My experience at Teavana.

[RoboBird]

So I've been holding off talking about my time at Teavana until I found a new job, just for the sake of not badmouthing my boss or workplace until I was out of there. I know a few people on this board are cynical about the number of employees sounding off on this board, but I can relate.

Back in April, I got hired for a new Teavana opening relatively near me. I'd never heard of the store, but I read the original post of this thread before my first day of training. I assumed that maybe it was just a case of someone having an isolated bad experience, but I have to say, Teavana is definitely a very unfriendly place to work.

The sales process is, at best, dishonest. A good example is the tin selling. When a customer buys tea, you're supposed to urge them to buy a $7 tin in addition to the tea. The way we communicate this leads to customers thinking that the tea itself is $7 in total, and when they say no to the tin, we're supposed to chastise them into believing that their tea will go bad in a week without our tin. There's a consumer reports story about someone who shopped at Teavana and was sold a tin without even being asked. One might blame the employee, but it's clear that he/she just was trying to stay afloat.

I remember once my manager was selling tea to a customer and offered her that if she bought four ounces of tea, she'd get three of them for free due to a pound discount. In plain English, this should mean that the customer will pay for one ounce of tea and walk out with four. So imagine how angry she was when he really meant she would pay for four ounces and get three extra ounces for free. This is quite a difference at $15 for two ounces. As the customer stormed off with her tea-which she gave in and bought-our manager smiled big at us and said "See, it's all in how you phrase it." I call that lying.

A recent customer compared coming to Teavana to entering a used-car dealership, and I can say that-at least for my store-this is very true. When someone enters, you're supposed to be pinned to them, lead them through the store, put together a tea set for them to buy. On several occasions, I would approach a customer who would shrug me off, saying that they were just looking around. I'd respectfully give them their space, only to have a co-worker jump on them and take the sale from me. For this, my boss called me "Standoffish", and on more than one occasion, brow-beat me for doing things like measuring out the exact amount of tea the customer wanted (we're supposed to try to toss a couple extra percentages of ounces where we can to "maximize the sale"). It's especially frustrating, considering 75% of customers just wanted to try our heavily sugar-blasted iced tea samples. This causes a lot of resentment, because you practically want to yell at someone who's not interested in buying but let you show them half the teas on our wall. It shouldn't be like that; you're supposed to be out to help the customer, not force expensive crap on them.

Numbers are intently focused on at all stores, to an extent that my co-workers would incessantly stress over their performance. I loved them all, as people, but when on the sales floor, they were moody, stressed and frantic, all because they needed to keep their numbers. One girl I worked with, who was one of the nicest people there, constantly had low numbers. Her stress over keeping her numbers up even led her to come in days she wasn't scheduled and work off the clock in order to try and raise her sales average.

Especially at my location, the feeling was of sink-or-swim. Big sellers got more time on the tea counter, where the potential for big sales was biggest, and weekend hours. If you weren't as good, you'd get less time on the counter, and less weekend hours, which only hurt your sales, thus making it less likely to get on the counter to raise those numbers, and so on. In addition, our manager would cut our hours if we didn't do well, which made it even tougher to perform.

Teavana sells some excellent tea, don't get me wrong. And I know that retail involves making money, I'm not dumb. But the corporate culture behind Teavana is ruthless. The ones who rise to the top are the most dishonest (a good example of this is a fellow salesman who would tell flat-out lies about family members with health conditions fixed by our teas, or when he claimed that we were a "go-green" company in order to sell a tin to someone). Because of this, the management is full of people who got where they were by treating the customer like a chump, like an enemy. There's no room for customer care, or listening to what they want or need. It's all about "overcoming" the customer and their objections. I'm glad to be out of there, because in nearly ten years of being of working age, I've never before been made to feel like such a bad employee as by my teavana manager.

[depravitea]

Sounds like Teavana and Walmart should get together and go bowling, or something...

[JillDragon]

Jeez, I've never been to a Teavana store (I live in Canada) and after reading all this I'm tempted to give them a wide berth. I can't speak from experience of course, but a LJ comm I'm part of also had a lot of negative reveiws about Teavana, so I KNOW this isn't just a case of herd-mentality.

I realize there might be some Teavana stores where people have had a good experience, but on the whole give the description of the owners' behavior I'd say the company as an entity is rotten right through.

[Essence]

Last night I stopped by my local Teavana to pick up a glass infusing mug. (In all fairness, it was the cheapest one I saw online, and I didn't have to pay shipping. The infuser basket also looked very large). I purchased it - after being absolutely hounded to purchase this, this and this and went home.

I tried six different teas in the mug last night, and every single one had LOTS of tea leaves fall out of the infuser, or get stuck in the infuser (and take forever to clean). I recalled the manager saying that they stand by their products and will allow returns when a product doesn't meet expectations. So today I went back, expecting to make an easy return.

The same manager that was there last night said to me that if I've used the product, it is non-returnable. I reminded her of what she said last night and she told me that I'd only be able to return the product if it were broken when I opened the box. So after a few minutes of arguing, I said "Look, I only want to exchange this item for another one of your items. I'm not even going to return it."

She then explained to me that she cannot resell the item I wanted to exchange, which I understand. But that's a common issue with business. The fact is, I was guaranteed satisfaction, or I could return it. I don't care if Teavana will lose $15 from the transaction. I WAS a customer and I deserve to be treated like one.

So after continuing for a few more minutes, she flat out tells me that even if she wanted to allow me to exchange it, she doesn't have the power to do so. I then asked to speak with her manager, and she then told me that I will have to EMAIL THEM.

That's right... There wasn't even a manager in the store that had the power to complete a $15 return.

