I’m invited to six weddings this season and I am seriously lacking some dresses for the occasion. My good friend suggested I visit Aishti’s outlet in Ashrafieh to look at some gowns from last season. I usually shop at Aishti’s stores, I didn’t even know they had an outlet. Unaware of the drama that would ensue I enter the store, greet the saleswoman and ask her to lead me to the gown section.
She walks me to the back, reaches out to some gowns to show me where they are. Aware that outlets are usually limited in sizes I nicely asked her if she has any small sizes left while I unsuspectingly begin to look through them. She suddenly gets between me and the gown, shoots me an apologetic look and says:
“Are you sure YOU are looking for a gown in THIS price range?”
I did not see that one coming. I shot her back a suspicious look and calmly replied:
“Why don’t you show me the dresses, and I will decide what price range I will go for, anyways I think your question is inappropriate I asked about the size not the price.”
She tenses up and defensively replies, her voice getting louder, prompting three saleswomen nearby to turn and look ” OK Then, I’m not gonna ask you ANYMORE QUESTIONS!”
I was taken by surprise at her emotionally-charged reply so to clear the air,or any misunderstanding I very calmly replied with a smile “You may have misunderstood, you can ask me the right question, if you like, I’m just a little confused as to why you would ask me whether I’m sure if this is the price-range I’m looking for when I was inquiring about the size? “
The lady then turned around to face all the other saleswomen, threw her arms up in the air dramatically and yelled “SOMEONE ELSE DEAL WITH THIS WOMAN BECAUSE I WILL NOT” and walked away from me, leaving me standing there, while all heads turned away from her, and right on to me.
I was embarrassed, this saleswoman with some serious anger issues, just created a huge scene and walked away from me. God knows I have spent hours of my life shopping and have come across many disgruntled employees, but this was outrageous and what was more appalling is that not a single employee who worked there even cared. I looked at the rest of the staff, waiting, hoping, for someone to explain, apologize or assist me but they all turned away and pretended that they hadn’t just witnessed the fuss that went down. When I finally made eye-contact with one, she walked up to me and asked me what size I would like as if nothing was.
I tried on a dress, but I was too irritated to continue, and I just couldn’t comprehend the unprofessionalism I had witnessed as a client. No one bothered to apologize, or notify the manager. I couldn’t get myself to spend money at a store, that lacked the most basic practice of courtesy or respect. I put the dress down and demanded to see the manager who was having a smoke.
I explained to her the situation and waited for the apology to come. It didn’t. She did look shocked to hear the story, however, she just nodded and said “I will take care of it.” She didn’t apologize for my horrible experience, didn’t ask me if I at least found what I’m looking for and didn’t reassure me that this will not happen again. She didn’t even ask for my name or the saleswoman’s name for that matter.
Will I ever return to Aishti’s outlet, or any of its stores for that matter? Never. But judging from my experience, I wouldn’t be surprised to know that they probably don’t care either. At least that’s the impression their employees and manager gave me. Bisoux
my question is: how can you shop at aishti !!
they are super overpriced !! (thieves ya3neh) and their clothes are very low quality !!
i mean come on ! i saw a t-shirt once for 800$ ? i wouldnt buy it for 10$. they can shove it up their *SS
I would email Aishti and tell them about this.
Jihad: Their clothes are low quality? You do know that Aishti doesn’t make the clothes but carries other brands. If a shirt costs $800 it’s not because Aishti is trying to rip you off but because that’s how much the shirt costs. They have shirts that cost a lot less, not all shirts are $800.
I just sent them an email myself btw
WTF!?!?! I emailed them telling them about this post and they automatically added me to their newsletter WITHOut asking me nor giving me the option to unsubscribe!!
Dear Sir or Madame,
We at Aishti would like to thank you for taking the time to write to us.
We would like to let you know that we just added you to our newsletter mailing list. This entitles you to periodic update to all new happenings at Aishti worldwide.
Respectfully yours,
Aishti
You’ve been SPAMMED! Mark, why am I not surprised, I told you they take feedback very seriously. You’re now “Entitled” to updates! Enjoy!
I will try to email them too..
Hmmmm, practically 24 hours since the post and no one from Aishti has responded yet.
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PMS Syndrome.
Next time this happens to you, turn around and leave the shop (and come blog about it
)
Always remember that you can never argue a fool, nor bring sense to him (otherwise he/she wouldn’t be a fool)
This is so very typical of Aishti! I’m not surprised at all!
I tired posting this to their Facebook fan page,,, hell, it doesn’t even have its wall open to comments from fans! I was about to say that they need social media 101! but hey, why so soon, they need LIFE 101 courses first!
