Attica Mall — Attraction in Athens

TLDR: The Tax Free process is overly complex, inconvenient, bordering on a scam and not suitable for the tourists who it aims to attract. Do not purchase based on getting tax back unless you’re willing to waste a significant amount of time and effort going through the frustrating process. Also the staff were not friendly or particularly helpful. The store does have some nice things if you can look past these grievances.

The tax-free process: The claim is that you can purchase items tax-free if you are from certain countries. This is common practice in department stores around the world to attract tourists. However the process here is overly complex and borders on being a scam, it feels as if it is designed to be difficult and stressful for the shopper.

Walking around the store you will see signs for tax-free, and on each floor there are tax free cashiers. In our case only after purchasing an item were we told that the tax is not removed at purchase and needs to be claimed back.

The claim does not happen at the tax-free purchase cashiers, they print out a form for you. You are then told to go to the 5th floor to claim tax back. There are automatic machines to claim tax back on the 4th and 5th floor, however only after entering all your details are you asked to scan the form’s barcode to claim the tax back, at which point the machine tells you that the claim form is not valid.

Asking staff on the cashier desk they tell you that this form cannot be used with this machine, despite all signs pointing that this should be the case (both form and machine bear the Global Blue logo and say tax claim).

You are directed to the Global Blue desk on the 5th floor. When I arrived there was no-one at the table he desk, a sign was left on the desk saying simply, “lunch back in 30 mins” but with no indication of when this began or ended. There is also a sign with certain dates and times when this desk is manned, it is not manned every day and at all times that the store is open.

After waiting for 30 minutes I decided to leave and not claim the tax back. I am quite happy to pay the tax to Greece (it’s an amazing country and I am happy to pay money to contribute to public services) However I am not happy to waste my time and suffer needless complex and frustrating systems.

If I had known that the process would be like this I would have either not purchased or just accepted the extra cost of the tax and not have wasted my time attempting to claim it back.

Furthermore, I found the majority of staff to be quite rude and not helpful in the store, which was not at all my experience of retail service in Greece as a whole.

I leave this review so that others can be aware of the process and so that Attica can improve the frustrating tax-claim process as well as improve training for...

It is hard for me to find words to describe my experience in Attica this morning..It was quite a warm day today, so once we entered Attica in the centre of Athens, we decided to visit the coffee shop upstairs to cool down before we had a look around. The coffee shop wasn’t busy at all; twenty minutes after we were seated, a waiter came and served us two glasses of water. We didn’t have the chance to place our order, as he straight away turned his back on us and left... Ten minutes later we left as the same waiter went on to help two ladies, who had literally just arrived, to place an order! I decided not to say anything, even though I was quite disturbed by such attitude. So we went downstairs and had a look for a few minutes on the third floor, then picked some clothes and asked the girl that was outside the fitting rooms if I could go in and try the clothes on; she replied that we needed to wait as both fitting rooms were used. Such a big store and the third floor had only two fitting rooms? This wasn't a problem, it was just a bit odd. The girl’s attitude wasn't very pleasant however and we decided to visit the second floor, after I had finished trying the clothes. There things became a bit more interesting, as I found a very nice shirt that I wanted to try out, but according to the girl - that supposedly asked me if I needed help - said that I shouldn't try this because it won't look nice at all on me; then she turned her back straight away to serve someone else, the only other person in that department...My weight, in case you are wondering, is 75kg (165lbs) which is ok for my height of 1.75m (5.8'). This was the last straw obviously and we left without buying a single item, as the staff apparently didn't want us to. We spent about an hour there, feeling unwanted and ending up ruining our plans for a relaxed morning. I have become quite curious on the company's policy on hiring and training its staff - if there is any training provided at all. Because if there is, this is disgraceful to say the least, such a big business to promote discrimination towards its clientele. I never leave bad reviews, but after this ‘pleasant’ experience, this is the least I can do as a big thank you to Attica and its staff for their sense of customer...

This one star is for the very rude attendant at Apivita corner downstairs.

A couple of days ago I and a close friend of mine went to Attica and I wanted to show her the dermocosmetics section downstairs. I love the Apivita brand’s skin and hair masks which are sadly not sold in my country so we stopped by the brand’s corner and started looking through the endless variety of skincare products. I was assisting my friend, showing her what she would be interested at (as we both are lovers of skincare products) as she doesn’t speak English and is unfamiliar to everything around her since it’s her first time abroad. The woman attending the corner was incredibly rude to us. It was like she was annoyed of us looking at her?? stuff and didn’t want us there. She kept interrupting us, yanking products from our hands with an unacceptable attitude as if we were doing something wrong. After we were done looking and got the things we wanted my friend saw her make a face at us BEHIND OUR BACK. This is totally unacceptable, especially at a high-end department store like Attica. I even thought that her attitude was a result of racism because my friend and I were speaking Turkish which is even worse if that is the case. We didn’t do anything to deserve her rudeness. Also this is not the first time it’s happening. I went there a few times before and the same person had the same condescending attitude towards me if not the facial mimics behind my back as I’m not in the habit of checking if someone twice my age did a 5 year old’s acts after I turned my back at them.

I’m sorry if this came across as unkind but it truly is an unacceptable behavior. We’re there to look around, go through the products and shop, not for...