Retailers and their customer service - good and bad.

[sunny]

Will be pretty hilarious if you file a Paypal claim against Grailed itself, I'd love to see that play out.

Yes. I thought of that too. "The Grailed Protection Team will assist you in filling the PayPal claim......" from the grailed website.

[jap808]

Needed help for my BBS Tejiana: due to a reckless (ab)use, I broke some laces, lose a button and unstitch part of the leather...

So I asked for assistance directly to BBS S.L.U. in Spain and they was VERY helpful, send me the spare parts I needed and finally got my jacket in full effect (thanks to my patient cobbler, too).

Now, I can't wait for spring to come!

[Faust]

Pleasant and smooth service from H.Lorenzo on a recent transaction.

[eleves]

Seconding a smooth transaction with H. Lorenzo! Was able to get an item that I wanted for a long time and there was a slight flaw (which can't be helped due to manufacturing process) and the team is helping me by contacting the designer to find the best method to fix the issue!

[Nomadic Planet]

stellar experience buying from Singolare, customer service is super kind and helpful and they even took the time to inquire about how was the fitting once they saw I got my package. Highly recommend them

[neongud]

stellar experience buying from Singolare, customer service is super kind and helpful and they even took the time to inquire about how was the fitting once they saw I got my package. Highly recommend them

Gotta agree with this, great store. Visited them in Naples a few years ago, the guy who was working was a really nice guy. I tried on some BBS and stuff, and he pointed us in the direction of the best pizza in Naples.

[jurassicsnark]

I mentioned elsewhere, but a few weeks ago I bought something off of Totokaelo, only to get a refund and a notification that their store and online stocks weren't synchronized. They subsequently wrote to apologize and then wrote again giving me $50 credit off of a $150+ next purchase. Class act.

I used to live in Seattle and spent a LOT of time at Totokaelo. I have had nothing but good experiences with them — their staff are very knowledgeable and truly very happy to help! I don't live in Seattle anymore, but since they know me, they have often contacted me to let me know that I might want to change the size on things I have ordered, and they have always been right.

[jurassicsnark]

this is cool and all but if it wasnt you, and you never complained publicly on the forum, I'd have a hard time believing that it still would have happened.

I disagree with you on this. I have been in a similar situation with them, and I am not Faust. When a pair of Rick leggings I bought were out of stock, they recommended a similar pair from Haider and gave me a discount on them. I have ended up being quite happy with them.

[jurassicsnark]

In the industry, if you're running a B&M it's not about customer satisfaction but moving your customers in a deep or emotional matter, it's going the extra mile or doing something to make your experience that much better, and there's several real ways of doing this, for example there are stores that send me personalized letters, hold on to things on a whim for me just to see it because the owner or whoever was there thought it would be perfect for me, or call me to invite me to preorder events or parties or whatever they are holding, doing stuff like this allows them to develop personal relationships with their customers (in this case me).

Yes, this, exactly this.
I am an experience designer, so I get sort of feisty about this sort of stuff, but I agree 100%, TriggerDiscipline.

[DudleyGray]

I think Calculus, Victoria fits that bill. I just received Rick cargo boxers from them, and Graham was really just the best. But I guess most people here probably already know that through forum interactions or re-porter or whatever.

[Indes]

I had a wonderful experience at The Archive! I am here in San Fran for work and the store is magnificent. It was nice to see Werkstatt Munchen's work up close, such amazing detail. The staff were super helpful and it was nice conversation all around. I picked up the first two issues of the SZ mag! Recent purchases elsewhere stopped me from picking up the the viridi-anne parka I tried on. Its just very nice to go to a store that stocks all of these designers I am interested in but maybe hadnt handled first hand. Coming from a smaller town this was certainly a wonderful opportunity

[PenguinBlubber]

Hi everyone. This is my first post on this forum. I just got back from a trip to nyc and spent much of the trip shopping. Of the places that I visited, there are four stores that probably interest y'all. I went with my friends who are not into anything of a darker aesthetic. Two of the experiences at these stores were fantastic, one was awful, and one was so-so.

First, a little background on myself and my friends to better paint a picture of the experiences: I (male) was wearing a RO leather and Helmut Lang pants the first day, a Sandro hoody and some RO jeans the second day, friend 1 (female) was wearing typical luxury designer fare both days, friend 2 (male) was wearing nike day 1 and japanese streetwear stuff day 2, friend 3 (male) was wearing gross mall stuff on day 2 (he was only there for that part). I told my friends not to come with me, but they refuse to do anything independently, whatever.

