Hermès Bags - Ordering at Multiple Stores: Yes or No?

Goodmorning to all,

I had the most terrible news yesterday!
My go-to Hermès store, which I visit every month, is closing down permanently!
Forever!

I am so sad. And don’t know what to do next… I always feared that my favorite SA would stop working there, and that that would be the worst thing ever, but now it 1000x worst. They will remain open for the next 2 months to come…
This store was a franchise store, and they have decided to stop their contract apparently and as owners have several other luxury businesses too, they will reopen the store in a few months selling other types of luxury products (the best of the best, so i bet they are excited for it…)

The good news is the entire team will continue working in the new store, and I am happy and grateful for that….

This means I will have to go a new store for future purchases, but all other stores are much further away than my current one, and the one that is closest to my house; well they are not really nice there. The staff has an attitude problem and the store is so big that you never see the same SA twice.

My current Hermes store has asked me to visit them a lot the upcoming few weeks that are left, and I surely will do so.

The good news is that exactly 2 weeks ago they called me into their store with an excuses, and all of the sudden a big orange box appeared. It was a pictoin 18 in Rouge Casaque! I asked for one about a year ago and all of a sudden it had arrived. The bag is just so perfect and playful and cute and I am so happy with it. (I still need to post instagram pictures of it). I am so glad I still was able to get my hands on this bag before they closed. But now I am still sad…

Sorry to go on about this here, but I needed to “tell” somebody, anybody… my friends are not into luxury bags and they would not understand me being upset about a store closing…

I do know who will be happy though: MY WALLET! Not having a favorite Hermes-store nearby will surely mean I will save a lot of money now…

So, as you can read in my earlier comments below, about 1 month ago I was still stressing about the big Hermès store “loosing my order”.
I had in the meantime decided not to purchase in this store again as they always have a new excuses about the whole local issue (eventhough I have a written document of many months ago were they confirm my Kelly order…) I guess they don’t want my money, so they will not get it…
I had given up on my hopes of getting my bag from this store…

My boyfriend apparently also called Store Number 4 just a few days ago, and they confirmed everything was still in the system. She remembered me and my boyfriend and told him I will definitely get the bag although she thought it still could take up to several months… No new bags were arriving in the store in the next few weeks, Paris confirmed, so for March 17 the Kelly bag was not going to happen anyway…

So I (and my boyfriend as well in the meantime) went back to the “waiting patiently game”.

Until, last Wednesday…
I was having a tough day at work. I work for our local government, and it seemed that all of our usually nice civilians all of the sudden were deliberately trying to give us a hard time…
During our well-deserved lunch break I remember telling my colleagues ‘how this was the worst day ever!’. (of course, I was exaggerating) :-p

But then, my phone rang…
It was a local number I didn’t know, so I picked up thinking “don’t get your hopes up, this won’t be Hermès”…
But it was!
It was Hermès store Two on the line! The one were the SA scribbled down my wishes in a snoody, arrogant way! The store I have not visited in 1 year and 5 months. I know because I wrote down the date I placed my Kelly order! I was shocked.
The SA told me he was calling me regarding my bag. It had arrived. I was even more shocked.
But as I read on many forums, that sometimes you don’t get the Kelly you wished for, I decided to just ask the SA what the specs were of the bag.
Yes, it was a Kelly. Yes, it was the size and Sellier-model I wanted. Yes, it even was the palladium hardware.
I almost fainted! I remember telling the SA that they made my day, and that of course, I was going to visited the store 3 days later (which seemed like forever!).
I called up my mom and told her about the big news, and I didn’t stop smiling all day…

Both my mom and my BF were shocked to find out that the one store (that I pretty much ignored completely after placing the order) got to call me first to say that they had ‘my bag’. I honestly thought this store NEVER even placed my order in Paris to begin with…

So Friday evening I was making sure that I had everything ready to make the purchase, money-wise that is, because in my country you are only allowed to pay a certain amount by cash and a certain amount by cards. I even packed my laptop and bank card-readers so I could use it in store if needed. (Yes, I’m Miss. Alwasy Super Prepared.) All of a sudden I saw a note in my phone I wrote 1,5 years ago about the details of ‘order’.
I saw the following message to myself:
“Ordered Placed – End of 2015 – Store Number 2 – Color of Choice: PURPLE (second choice: Black)”

All of a sudden I panicked!
I never asked the SA which color the bag was!!