I left the store, and immediately found the next closest Teavana to me. I called them up, explaining how my product was broken when I brought it back from the store last night. Thing is, this manager has to email his manager in order for me to make an exchange. So right now I'm just waiting for him to call me back.

At the end of the day, I'll probably have spent way more than $15 in gas, but I honestly don't care at this point. I'm not going to keep this mug. The whole reason I purchased it was so I'd be able to have quick and easy brews. This product is not easy. I have to spend at least fifteen minutes cleaning it out after having the poorly strained tea in the first place. After this ordeal is done, I will never set foot inside a Teavana again.

[Chip]

I would never have left the store w/o my $$$. That is so lame and intolerable.

I know you are conveying just one side of the story, but there are so many of these one side of the stories, that there has to be a lot of truth to it.

[Essence]

I tried to get my money back, then tried to compromise for even a refund and there was absolutely no budge on their side. It just pisses me off when the same manager stated to me the night before that "Teavana stands behind their products, if you have any issues with them, feel free to bring it back". That kind of behavior would turn anyone away from Teavana. They really (the company itself) need to reconsider how they treat their customers.

The pathetic thing is, I now have to wait over the weekend just to even find out if I can exchange this product for another (I've even had to lie about what was wrong with it. Not too proud about it, but I'm so not letting Teavana get away with this). I wonder how many customers they've lost due to their pettiness?

PS: I just want to clear this up - I'm not mad at the employees, and I didn't take out my frustrations on them. I've worked in retail in the past, I understand the situation they're in.

[chris&amy]

After reading the post about Teavanna I was a little taken back by the negative comments. We moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland and found a Teavanna in Annapolis Maryland that we have now driven the 1.5 hour trip to visit several times and they have always been helpful and never pushy. We bought a glass pitcher from them and when my wife poured hot water into it it cracked. Then next day I called the store and talked with the manager John who has helped us from day 1 and he told us to come in the following Thursday and he would take care of us. We arrived before the store opened and he let us in and fixed us some free drinks and gave us a refund with no questions asked. We have been very pleased with Teavanna and will continue to shop there. The priceses are a little steep on some things but the carry a few Teas that my wife brews that our kids really like. Sorry that people have had bad experiences with Teavanna but for us they have really been great.

Chris & Amy

[Drax]

Sorry that people have had bad experiences with Teavanna but for us they have really been great.

Chris & Amy

It's good to hear of positive experiences as well. We knew that they were out there somewhere.

Having read this thread from its inception, the problem appears to stem around management and sales. If sales are not meeting expectations, the managers have to be brutal (on their employees and in turn on customers).

I wonder if you guys have found a store that "naturally" has good sales (because of location or whatever) and thus doesn't have to put pressure on customers because there's no pressure on the salespeople?

[Geekgirl]

I wonder if you guys have found a store that "naturally" has good sales (because of location or whatever) and thus doesn't have to put pressure on customers because there's no pressure on the salespeople?

I've wondered the same thing. Our store here in the Portland, OR area (Tigard - Washington Square Mall,) is really busy, right next to the mall entrance next to a restaurant that routinely has hour+ waits. The wait at the register is always long, and the staff have their hands full brewing tea, (Starbucks is at the other end of the mall. Heh.)

It's not exactly unusual to get the "hard sell" when going in that shop, but depending on the day or time, it's possible to get in and out without getting bludgeoned with a sales pitch.

The only other Teavana I've visited was a much lower traffic area, and a much more stressful experience.

(confession: I still go in Teavana every time I'm at the mall. They have great washi tins, and if I can get them to lay off the sugar, they make good iced tea to go.)

[kymidwife]

(confession: I still go in Teavana every time I'm at the mall. They have great washi tins, and if I can get them to lay off the sugar, they make good iced tea to go.)

I always go to Teavana too. I live in a rural area, and the closest Teavana is 2 hours away. There is no other place I can actually smell/sample decent tea or shop for teawares in person. I love being able to buy online, but I also love shopping in person. I know they are overpriced for their quality, but I've never had a bad experience in any Teavana I've visited, including Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago, and Las Vegas. The salespeople have offered assistance, made suggestions, and asked me if I'd like a full pound to get the discount, but I never received an uncomfortable amount of sales pressure. Like the last 2 posts mentioned, I have only been to Teavana locations that were in pretty busy locations, so maybe they were meeting their sales quotas easily and didn't have to lay on the pressure.

I hate that people have had bad experiences, as I always had sort of a soft spot for Teavana's role in drawing me into the world of tea. I wish they'd work out their issues so they can be a positive gateway to more newcomers.

Sarah

[Victoria]

I always shop Teavana too, they have great teaware. If you can go with a friend who is a decoy, it's even better. Your friend can ask, "What's a tetsubin?" and then you are free to shop. Ha. They do have great tins and I spied a lovely glass matcha bowl last time I was there.

[Chip]

(confession: I still go in Teavana every time I'm at the mall. They have great washi tins, and if I can get them to lay off the sugar, they make good iced tea to go.)

+1 on the Washi, I think the only thing I have purchased from a Teavana.

[Essence]

Well, I got back in contact with the manager. He cleared it with his higher up and said it's fine to exchange it. Thank god. I would have been so angry if I couldn't.

[Chip]

Well, I got back in contact with the manager. He cleared it with his higher up and said it's fine to exchange it. Thank god. I would have been so angry if I couldn't.

Good to hear, though the method to their madness is still mind boggling.

Throw this one into the fodder mix. I have heard it from a very reliable source that the rumor regarding Teavana owning SpecialTeas is indeed true. Lock stock and barrel.

For the record, this source is not a past, present, nor likely future employee of either entity.

[jackdaniel]

I will tell you that your experience is not unusual and, in fact, is very common. It's called "working retail!"