Where customer service goes to die in the Big Apple

As someone who used to work in a well known and overpriced high street card shop, I was constantly dealing with customers and often on the receiving end of the more ungrateful and rude ones. With several friends who have worked in retail, bars or in restaurants, I am always very aware of how I speak to and treat the staff wherever I go, but at the same time, am equally aware of and infuriated by bad service. I’m never afraid to speak up when I feel that staff aren’t doing their job properly and that’s exactly why I made a point of not only speaking to staff but also to write this post in the vague hope of either improving matters or simply venting my irritation.

I don’t think I have ever been so shocked by the terrible customer service I received when shopping in Hollister in New York. I don’t usually shop in Hollister because quite frankly anywhere that makes you shop in the dark and pumps out a scent so strong it gives you a headache is just ridiculous. My family wanted to go in, so I went with them, but I really wish I hadn’t – the shop left me so annoyed! Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Hollister, and sister-brand Abercrombie & Fitch, have a specific style and that the sullen, bland staff that seem utterly devoid of personality or facial expressions is a big part of that. I just don’t understand who, up on high, decided that these people were the ones to hire – that customers would rather be ignored than helped.

Although I have been in the store many times before in the UK, I have never experienced the ridiculous level of service that I did while in The Big Apple, but it is also significantly lacking over here as well. I must stress that the following examples all happened within one visit to the store:

1. First of all, we were made to queue outside the store like cattle when we knew that the shop was empty, customers leaving the shop confirmed this and we found out ourselves when we reached the inside. Why do they feel the need to make shoppers wait outside? Trying to make it look more exclusive and lusted over? Well the reality is it just makes us angry and in actual fact, several people left. I too would have left if my family didn’t want to go in. When a couple of people didn’t notice the queue and walked straight into the store they were actually told to leave by some guy who thought he was a model.
2. When we were finally allowed in, I picked up a top to take a look at it, before I could even unfold it, another vapid, empty shell came over and completely ignored me except for snatching the clothing out of my hands and folding it back onto the display. When I asked her why she just did that, she ignored me again and walked off.
3. When I found a dress I liked and couldn’t find my size, I asked another member of staff to find one for me. He bumbled about not having any more in stock after checking the rack I told him I had just checked. Then he walked off for 15 minutes before returning and saying he couldn’t find any others. When I walked into the next room, I found another full rack of them – all in my size.
4. Finally after all this faffing around, we made it to the changing room, we stood waiting with a few items to try on. The girl in charge of the changing room turned to look at us and the small queue forming – all holding armfuls of clothes. Then she turned back around and carried on hanging up clothes. We assumed the changing room was full. Ten minutes later, she turned around again and said, “Oh, are you waiting to try on?” It turned out all the changing rooms were empty and she just hadn’t managed to put two and two together when a queue was waiting outside!
5. When I was in the changing room and needed a different size, I asked her to get me one and she just looked completely blankly at me. I gave up and just sent my mum out instead.
6. By the time I reached the till, I was fuming to say the least. Once again I was forced to queue – now I don’t mind waiting to be served, but when you are queuing through three rooms in a shop when the tills are full of staff who are busy chatting or just incredibly slow at serving – I get a little pissed off.
7. When I was finally served, the guy on the till asked me how I was doing and if I found everything I was looking for, turned to his friend and rolled his eyes. I replied, “Well yes, except for the clothes and manners.” Again, blank looks and ignorance. He didn’t even care when I made a point of complaining about the above and tried to give excuses like fire hazards for the queuing and slow service. I wasn’t having any of it.
8. On the way out, my mum picked up something she hadn’t noticed earlier and while she was looking for a different size, another member of staff came over snatched it out of her hand and shouted at us, “Can I get you a different size?” Before we could even reply she folded it back on the shelf and strutted off. What a joke.

I can’t even be bothered to write out the full list because it just makes me angry, but here are the worst examples and I can tell you that I was not the only person who was getting annoyed by the terrible service. I’m not someone who likes to complain or put other people down, but I have to wonder where on earth these brands are getting staff like these. They really seemed completely unaware of basic manners and that is something I just can’t stand. Since when did brand identity and image become more important than actually helping the people who are paying your wages? I took great pleasure in reminding them of this, although I’m really not sure they even had a clue what I was going on about.

When we were out there, my sister, who is oh so much more fash than I am and is studying fashion out there at the moment, told us that apparently the company is going under and that it will be shutting down before long. Sadly it looks like the NYC store will remain open as a flagship store, but who knows. The fact that the store was empty when I was there says a lot. Regardless, you have to hope they keep some of the stores open just so that there is a place for these ridiculously rude employees to hide away in the dark. Keep them there, I beg you. At least then we don’t face running into them everywhere else!