OMG…. I am sorry to say so but the girls at Aishti need to have sex or smth close. They need to chill haram hek
No Markkkk ,he is right ,their clothes are cheap quality,you think they sell the originals???????Hahahaahahahahah,we’re not fools , I know how they ship their products and that their clothes are 3-4 seasons older than the original country
It’s true, half of the items in the store are from previous season, They mix the current season with past collection
Was the employee the chubby one with glasses? She has given me a hard time many, MANY times. I refuse to talk to her when I go there.
For some reason I’m not surprised.. So much for “7esn el diyafeh” in Lebanon.. Our services industry is going down the sewers..
Jenna their clothes are not cheap quality neither are they counterfeit. We Lebanese have an issue where when we see someone successful we talk trash about them. Aishti isn’t a small shop in a back street, it’s a global brand that sells high end brands (or what you call cheap quality) like Prada, Burberry, D&G, YSL, Marc Jacobs etc… you think if they were selling fake versions those brands wouldn’t know about it and wouldn’t have tried to stop it? They’re not selling fakes.
Glad this incident happened so you don’t spend any of your hardly-earned money in that dump
Why is it that after being SPAMMED Mark keeps on defending Aishti and their high-end brands?
Anyway, just a general question: how can someone seriously be able to spend 800$ on a t-shirt because it’s “high-end”?
Crazy crazy world…
Samah, just because Aishti spammed me doesn’t mean I should agree with Jenna and start spreading rumors and lies.
Jihad said he spotted a “tshirt” for $800. I could come in here and say I spotted socks for $500 but that doesn’t mean it’s the truth. But, lets give Jihad the benefit of the doubt and say they do have a tshirt selling for $800, so what? Yes it’s expensive but I am 99.9% sure we’re not the tshirts targeted customers in the same way none of us here would be willing to spend $800,000 on an AP Grand Complications watch (which I would in an instant if I had a few billion in my bank account).
LOL!!! Incredible! I experienced something quite similar too last month.. http://ritakml.info/2011/05/01/my-misadventure-at-aishti-city-mall-lebanon/
It’s a small incident in daily life, is it worth spreading it around? Though,
I agree that many salespeople are arrogant in Lebanon.
1. “Your price range?” should not be a question unless the customer brings it up.
2. If customer would like something up to a certain limit, the salesperson’s response should not be “Aaah, oké…”
3. As people who know better, we should not let it become a cringe-worthy issue. Harry Potter’s world has “Muggles” and we have “Materialists”. We can stand up to them, it’s okay to not want to spend your month’s salary on a bag, it’s okay to want to save it for something better, and it’s even okay to not have enough money (although that and shopping at Aishti might nor be the best idea).
To all those reading this: next time he/she rudely asks you about your price range, or a waiter takes away your friend’s finished plate leaving you looking like a snail-eater or sea-lion, take the time to educate these people. They just don’t know any better and we can teach them one advice at a time.
Hello Ivy, i’ve been checking your blog for a while now but this is my first time commenting on one of your posts. I would like to tell you about a similar incident that happened to me 2 yrs ago. i was shopping with my mom at ABC achrafieh for my wedding. like any normal, loving family, they wanted to buy me a wedding gift. I stopped to check a very lame, typical lebanese designed gold and emerald necklace and politely i asked the sales guy if i can try it on and his reply was: Sorry madame bas ente akide baddik tjarbi??? 3endik fekra adde se3ro?
6 weddings this season? Poor you! How do you do it? It’s like you have your whole summer planned out for you! Seriously, forget Aishti! I say leave town for a weekend to go shopping..you’ll probably find better quality dresses for better prices and more helpful sales people! I never shop at Aishti and never will!
That just shows the poor customer service they have. I wouldn’t have left the store until I received my apology if I were you.. That lady obviously crossed her line. You reminded of an incident that happened to me last summer in London. I was shopping at Chanel on Bond Street. The shop was fairly busy as every salesman/woman were busy with their customer. So, I thought I’d wait for few minutes for someone to assist me before I leave. I saw one of the saleswoman grabbing something, I said “Excuse me…(she interrupted me)” and said “I’m sorry, I’m very busy”.. she didn’t even look at me, just pointed her index finger at me. At this point I was pissed off, I thought if she can’t handle the pressure during summer time, then she’s not worthy of working at Chanel.
I agree with Danielle’s suggestion. Or go to Sophie’s Choice in Downtown.
Sophie’s Choice is Aïshti’s child.
Ohh yeah, I forgot that.
