Saks Fifth Avenue — Local services in Beverly Hills

Typically, you find this kind of discounted deals only in remote outlet centers. Here, you are in the very heart of Beverly Hills, adjacent the stylish Beverly Center (recently renovated for $1bn) - and even better: While most outlets are somewhat short of staff, in this I was always able to find a helpful and above all knowledgeable hand.

This, in combined with undoubtedly the best fashion shopping deals in town makes this store my #1 shopping recommendation in LA - making it a waste of time to travel to any outlet. Even if I were in Camarillo or the Palm Springs outlet, I would do the detour and shop here. Well done, guys, I must say, extraordinary well done.

Thanks for reading my comment. Now, if you are curious enough about my "rating scheme," here's "the moment of truth. I am a music photographer who travels the world with the worlds greatest musical talents (Michael Jackson, AC/DC, Rolling Stones or Rammstein, to name a few) for almost 40 years. When being asked "where do you live," I tended to ask "in hotels." At my peak, I "shot" 250 shows a year. Will say: been there, saw and tasted it, and a lot, as I may say and much to the dismay of my doctor who is in my back to lose a few pounds. Quite a few, as I may add, which is why my wife and I walk ten thousand steps per day, where- and whenever we can - and explore a lot of new exciting places - places you may oversee when just driving by.

While I love to share my experience with others, I am sometimes shocked how people use their "power of the word" to down-rate amazing places because of minor incidents. In my all-time favorite​ restaurant, Le Petit Four on Sunset Plaza the owner was even called a racist as he refused to toast the (free) bread in his packed restaurant - they do not offer toasted bread, as no French​ place does, as I may add). Or I just read "Chicken piccata so over-salted I hope the dog enjoys the leftovers tomorrow, I brought home most of the dish." Did they speak to their service? How could the restaurant learn that something was wrong when patrons even have their leftovers​ boxed to take home? As a dog owner,​ I want to take the writer and shake him or her bad and say "you give over-salted food to your dog? Anyone with a bit of brain understands this is a horrible idea...​ I hope you agree.

So If I had a say on this portal, I would offer to see the ratings of my friends. So I would see what the scores were by like-minded people. Sadly, I have no say. I try not to compare apples with oranges. A place like this does not compare to "Bijan on Rodeo Drive." At first,​ I assume that a shop is clean, they do not greet you with a gun - and they deliver whatever they promise. I do not give stars for things that are expected. In my rating scheme, three or more stars are awarded if they exceeded my expectation. Four, if I am sure I will come back. To achieve five stars, I must be willing to take a detour of thirty minutes or more to go again, which, in this particular case, certainly applies.

Thank you for...

My experience here was awful from beginning to end.

I ordered a MTO Thom Browne bag April last year and was told 12-16 weeks. That went okay. Unfortunately, everything else after was an awful experience.

They went radio silent. They never reached out to me about the bag, never told me anything about it or if it was done. I went in-person multiple times over the following months before finding out finally in September that it was done.

I was asked to come in to pick up the bag and pay the remainder (half of the bag was paid upfront as a deposit.) Amazon offers free shipping on basically anything but apparently you can't even get shipping included with a bag purchase at Saks.

After coming in to pick up my bag, I was redirected multiple times to different floors and it seemed like nobody had any clue where I was supposed to go to pick up the bag. (I was told to go to online orders multiple times). This was also a weekday afternoon so it was a very empty store.

Eventually, someone was able to help. They then took a look at my ID and I gave them the description of the bag I was here to pick up and then they went to search for the bag. My friend and I spent 30 minutes waiting before they finally come back and then ask me if I was the "assistant picking up the bag." There's no problem with being an assistant but a) my name on the ID is the same as the name on the transaction, b) the bag had an engraved medal with my last name on it, c) I walked in wearing a Thom Browne bag (so take a guess who is buying the other Thom Browne bag), and d) why is there a need to ask that question in the first place? Is it to figure out how rude you can be to the customer?

After spending more time waiting, the manager finally comes up and introduces himself (around 45 minutes since we've started waiting). Then he gets on the phone and starts yelling at the Thom Browne representative, basically blaming them for the confusion. Then he walked back and started to give an explanation about what happened as if we hadn't heard him play-act the entire thing in front of us (mind you, the entire 45 minutes before, everybody was in a backroom doing their thing). No idea who "exactly" is to blame but I'm not interested in hearing a manager yell at someone on a phone regardless.

We got brought into the Saks office space to complete the payment. This one isn't a big deal but just kinda weird to see. And after all of that, we didn't even get an apology. Spent over an hour there in total to pick up a bag. Also, the bag doesn't even come with a formal box, just a generic brown shipping box. At least the actual bag in there matched expectations.

All in all, I only went through Saks instead of Thom Browne because they were the earliest to offer MTO for animal bags (and the LA Thom Browne is in Costa Mesa). This soured my entire experience with purchasing and was such a hassle beginning to end. The level of incompetence from Saks was...

This review is about Saks Fifth Avenue’s Online Customer Service, not the Beverly Hills store. Saks HAS the WORST ONLINE CUSTOMER SERVICE OF ANY LUXURY ONLINE RETAILER. The supervisors ARE DISHONEST WITH CUSTOMERS about what they can do to help them. Do yourself a favor and shop at Neiman Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and other luxury retailers if you want to experience actual adequate customer service that doesn’t leave you frustrated, stressed and angry. Saks’ online customer service does pretty much nothing to help its customer even when the store is in the wrong. Customer service keeps you on the phone for 45+ mins waiting for a supervisor and wasting your time and then the supervisor provides NO HELP. I purchased a gift online. The website said that the product was made of certain materials. When I received the item, it was in fact made of different materials. The person for whom I bought the gift is allergic to certain fabrics so the incorrect information on Saks’ site really caused a problem. Saks takes FOREVER to process refunds. This purchase was for someone’s birthday and was partly purchased with a promotional gift card. Customer service didn’t care that the site misled me. The supervisor with whom I finally spoke after being on the phone for nearly 45 mins didn’t care that if I waited for the return to be processed and the gift card to be reissued that the person’s birthday would have already come and gone. The supervisor refused to give me a new gift card over the phone so that I could buy a replacement gift right away. He said that he couldn’t do that. Well that is not true. I know of instances when Saks has offered electronic gift cards over the phone. He offered me $10 off. He said that was the best that he could do. THIS IS SAKS FIFTH AVENUE. $10 off is a joke. And after I reiterated many times that this issue was Saks' fault and that he as the store's rep had a responsibility to make it right, he said that there was nothing else that he could do besides $10 off. Finally, I told him that he didn't even offer expedited shipping. Then he said that he could offer 4-6 day shipping, not even overnight, but then he said that I wouldn’t get the $10 off. UNBELIEVABLE! Saks Fifth Avenue, the luxury department store, is NICKEL AND DIMING ME. How tacky! Shop at Neimans or Bergdorf! Save yourself the excessive time, frustration, stress, and anxiety that shopping at Saks causes. You can get the same goods elsewhere. It’s...