Have you received terrible customer service? Where and what happened? What do you think of Hollister staff?

Halloween – becoming the Black Widow

My love of Halloween and all that comes with it was not disappointed this weekend when my friend decided to hold a last minute fancy dress party, giving me the opportunity to try out some crazy make-up and to become the Black Widow. At such short notice, I was forced to make do with items I already had and to get a little creative – luckily I already boast a rather ample store of fancy dress items thanks to my university days. I just can’t bring myself to throw any of them away despite rarely needing them – but you never know when you’ll need to dress up!

The finished look – The Black Widow

The skirt I had bought only the other day and was looking for an opportunity to wear it out. I love the fitted jersey midi underneath and the grey mesh layer on top had the effect of looking a bit web-like which was the effect I was after. The fitted layer underneath was really helpful, it was a pretty windy night! The skirt was from Boohoo and cost only £12 – find it here. The top is a favourite of mine, from Missguided (as is the necklace), it is a velvet bralet with cut outs on the sides – these are great for showing off my rib tattoo! It cost £17.99 and is available here. The heels are my old reliable wedges from New Look and my rings are also from there. I actually loved my outfit, it was so comfy but really glamorous at the same time and I will definitely be cracking it out again, minus the cape, for a night out.

My Black Widow make-up

I decided that since I was mainly using accessories to create my outfit, that I would go all out for my make-up and wanted to try to create a strong look by really vamping it up. I looked online for ideas and tutorials and spotted one that I posted on here before the party that I thought I might try, but when it came to it I actually found another tutorial that looked a little simpler and quicker to do. See the picture below for what I was using as a guide and click on the picture to go to the YouTube tutorial.

Black Widow make-up by GoldieStarling

Now, although I am fairly good at doing basic make-up such as applying foundation, contouring, smoky eyes etc, I am not much of an artist and don’t really have the vision necessary to create such incredible looks. I based the entire idea around a pair of Paperself Lashes I was given at the EA Blogger Party and wanted to create the webbed effect around these. I know that my make-up is nothing in comparison to the beautiful job that Goldie Starling has done in her tutorial, but here’s how I created my look and changed it to suit my look.

First of all I applied my foundation  (Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in Sun Bronze) and concealer (Dream Lumi Touch by Maybelline in Sand) base, contoured using bronzer (Match Perfection by Rimmel in Medium), but left the blush out to make my lipstick stand out more. Then I created the strong smoky eye by using a frosty white and a silver eyeshadow from the Smoky Eyes Palette by Bourjois with a combination of Gunmetal and Creep from my Naked Palette by Urban Decay. This was set off with Extreme 24-house Felt Tip Eyeliner (Collection 2000), Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer from Rimmel and plenty of Benefit’s They’re Real mascara after I had curled my eyelashes. I then painstakingly applied the first false eyelashes I have used in years. The gorgeous Paperself lashes were cobwebs with spiders and looked amazing but were a bit to big and wide for my eyes so to make them easier to apply I cut them into sections and then just applied the biggest and longest ones to my outer lash line.

My smoky eye and false lashes

I then began to draw on the web shapes by starting with my white Barry M Khol Pencil and making the inner circle of web by drawing a scalloped circle around my right eye. From each point, I then drew a straight line outwards and tapered these off at the outer edges of the circle. I joined these by drawing more of the scalloped circles to join the lines together and create the web. Once I had done this, I shaded finely along the scalloped edges to create the web and smudged this using a bit of white eyeshadow to set the liner. The tutorial I watched suggested doing the white section first to create the negative shape before adding the black and I found it a lot easier having tried to apply the black shapes first in another attempt.

The web effect on the right side of my face

The next stage was to use the black felt tip eyeliner to draw on the black lines of the web which was fairly straightforward, but be sure to steady your hand and use long sweeping motions rather than short, sharp movements. I used a bit of the Gunmetal and Creep shadows to smudge the liners and create the web effect. I then added some gems that I found in my drawer, I bought them for a few pence at Primark ages ago and forgot I had them. I attached them using false eyelash glue and placed them around the outside corner of my eye with another on the outside corner of my left eye.

The left side of my face and some extra webbing

The tutorial was to create a symmetrical look with the web around each eye, but I didn’t have enough faith in my make-up abilities to get these close enough so I decided to add some webbing on my jawline on the left side of my face which I think worked rather well. I followed the same process to do this except in more triangular shape which was actually far simpler. I finished the look with my amazing new Collection 2000 Gothic Glam lipstick in Scorned (a dark purple shade that I had been looking everywhere for).

