After I posted about Dior’s free mini pouch and 3 make-up set I went to pick it up from Dior at The Bay (Kingston, Ontario) yesterday. I printed out the coupon which clearly stated “Bring in your coupon and receive a Mini Pouch with 3 make-up brushes” and it even had a photo of the set.
I went to Dior’s counter but there was no cosmetics representative there so I asked the Clarins rep. She said Dior’s rep is on vacation and that she (Clarins rep) is handling Dior until the Dior rep comes back in a few days. I inquired about Dior Fahrenheit and if they had any promos etc. and she was very friendly.
I then gave her the coupon and when she saw it she says “you have to enter the contest and then you might win the pouch and 3 makeup brushes” <– she is clearly lying
I reply very politely “I believe the contest is on a Dior Couture set which is worth $250 but the mini pouch is a gift as it clearly states on the coupon”
She then takes the coupon and reads it out: “Bring in your coupon and receive a Mini Pouch with 3 make-up brushes” and then she suddenly changes her argument (which shows that she was lying in the first place); she says “Another customer brought in this coupon a couple of days ago before the Dior rep left and we discussed it and found out it is redeemable at large stores only.”
I reply “well it says Dior counters at The Bay which is where we are right now” (and this is the only The Bay in Kingston)
She replies very rudely “yes, but only in large cities like Toronto”
The argument was going no where and it was obvious that she wasn’t going to honour the coupon so I just left.
I feel very disappointed with the way this rep spoke and reacted. She was by all means rude and her words were deceitful and dishonest. I’m a huge fan of Dior products; I buy Dior Fahrenheit very frequently and always tryout any of their new fragrances. I’ve always had respect for their style and their line of products. What I don’t understand is why they launch a marketing campaign or why they offer a free set and then disappoint their customers! If Dior can’t honour the coupon why offer it in the first place? If this coupon hadn’t existed I wouldn’t have been pleased nor disappointed; but now 🙁
For your info this happened at The Bay, Cataraqui Town Centre, Kingston, Ontario yesterday (Wednesday, June 21st, 2006) at about 6:00pm.
WOW!
Remind me of a few run-ins with retail people in similar situations. . .
This is what I’ve been waiting for – a little bit of real life thrown in the mix. Don’t get me wrong – listing the deals and promos is great, but a post like this every once in a while is nice to see.
On the other hand, it’s unfortunate you had to experience that. You sound brand loyal – or perhaps you were….
Well, all of us are loyal to a brand to some extent. For example, I always buy Glad plastic wrap (Almost said “Glad Saran wrap” there :P), but only if nothing else is on sale (except for Equality, No name, etc, which I only buy for some products, like facial tissues (I also keep a decent supply of 3-plys in case of a cold))
Guys, this might actually have nothing to do with Dior itself. There are a lot of b*tchy counter salespeople out there who will take the samples themselves, and not have anything, and just refuse to honour a coupon and make up crazy stories to drive you away, because face it, you’re there for a free item, you’re not gonna be raising their daily sales value. I’d recommend going to the general manager. Or at least asking to speak to him/her. I’m a frequent cosmetics buyer and I deal with those ladies often. You just gotta know how to work it 😉
i am heading to oakville place today and plan on visiting the bay with my coupon. I agree there are a few sales reps who should be in a different line of work. she was probobly p.o . because the dior rep was on holidays and she had to deal with the freebie. supervisors should be informed of her poor attitude. i don’t believe that a company like dior would condone such behavior.
This exact same thing happened to me when i used the Doritos chip bag promotion. I took the coupon to Macs to get the free chip bag, and the lady look at it. And then she was like “is says here you cant photocopy it” and i was like i know that , i printed this. And she was like “no its photocopy” and then i was like wht u want me to bring u my computer and show it to you!! After that i just left. These people are so messed up. They dont know any of this stuff.
GOT MY FREE DIOR BRUSHES. there was no dior rep at oakville place store this morning. the young lady who waited on me was unsure where to find the promo brushes and went to another rep to ask what she knew. the second rep thought they were only available at larger stores and i assured them that the dior websites states all bay stores. she appologized for not being up to date and looked for the brushes.when she found them she took my coupon and handed me the brushes with another appology. i thanked them and also explained that i did understand it was not their fault they had to hunt for them. and i thanked them for being so kind about it. that is how all bay stores should handle a sticky situation. with kindness and when in doubt, ask someone else. i told them of your troubles in kingston and they suggest going directly to a store manager. any ways the brushes are in a tiny pouch but they are dior and the quality is quite good for a freebie. thank you for finding us all the great stuff. i love it. hope this helps .
