Cartier — Local services in Paris

The WORST service I’ve ever experienced in a luxury shop. It took me time to digest what happened in this shop and how we were treated by the sales assistant (a bald man, didn’t get his name despite he bullied us for +35min). We came to the Place Vendôme shop thinking it was the Cartier flagship to buy our wedding rings. Little did we know what kind of horrific experience we were about to have.

I’m a Cartier customer and usually shop in my local Cartier. We came to Paris to buy our wedding rings to make this special moment even more special.

The welcome staff downstairs were friendly and told us to wait for our turn to go upstairs (this one star is actually for them, they were the only ones doing their jobs in a professional and polite way).

When it was our turn to go upstairs to meet a sales assistant, I greeted this man in French, my native language, and asked him if we could switch to English for my partner who doesn’t speak French. Right away the employee started the conversation with an aggressive « What do you want? ». What happened to « hello », « how can I help you? » aka the basics of politeness in a shop?

We knew already which rings we wanted to get and the man told us right away: This is not the flagship so I don’t have everything. I asked him if he had the rings we wanted to get (Love and Trinity). He replied yes but told us we could go to the other shop as if he didn’t want to bother to sell us anything. As we waited 15min downstairs, I asked him if we could try those rings in this shop- especially as we were ready to buy on the spot. He replied to us « if you insist » (we came to the shop to buy our wedding rings and we would try them if they were in stock).

When he asked us our sizes, I offered to give him my Juste un clou ring so he could check my size. He started to look at my ring first to check if it was real and then checked my size: Which person in their right mind would go to a Cartier shop wearing a knockoff?

It should have been an easy sale: We knew already which rings we wanted and when we tried them the guy was uninterested and it looked like we were bothering him by being there and wanting to buy something. I asked to try a size up to which the employee replied several times in an annoyed way « Non, c’est la bonne taille Madame ». I asked several times if I could still try the size up to be sure before I buy to which he finally conceded with a « if you insist ».

When he came back with the other sizes and we were happy with how it looked on our fingers, my partner asked how much was the ring to which he said the price. When my partner replied with a « oh, it’s cheaper than I thought », suddenly the aggressive and unfriendly attitude of this person changed. He left the table, and came back few minutes later with a fake smile saying « btw, congrats on your engagement ». We were with this guy for 30min and not for 1sec he was interested in us wanting to buy our wedding rings (despite we said from the start this was for our wedding). He never even smiled at us or was friendly nor professional. When we said thank you, he asked us if we wanted champagne. Taken aback by his behavior we agreed. We already decided to not buy the rings from this person after he threw us another aggressive comments. Suddenly, he asked us « So who pays? ». When my partner said he wanted to sleep a night on it, the guy got even more aggressive and almost shouted at us that « we could buy them online! No need to go to a shop ». Shocked, we decided to leave and he told us we could still have the champagne to which we politely declined and left almost shook by his aggressiveness. In the end, we bought our rings in the Cartier store where we live to a sales person who treated us not only like humans but also gave us a luxury shopping experience.

Sales tips to this man if he is reading: 1min of fake friendly behavior do not make it up for 35min of aggressive and unfriendly behavior. People are not as stupid as you think. Politeness...

I unfortunately had a terrible experience at the beautiful Place Vendome boutique this past Friday (July 25th) afternoon by a sales associate who said his name was Guillaume when I asked him (after his terrible service).

I know, from experience, that his behavior and attitude is unrepresentative of Cartier and the brands under Richemont. This was the first time I have received poor service at any Cartier/Richemont-branded boutique (or anywhere!), and I’ve been fortunate to visit several others in Europe, Asia, and the U.S.

Ironically, I have purchased jewelry from this same boutique in the past since I travel with my husband to Paris 2-3x per year and love Cartier. I will also admit that I will very likely make future purchases there, but I thought a note had to be made regarding poor employee’s behaviors so hopefully this can be corrected and avoided in the future with other customers like myself. On Friday, in fact, I was ready to make a purchase, but, surprisingly (and unfortunately), Guillaume wasn’t ready/willing to make a sale or make a repeat customer happy. I, instead, crossed the street and got some items I had been eyeing at Van Cleef! :)

Having said that, I will probably revisit the boutique at Place Vendome when I return to Paris in December and thereafter, because I know Guillaume’s “service” is not what he was supposed to give, it’s not customary, nor the norm, and he does not embody or provide the service that clients are expecting from sales associates at Cartier...

Hassane Abbas was my sales associate during my appointment at this boutique location. I called the Cartier France customer ahead of time to ensure they had the piece that I want in my size and they said yes they have it and should be there at my appointment at this particular location. However, when I arrived to my appointment, I was so sad to hear that they don’t have the piece for me. Hassane right away told me he will do his best. I was ready to accept that they probably don’t have it. Hassane searched for the Cartier piece and size that I want and luckily there’s ONE left in all of France boutique! He was able to secure it from another Cartier boutique and delivered it to this boutique location where I was, within 2 hours! Hassane saved the day and I am so grateful that I was able to purchase the Cartier piece in Paris France as a beautiful memory of our trip. I highly recommend Hassane, he’s so pleasant to work with, kind, patient, and he really did his best to get the Cartier piece that I wanted. He also gave us a huge bottle of champagne and apologized for what happened. He took care of me and provided professional and excellent customer service. I’m a very happy and satisfied customer. Thank...