de Bijenkorf Amsterdam — Attraction in Amsterdam

I just had a horrendous experience at this mall. I was mistreated and disrespected by a security guard at the exit on the ground level at around 5pm Friday 15 November 2024. I felt unsafe and physically intimidated and harassed. He was taller and bigger than me, he pushed himself very close to me, and tried to threaten me and dominate with his physical presence, with his angry red and scary face staring down at me and aggressive and loud voice talking down to me, literally in my face. His finger pointed at me and gave me orders as if he has ultimate power to do whatever he wants in whichever way he wants. He patronised me and tried to shut me up when I spoke for myself. He had a mafia-like presence. I can't believe there is someone like this working at a decent shopping mall. His behaviour was utterly inappropriate and unacceptable. He had no right to speak to me and treat me as if I was a criminal. He was a bully. No human being should be treated the way I was, let alone I did nothing wrong. I was scared and shaken.

I want justice and an apology.

I asked to speak with his manager and he told me the manager was not available until one hour later.

Someone who worked on security comms advised me I could raise a complaint on Level 5 in this mall and accompanied me there. I raised a formal complaint and they said they'll speak with the security manager and talk to this security guy, and promised to get in touch with me with a resolution. Let's see if they deliver on their promise. I sincerely hope this doesn't happen to...

It’s great. Don’t get me wrong. Shops, ambience, design. But really bad customer service. I came wearing joggers as I just got out of the gym. I was asking for help from many people there. No one was making an effort to help me. That was in perfume section. When I came to the shelf with niche perfumes I have been told by the worker that they are very expensive. And the perfume wasn’t really expensive as I have much more exclusive products at home worth more than 500 per bottle. Then I asked another person working there if they have Amouage perfumes and she told me they don’t. But I found them myself on the shelf. When I started smelling the perfumes another lady came and told me that it’s exclusive perfume and asked to not put so much on the blotter. Lol. I asked her how am I supposed to buy something if I don’t try it. But the worst happened in Armani section. I went there to purchase my favorite foundation and the guy working there was very annoyed by my request and asked if I want to try it or actually buy it. I said it doesn’t matter even if I want to try everything and buy nothing. He had other customers so I was patiently waiting and smelling perfumes. When I asked him if it’s a new collection of perfumes he said yes it is but they are more than 300 euros. So I left home and bought everything online worth more than 2000 euros from other shops. Will delete my account in Bijenkorf. Ridiculous attitude. Not to mention that customers walking around and employees just standing showing each other reels...

Okay, fair enough, this store has a good selection of high end brands. BUT It's not often I receive such bad service in a shop that I feel the need to leave a bad review, especially having been a retail worker myself. I'd spent an hour or so browsing and one minute after closing time, I went to pay for my pretty expensive haul of clothes. One of those items didn't have a tag, and I was informed that it was apparently 'impossible' to purchase the item because "all the staff from that brand had gone home already" (?!) It was also 'not possible' for me to reserve the item. Right, well then you just totally needlessly lost a sale. I also needed two separate receipts as I was purchasing something for work - and oh boy. If looks could kill. After this, I had to listen to a mini rant from the girl who was serving me about how I should go shopping earlier in the day and how she was doing me such a favour for letting me pay for my clothes 1 minute after closing time. Finally, feeling pretty offended, I was leaving and then overheard a man saying "I'll just be one minute" and a security guard shouted at him "I don't have a minute" in response. That didn't really improve my opinion. So De Bijenkorf - please try and treat your paying customers like paying customers, not like huge nuisances. And treat your staff better so they aren't in such a crazy hurry to leave, because I imagine that's what's causing the...