Best and Worst Customer Service Experiences?

[amerikajinda]

Originally Posted by slipperywhenwet

Best Service: Paul Smith - Osaka's Daimaru department store. Louis Vuitton - COEX, Seoul, Korea.
+1,000,000,000,000,000 Japan and Korea are lightyears ahead of North America when it comes to customer service. Lightyears.

 

[ghulkhan]

My favorite SA's---

Laura at Paul Smith Soho

Eric at John Varvatos Las Vegas

Syd (Used to work for Margiela now she is at the Balenciaga store in LA)


Jeff at Jil Sander Chicago


The Bless stores in Paris and Berlin are probably the best though.

 

[mr monty]

Worst Customer Service Experiences?

This is a very interesting post to me. When some customers get poor service from CAs of a different race/color. They think race/color is usually the reason for poor customer service. While true in some cases. I think in most cases poor service has nothing to do with race/color.
I not to sure about religions?

 

[john parker]

STP customer service, at least on chat line, is so inept that I doubt I will ever order anything from them. Took three weeks to find out what width a tie was, and one rep on shoe trees did not know how shoes were sized.

 

[stilmacher]

WEMPE in Hamburg is amazing. I am not sure about their other locations but I would trust it's the same. They do any sort of small watch repair, polishing, adjusting, replacing straps etc for free and are always very kind with us. It really is the most consitent level of excellent service I have ver witnessed.

 

[robin]

Originally Posted by john parker

STP customer service, at least on chat line, is so inept that I doubt I will ever order anything from them. Took three weeks to find out what width a tie was, and one rep on shoe trees did not know how shoes were sized.
LOL

Someone sitting in front of a desk in a corporate office is not going to know those types of things.

 

[farfisa23]

Originally Posted by kaxixi

At RL in Palo Alto, ask for Dae Caldwell. I hope this helps.

+1 Dae is great, really, really great. I only deal with him at Stanford.

Also, if you are in the city Kathleen is really, really nice too, the only SA who knows the lines and will go out of her way (I won't deal with anyone else there again). Also, hand written notes that come in the mail a few days after you shop there from here are a nice, old-school touch. Howie and Norris are both really good at the RLBH (I wear way too much Ralph, I even bought the bedding).

I find the service at quite a few stores in SF to be sub-Par compared to Los Angeles, especially at Saks and the worst, Wilkes. I will never shop there ever. Being neither really old, not really gay, not super wasp-y, I find the service in SF is pretty shoddy.

That said, surprisingly good service is Barneys in Union Square, the SA's are all knowledgeable, not too pushy and stayed open 15 minutes later this week when I was there to peruse the racks and get rung up. Marco on the top floor suits is a great SA.

I think good customer service is one of the most important things a business can have, especially in today's economy.

 

[SkinnyGoomba]

I've actually had the best and worst customer service in the same store.

Hamilton Jewelers in Princeton NJ,

One of the Watch specialists, a blond female whose name escapes me is one the nicest retail sales people i've met, i've tried on tons of watches in that store when i was in the market for a high end watch. Ended up buying from an NYC jeweler, but her customer service hasnt been forgotten and i've referred many people to her who have bought watches.

One of the other SA's in the store was in the Diamond Department of the store, i asked about a 1/2kt diamond, round cut, white color....while in a T-shirt and jeans, he told me it would cost $8000 (in order words.....get lost!), and i told him he was out of his mind.
He mentioned that they werent interested in selling anything as low quality as i was interested in buying, i thought wow, $1000 buys a top quality, top cut stone at most jewelers in NYC at a 1/2 kt weight.

Months later i was in a sportcoat and slacks and the same guy was dying to get my business.

 

[Schnurretiger]

Positive: The former Eddie Bauer Store in Muenster, Germany: They were willing to give me a brand new denim jacket in exchange for my 5 year old one, because one of the silver metall buttons had come off and they had changed to copper-colored ones in the meantime.

Negative: Can't really think of something really bad right now.

 

[brlfvr]

Originally Posted by SkinnyGoomba

I've found the best way to get good customer service in most places is to treat people with respect, and not act as if i'm the center of the universe like many people do.

+10 That's the problem in many cases. Too many people abuse the customers always right attitude!

 

[LeatherSOUL]

Originally Posted by brlfvr

+10 That's the problem in many cases. Too many people abuse the customers always right attitude!

This guy recently emailed me on a Satuday afternoon then proceeded to call my shop on Sunday to complain why I didn't email him back within 24 hours. He was rude and even asked for a discount and gave my salesperson a very hard time on the phone. I then emailed him back apologizing and explaining that I don't work on the weekends and that particular weekend happened to be my birthday so I was extra busy with family and friends. He replied that he didn't care about when my birthday was or how I spent it, just wanted the shoes and continued to lecture me about other things as well. I ended up telling him in a round about way that I have no shoes for him to buy. Am I a shoe nazi ala Seinfeld?

Funny thing is, he actually bought 3 pairs from me in the past. So you would think he wouldn't be such a prick. I don't know what his problem was. Maybe a bad day? Still no excuse to be so rude.

 

[Artisan Fan]

Best experiences:
**Kiton trunk shows At Neimans in Atlanta.
**Kiton MTM fitting with Antonio De Matteis.
**General shopping at Louis Boston and Stanley Korshak.
**Mail order service from Ben Silver was really fun when I got a deal on some Santoni FAMs. Great service.
**Repeat visits to Berluti in Tokyo, London and Milan. Terrific staff.

Worst experience:
**Being talked down to by a shoe salesperson at Wilkes Bashford who did not know his product.

 

[ualman]

Never had any really bad service anywhere, but the best service I've had is in the Allen Edmonds store in San Francisco.
Very friendly and helpful staff.

 

[ualman]

Never had any really bad service anywhere, but the best service I've had is in the Allen Edmonds store in San Francisco.
Very friendly and helpful staff.

Soory for double posting

 

[Despos]

Best was at Wilkes Bashford. Walked in and was asked if I had been there before, which I had not. Was escorted to the top floor, given a tour and description of merchandise available on each floor and introduced the the sales staff. This was done on each floor until I was back to the first floor. I was so impressed I went back the next day to buy two pairs of shoes. After I picked them the sales person told me they looked dry and he would polish them while I paid for them. While I was paying I looked over and he was applying polish with his fingers, no cloth, and shined up both pairs and put a jar of the appropriate shoe cream in each box.

Worst, Barneys in Chicago. I feel lucky if a sales person will make eye contact with me while in the store. Have been going in the store for 10 years and have seen some of the same people for that long and get the feeling they have never seen me before.