Douglas — Local services in Amsterdam

I want to share something that happened to me at Douglas today. I came to this store to take a look at some products and buy a serum. As I've had a big bag with me I put the product I wanted to buy directly in my bag. A women that works there came up to me and asked if I needed a basket, I told her that I'm ok as my bag is big enough. The lady was sweet to me and said that it's not allowed and that it is required to put the items in a basket. So I put the product I had from my bag to the basket right in front of her so she could see that I'm not trying to steal anything etc, but there was another lady working in the store listening to our conversation the whole time. She saw me and said that if I do that next time I'll have to go upstairs and talk with the police. I apologized as I didn't know this rule and just kept looking at the products and exploring the store. At the moment of the conversation I was on the 2nd floor. I wanted to go downstairs to look at the other products and the lady came up to me again. She was very rude and disrespectful to me and said that I have to pay for my stuff on the 2nd floor and that I can't go downstairs with the products I had in my basket right now (WHY??? ). As I was confused I asked: -So what do I do? I just wanted to go downstairs and see if I want anything from there. I'm going to pay after I find what I need. She told me to leave the basket with the products upstairs and come back when I find anything I need. I did everything as she asked me, not even going to talk about how she was following me all over the store and talking to the other workers in Dutch about me. I came back upstairs, took my basket and went to the cash register to pay for my stuff. Then I turned around to go and see about 3-4 policemen, 2 policewomen and the rude lady. They started speaking Dutch to me, but as I don't speak Dutch I told them to speak English. They told me to follow them and they brought me to a dark room with metal stairs in here. I was really terrified, they surrounded me, a 15 years old girl who didn't do anything and one of the men asked me if he can take a look at my bag. I said yes because I obviously don't want to have any problems and I know that I didn't do anything. One of the women checked the pockets and obviously didn't find anything. The fun fact is that they didn't ask my age or my ID. When they finally understood that I didn't do anything, they let me go, but the thing is that them and the rude lady didn't even apologize. Remind you that it is illegal to check my pockets, my bag or anything without my legal representative as I am a MINOR. It was not that hard to check the cameras first. After that incident I immediately left the store and I've had a huge panic attack. My full body was shaking and I couldn't breathe properly because I was terrified of this whole situation. As a conclusion, I didn't have any compensation for the moral damage or even just an apology. I didn't do anything wrong. I am trying to share this as hard as I can so it wouldn't happen to somebody else. Just so you know, the rest of my day was ruined and this whole thing is not OK and they were not allowed to do what they did as...

This store is an example of how customer service should work, and how knowledge and friendly actions can go hand in hand. Such a wide array of products and brands. Many products are available for testing, there are a LOT of staff to answer questions, help you test products such as makeup or skincare, and who will provide you with free samples if you wish to try a selection of products. I visited a different brand store nearby where the staff was uninterested and did not have testers at all,and immediately walked out. If I'm spending a few hundred euros on skin care then at least I wish to be heard when I mention allergies or previous issues. The douglas has several floors, one of which is dedicated to skincare, and the specialists there had some really good recommendations on products that were affordable. They weren't trying to sell me the most expensive things, they were trying to sell me the most useful things, without pushing me, and providing me with 3 free samples of products of my choice, as well as a handful of testers and various free gifts. I ended up ordering all 3 of the tested products on their website which works really smoothly too. The offers were very decent, the cashier was fast and efficient, there is a separate person to wrap the items as gifts if you wish to have them wrapped, so people don't wait endlessly in line to pay. All in all totally recommend this shop. Even suitable for lower budget, there are several good brands you can buy that have better products for similar prices as large drugstores have. The own brand of Douglas also has a much wider product range nowadays which is very nice to see. Added pictures of the online purchase I made after testing the samples they gave me which i was unsure if my skin would like. (Newsflash. It did) Picture 1: stuff I bought (approximately 180 euros after applied discounts and using membership card) Picture 2: all the small samples and goodies I received, including some extras as it was ordered in the week of...

The employees are rude and impolite. I wanted to buy some perfumes as gifts for my friends abroad, so I smelled a few different perfumes and took photos to send to my friends and ask if they liked them. But the employees came up and said, “No photos allowed here.” However, I only took photos of the perfume bottles and did not take pictures of other people or mess up the shelves. I didn’t understand, but I still put away my phone and complied with their request. But when I smelled the next perfume, they came and said, “Please do not touch.” What? not smelling, not touching, not looking. Then why did I come to your store? How do your employees buy perfumes themselves? Based on feelings? Amsterdam has so many tourists every day who need to buy gifts and souvenirs. In this age of advanced technology, you don’t allow me to take photos and ask my friends which perfume they like? Are you living in the modern society for the first day? The service attitude is really poor. If your service is only for “protecting” your samples, then it’s better not to open the store. Just collect all the samples and...