Funny S.A. comment

That made me laugh.
Seriously, though, how come those guys don't like their jobs that much?
Help people test fragrances? Have fragrance conversations all day? Learn new fragrance stuff everyday? Isn't that like the most fun job in the world?

Maybe she just really wanted to go shopping???!
Seriously, I don't think any place has 100% customer service anymore. It's always a surprise when I get good service these days.

the best SA's are right here, in some different career altogether..LOL.

She phrased it kind of funny, but I really wouldn't have wanted any other outcome if I had told her I was just browsing! (Doesn't that usually mean "I don't really need any help right now and would just like to sniff some frags"?)

A Macy's sales person would likely have tried to push something on you. (I hate this!)

I had an experience at Nordstroms recently that left me scratching my head too. I was looking to browse a bit and maybe buy a new bottle. Mostly, I just wanted to sniff in peace. But I was accosted by 14 different SAs and Distributor Reps over the course of 10 minutes. At one point one of the SAs told another one to "don't bother" assisting me - "he's not going to buy anything anyway."

That ticked me off. I'm not dressed like a bum or a shoplifter - I've got a dark suit and nice tie on.

I'm just not going back to Nordies anytime soon. Even though they have a good selection, I just don't feel like running the gauntlet to sniff a few frags. What is the matter with these people?

Teddius

These people need to be reported to their managers. Only in that way will they be made examples of and hopefully stop, that holier than thou mentality really ticks me off more than anything.

I actually had a funny experience at Nordstrom... usually when I ask for a test spray, the SA's spritz the card and hand it straight to me, but this one fellow spritzed it, sniffed it himself first (for like a good 10 seconds at that) and THEN handed it to me. Has anyone else had this happen to them? This was the time I went to buy Geir by the way... I guess he was probably curious since he had never heard of the fragrance before, so he wanted to see why I wanted to try it.

I am usually a kind and benevolent man, but sometimes the reps and SA's at Nordstrom's just piss me off. There is one lady at the local place that sprayed me with the new Hugo Boss on two separate occasions. She's one of those "plastic" people with fake everything and a plastic smile, and I had just had it. Finally after she almost accosted me again I asked to see the bottle. She handed it to me, and I looked at it and calmly sprayed her on her arm with it. I handed it back and she didn't say anything more than, "Hey!" before I walked away. Not my best moment.

-Slim

Aahh...Nordstroms. Can't even touch a perfume bottle without having an SA or fragrance rep. running towards you and breathing down your neck in two seconds flat.

"May I Help You?"
"No" then smile...

The shocked look in their faces gets me off everytime

Yeah, that's the thing that gets me... this happens at Macys or Sephora or wherever too... I wish they would WAIT before asking me if they can help me. I mean, wait like 5 minutes - if I look puzzled or start to grab random fragrances then it's ok to walk on over... but if I just stop by and pick up a bottle, it's not quite ok yet to assault me with questions...

My opinion is that they are probably doing you a small favour by ensuring the sharp alcoholic notes have subsided before handing you the blotter. This is common professional practice that is often instilled during training. Much as we "oldies" still hate to hear it, its the same as when we have an SA apply a scent to our wrist and then tell us to "just give it a few sec's so it has some time to develop on your skin". We tend to roll our eyes as if they feel we have no concept of fragrance - but for the vast majority, this is very valid advice.

This being said, if you can see the SA has a raging head-cold and presses the blotter to their nose before handing it to you, then I would pick up a clean strip, hold it out and ask them to spritz it (don't touch the bottle yourself)!

i was doing a job in the city near the main mall when i decided to drop in and pick up something new for a date that night.

so there i was, all lathered in plaster from work, looking like i was as far away from knowing anything about fragrance.

then the same old assistant who annoys the fuck out of me every time i go in there tried telling me that the new tom ford for men is the sexiest thing ever made...

i went on to tell her that it smelled no better than a can of fanta and stuff like rive gauche and M7 shit all over it.

i got the incredulous look then she fucked off.

good one...
--------------------------------------

or you could say "you sure can !", with a knowing look on your face...

I'm confused. You asked her to leave you alone. She left you alone. In what way did she fail to meet your expectations?

Whenever i get snobby shop assistants I just console myself in the fact that i earn more than them. If they're rude to me I will make a point of being rude back.

That's the best policy IMO

I know most Basenoters will think this is immature and childish, but it isn't beyond me. I can wreak havoc for practically any SA. Firstly, if I get the 'Lol you can't afford that' look from any SA (this is just in general) I make a point of getting my parents' black American Express (people in England didn't recognise them quite some time ago, but thanks to silly rap music, they've become like a status symbol here as well) out (they don't have to know that its an old one, and that it's on our family business, rather than personal accounts!). It really does help you get served.

If I get a snooty SA, that thinks they're better than me, I use the 'you're not' method. Just simply remind them that you're the customer, rather than the person on an hourly wage. If you get the 'I can't be bothered to serve you because I don't think you're going to buy anything' SA, I make sure I increase their workload (which a lot of the time, is minimal) I'll ask them to locate the notes, find a proper list of ingredients that I can read, just to make sure i'm not allergic and if all fails, I'll remember to disrupt a pretty display.

Most people would be horrified by this, and this does make me come across as a bad person. I really am not. I've got lots of nice SAs. For Christmas, I gave my Harvey Nicks SAs a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, see. It's just when a SA is rude to me it makes my blood boil. They're not getting paid because they've got skills (a lot of the time, it's just experience, and experience can go to hell) The only thing I think a SA needs to be is friendly. Knowledge and business sense come afterwards, but SAs are rarely all three. I really wish they were.

Trust me, the job was not that much fun; nasty co-workers, evil upper-management, viciousness abounded; often times customers were far less than pleasant.
But I always treated people like a million dollars, everyone deserves to be treated respectfully. I also never asked people "if I could help them", I would say hello, and say "If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask." But that was me.

I was accosted many times this past week-end, while out perusing the stores, and SA's are not at all pleasant. The only nice experience I had was at a Macy's in Burlington MA, with the Clarins SA, and the Dior SA, they could not have been nicer. Now the SA's in Sephora in the same mall were very unhappy, or at least that was how they presented themselves, and not too helpful. When I mentioned I used to work for Sephora at another location, one became downright mean and dismissive towards me.

I guess most of these people do not realize which end of the sale they are on, they are supposed to be the accommodating ones, not the dismissive nasty ones.

The more I read this kind of threads the more I realize they have little to do with fragrance. Anywho...
If they stick around long enough I usually have a good time with sales assistants. Sometimes I walk out with 14 samples and an email address, sometimes they do not even talk to me. Girlfirend got pissed with an AS once as she says the latter is an act of racism, but I coulndn't care less racial selfpity is not my style.

Life is too short to be too sensible about meaningless details like that. Cheer up, love colgone.

I thought it rhymed with gangster.

I am always extremely polite to SAs - even when they are mean. I don't see the point of being mean just because someone was mean to you. When I get a bad SA, I go out of my way to be polite and courteous, and generally just take my business to a more amicable SA.

Perhaps, not being caucasian, I subconsciously don't want the (primarily caucasian) SAs to think that ALL of us are one way.