Background done, so now on to the praise. The first store that I went to was Hotoveli (day 1) with friend 1+2. The sales associate approached us right away and let us know that he was there to help. Friend 2 was kind of dicking around, shocked at the prices, trying on jackets off-the-rack (he never asked for sizes or a fitting room). Funnily, he was trying to figure out the size of a leather by Julius and kept asking what size 7 was. The clerk corrected him that 7 was the brand and we all laughed about it. Eventually, I got around to trying on some jeans. I loved this pair of waxed drkshdw jeans, but the smallest they had was 29. Im a small dude (5'7" 115lbs) and those were way too big. The sales associate did a fantastic job recommending the same thing in women's. The 26 women's were perfect! Nothing but praise for that store. Really friendly, helpful, and kept asking my friend who was dicking around if he wanted to try stuff even though it was obvious that he was not gonna buy anything.

The next relevant great place was opening ceremony. Ya'll are probably less interested in this store, but I'll share anyways. I was just there with friend 2. He was more interested in this store and bought some oversized Japanese sweatshirt thing with japanglish on it. and the sales associate was helpful towards both of us, and was eager and willing to answer questions about the merchandise. Ended up purchasing a Wooyoungmi sweater. Simple but good service.

Next store was not so good... I, friend 1, and 2 went to IF. The two sales associates were completely non-interactive and almost acted like they'd rather us not be there. Even when I requested to try a pair of Guidi boots (which they didn't have in my size) they seemed annoyed. At this point I was even holding a Hotoveli bag, so I was (at least, I would have been if their service were better) their kind of client. We left, promptly.

Finally, I, friend 1, 2, and 3 visited Atelier (day 2). I really wanted to go alone, but my friends were curious, I guess. The service was ok. I tried to be really quick and although the staff didn't approach me, were very willing to let me try some shoes that I liked. Ended up buying a pair of Ann D sneakers that were half off. Overall I wasn't super impressed, but also not offput. If I were by myself and able to take my time, browse slowly, and talk about the stuff and their aesthetic, the store might have been great.

TLDR:
hotoveli=great
opening ceremony=good
IF=bad
atelier=fine/probably would have been great with different friends

[bukka]

Disappointed by my last experience with Atelier de l'Armée, 3 months and half passed between my order and the delivery. They didn't offer any kind of compensation, nor seemed particularly apologetical about it. I was expecting something else as it already was my 3rd bag ordered from them.

[bigjus]

just had the best customer service from Holger at hide-m ... had a problem with a pair of pants i ordered and he replaced them with another pair straight away . great guy !

[vtlynch]

Had a horrendous experience with Darklands Berlin. I could go on for pages about their misconduct, but Ill try to keep it brief.

I was a previous customer of theirs so I knew about their oddities. Ordered from them in October... tracking number quickly showed issues. Turns out, they wrote the wrong ZIP on the address.

Took time out of my day to drive to neighboring town's post office *twice* to see if they had the package somewhere in the back, and filed a claim with USPS to try to sort it out. Unfortunately, it was lost.

Darklands would not acknowledge that it was lost. Told me to keep waiting, even though it was clearly not going to resolve itself. After this went on for a few weeks they explicitly said they heard from DHL that it was coming back to them.

Over the next 4 months i continue checking in with them. They never took initiative to update me, and usually I had to email twice to hear back from them.

Finally, in February they admit the package is lost, and basically reveal that they had never bothered contacting DHL during this entire time... revealing their initial statement was a lie.

I had ordered the last of the item in my size. Even worse, the item was totally unavailable anywhere else, even on the second hand market. They still have the next size up, so I begrudgingly asked them to send me that as a replacement.

They insisted that I would have to make another purchase and that they couldnt refund me until DHL reimbursed them - which would take a month. I would have screamed at them at this point if I didnt think they would ban me or something like that, and I wanted this garment.

Having no other choice, I go through with it. This time, it shows up in a week without problems. After a month, I asked them about my refund. Now, I had not made a huge purchase, but Im not a fan of having some store hold onto nearly $1000 for half a year.

Again, it takes multiple emails to get a response. They tell me I need to be patient and that it may be a few more months. Incredibly rude of them to say something like that, since I was kind through this entire process. Up until this point I had put in immense effort trying to locate the package, and following up with Darklands. It had been clear that they were putting in minimum effort the entire time - they didnt even express regret when the package was lost due to *their* mistake.

I tell them that its in no way acceptable to cock up this whole situation and then make their customer wait 6 months for a refund. It is not my concern whether DHL has reimbursed them or not. I told them they had two options: refund me immediately, or Id open a Paypal dispute.

Unsurprisingly, they would not refund me. I opened a dispute, waited the necessary time to escalate, and was immediately given my money back.

They have just lost a customer for life. Why they would be so utterly stupid is beyond me.

Campbell and his crew of morons (I also dealt with "Florian") have no idea what they are doing. I urge people to shop anywhere else. They never apologized. They never expressed concern. They did not care. Worst customer experience in my entire life.

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Also thought I should mention that another user here shared their experience of being kicked out of Darklands for (according to them) no reason. Noting that here for posterity because those posts seem to be lost during the forum transition.