If you are like me you love Chanel, Louis Vuitton etc. For a long time those brands felt so far out of reach to me that I didn't even look at them. Then over time I was able to afford some items and decided to treat myself to a few things.
Like a lot of people I had always imagined the customer service and the quality would be excellent. In a lot of cases I was very wrong. Instead I found snobby sales assistants, badly made items and shocking customer service. Honestly you wouldn't believe it sometimes.
At first I didn't notice. Partly because I had never shopped at these sort of stores before and had no idea what to expect and partly because I was lucky with the 1st two items I purchased because I didn't have quality issues with them although I know a lot of people do.
The customer service in Chanel was less than stellar. I was left sitting waiting and ignored for ages. I was about to leave when an assistant did help me and she was fine. But since then when I have gone into Chanel they treat me (and a lot of people) like I shouldn't be there. Louis Vuitton aren't much better. Anyone that saw the Bethany Frankel clip of how Chanel treated her when she tried to visit a store while dressed casually will know what I mean. They refused to let her in saying she needed an appointment. She went back to the same store the next day dressed to the nines and still with no appointment and suddenly they were so nice, let her in without question. This isn't ok. You can't just decide if that customer is "good enough" based on how they are dressed. Look at people like Steve Jobs, he could afford to buy the whole store but he dresses in jeans and a jumper all the time.
A lot of people may have saved hard to buy that one item, so why shouldn't they experience great service and top quality. If they are treated badly they won't go back. There are rumours that this is exactly what those stores want, to stop regular people going into them. If that's true then I find it offensive.
Not all luxury stores do this but no one should be doing this. If I or anyone wants to go in and browse and potentially buy we should be able to do so and be made to feel welcome.
So I decided some time ago I would no longer give my money to these companies. That doesn't mean I don't like or want some of the items but I buy them pre loved. That way someone else benefits from my hard earned pennies and I still get the items. Plus if you buy pre loved any quality issues that item has will hopefully have become apparent already so you won't have the issue. It will also almost always be a lot cheaper.
Sadly it seems the days of great service and quality being guaranteed with luxury fashion houses are gone, at least most of the time. But look at pre loved and vintage and you might just get what you want still.
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