Well, ladies I finally took a plunge and visited local Hermes store( I am lucky enough to have 2 in a close vicinity). I have been lemming Hermes Mors scarf ring ever since I saw it on this blog http://www.maitaispicturebook......carre.html
But like many other things(white tigers, chupacabra and little green men), it about as hard to find as any of those. Hermes actually has a history of very poor customer service, items that can’t be easily obtained and salespeople who are not knowledgable and who appear to have no desire to help you and to make a sale.
I have visited same store once before last year-just to look around. Once I was there, I asked SA about a scarf I saw online. She pulled it from the drawer, handed it to me and silently waited. After I looked it over, I didn’t really care for it because it seem like design looked different online which is when I made this comment to her. She responded, clearly not understanding what I even said”well, you can get it online if you like”. Which brings me to my biggest pet peeve that I have with lot of luxury retailers(especially locally)-they hire people who can speak Japanese, Korean or Chinese in order to cater to the tourists from these countries but their English is poor at best(which was the case with the SA above). After I handed the scarf back to her, she said nothing, just put it in the drawer and silently stood there, didn’t offer to show me anything else. As someone who used to work in retail, I don’t know where to even begin with what was wrong with that encounter.
I’m not really interested in Hermes bags since while they look nice and all, cost as much as down payment on the house and I can find better uses for my money. But I like their accessories and have been saving some money for a while so I can get maybe a scarf and definitely Mors scarf ring which I have been coveting for quite some time.
So this time I was prepared and knew exactly what I was looking for. I was approached by male Asian SA who in halting English asked me if I needed help. Since his English didn’t appear to be that good, I told me speaking very clearly that I wanted a Mors scarf ring and did they have it in stock. Clearly he only understood the word “scarf ring” because he pulled out a tray with two round scarf rings and said “we have these”. I said thank you but I was looking for Mors scarf ring. He then led me to another case and pointed at it”we also have these “long ones”?” And there it was, Mors scarf ring. SA clearly didn’t know what it was called. Maybe he was new? I was willing to give him benefit of a doubt but it didn’t get me anywhere. I wanted one in silver and asked him if their other store had one and if they didn’t, could they get one from elsewhere. He then disappeared for few minutes and then returned and said “no, they only have one in gold and we can’t get one from anywhere else because we “reached out limit” and we get new shipments only twice a year”.
For anywhere who is not familiar with Hermes’s policies-they are not like most normal retailers where other stores can be called for item you desire or they can special order it for you from a catalog. Oh, no, no, no-Hermes is too smart for that and produce limited amount each year instead creating a huge frenzy amoung customers wanting their prestigious goods. I have seen women hatch plots and counter plots that even CIA would be proud of and all that so they can buy a handbag or scarf. Words “supply and demand” are not familiar to Hermes so store may only get couple of items and that’s it. I asked them to see some twillies(very small scarves that look like ties) and they only had two. Their motto seem to be “take what we have or get out”. No point in calling other stores yourself because their policy is “not to tell you what items we have in stores over the phone so you have to come to the stores in person. Oh, and you can’t charge something over the phone either”. There is clearly logic to this insanity but for the life if me I have no idea what it is. .
Knowing all that, I decided to get the gold finish scarf ring because who the hell knows if I was ever going to find it again. I paid in cash and when I handed him money, he had to go over to the other SA and tell him that he had cash and how much. Huh? I’m assuming that Hermes is doing that in order to avoid SA stealing? That would make sense if you were handing them thousands of dollars in cash but that wasn’t the case here. Weird and weirder.
I also asked my SA if he could show me a few ways to tie a scarf with my new ring. I might have as well asked for the Holy Grail because he looked panicked and then said”I can give you some cards that show how?” and showed me some knotting cards. I told him ok. However, he then spotted another female SA and hustled over to her saying that she was better at scart tying. He was wrong-she told me that Mors ring was only for using as a belt. I politely pointed out that I have seen plenty of people using it for tying scarfs on their neck. She then said”oh, you can use it as a necklace but its too heavy for anything else”. If I didn’t do my homework and didn’t see how lot of women use this ring, they would have talked me out of buying all together and would have lost a sale. In last shred of hope, I asked them if their “scarf ambassador” was here-unfortunately for me she was off.
So in conclusion, if you decide to buy something from them, be prepared and know their products otherwise you’ll be in trouble because they seem to lack product knowledge which I find shocking because they don’t have thousands of scarf rings(or scarves for that matter). Ask for “scarf ambassador” who usually have a LOT more knowledge about scarves and how to tie them.
Incidentally, I was looking at pochettes(I think that’s the spelling) which is kind of like a pocket square but its large enough to be tied around your neck and my SAs insisted that its for “only tying on handbags”. Appaling. I think the male SA did try to help me but he clearly was a fish out of water with lack of knowledge and poor English. I haven’t been in Waikiki store so I can’t speak of how SAs are there so I will update once I visit that location. By the way, there are no price tags on anything, I guess Hermes considers this to be too”low class”. Even when I bought my scarf ring, there was no price tag on it.
And FYI, you better like what you are buying because there is NO money back if you don’t. Their policy is store credit only for returns within limited time(sorry I can’t remember what it was).