Why Do You Hate Teavana?

Tea Sucks
10
12%
Too Pricey
30
36%
I don't hate it...
38
46%
Christine threatened to break my legs if I ever bought tea from there
5
6%
 
Total votes: 83

Feb 5th, '09, 11:43
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by disillusioned » Feb 5th, '09, 11:43

chamekke wrote:Teavana don't have branches in Canada, so I have no opinion based on personal experience (although it sounds like I haven't missed much!).

But, it would take a lot to make me hate a tea shop. There are one or two I avoid or maybe even slightly disdain (due to, say, offering a product line which is uniformly low-quality yet highly priced). That's about it.
As an interesting side note, Teavana is expanding to almost 200 stores in the United States this year and they are actually opening up 3 stores in Mexico. I don't know much about world tea consumption but Mexico struck me as an odd choice.

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Feb 5th, '09, 21:17
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by ErikaM » Feb 5th, '09, 21:17

I bought a teapot at Teavana. It's an ok little teapot, although if I had it to do over I'd put the money into a nice kyusu instead. The first time I was in the store, the sales staff was pleasant and low key. The second time, the manager was there and giving another customer a hard sell on a tetsubin set and tea. Some of the claims he made... well, if I hadn't heard it for myself, I wouldn't have believed the stories.

The sample teas are a nice idea, although when I tried one of them it was sweetened enough to give Southern Sweet Tea a run for the money.

It's pretty clear they're aiming for the Snapple and Arizona Tea crowd, which is fine. Something for everyone. However, some of the claims I overheard in the manager's sales pitch were just plain dishonest.

Feb 6th, '09, 10:16
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by cheaton » Feb 6th, '09, 10:16

I used to wotk for Guitar Center a few years back. The sales methods employed there are exactly what I seem to get in a Teavana store. Engage the customer, don't let them leave without buying something or at least pitching a product. To me these are old, outdated sales practices. Modern customers don't want this pressure, and while effective, it doesn't earn repeat business (unless you've pressured the person into an item or agreement that makes them have to come to you, IE maintenance agreements, extended warrantees and tea tins).

At Teavana its sales unter the guise of education. The same that I experienced working at guitar center. "The customer is always stupid" is what one manager used to say. "If you make them think you know more then they do it's easy to tell them what they need". I hate this approach and walk out of any store when I'm confronted by a salesperson more than once or by more than one sales person. If I need help I'll ask. Teavana is training their employees for the hard sell, therefore I won't shop there. That being said I did buy one product there because I saw it in the window and liked the price. But I almost walked out on that purchase when the sales person at the counter started trying to sell me "the best monkey picked Oolong you can buy" and a tin.


Here's a few tips from someone who's been that sales person..... don't acknowledge them at all. No matter how nice they may seem don't let them "engage" you in a conversation. You ask the questions... ignore their questions. If you feel you must acknowledge them make it clear that "If I need help I'll come find you".... and if they continue reiterate "If I need help I'll ask for it". Remember you can always walk out, never feel obligated to be courteous to any sales person no matter how "helpful" they've been.

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Feb 6th, '09, 11:30
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by chamekke » Feb 6th, '09, 11:30

I agree, the "broken record" approach is a good one with aggressive salespeople. "If I need you, I'll find you" - repeated 2, 3, 5 times - is pretty much unanswerable.
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Feb 6th, '09, 18:49
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by greenisgood » Feb 6th, '09, 18:49

I hate teavana and I think I'm pretty cool.

Feb 9th, '09, 13:02
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by balmung135 » Feb 9th, '09, 13:02

I went to the teavana in atlanta and i had a great time. This was my first venture into tea and the guy behind the counter was a great help. He walked me through a lot of teas and how to start making it. He also made a great blend that was light on the stingy taste of some teas and helped me get accustomed to drinking it.

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Feb 10th, '09, 01:15
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by horsencl » Feb 10th, '09, 01:15

I went to the Teavana in the Bridgewater Commons mall here in New Jersey. It actually wasn't that bad and they did have some reasonably priced teaware. The salespeople were friendly and generally left me alone to wander. However, while I was distracted by the yixing the salesperson cornered my boyfriend and got him to buy an infuser mug, $15 worth of some mixed brew they had in a sample machine, and a too large tin. I didn't even know he did it until we were out of the store. He got bamboozled but atleast he knew it :P . Other than that, not a bad experience. I picked up a copy of Liquid Jade for 50% off.

