are designed to make everyone feel inferior and push products to give momentarily a feel good factor.

Without being rude how is someone's life improved by a £150 heavily marketed key ring over an almost identicalal one for £3 from the market?

There's a delicious irony in being sneered at as a poor man's purchaser by the guy behind the counter, who is actually just a shinier version of a checkout operator and almost certainly couldn't afford to shop there either.
I think the joke is on him... The saddo.

I've learnt from experience that if 'ordinary' people go anywhere frequented by the fabulously wealthy and/or famous, either a restaurant or retail, they're treated appallingly in the main.

Also, a friend who works in fashion recently told me that many incredibly expensive designers' products are actually made in the same factories as average high street products, using the same quality of materials and construction, and you are paying ten times the price or more what is literally a name. It really is a mug's game.

I'm glad it's made your daughter happy now OP, but hopefully she'll grow out of this by the time she's in charge of a credit card - it's just not worth it.

a friend who works in fashion recently told me that many incredibly expensive designers' products are actually made in the same factories as average high street products, using the same quality of materials and construction, and you are paying ten times the price or more what is literally a name

This is true although fabric quality can be diff but composition very similar.

Fabric quality is far superior.
I used to have a designer handbag habit.
It tailed off because they just don't wear out!
Like I said upthread, my LV clef purse still looks brand New, and it's been kicking about in my various handbags for 15 years. I could have bought cheap knock offs for a fiver, but they would probably have been scuffed up and splitting within a year.
I've always been of the opinion that you buy the best you can afford and it should last for many years.
I don't mean fast fashion, I mean classic items. A good coat, a good bag, good wellies etc.

I do think it sounds like the OP and daughter had higher expectations (maybe misguided) about places like this and so that has left a flat feeling about it.

I think the quality of materials can be different and the workmanship, but if it's a handbag you use daily it still won't last that long really.

I know someone that bought a v expensive Hermes and two years later after daily use it looked pretty grubby (light brown) and scuffed. She probably wasn't taking that good care of it, but she could have bought 100 knock offs for the same price and each one probably would have lasted a year.

MrsTrentReznor I agree with spending money on good quality bags and shoes, but whereas say, Russell & Bromley boots or a Jigsaw handbag could be three times the price of cheaper brands, the increase in price is at least relative to the quality.

I don't believe £1,000 - £2000 Louis Vuitton bags are actually that much better than that.

Ugh, I hate that kind of attitude. I had a similar thing in SpaceNK last year. I've always bought lots of expensive cosmetics and perfume, but last year I was out with dd, who was a couple of months old. I wasn't wearing makeup, she was in the sling, and I had pretty bad pnd. I thought I'd pop into SpaceNK to buy some skincare products and a perfume I'd had my eye on to cheer myself up. Yes, I didn't look like their standard (glamorous) customer, but actually I used to be a long standing customer of theirs. They completely ignored me initially, and then when I asked a question, they were so rude in their reply that I simply walked out. I haven't bought anything from them since, and I'm now back to my true cosmetic-addict ways.

Everyone should receive good service, however they look, and whatever they're buying. I don't like being fawned over, but a pleasant demeanour and a bit of eye contact isn't much to ask for!

Hope your Dd is really pleased with her present, and that it didn't spoil your day too much.

OP you're over reacting seriously. The guy is prob on minimum age. He didn't do anything THAT BAD just wasn't overly enthusiastic.

Yes I completely agree that more expensive clothes and shoes fit, hang and look better. I used to buy cheap dresses thinking what was the difference. I now buy slightly more expensive stuff (sure many on here would still sneer) and the difference is amazing. Last better too, look "posh" for longer

As a teenager I sold hats on Saturdays in BHS and was always pleasant and helpful. No excuse.

This isn't true! DP has been to LV plenty of times in a tracksuit and still received great customer service
It is absolutely true. People with access to great nutrition, a healthier lifestyle which often goes hand in hand with wealth, good dental work, hair etc still look wealthy even in a tracksuit. They will give clues with their confidence, their manner, the trainers they are wearing etc etc. People are very good and often very accurate at assessing spendibilty based on hundreds of subtle cues, rightly or wrongly, and they do look.

Puffpaw do you have a sticker in the rear window of your car saying: 'Want a great life? Ask me how!'

😂😂😂😂😂😂😁😁😀@limitedperiodonly

Access to great nutrition and dental work has no correlation to either earning power or disposable income, Puffpaw
Looking fit and healthy is not the prerogative of the wealthy. What a very strange premise

That's a load of crap. The senior partners at my last company were on a package of 1-3 million a year and most of them looked like shit. Big guts, bad teeth, haggared skin, often the same poor fitting clothes that plebs wear.

I've worked in Harrods and you should treat everyone the same. I think most staff do.
But you learn to spot the glossy cash. Or the rich dressed a mess.
If you have a decent handbag and coat I think you are likely to get treated differently.