Where to go and where to not go
Jan. 20th, 2012 08:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kukla_tkoFor many years now, I have supported and promoted Teavana, particularly the location in the Galleria. I've been serving Teavana tea at the Mad Scientists' Tea Party for at least four, maybe five years. Lately I've been offering flyers and catalogs at those events as well.
So when someone close to me wanted to get some high quality tea, I felt completely confident sending her to the Teavana at the Galleria. She went with a mutual friend who was familiar with the store, too. This was my friend's first visit.
I must tell you, I am mortified about what happened next.
It was a busy Saturday, and these two friends walk in intending to buy. What they got was an obnoxious high-pressure sales routine, complete with "we never put these on sale" (Um, I get your emails. Yes, you do run sales on those items periodically) and "Oh, the big tin is *JUST* a dollar more!" The sales associate proceeded to bully my friend into the bigger container and then FILL the damn thing, despite my friend trying to explain to her that the tea in question was for a single event (and would be for a single tea pot) and that she can't even enjoy this particular type herself due to her issues with caffeine. When she tried to ask about it, the sales associate just shuffled her off to the cash register. When my friend looked at her receipt, she was rather startled to see a "1" in the "Hundreds" column, but they were in a hurry and she figured that she'd work it out later.
When she explained to me that she had bought almost a hundred dollars worth of this one kind of tea, I was struck speechless. I looked at her receipt. They had sold her almost nine ounces of one of the most expensive teas they carry.
For reference, at my tea parties, I buy TWO ounces, and don't even come close to using that up. It takes me MONTHS to use up that amount of tea, and you all know that I'm a tea junkie.
So I see this new high-pressure, "Get 'em in, load 'em up, ring 'em out" sales approach and am disgusted, but I figure that I will give them the benefit of the doubt and see if I can clear up the obvious misunderstanding.
Oh, no. Consider this my own anti-endorsement. The manager of that store is not at all interested in actual customer service, just sounding apologetic and condescending. She gave me crap wondering why my friend didn't handle the attempted return (Um, because my friend will never set foot in your store again and is furious about the way she was treated in the first place, nimrod) and aggressively defended her staff (which I can respect, but not at the cost of *telling your customer that they are LYING*). She finally begrudgingly offered to give me an even-exchange but not a refund or a gift card. So she'll take the tea back, but once they have your money they are unwilling to give it back.
Oh, but it gets better. That store has only one register, which means that while I was trying to pick out $100 worth of tea, no one else could buy anything. At all. She actually said, to a customer, that she couldn't back out of what she was doing for me, and to wait. She suggested that the (eager to buy) customer go drink some more samples while she waited. She did not do so particularly politely, either. And that was the second customer to come up ready to buy.
Dude. Even at Halloween Express we had more than one register. The only time my current employer has only a single register is when we are off-site at a quilt show. (When we are off-site for an event we usually use two registers, also.)
I'm appalled at the combination of bully tactics, high pressure sales, handing off customers, and then frankly refusing to take a customer's money because it would inconvenience you. Holy COW.
Then, the way she was sales-pitching me when I was not in the mood was obnoxious. I suspect that she was trying very hard to show me how she trains her staff but wafting a tea in the face of someone who is averting their head is just rude. I actually had to say, "No, I'm not interested in that, please put it away."
I won't even get into her bizarre lack of understanding about re-brewing from the tea leaves, or her condescending "You know, they grow on a tree".
I really want to stress this to anyone who reads my journal and is considering going to Teavana for some of their quality products: Visit the one in West County. They're the ones who impressed me in the first place. Visit the one in Frontenac Plaza, because they're sweet and nice and awesome, even at the end of the day. Visit the one in Chesterfield Mall, which is great by virtue of NOT being the one at the Galleria. (I know that there's one in that mall but I haven't shopped there.) Do not visit the store in the Galleria, or if you do let them know that you don't plan to buy and why.
Tevana really does have quality products which I intend to continue to enjoy.
I mean, I have to. I have $100 worth of tea to consume.
So please come to our tea-themed events at Kawa Kon, and drink our tea. We have a steampunk track that includes a Tea 101 run by the lovely and talented![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bakadragon, and an ice cream social (which, believe me, will have some iced tea available for drinking.)