At first, 1,5y ago I was pretty sure that my dream Kelly would be a spectacular bright color, preferably purple. However, after talking to a few SA and reading Boptalk I discovered that the beautiful purple color that I loved is not produced every year. I believe that a few stores where I placed the order actually told me: “Go for black. It will be easier for us to order it and at least you know what to expect”. And they were right. For my first Hermès bag I should go for black. I always wear head to toe black. It is my favorite color. And given the amount of money, I should decide to go for a bag in a color I absolutely love….
So, along the way, I decided to go for a bag in Noir…
But since Noir was my second choice, flashes starting to come before my eyes! “What if the bag that arrived is a horrible shade of purple!? What should I do?”. My boyfriend said that if that was the case he was not allowing me to buy the bag. It is a lot of money to spend on a bag you don’t like and he was not prepared of letting me make the wrong choice. He was right.
I could not call the store upfront to check again on the color, so I just said “we will see what happens tomorrow morning” (I was going to go to the store anyway, despite the color. I wanted to see it with my own eyes).
You can imagine that I didn’t sleep at ALL that night. I woke up at every hour. Of course I had a headache the next morning and I was super stressed.

FInally… It was the next morning and we could finally go to the store which is only 20 min. from my house…
My boyfriend wanted to get a breakfast first but I of course said: “First the bag, then everything else!”

I arrived at the store about 15min. after it opened and there already were a lot people inside.
The SA that walked up to me was the exact same snoody SA that helped me 1,5 year ago.
He still had that “attitude” when I told him I was called (by HIM of all people) that my bag had arrived.
So he went to the back of the store to get the box.

I had already told my BF about the “ceremony” of Hermès revealing the bag for you. That they ask you to go in another room, and how the service is amazing at Hermès, blablabla… well, to be honest. It really was not.
The guy just came back with the box. He opened it in front of everyone and let me try it on for a few moments and was then ready to pack everything in again once I said I would take it. I said I was super happy with the size and how I was SOOOOO HAPPY it came in black (yes, yes, black! All of that stress for nothing!) I was asking him al sorts of questions about the taking care of the bag and if the lock and keys were inside… and he just answered real quickly and that was that.

At the time of course, I couldn’t care less about his attitude, because I had my dream Kelly and I was not letting anyone ruin my day.
But you can imagine that this store is still not my go-to store when buying Hermès in the future.
I still prefer my little, cute and superfriendly Store number 4. I still have my order “arriving in the next months”. It will be the exact same Kelly in gold hardware. I soooooooo hope they will not call me anytime soon to tell me my order has arrived because I don’t want to turn them down…. they were super friendly and patience with me and I don’t want to let them know I already have my Kelly. I am hoping it will take several months more for the Kelly to arrive and that my sister decides to take the bag instead…

:p

Anyway,
I am SUPER HAPPY with my dream Kelly. She is everything I hoped she would be.
Also, I am so glad I don’t need to stress any longer about all of the stuff that goes on when ordering a Hermès bag.
Now, I can stress out about other things like: should I order a bag insert or not, or what if the bag gets wet while raining… that sort of stull
#firstworldproblems

:p

xx
Tiffany

Below a few pictures of the bag. I still need to make some more pretty onces of course.
The unboxing video is on my Instagram: Tiffany_SA2

– Kelly Bag
– 28cm
– Sellier
– Noir
– Epsom
– Palladium hardware
– dressed up with a Savana Dance twilly (orange purple one). The other blue one is so old I can’t remember the name. :)

Today’s update:

My boyfriend walks in asking me casually if the purchases I made at Hermes are always under my own name or if I ever use my sister’s contact details. Me being curious I asked him why he needed the know. He explains that he visited the store (nr. 3 – see earlier comment below) today and he informed about the bag since my birthday is in a few months. The SA’s there checked the system 2 times but they could not find me in the customer data base (they only found my sister who only bought there once, for heaven’s sake) nor did they find my order. He said that the SA will check with the person who made the order 14 months ago and will get back to him. They also highlighted that a Kelly bag usually takes 2years to arrive, but “as I am not local” it will probably take a lot longer…

Honestly, I am so upset. I have done so many purchases in that store and all of a sudden I am not even a customer in their customer list anymore? They can’t even find the order while in January they answered my mail saying that I was still on the wish list…

This is so frustrated. I can understand why some people only buy pre-loved.

???

Sharing you question/story on our main newsletter today :)
Hope you are subscribed.
Thx for the update my Tiffany

I thought about writing a small update as it has been a while… (hopefully I won’t jinx it… :-s)

So,
I first of all: yes, I am still waiting for my bag. It has been about 1 year and a 2 or 3 months now… I guess that is still normal… *sigh*

My boyfriend was so kind for calling the different stores where I placed my order last year, as we celebrated our 10th year anniversary last year and he wanted to surprise me…

– Store number one: I have bought several items here in this store, often scarfs and small leather goods, both for me as for others. But I don’t have a special relationship with any of the SA there, but they are always supernice and friendly. When my BF called they told him, that they still have all of my details written down, but they don’t work with “orders”. “No bag is ordered, you just let us know what your wishes might be, and if anything similar ever pops in, we will call you…” I am so confused by their answer. All of the stores basically always give you a different answer and I really don’t know what to believe anymore…

– Store number two: remember the store that just scribbled my wishes pretty quickly on a piece of paper? Well, we are just skipping that store these days. Again, I bought quite a few things there, but they are never really friendly and seem to look down on people all of the time. So I am no longer investing any time or money in that store.

