Pandora queue of hell

[Shmoigel]

Today I made the mistake of thinking that I had a little bit of cash to spare. I thought I would do something lovely and get my teen daughter an extra, small gift for Christmas. There were about 20 people in the queue and I had an hour to spare so thought it would be plenty of time to grab a pair of earrings.

One hour later my left eye was twitching, the older lady behind me was incandescent with rage. They had two people serving and the rest of the 10 staff were there to control the queue. About 40 people gave up on buying something.

I didn’t know if they were trying to create an air of exclusivity or the other staff didn’t know how to use the till.

I ended up giving up after an hour and went to H Samuel’s where I got served in 5 minutes flat!

Anyone else experienced the absolute seventh level of hell that is Pandora?

Wow. I’ve seen the queues at Pandora during holidays such as Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day etc so I’m not surprised. At least you got your jewellery in the end from h Samuel. Hope your daughter loves her earrings.

Thank you x I got too hangry to care any more!

I have worked retail myself over Christmas so know how awful it is but it was making me feel 🤬

The lady behind me was making me chuckle though! She started out all lady like then was getting more and more ragey!

Yes I went early in December and that was slow, took about 20 mins to sell me some earrings as they couldn’t work out how to process a gift card on their iPad tills! I’m sure they must lose a lot of money not serving enough people

Last time I went in the shop was empty and I asked for X bracket with Y and Z charms - it took her fucking ages to get them and when she finally came back she had about 8/9/10 other items in the tray which she proceeded to piss about showing me. I just wanted her to get XYZ and let me pay for it. A transaction that should have taken 10 minutes max took around half an hour with all the sales shite. She would have gone longer had I not got slightly annoyed and said ‘I just need to pay and leave’ I’m not surprised they have huge queues given the time they waste trying to sell you things you don’t want.

It’s obviously the ridiculous American model of service that you get in places like Abercrombie and Fitch etc.
I completely lost my rag in the NY 5th Avenue branch a decade ago because we had queued to get in, queued to get to the tills and then it took 20 minutes for them to scan and bag 4 items, I was incandescent with rage by this time and told them they wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the job in England.
I’ve never seen anyone fold a t-shirt so slowly, it was pathetic.

I no longer go into Pandora because of this. You can’t even look at the charms anymore without queuing up. Order online is the only way.

Oh it's the men who have no idea and have left it to the last minute! 😂

I made the mistake of ordering a charm click and collect about 10 days ago to avoid the delivery fee, as I go past the shop to drop DD off at dance lessons. It took 25 minutes in a queue of 3 ahead of me (although one gave up) and in that time 2 of the 3 staff members were still with the customer they were with when I joined the queue. I’ll pay the extra for delivery next time!

You are making me glad I made dh tell his mum to return the bracelet she got me from there years ago. It’s not my thing at all and it feels that as soon as you have one people just revert to buying charms for it. I know they sell other things, but the queue and the performance for what it is, frankly ridiculous.

Ha, the reviews are so bad.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.pandora.com

Glad it’s not just me! They must lose so much money! It was full of slightly befuddled men!
The chap in front of me had two tear tattoos on his cheek!
He had either murdered two people previously or he has battled the Pandora queue twice before! Both events would be equally traumatic!

I hate that you can’t just browse unaccompanied. They lose my business every time due to this. On the odd occasion a family member asks for Pandora as a gift I always buy online where I can browse at leisure & check out whenever I’m ready!

I just shopped Pandora online, I’ve seen the queues before and I’m not prepared to stand for an hour to spend money

10 people managing the queue? That's ridiculous surely 2 or 3 at most could manage it!!

As soon as the slightest gap became available there was one of the queue people there to sullenly usher you down slightly. They had two outside to manage that queue and then as soon as you were allowed inside into the hallowed soul-less store you were immediately herded to one side. No browsing allowed! They were even wasting full brochures on every person in the queue to avoid people looking in the cabinets.

truly bizarre!!

I reckon the queue people were seasonal staff that they didn’t quite trust to serve people!

Is it because charms would be ridiculously easy to steal? Although they are behind glass usually. It’s very odd.

I live in the U.S. and have never encountered this. Service is always quicker w d much friendlier here vs the UK 😅 Infact when I visit home I’m always shocked at how rude some people are! (Customers and staff).

Maybe the are going slowly on purpose, so that there's always a big queue to make the shop look so popular and sought-after.

I live in the U.S. and have never encountered this. Service is always quicker w d much friendlier here vs the UK 😅 Infact when I visit home I’m always shocked at how rude some people are! (Customers and staff).

I actually thought i was imagining this in the USA…im glad im not! Literally the slowest service known to man!!

Oh gosh it’s a terrible place isn’t it.

I’ve never been in before but my neice likes Pandora so wanted to get her some earrings for her birthday. I went in, had a look around, a sales lady came up and asked if she could help. I said I wanted silver earrings up to about £70, she showed me some and I chose a pair. She then told me to go and join the “wait line” and someone would help me I asked her what she meant and she pointed to a queue and repeated that I need to go and join the “wait line”.
I said but you’ve helped me and I want those earrings and just wanted to pay, she said that’s not the way they did things, so I walked out.
I got a much nicer pair someone where else!

I like Pandora but I order online, can't be bothered with all that faff and upselling.
Also can use discount codes online.

I walked past one at the weekend which had a queue of young men out the door. At the time I thought it was sweet that so many of them were getting their (presumably) girlfriends something nice and assumed there was something there that was the latest must have. I’ve never shopped there so didn’t realise it must have just been because they were so slow! I did have a slow/painful experience in Whittards though as their tills kept crashing and there’s only enough space for about 5 people in my local one as it is.

What did you buy in h Samuel?