I am running the doll High Tea on Sunday, which includes an actual luncheon and is only an additional $5.
Drink our tea! Please!
So when someone close to me wanted to get some high quality tea, I felt completely confident sending her to the Teavana at the Galleria. She went with a mutual friend who was familiar with the store, too. This was my friend's first visit.
I must tell you, I am mortified about what happened next.
It was a busy Saturday, and these two friends walk in intending to buy. What they got was an obnoxious high-pressure sales routine, complete with "we never put these on sale" (Um, I get your emails. Yes, you do run sales on those items periodically) and "Oh, the big tin is *JUST* a dollar more!" The sales associate proceeded to bully my friend into the bigger container and then FILL the damn thing, despite my friend trying to explain to her that the tea in question was for a single event (and would be for a single tea pot) and that she can't even enjoy this particular type herself due to her issues with caffeine. When she tried to ask about it, the sales associate just shuffled her off to the cash register. When my friend looked at her receipt, she was rather startled to see a "1" in the "Hundreds" column, but they were in a hurry and she figured that she'd work it out later.
When she explained to me that she had bought almost a hundred dollars worth of this one kind of tea, I was struck speechless. I looked at her receipt. They had sold her almost nine ounces of one of the most expensive teas they carry.
For reference, at my tea parties, I buy TWO ounces, and don't even come close to using that up. It takes me MONTHS to use up that amount of tea, and you all know that I'm a tea junkie.
So I see this new high-pressure, "Get 'em in, load 'em up, ring 'em out" sales approach and am disgusted, but I figure that I will give them the benefit of the doubt and see if I can clear up the obvious misunderstanding.
Oh, no. Consider this my own anti-endorsement. The manager of that store is not at all interested in actual customer service, just sounding apologetic and condescending. She gave me crap wondering why my friend didn't handle the attempted return (Um, because my friend will never set foot in your store again and is furious about the way she was treated in the first place, nimrod) and aggressively defended her staff (which I can respect, but not at the cost of *telling your customer that they are LYING*). She finally begrudgingly offered to give me an even-exchange but not a refund or a gift card. So she'll take the tea back, but once they have your money they are unwilling to give it back.
Oh, but it gets better. That store has only one register, which means that while I was trying to pick out $100 worth of tea, no one else could buy anything. At all. She actually said, to a customer, that she couldn't back out of what she was doing for me, and to wait. She suggested that the (eager to buy) customer go drink some more samples while she waited. She did not do so particularly politely, either. And that was the second customer to come up ready to buy.
Dude. Even at Halloween Express we had more than one register. The only time my current employer has only a single register is when we are off-site at a quilt show. (When we are off-site for an event we usually use two registers, also.)
I'm appalled at the combination of bully tactics, high pressure sales, handing off customers, and then frankly refusing to take a customer's money because it would inconvenience you. Holy COW.
Then, the way she was sales-pitching me when I was not in the mood was obnoxious. I suspect that she was trying very hard to show me how she trains her staff but wafting a tea in the face of someone who is averting their head is just rude. I actually had to say, "No, I'm not interested in that, please put it away."
I won't even get into her bizarre lack of understanding about re-brewing from the tea leaves, or her condescending "You know, they grow on a tree".
I really want to stress this to anyone who reads my journal and is considering going to Teavana for some of their quality products: Visit the one in West County. They're the ones who impressed me in the first place. Visit the one in Frontenac Plaza, because they're sweet and nice and awesome, even at the end of the day. Visit the one in Chesterfield Mall, which is great by virtue of NOT being the one at the Galleria. (I know that there's one in that mall but I haven't shopped there.) Do not visit the store in the Galleria, or if you do let them know that you don't plan to buy and why.
Tevana really does have quality products which I intend to continue to enjoy.
I mean, I have to. I have $100 worth of tea to consume.
So please come to our tea-themed events at Kawa Kon, and drink our tea. We have a steampunk track that includes a Tea 101 run by the lovely and talented
bakadragon, and an ice cream social (which, believe me, will have some iced tea available for drinking.)I am running the doll High Tea on Sunday, which includes an actual luncheon and is only an additional $5.
Drink our tea! Please!