Someone has been obviously watching too much ” Pretty Woman” lol!
Next time give her a Mentos….she’ll freshen up a bit
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Thanks for posting. I hope we all share our horror stories at Lebanese retail outlets or anything outlets! God knows there is enough material for encyclopedia of customer abuse.
I think this is personal and has nothing to do with Aishti as a brand or Co. This woman could be schizo as she heard things that havent been said or simply has some imbalance … However, i agree that lebanon really suffers from customer abuse by all means ….
It doesn’t matter if they sell high end brands or not. It also doesn’t matter whether we can afford their clothes or not. What does matter here is the attitudes of the sales people at the Aishti stores.
I shop there…. not because I throw my money away, but because I like the brands they have. But something very similar happened to me too. I was looking at a bracelet with my aunt. She wanted to buy it (she did) so she asked the lady if she could try it on. I asked what brand that was, and the sales lady said Paolo Bonja. So I said “who the hell is Paolo Bonja”… she said “WALLLAAAAAAAAW PAOLO BONJA?????!!!!!”. Not only did she question my question, but she turned to her colleague, laughed out loud, and whispered something in her ear about me. I was shocked!!!! I looked at her thinking “Can the B*$&#! even afford anything here?” But I knew the day would come for payback… and it did.
A few months later, I was shopping at Marc Jacobs with my husband, and as he was paying for a shirt at the cashier, he spotted the sales man wearing a similar ring to his. So my husband said to him, “We are wearing similar rings”. The sales man told my husband, without looking at his face, that his ring is Paolo Bonja. Of course I couldn’t believe my ears and ran to the opportunity to put him down. My husband said “O. Mine is from Aldo!”… The sales man nearly fainted. I said to him ” Hmmmm… with your employee discount, you probably got your ring for $200?” He looked at mw and said $150. I said “My husband got his for $30″. At this point he was about to drop dead…. and with a BIG smile on my face, I walked out.
Just to comment about the counterfeit issue, it has to be true. I dont doubt They buy a few of the originals and copy the rest. My friend that lives in London came to visit me here and decided to go shopping. She bought a purse there, can’t remember the brand now its been a year, but she paid in the thousands. When she went back home something happened to the bag so she went to the brands store, they pretty much kicked her out because it was a fake. It was very embarrassing getting a phone call from her crying because i took her to a place where she spent thousands and ended up being fake.
Just to tell u about a small incident that happened to my uncle. He went to Aishti hopping to get a nice designer suit, I don’t remember the brand he ended up getting but he paid a load shit of money for it. When he got home he found that it needed a small pinch on the sides, so he decided to take it to his usual tailor. When he went back to pick it up the tailor was surprised about the brand and the fact that he had found a small paper inside the suit saying “Made in Lebanon”. Aishti has designer clothes and accessories and most of them might be original but that doesn’t mean they won’t trick you in all that stack with a couple of fakes. Not to mention that most of those clothes are not qualité-prix..
i shopped several times at AISHTI, and i actually did not like it, so i’m shopping nowadays from the nearby (AISHTI owned) brand store, i.e GUCCI, DOLCE&GABBANA …etc the sales men/women there are nicer and actually you can find what you are looking for.
i can also say that their brands are original, and up to date.
AISHTI is overpriced.
I live in australia the most over priced country in the world when it comes to luxury goods. the same goods costs nearly 2/3rds extra at aishti- you guys are getting ripped.
احب ان اضيف شيء وذلك للتاكيد على حادثة السيدة مع احدى الموظفات في ايشتي
وهو عزيزتي من الطريف جدا ان خادم الامير يعتبر نفسه امير
وغالبا ما يحدث هذا التصرف في كل المحلات التي تبيع بضائع الماركات العالية او الغالية
وذلك لشدة قرف او ضجر الموظف خلال اليوم من قلة البيع فهو لا يصدق او يتوقع ان زبونا قد يكون جادا وسوف يشتري
لهذا تراه مروبس بالسعر فبدا ان يقول لك عن القياس يقول لك هيدا سعره هيك .