– Store number three: This is a major store in a major, expensive, rich city. When we walk through the streets, I always get the impression that literally everyone is sporting a Kelly or Birkin, or maybe that’s just my imagination. I have bought so many beautiful things in this store. Everyone is always supernice and friendly. I know some SA by name there, but when I tried to place my order with one of my contact persons there, he said I needed to come back after the January sales to place an order, as everything hectic at the time due to Christmas. So in February I went back, and placed my order with a SA who I didn’t know so well because ‘my’ SA was not there. At first she looked like she didn’t want to really take my order, but as I insisted (due to her colleague telling me to come back in February) she wrote down my wishes anyway. When my BF called them many months later, they of course said that the bag was not there yet, but it was good to call in regularly to show them that you are still interested. However, about a month ago, I checked again with them by mail -as suggested- and they somehow replied that the bag is still on their list, but they however “need to put a focus on local customers first”. This store is not in my home country, but as you know, I live near the border and I have several stores all within a hour’s drive from my home. I visit this town and store at least every 4-6 weeks! I was quite upset. I do see myself as a ‘local customer’. I just happen to live across the border! I explained this to them nicely of course in my reply, but I never got any feedback…

– Store number four: This is the relatively small, franchise store that is less then 25 minutes from my home. It is a pretty new store, so in the past, I never bought many things there, because of the many shopping trips to store number 3. However, they are always very nice to us. In December 2015 they happily wrote down my wishes, pulled out an demonstration Kelly for me, they really took their time. I was very happy at the time, but I figured that -because it is a franchise- it will take forever in getting my dream bag. But when my BF called them a while ago, they said that the bag is ordered for me. (on my name, is this how it usually goes, girls? like litteraly ‘especially for me’?). I was so happy! They said it would arrive in SS2017, which means it is possibly that the bag only arrives in December 17 or even later. They also said that it will probably not be in palladium hardware as requested but in gold… Again, is this normal that Hermès HQ changes your wishes? We will see what happens when (or IF) the bag eventually arrives, but if it will be gold hardware, I wouldn’t mind as I can pair them up with my gold zipper-Tom Ford boots (which sadly don’t match my Chanel silver hardware purses).
In the meantime, I really have put all of my faith and trust in this store. I have got to know SA pretty well, we have mailed a few times about some small purchases for myself and sister. I have for instance bought some Terre d’Hermes perfume there and some tableware… I try to visit the store frequently… and try not to spend ALL of the money that is meant for my dream bag on other things in the store… :-p

To make a long story short: Every store I visit seems to have a different approach and a different “explanation” or theory about the ordering process. And I literally don’t know who or what to believe any longer…
And the problem is: I am not such a patient person when it comes to my clothes or bags… :-p

If any of you have similar experiences or more advise to give, you are of course most welcome to share…

:-)

xxx
Tiffany

Hi Tiffany, yes it is possible and I remember Hermes even encouraged me to do that a few years ago. Since a few years I have ordered only in one boutique (I am also in Europe) and they always got me the piece I wanted as I have a good Relationship with a saler. So do not hesitate.
Hope you will get your Kelly 28! By the way check in second hand stores I got a Kelly 28 sellier black box from there

I think finding one SA at one store that you really connect with is what is key in your case; maybe two since you have so many options so close. Visit often. Learn your SAs details and schedule and make small purchases you really enjoy and communicate to your SA what your collection is like and what your goals are, etc. Hermes values clients who appreciate the brand truly, and aren’t just in the store wanting a B or K – I’m sure you already know this!!! I’m def not an expert but this is directly what my SA has said to me – I have a purchase history in two stores, one in Europe and one in the states and it’s irritating bc the two systems don’t communicate. Europe can’t see my bag purchases in the states and vice versa. I think your best bet is to stick with one store/SA that you enjoy and connect with and I promise it will pay off sooner than you think!!! ??❌⭕️❌⭕️

aaawwww the pup is soooo adorable!!! Loved the pic!!! Sorry I can´t help you with your question, I´m actually even afraid of entering H stores hahaha think the H divas Pursebop, Leorangebliss, Swedishandstylish, StylishSheba could help you! hope you get your Kelly soon :)