Global Blue - VIP Lounge — Local services in Rome

Had THE worst experience today at global blue lounge roma. Though the signage on their door and website mentioned that they closed at 7pm, but that wasnt the case for us. This old italian guy who came to us was unhelpful, unfriendly, ridiculous and rude.

My friends and I reached their location at 6.40pm to do our gst claims but he purposely stopped us at the door and told us that they had 3 other customers infront of us and told us that they were closed for the day?! It wasn't even 7pm to begin with yet, he stopped us tourist from entering to get our gst claims.

So we tried to be nice to him, and tried explaining to him the situation and told him that we had a toddler with us, that we had a 9am flight to catch the next day and we will be departing from FCO terminal 1. (For everyone info : Global blue counter is located at terminal 3 and they only open at 7am)

But instead of helping us like any normal service person would, he rejected us right away without any sympathy and say, it takes only 2 mins to walk from Terminal 1 to terminal 3?! And kept saying they were closed when it's not even 7pm.

How ridiculous was that reply! Much more when we had a toddler? I didn't know toddler could walk that fast. Bet a normal person like him couldn't as well. So why give such stupid answer?

I wouldn't recommend tourists going to this outlet as they probably hired the worst service person ever! They should definitely do some staff training on their workers as personally to me, customer service should be tip top condition.

If the customer service suck this bad in the tourist line, it portrays badly on the...

The goal is to offer a review and some guidance.

1. This is well located and a great option to collect tax refund during your trip. If you pick cash you get better value so taking a refund mid trip is also a good way to use the cash u get back on yours shopping

2. ONLY GO IF YOU ARE SURE ABOUT YOUR PURCHASE. Let us say you are unsure and you took the refund, now you are stuck with your purchase even if your luxury product has a defect. There is a way but it’s punitive. Say you got a refund for 200 Euro and the VAT on product was 280 Euro, making that return would mean you will get a penalty charge on your credit card to the tune of 280 and you keep the 200 (i know you are wondering card if you took cash. Well that is because they take a card on file for a security hold). In essence you just lost 80 Euro of your refund. So plan and move ahead and yes the people here WILL NOT TELL YOU THIS. In the small chance you get stuck the people at this lounge can do nothing and if they make you wait then you are simply wasting your time. The retailer you bought from is your only saving grace.

3. they are well staffed but slow as hell. Even if you go in with no line, be prepared to waste at least 30 mins. They are painfully slow.

Hopefully this helps you in ways I hope...

I’m not sure why there are so many bad ratings. I had a wonderful experience here. I made a few large purchases that had the lounge sticker on it, along with some smaller purchases which didn’t. The lounge allowed me to bring in all of them for processing. I received my vat payment today, and I’m very excited! It took 3 days from when I left FCO to receive it. Some things to note: •Make sure you give them a credit card for the refund that is NOT American Express. They will not refund it. I made all my purchases on Amex but my refund went through my Mastercard. •When departing FCO, make sure to get there very early as the line for the vat refund can take up to 1 hour before you go through security. We got the airport at 6:45am and waited for 30 minutes. The line was twice as long when we were done with the process. •If you made any large purchases, be prepared to show all the items from that large transaction to the customs counter after you go to the vat counter. Overall, great experience with the lounge. I will definitely work with them again next time...