I hate to disappoint those of you who might be waiting
breathlessly for pics of my haul of goodies, post-retail therapy, but Lord and
Taylor’s personal shopping service was a complete waste of my time. What a
disappointment.
I had emailed the service on Tuesday, requesting an
appointment on Thursday or Friday, and received a prompt reply that Vicky, one
of their “top personal shoppers” would be in touch with me soon to set up an
appointment. In fact, she called my cell phone late Thursday afternoon. I was
having some service problems (long story) and was unable to receive voice mail
for a couple of hours, and she called during this time. When I got home that
evening, there was an email from her saying that my phone did not accept calls
and could I please call her to set up an appointment. The email was worded in
such a way to seem slightly accusatory --- not “I wasn’t able to reach you by
phone”, but “your phone doesn’t accept calls”. I emailed her back, telling her the problem
was resolved and I would like to set up an appointment Friday afternoon; and
also phoned first thing in the morning, before 9 am. She returned my call
around 12:45 and wanted to know days and times that would be good for me. I
reminded her that I had requested a Friday time, but seeing as it was now
afternoon I wasn’t sure she could accommodate me. She said, rather defensively,
that she had tried to call me the day before. We eventually set an appointment
for 4:30 p.m.
I got to the office just a couple of minutes early, and the
pleasant receptionist called Vicky to let her know I was in. She informed me
that Vicky was with another client and would be with me shortly. While I
waited, the receptionist was carrying on a conversation with another client
(???) about what a terrific personal shopper Vicky was. A second personal
shopper, who seemed to be just hanging around, chimed in, agreeing. Clearly
Vicky was the crème de la crème of personal shoppers, as far as her colleagues
were concerned. Good sign, right?
Fifteen minutes later, I wasn’t so sure. There was no sign
of Vicky, and I was getting restless. A few minutes later she did pop her head
in and advise me to keep reading my magazine; she would be right with me.
Another ten minutes went by. I started looking at my watch.
I decided that 25 minutes was really quite long enough to wait, and if she didn’t
appear in another five, I was going to walk out. Sure enough, she didn’t show.
I stood up and said to the receptionist, in a cordial but unhappy tone, that I
would come back another day when Vicky wasn’t so busy. I walked out the door.
A few minutes later, there was a frantic phone call from
Vicky on my cell. She apologized and said she was coming to meet me right then.
When she appeared, she apologized again and explained that she’d just had a
very busy day, and in fact there was another client waiting on her right then,
an OLD and LOYAL client who knew how busy she got and was always willing to
wait for time with her. The remainder of the time we spent together was
peppered with this sort of genteel attempt to “educate” me about her importance
as a personal shopper. How in demand she was. How people who were used to using
personal shoppers understood that sometimes you just had to wait. Funny how
this was not mentioned when she set the appointment. Funny how she assumed I
had never used a personal shopping service before (I have).
I accepted her apologies but did not back down or tell her
that it was “okay”. I wasn’t hostile, but I did tell her that I have a personal
rule not to wait for anyone more than 20 minutes. (I had, in fact, waited
almost half an hour). She seemed a little
taken aback by that; thus the attempts to “educate” me.
I explained to her that I was looking for an audition dress,
and what that entailed. I made it very clear that cocktail attire was inappropriate,
as were sleeveless things. She immediately began to show me cocktail dresses,
almost all of which were black. I repeatedly told her that after-5 attire was
too fancy; I needed a nice day dress in a material that traveled well. She
showed me a horrific Gothic number with a poofy taffeta skirt. She showed me
things in satin. She pointed out numerous black cocktail dresses, and kept
fingering things swathed in rhinestones. I patiently explained that I really
needed a day dress.
She really seemed at a loss. I said that separates would be
ok, but all she did was pull two dresses for me to try. One was the poofy
Gothic horror. If she is really the ace personal shopper, I would think she
would have been able to look at that dress and see that anyone with hips doesn’t
need taffeta ruching on the saddlebags. The other was a perfectly serviceable, boring, overpriced black dress.
It fit, but it did nothing for me. Vicky was disappointed to hear that I was
unimpressed. “Couldn’t you accessorize it?” she asked plaintively.
At this point, it was time to cut my losses. Vicky and I
clearly were never going to hit it off; she was clearly distracted and out of
ideas; and indeed, there wasn’t much on the floor that was suitable. Most of the dresses out there were black
cocktail dresses. L&T 5th Ave. is clearly not a fan of color
when it comes to women’s dresses. Or sleeves, for that matter. We toured exactly two floors, and by the end
of the second one I was thinking, “I can do better than this on my own at
Steinmart or Kohl’s.”
After I rejected the second black dress, Vicky pretty much
gave up, and I was fine with that. Frankly, I didn’t like her attitude and saw
no flashes of her alleged brilliance in shopping. We parted ways , quite
relieved to be rid of each other, and I headed off to Starbuck’s to rejuvenate
myself. I’m a longtime Lord and Taylor customer, but I won’t be making any
special efforts to go there in the near future. I certainly wouldn’t bother
with their personal shopping service again. If Vicky represents their best
efforts, all I can say is, there’s a lot to be desired.