Vera Bradley

This weekend, I had what may be my first and last experience at the Vera Bradley store. It has been well documented on this blog that I am an envy-driven shopper. Dawne has numerous cute totes and bags from Vera Bradley and I think they are so adorable, though I'm not a fan of floral patterns. I found a pattern and tote that I liked online, but wanted to see the bag in person. I mentioned it to hubby and told him how I needed to wait to make the purchase since I didn't want to charge anything else at this time. Hubby, who in polite terms, is a tightwad, told me to go ahead and buy the bag. So off we went to the store.

My experience was anything but pleasant. To begin, I hate pushy sales people. To me, it feels like harassment not good customer service. Allow me to browse and I'll let you know when I need help. Don't follow behind me straightening items I touched because now you've made me feel bad. When I finally ask for help and explain my reasoning for selecting one bag over another (the zipper), please don't be flip with your comment. Apparently, they did not have the bag I saw online, so I had to truly shop. After much annoyance with the sales people, I selected a bag. Another customer approached me and said she would not buy anything from the store and did I want her gift card, which I, of course, took. I sent hubby up to the register with the gift card because the name on the card wouldn't match my credit card, yet he called me over. Apparently, when someone gets a gift card, a lot of personal data is given to the store, so the sales clerk wanted to know the full name the gift card was under, etc. I queried her back about the reasoning for the request, all the while thinking, if my friend gave them my info in order to get a gift card, I'd be mad. I explained to the sales clerk that some random customer gave it to me a moment ago. She used the gift card ($20 off the price), but wanted my name, phone, address, and email, which I inaccurately provided.

Hubby and I walked out of the store annoyed by the experience, but proud of my $20 less purchase. If hubby hadn't insisted that I go on Saturday, I would have paid full price.