Joel, yes, it’s not the first time I’ve come across a similar situation but it’s even more annoying when you’re a regular customer. Dior Perfumes are rather costly and giving out a small thank you gift shouldn’t be that complicated.
Mark, I’ll try to add more real life posts every now and then. Thanks for your feedback :-). I wouldn’t say Dior lost my loyalty just because of a single event… but it’s just frustrating.
Alisa, I strongly believe that it’s a company’s responsibility to hire responsible sales reps. If sales reps act inappropriately the company in charge should be held responsible for hiring incompetent sales people. So what’s the secret behind getting along? 😉
Susanna thanks for letting us know how things went along. I’m glad you got your brushes 🙂 This should encourage others to go and redeem their coupons too. Thanks for enquiring about my situation. Does the Bay store manager have anything to do with that promotion? Or do you mean Dior’s manager?
A lot of the time, salespeople haven’t the first clue about what promotions their employers are offering. So rather than admit they know jack, they’d rather be dinks and not honour the coupon for fear of getting in trouble, or more importantly, looking stupid.
Sorry about your luck, though I’m happy for Susanna’s.
(Am I the only one who is eagerly anticipating her free toilet paper sample?)
Dear Boo Radley,
I am the person who came a couple days earlier! I came with my sister, and we were so excited. We had printed off the coupons, but when we went to redeem them the Dior lady said that the offer was only valid in Ottawa, and that they should say that on the coupon. The Dior rep was pleasant, but I generally find the staff at The Bay in Kingston to be EXTREMELY rude. A couple of years ago, the manager of the women’s clothing department nearly brought me to tears. The dept had held a swimsuit for me, because they could not find the price. They took down my number and said they would call, but they never did. I was fine with that, I figured that they had lost my number, and those things happen from time to time. So this time, I found the swimsuit, and explained that I had attempted to purchase it a couple of weeks ago when they were 50% off. I explained that they had recorded my information and the promotion that was on at that time. As soon as I said 50% off, she cut me off, and in a raised voice told me that it was impossible because that sale had never occurred and that I “got [my] information wrong” or that I was lying! She never attempted to look for the record of my having attempted to purchase the item, and her tone, body language…every aspect of her behaviour was very rude. I almost burst into tears; she had treated me like dirt. I walked away at first, but then I went back to the counter and put down the items that I was going to purchase (my entire family has supported The Bay for as long as we can remember) and I explained to her that I had planned on buying those items, but after the way she treated me I would not purchase anything that day, and would think twice before shopping there again. She just muttered, “whatever”.
Now, I have worked in retail, and I would always try to serve my customers to the best of my ability. I always tried to score them a deal, and help them coordinate outfits, etc. I made sure I showed them sale merchandise and informed them about freebies/promos/contests. I have had bad days, but I would never dream of taking it out on my customers.
The Bay in Kingston is known for having terrible customer service (understaffed + rude staff). I know that there have also been several reports of racism Apparently a racial slur was used by one sales associate, and black customers received no help (only suspicious looks).
Dana, at Lancome is great about freebies, and she does a great job on makeup, but beware the lady with the British accent–she doesn’t seem to like the freebie idea.
Again, I am so sorry to hear that this happened to you too. I hope that future freebies work out much better for you! Take care, and happy hunting!
[…] Landior left a comment on my Disappointing Dior post describing her unpleasant experience at The Bay in Kingston. I always felt that The Bay in Kingston is very unwelcoming, from the second you pass by the cosmetics section to the second you check out. […]
I must say that I am severely dissapointed with the Bay in Vancouver myself. I tried getting the Dior set at the Bay in Park Royal and the one in Downtown, and both told me that they had run out of them (mind you this was at the very beginning of the promotion and I am not buying that at all). Then for the recent Lancome promotion I went back to both locatins to check out the fall make-up and get my free perfume sample. Well, this time it was even worse. At the Bay in Park Royal I could not find a Lancome sales representative for over 40 min (I kept on going back to the counter while shopping for other things), and the other sales representatives claimed that they weren’t able to help me either. Then later on in the week I went to the Downtown location and there I was starred down for having the nerve and interrupting a gossip session between several of the Lancome sales representatives and then was told to come back on Thursday because that is only when they had the samples out. Now by this point in time I am furious as I have also worked in customer service for over six years, and this kind of behaviour is just unacceptable. And I do blame the individual companies for these horrid customer experiences as they are the ones hiering these unpleasent (to put it mildly) individuals to represent their company. I for one am going to think hard about whether I want to spend the little money I have as a full time student on for instance Lancome make-up as I should not leave the counter feeling worse about myself than I did before the purchase just because I was treated like dirt by one of these mean individuals.
