N-TownShopper Wrote:
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> I had to do an audit for an electronics store. It
> sounded simple enough but...OH NO. I had to
> scramble to find certain items. Employees kept
> giving me the side eye and following me around.
> (It was a revealed shop but it still got on my
> nerves)
> But the worst was the report. Detail about
> everything, a million photos to upload, just GAH.
> The guidelines said I'd need an hour and a half to
> do the shop and another hour to enter the report.
> I managed to do the shop in an hour but the report
> took 3 hours. Add in travel time during Main Line
> rush hour and that was a 5 hour shop. 2 months
> later I got an email from the scheduler asking me
> to do it again. I told her only if she paid me
> triple the amount offered because it takes twice
> as long to do as they claim it does. She never
> responded. ;-0
>
> Close second was a NARS shop that had to be done
> at the NARS counter in a Saks Fifth Ave. The rep I
> evaluated was great, it was all her makeup
> department cronies that were horrible. They
> completly ignored me when I got there. I'd make
> eye contact and start to approach them and they'd
> actually turn their backs on me. I finally walked
> up to one woman who was helping two other
> customers and when they finished, they turned to
> me and said "your turn!" So the b**** had to help
> me. The majority of my shops are high end luxury
> retail, and no one in any store of a similiar or
> higher caliber than Saks ever treated me this way,
> or anyone else for that matter. It made me wish I
> had been shopping Saks instead of NARS.
For the NARS shops, they've changed the guidelines now so you're supposed to make an appointment.
I've shopped Saks for a different MSC at a NARS counter, and NARS at Saks for the MSC you're talking about. I've had all good experiences there but it can get very busy between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. during the work week. The weekends and Fridays are a lot less crowded. I have had to wait awhile before there too and it's such a small area. This was last year, when you had to take who was available, and ask if they worked for NARS. I think the MSC had so many freelancers that were evaluated they couldn't get paid for the shops by the client. Hence the new guidelines to make appointments with genuine NARS employees. This ought to reduce the problems you had, should you decide to do another one of these shops, since someone will be expecting you.