والاكثر طرافة او سذاجة هو انك عندما تدخل هذه المحلات ليس ايشتي ولكن كل المحلات الغالية يتحرك الموظف ببطء وبقرف ويكون رده عليك ما يشبة الايماء ولكن عندما تشتري وتبدا بالدفع يصبح عبدا لك
غريب امرهم او مساكين الخطء في اصحاب المحلات عليهم ان يعلمونهم كيف يحترمون كل الزبائن وحتى ان لا يجرحون من دخل خطئ او دون علم لاسعار تلك السلع الغالية
احيانا كثير اضحك على هؤلاء الموظفين المساكين واذا وجدت اي تصرف اخرق من احدهم اتركه وانادي انا غيره واشتري ليتحول الكومسيون لغيره حتى يعرف التصرف الائق
AISHTI OUTLET IN VERDUN ARE LIARS AND THIEVES! i was there and found a pretty top and decided it would be nice for my aunt for christmas. After making sure i was able to return it if it was too big the sales lady named OULA told me i had a month to return as long as i kept the receipt. so i offered it to my aunt and as expected it was a bit big. so with the receipt in hand we went to exchange it. As soon as i asked to exchange it i was treated differently. i have been shopping in this shitty little store for a year now and didn’t expect this. so then the sales lady said that i had to have the tag still on it to exchange but ofcourse she did not tell me that when i bought it. so then she tells me she will tell me by tomorrow. ofcourse noone called me so i called the manager and his sales ladies lied to him and said that i wasn’t allowed to exchange it and that everything i was saying was untrue!!. i told the idiot mr hussein that i have had the receipt infront of me an it says RETURNS ARE ALLOWED WITHIN ONE MONTH DURING THE SEASON.
I had the same Bad experience at Verdun where they said I can return within one month because it’s new collection. When I returned to the shop they all started talking loud you can’t return you can’t return we have a policy. Then I repeated the whole conversation when I bought the suite and this is when the tone changed and they whey said ok there was a misunderstanding, you can return the suit but you need to buy something else now. When I said the suit was the only thing that fit my size, I bought it under the return/refund condition, as nothing else fits and it’s still the case, you’re not making sense!! This is when they spoke with the manager, I guess Hussein, who said I can only have 3 days, so we went back to square 0. The store manager said she will speak with the warehouse and get back to me. It’s been 24 hours now. I’m waiting for their call back now and the suit is still there.
This is the first year I shop in Lebanon and it really was a bad experience compared to Europe and US.
Unfortunately, the behavior of employees was so unprofessional although I sensed that they are all good hearted people inside.
I’ll update you.
Once you’ve experienced shopping “outside of Lebanon” i.e L.A., New York, London, Toronto….etc. you will never want to shop here again. I have absolutely no desire to shop here, whether it’s for the lack in variety of styles, or the extreme pricing range (either too cheap or too expensive)… About the customer service, when I started working part time at Club Monaco in Toronto (Which is a high end store) I spent weeks training. If this incident happened there, the employee would’ve gotten fired on the spot. Retail is one of the shittiest jobs ever…and in Lebanon dealing with snobby ass customers must be a bitch….so maybe she was taking out her anger on poor Ivy? You were at the wrong place at the wrong time hun!
Regardless, I think you dealt with this in a very polite manner….but sometimes you have to skip the nice girl behavior. In this case, you should’ve put her in her place.You’ve got nothing to lose, but she has her job to lose…you’d be doing her a favor.
Aishti have absolutely horrible customer service. If you go in without an Hermes belt, designer jeans, shoes, everything and a fake mouth, they won’t even ask you once if you need any help. They just want money. They ALWAYS have judgmental eyes, but what can i say, many Lebanese are like that so it’s really nothing surprising!
I honestly can’t stand Aishti, they’re rude and actually they are over priced if you compare their prices to prices outside of Lebanon.
We dont even care about u ppl , uh hum bye have a great day 😘
And btw those arent imitation just because aishti is succecful and u didnt got any succes so ur jalous ah ha funny
1) Everyone knows that Aishti does not sell fake clothes nor 3-4 seasons older than the original country. You can enter each website of the brands that Aishti sells (Fend, Burberry, Gucci , Dior…etc) and when you press on stores around the world ull see that these stores send their clothes to Aishti. Not to mention that these stores have boutiques in lebanon that are 40% owned by Aishti with rules and regulations put by the Original Brand.
2) They can be sometimes very annoing in the stores especially at Aizone Abc Achrafieh, Aishti Men’s Wear Downtown 1st Floor.
Actually i was about to post an incident with Aishti at ABC Achrafieh. In all fairness though i am waiting for tomorrow when i hope to have a face to face with the management, and, though i seriously doubt it, reach an amicable solution. However, i plan to take the issue further if unsolved.
I had an unpleasant experience at Aishti, Achrafieh trying to return something. I was told I could return but then when I did they made me read the fine print which said return for store credit only. The store credit is valid for one month only, and having a flight to cathch because I live abroad, made me lose the entire purchase ie, I paide for no merchandise.I hope Vahe, you’re problem is not complicated by my issue.:))