The only place in Paris where racism runs supreme and at full display.
If you are not local and of Asian ethnicity, take your business elsewhere. A lot of (but not all obviously) sales staff at the store are really unkind to people of Asian descent.
My fiancé and I visited the store on Sep 16, 2017 at about 7pm+. We speak fluent English and a few necessary words in a French, well-mannered and fully respect the establishment. Thus, I was horrified with how we were treated.
I do recognize that the service staff may have been mistreated in the past by certain group of visitors and their experiences may have marred their view of certain ethnicity (Asian/Chinese) but being judged constantly and mistreated just because you look certain way is such a horrible experience. These are some examples of our experiences at the store.
1) Christine at the Smythson counter on the ground floor. We were making the purchase at close to 8:30PM when the VAT refund counter at the Homme store was about to close. Christine reassured us that she would call her manager so we could get the "VIP" service and extend the hours at the vat refund counter. Initially, we were thinking of coming back to purchase another day but with her reassurance we proceeded to just purchase as we're certain that we could get the vat refund back easily. Sure enough when we went up to the VAT refund counter on the 3rd floor, we were shooed away by the staff and there was no acknowledgement of Christine calling. The staff at the Homme vat refund counter looked at us so disapprovingly even though we were just misled there by Christine's empty commitment just to get us to pay and through the door. We had to then run to the main store in 10 minutes time frame amazing race style so we could get the vat refund back in time - super tiring and so uncalled for.
2) lady at The Lacoste counter on ground floor (didn't know her name. She's Asian) blatantly lied to us that we could come back and get the refund the next day. This was after we told her that we didn't wanna make the purchase yet as we didn't wanna risk not getting the Tax refund processed in time. We found out from other staff that we couldn't. She's really just lying to get us to buy at the last few minutes before the store is closing.
3) a French male at the counter on the 3rd floor right next to the bridge connecting to the Lafayette main store. This guy was the worst of all. We asked him for direction and he was raising his voice, yelling at us and using hand gesture so inappropriate to chase us away from him and questioning why we couldn't follow simple instruction while pointing to his heads suggesting we needed to use brain. We ended up raising our voice in terror as we didn't understand the hostility from such a basic direction question. I didn't know if he had a bad day or whatever, but he seems to dislike his job and he should consider another career in which he wouldn't have to encounter people at all.
The only positive of the day was an amazing service from Nicolas from the Hugo boss shop on the ground floor, who demonstrates professionalism and knowledge in the brand that he represents and store that he works in. He was not only able to give us great advice, but also provides excellent service.
It's so unfortunate that a department store with legacy like Lafayette still let their frontline people treating customers in such manner. This is 2017 and in a capital with over 30 million tourists a year, I am expecting way more from Lafayette. read more