I was really pleased with how my make-up turned out and wanted to wear my hair in a massive quiff to add drama to the look and keep my hair off the make-up, but had to go for a wild back to the hair. I set the whole thing with plenty of hairspray to keep my hair and make-up in place all night. I was so pleased with how it turned out – for someone who is not incredible at make-up, I think I did a great job, especially using what I already had! What do you guys think?

 

Communicating with the big, wide world

I’m thrilled to announce that within just a few weeks of blogging on WordPress, I already have 40 followers and have had countless visitors to my site and likes on my posts. It’s really encouraging to see that my writing and opinions are being heard and appreciated by so many people from all over the world. And I really love that WordPress offers the stats pages to show you exactly where your readers are accessing your blog from, I appear to have a lot of UK and US readers, but have even had some from Bangladesh checking out my pieces.

This morning I also reached my 5,000th Tweet which went out to nearly 400 followers on my Twitter account who are spread across the country and the globe. It is great to know my opinions and comments are going out to people in my industry and to friends at the same time, and that I can instantly share my work with the world.

On my original blog, which I now use more are a photo-diary and a log of my work at the paper, I am sharing my writing with around 300 followers on Tumblr. Although Tumblr is good for the immediate sharing of pictures and thoughts, I find that WordPress offers more of a considered approach to blogging when one puts rather more time and effort into constructing a post and decorating it for readers.

Adding my Instagram to the mix, I am sharing my regular uploads with nearly 160 followers, documenting my movements whether journalism, music or blogging-related. I also find Instagram a perfect way to edit my photos and share them on my blogs. Finally, on Facebook I have 941 friends who get all my updates relating to blogging, writing for the newspaper, editing for This Festival Feeling and living life. This is a fantastic amount of people that I am reaching on a daily basis and who are accessing my posts and work. I considered making a page for myself as a writer, but didn’t want to limit my posts to people who have liked my page because I know how easy it is to lose followers that way. Plus it makes it more personal to be a ‘friend’.

Overall, I am reaching more than 1,800 people daily through my blogs, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts – when writing for The Lynn News and This Festival Feeling, and displaying on the websites, I am reaching thousands more.

This is an amazing feeling and it astonishes me to have collated these figures and get a real picture of how many people I am in touch with. You should try it, technology really has brought the world closer together! Click on the links to follow each of my accounts and get a slightly different picture from each!

Class of 2010 – University of Hertfordshire – House of Boobs reunited

I am so excited. Today is the day. This afternoon, I am to be reunited with some of my best girlfriends – House of Boobs, as we were nicknamed at University of Hertfordshire – for drinks, dancing, an almighty catch-up and plenty of snuggles. We are all so close, but unfortunately being spread across Norfolk, Essex, London and Ipswich, it is not always practical to meet up as often as we would like, nor is it easy to find a time when everyone is free! I am so looking forward to hearing all about the girls’ summers, their promotions, new jobs, boyfriends, new homes, travel plans and the rest. It is also nice that because I have so much holiday left over I am taking today and Monday off work as a treat, with a spa day booked with mum for Monday. And I’m looking forward to wearing my fabulous new outfit – velvet crop top and tartan midi/pencil skirt when we go out tonight. Will post pictures and an update after the weekend.

Memories of Boomtown Fair 2013

While having a bit of a wardrobe clear out on Sunday morning, I came across a backpack we used to carry stuff round the festival at Boomtown Fair, in Winchester, back in August. Inside the backpack was still a few bits and pieces, including the card of a photographer who snapped myself and Mark while dancing in the Lion’s Den stage over the weekend. The photograph was snapped by a photographer who was working for Wuwo Magazine and brings back a lot of memories on what was a particularly fun day! On this day, I was wearing a Topshop dress and glasses.

Everyone’s a winner baby!

After a lifetime of entering competitions, paying the Lottery and trying my luck at quizzes – I finally won something! I entered an online competition organised by the owners of a Cambridge-based vintage seller, called Rehab Vintage, through their Facebook page.
Never even considering for a second that I might win, I answered the question and forgot about it, until a status popped into my news feed saying that I had indeed won!

I had my choice of a selection of winter warmer vintage cardigans and jumpers with a range of designs available. So many of them were fabulous patterns and styles, but I chose this cardigan and it arrived last week. It’s absolutely lovely and snug as anything, managed to wear it on Saturday, but it was too warm on Sunday.

Getting a bit over-eager for that wintery chill now so I can really get some wear out of it. Will definitely be planning on checking out the rest of their clothes on their Asos Marketplace page.