And while I am complaining, I also do want to point out that the Clinique sales reps at Holt Renfrew (sp ?) are awesome ! Best customer experience ever. And the same goes for some of the other personel at the Bay in downtown in the women’s clothing department. So thank you to all the great people providing superior customer service, and shame on all the meanies !!
Is Lancome products only available at the BAY?
I found most of this thread pretty interesting, regarding the horrendous customer service experienced at cosmetic counters.
I used to work at the Clairins counter and made my wage plus 2% commission. The problem with cosmetic salespeople, is that most of them work for a specific line, and they are loathe to be taken away from THEIR counter, to find something from another company/brand, for which they will receive no benefit or spiff, etc. There was a kind of unwritten rule, that if you sold something from another brand, you were supposed to ring it in under the brand reps #, and they would do the same for you. That was the plan anyway.
Most of them are paid more than the regular riff-raff salespeople in the store, plus they get their commisssion, and so they have quotas to sell each week or month. If they’re off looking for a freebie for you, and someone comes to “their” counter while they’re gone, and another rep looks after THAT customer and gets the sale, the claws come out.
I had one salesgirl at the next counter to me (Lancome), reduce me to tears because she was so snotty about me ringing up a sale of her product for a customer while she was there. It was extremely busy, and I was trying to help her out, and keep the customers from having to stand around half an hour while she waiting on them in order.
When I figured out what the commission was on that item that I rang up under my number, it was $1.00. After I went and had a cry about it in the staff washroom, I brought a dollar down to her counter and put in in front of her, and said “here’s your commission”. She said it wasn’t the commission but that she had quotas to meet.
Anyway, all of the women that worked at the cosmetic and perfume counters were kind of like the Queens of the store. We took longer lunch breaks, coffee breaks etc., because we were sort of our own little world apart from the store. (Cause we were all glamourous and everything you know!, which is why WE were at the front of the store!) and no one really monitored what we did all that much.
ANYWAY….. long story short is, you are complaining to the wrong person if you just b*tch to the salesperson, and tell them you’re taking your business elsewhere. They don’t care. Its no skin off their nose whether you shop there or not, they’re usually just glad to see you leave the store.
When I have a problem in a store, restaurant, office or whatever, I try to resolve it with the salesperson or customer service person. If they are giving me attitude, I take out a little notebook that I carry in my purse, and just calmly ask them what their name is, and I write it down. Then I ask them what their managers name is, and write that down. Then I ask for either the store managers name, or the district managers name and phone number, and write that down. By the time I get to that point, they’ve usually begun to rethink their snotty attitude, or rude behavior. I don’t get upset, or yell, or cause a stink, I just ask them these questions and write them in my book. It works like a charm. I rarely ever have to go over their head, because their attitude adjustment seems to come over them quite quickly once they realise I’m not screwing around and will pursue the matter further. I usually get what I want in the end, because they know I’m going to report their bad behaviour to their superiors, and they don’t want THAT.
Don’t be afraid to ask them to page the manager! There is always someone of a higher position in the store. If they aren’t helpful, again I do the notebook thing and ask for THEIR managers name and phone number, and the district managers info. I advise them of the poor service I received from the salesperson, and now the unsatisfactory service I’m receiving from THEM, and then tell them that I’ll be contacting the head office to pursue the matter. It doesn’t usually ever get that far. I’m telling you, it works like a charm, as long as you remain calm and stick to the facts.
Good luck on your future shopping treks, and hang tough. I look at it this way. These people are making retail wages, which is usually pretty crappy. If they think they can look down their noses at ME, who has the money to buy whatever they’re selling, they can think again. I mean, who is doing the serving? Not me!!
Oh man, i’ve had some doosey bad customer service experience. I’ve worked in the CS industry for over 11yrs and it seems that since I have high expectations for myself in providing excellent CS, I notice the BAD CS when I go shopping. And, it’s not just direct service, its the indirect service that also counts…read on
Most recently, this past Friday nite – my boyfriend and I went to the Orangeville Mall. He wanted to walk around the dollar store [actually called 99cent store].
