I have recieved the above scanned letter from the owner of Al Othman. He wanted to share this letter which was originally sent to him by Temperley to clarify the issue raised by a fellow fashionista on the price difference of Temperley's Goddess gown at Selfridges in London and Al Othman in Kuwait.
Apperntly the dress had an incorrect ticket price entered through an entering error on Selfridges' part. As a result, there were KD 800 price differance. According to Temperley "The girl who bought this dress was in the right time at the right time".
Mistakes are bound to happen, even to fashion and retail experts. If that taught us anything, it's to accept constructive critisicim and to deal with issues in a very professional and classy manner. We would like to thank the owner of Al Othman for sharing this letter with us. And also thanks to the chic blogger who brought this subject up.
Comments
They raise the prices so that they can gain a larger profit margin.
Its great that the store owners and others as well know that shoppers can expose them anytime. Especially with the internet being just a click away. So they shouldnt get any 'greedy' ideas!
Anyway,
I just wanted to thank you too, dear confy, for your help in solving this issue.
Thx***
the kuwaiti stores is known for overpricing their merchendise.
for example the yellow Behnaz Sarafpour that you posted abt a couple of days ago costs only $2495, how much is it sold for in AlOthman?
But...lucky girl ;-)
And i agree with a.n.o, so many stores here blatantly overprice and i do not trust many anymore.
By the way, you have to give local stores some credit. We usually try our best to stick to suggested retail prices. When you buy an item from Paris, its usually marked up by 2.6 times (I have measured this time and time again since I shop at the warehouses and then check what la fayette is charging for them) then when I come to Kuwait I multiply by 3 (only 0.4 times more that la fayette which takes into account all my travel expenses, customs duties and shipping expenses). YOu have to also account for the fact that the euro is extremely expensive and that usually makes the item much more expensive plus the travel expenses are much higher. Trust me, shop owners are less greedy than you would expect. We understand that you are savvy shoppers and we wantto gain your trust because its more important for you to be a repeat customer rather that you just buying just one time...
Thank you for posting the letter, we felt that it needed to be posted on your blog and on Lala's blog as the issue was raised and posted on your respective blogs and we felt that it was important to set the record straight.
We agree with SEE that this issue could have been dealt with privately but the issue was raised in public so we had to address it in the same manner, further more we feel that dealing with customer concerns is an integral part of our business and we do not feel that we are wasting our time.
With regards to pricing, we use the suggested retail price when available, otherwise we do our online research to make sure that our prices are in sync with other retailers worldwide.
You will find occasionally that American brands are less expensive in the U.S.A but they don't have to pay shipping charges and taxes for imports, on the other hand you will find that European brands are more expensive in the U.S.A
Finally we want to extend our appreciation to Confashion and to Lala for allowing us to use their Blogs as a means for communicating with our clients and for giving us the opportunity to correct any mishaps that may occur.
Thank you
AlOthman