Panorama – Dying for a bargain

Last night’s Panorama was particularly horrible and even now I am still thinking about it. I usually watch the programme on Monday nights because of the content and also for shorthand practice, but this episode stood out to me for some reason.

Panorama investigates how our clothes – including those of some big high street brands – are really made. It finds evidence of shocking working conditions and an industry that still puts profit before safety. More than a thousand garment workers died when the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh collapsed in April. But reporter Richard Bilton discovers people working 19 hour days, security guards who lock in the workers and factory owners who hide the truth from western retailers.

Although focusing on a topic that is already well-known among consumers, just continually ignored, it was shocking to have the extent of the problem highlighted in the investigation. Hearing in detail about the Rana Plaza collapse and how the workers had been locked in and unable to escape was both tragic and sickening at the same time.

It became worse as the investigators discovered that locking the workers in was in fact common practice, as was forcing them to work 13 hour shifts without a break and countless hours of overtime that was never officially clocked, nor were they paid enough to justify it.

The treatment of these workers is criminal and horrific to see, but it still doesn’t stop them from going to work because they are trapped in the never-ending cycle of poverty that keeps them coming back to earn a pittance that barely covers their rent or bills.

Sadly, it also fails to stop the majority of shoppers, myself included, from buying the items made in these sweatshops. Despite knowledge of these practices – why is it still so easy to forget when faced with that new item from Topshop or Primark?

I am as guilty as anyone of this.

But it certainly gets me thinking about what my life would have been like, had I been born in Mauritius and raised there instead of in the UK – I could have been scraping buy on pennies earned on 13-hour shifts in factories instead of working for a newspaper and educated in a university. Amazing really. Essentially the difference between Third World Problems and First World Problems.

Challenging myself to workout harder with a treat of new gym clothes – with your help!

Can anyone suggest where I should head to buy some fabulous, but reasonably priced, workout clothes? I’ve been wearing the same ones for years and think it’s about time to treat myself to some new ones as an early Christmas present considering how much time I spend there. Am hoping that the clothes will help inspire me to be more adventurous with my workouts and they will also be helpful for when I start these new bootcamp and yoga classes with my friends. If anyone has any suggestions, I would be really grateful! Love the stuff on Sweaty Betty, but much too expensive now that my sister isn’t working there and can’t get me discount now! Hope you can help me, fellow bloggers!

Networking: Making new friends at the #EABloggerParty

On Friday night I headed to the beautiful city of Norwich in the rain with two photographer friends and a fellow blogger to the first East Anglia Bloggers Party, organised by the fabulous and lovely Gemma Seager – the woman behind Retrochick.

(From left, Mike Chivers of Rebel Heart Photography, myself, Victoria Arndt of Faerie Wishes and Emily Nichols, another photographer)

Gemma had organised the cocktail party as a chance for bloggers and creative types to meet in person instead of just online and it was a great way of developing a community between Norfolk writers.

Here I am hobnobbing with some of the fabulous writers I met at the party (pics courtesy of Rebel Heart Photography) over some gorgeous 241 cocktails – my favourite was the Freak Friday, although I rather enjoyed a raspberry Bellini as well!

 

It was a really lovely party, Gemma had gone to so much effort in organising goody bags, a raffle and tights competition, and I meet some lovely women. It was refreshing to go into a room of women with such a wonderful atmosphere, everyone just wanted to make friends and hear about your work. Talking about what I do also made me realise the value of all my work by seeing it through other people’s eyes. It is very easy to forget or underestimate yourself when you don’t take a step back to put all your work into perspective.

It was also fantastic to finally meet the woman behind Retro Chick – one of my favourite blogs and Gemma is such an inspiration for turning her passion for writing and all things vintage into a career – when she couldn’t find the job she wanted, she created it.

I’m really looking forward to the next gathering and keeping in contact with the bloggers I met.

For the tights competition, we had to choose a pair to take home and wear, then getting a picture of ourselves and posting them on our blogs to stand a chance of winning a hamper. Here’s my offering – and I love the tights I ended up with – gorgeous lace print!

The tights are by Pamela Mann – http://www.tightsplease.co.uk/brands/pamela-mann/

Networking: I’m off to a party this weekend

Have been invited to this event on Friday and I’m really looking forward to it. Am car-sharing with a group of fellow-Lynners who are a mixture of bloggers, photographers and event organisers so it’s a good group made up of talented individuals. I’m excited to meet the organiser of the event, a fellow blogger who calls herself Retro Chick, and anyone else who might be going along. I had better choose a fabulous outfit to wear and use the opportunity to meet as many people as possible! Will blog all about it when I am home.