As soon as we approached and took our first few steps inside, we saw the cashier sitting on a stool, feet propped up on the counter, talking to her boyfriend(who was also behind the counter and did NOT work there) eating chips or what have you. As we proceeded to walk down the isle away from her we heard something to do with ‘smoking marijuana’. We were shocked. We both turned around to look at her and she exclaimed ‘Ya, you heard what I said’ with a smug look on her face. She continued to use profaneties while speaking to her bfriend.
That right there pissed me off. So I wasn’t the most innocent kid either, but I would never and no one should ever, speak like this within ears length of a customer. I was so ticked about this, we just walked the outter perimeter of the store and left.
I firmly believe the only way things can be corrected is to contact the manager/supervisor. So Monday morning, I called the store and told the Manager/owner of the occurence. She was furious and told me that she knew who this individual was and that she would be severely reprimanded. She also told me she is having this gal call me up to apologize (ok…that to me is a bit extreme…if I get this kid on the phone i’d probably bitch her out or something)
I find Rogers call centre to have some very rude representatives, and when you ask their name, they refuse to give it to you…..
Thanks for reading…..Joanne..oops…i mean JeLLo..hehe
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Wow, I’ve shared similar experiences with bad customer service at the Bay! I live in Calgary and I work at Chinook Center Mall. The Bay there is full of fantastic makeup and I am a huge Dior/Chanel fan. I use the Dior foundation, mascara, bronzer and lip glosses. I was looking for a new skin foundation a few weeks ago and went to Dior where I was colour tested. The Dior saleswoman was a middle aged asian woman who insisted that I was much darker than I actually am, and I ended up being pressured into buying a dark orange skin foundation, the HydrAction skin tint in 30…It was no where near my skin tone and this sales rep basically pressured and guilted me into buying it.
A few days later, I had not used it, I felt terribly uncomfortable wearing something that made me look orange, so I went to exchange it. The same sales rep was there and she made me feel TERRIBLE about wanting to return it, and she told me “you did not have to buy!” over and over again. I explained I felt uncomfortable wearing it and needed a closer skin match. She was so incredibly rude and unprofessional. She told me “it was the LAST time” I could exchange it (though it was the first?)..I had also later found out that she had told her staff not to help me or do exchanges for me. I was buying a bronzer and the other sales rep told me to “make sure I loved it because it was final sale.” Eventually I ended up with the right skin tone but I had to speak to the district manager who was fantastic about it.
I cannot believe they treat customers like that. I spend so much money there and that was my first and only exchange at Dior. Why do these kind of people get in customer service? Beware of this woman, she is way too confident in her skills as a makeup artist (which seem to be lacking)!
I think that with most cosmetic counters, there is always one or two bad seeds. Associates who really don’t know their products, who are pushy with their sales, who give misleading info, and who are rude if you, god forbid, decide to return something. Having said that, I have also come across some wonderful sales associates.
My most unbelievable experience came courtesy of the Dior counter manager at the Bay in downtown Vancouver. I have already heard stories about her from another associate at another Dior counter, but never had the dubious pleasure of meeting the woman until the day that I went into the store to return a gift that I had bought for my sister. The compact was unopened and bought only two days ago, and I had the receipt with me. Boy, did she give me the hardest time. She claimed that since she didn’t carry the stock, she couldn’t take it back. I insisted that she scan the item, and if it shows up in the system, then she should be able to process a return. It did scan, then she claimed that I had to take it back to where I bought it and get my money back there. I told her that is not true. I can return it at any Bay store as I had the receipt. We were like this back and forth for the longest time. Finally, she did do the return, but in the most grudging, unpleasant manner. Then when I told her that I was actually looking for that compact in a different shade, she got all nice and friendly again. She insisted on taking my number down so that she could call me as soon as the product came in. She also got really nosey and wanted to know why I was all the way out in Langley where I had bought the original compact. At this point, I was pretty fed up with her, so I told her that I work for a legal firm out there. She then pulled me aside, and asked if I could recommend any good divorce lawyers as she was going through a nasty divorce.
I felt like I was in the twilight zone, and got away as soon as I could.
Later on, I found out from the associate whom I had bought the original compact that this woman had called her as soon as I left and berated her over the phone. She lied and claimed that I had told her my original associate had forced me to buy the compact so that she could make a sale. What the???!!!!!
So, Ms. Dior counter manager from the downtown Bay who is going through a nasty divorce, know that you will never get a sale of any sort from me, and I will also tell my friends to never buy from you.
It’s an interesting view for sure and I appreciate it so this is a little something for all…
If at first you don’t succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried. 🙂
Making a craigslist ad that gives Mystery Creeper’s phone number as a contact for free super bowl tickets. Unless they tell me who they are.
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