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Feb 10th, '09, 11:22
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by chamekke » Feb 10th, '09, 11:22

I do really sympathize with sales staff who are forced by their manager to do the hard sell. (I've been in that situation myself, hated it, and ended up quitting after my manager got pissed at me for referring a customer to another store.) I'll bet there are lots of Teavana outlets with staff who resist that approach.

Plus, I can't help but feel that the hard-sell actually loses a lot of customers in the end. It bespeaks lack of confidence in the product and lack of respect for the customer. My local Body Shop is full of sales clerks who are as annoying as wasps. After a while, I just got fed up with being pestered, and stopped going in.
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Feb 11th, '09, 12:08
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by coleyboley » Feb 11th, '09, 12:08

I'll be the odd one out . . . since I'm new to the forum and all.

I love, love, love Teavana!

Their Raspberry Black tea is my favorite tea!

I will admit that I've never tried Adagio teas, but I will remedy that soon when my friend and I place an order this week for some samples.

Still, I love Teavana! Sure, some of their teas are priced a little higher than I would pay, but where I live the choices are Lipton or Tazo, and so it is worth it to me to get a little bit more variety and quality by ordering from Teavana.

(Of course, when you mostly order online, you never have to deal with pushy sales people who are focused on profit.)
Last edited by coleyboley on Feb 11th, '09, 12:27, edited 1 time in total.

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Feb 11th, '09, 12:23
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by Salsero » Feb 11th, '09, 12:23

Although I have never been to one, I have a friend who has been to a couple stores in busy Tampa and Orlando shopping malls. He claims only positive experience and no pushy sales people (though his taste in teas is a bit suspect, IMHO).

Maybe the trick is to frequent only their successful stores in busy, profitable malls. It sounds like the low sales volume stores get all the "expert attention" from corporate personnel trying to boost sales in locations that just don't have enough traffic.

Mar 6th, '09, 03:07
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by MikeyHeartsOolong » Mar 6th, '09, 03:07

*bump*

Hello Everyone. I am brand new to the forum and I wanted to say hello.

Now. Heres the fun part......I am a teavana employee!!! I have seen all the horror up close and it is as terrifying as you think. The sales training is frightening. The quality of the tea is awful, but the teawares are mostly moderately priced.

I beg of you though, please don't take your frustrations out on us little salesfolk. Truth is, we do get written up for a bad sales week and fired for two, and we do have management forcing us to sell pounds of crap you don't need. But heres something else you might not know. There are tons of us who will be more than happy to treat you with respect and not jam expensive product down your throat. We are few and far between, but we exist. If you need proof, come to my store and hang with me.

That being said. I love this forum and I'm happy to be a part of it.

~Mikey~

P.S. only about 10% of my teas at home are Teavana teas.

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Mar 6th, '09, 04:30
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by ABx » Mar 6th, '09, 04:30

Don't worry, I don't think most here hold anything against the people at the counter unless the person treats us disrespectfully. Most of the threads about Teavana here are more about how they treat you guys so poorly and how the company is run by the higher-ups (I'd put a smiley here, but that seems inappropriate). This is actually a very old thread that got dug back up - it pretty well died a year or two ago.

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Mar 6th, '09, 09:39
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by Chip » Mar 6th, '09, 09:39

I agree, sales people are people. Once you give an overbearing sales person the upper hand, it is hard to regain control. It is OK to be firm and take control with a sales person, but no point being rude unless they are being rude to you. I can be friendly yet firm with virtually any sales person, but I have a good deal of empathy for them having worked in sales and having worked with a few rather flawed companies.

Remember, the sales associates are just doing their job as trained. I have no problem walking into any Teavana mainly to gander at the teaware. The sales pitches are easily diffused without rudeness.
blah blah blah SENCHA blah blah blah!!!

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Mar 6th, '09, 15:04
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by entropyembrace » Mar 6th, '09, 15:04

disillusioned wrote:
chamekke wrote:Teavana don't have branches in Canada, so I have no opinion based on personal experience (although it sounds like I haven't missed much!).

But, it would take a lot to make me hate a tea shop. There are one or two I avoid or maybe even slightly disdain (due to, say, offering a product line which is uniformly low-quality yet highly priced). That's about it.
As an interesting side note, Teavana is expanding to almost 200 stores in the United States this year and they are actually opening up 3 stores in Mexico. I don't know much about world tea consumption but Mexico struck me as an odd choice.
I know in Mexico city you can get good loose leaf tea in the coffee shops..so maybe it's not that strange :)

Oct 23rd, '09, 23:34
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Re: I know it seems like the hip thing to do, hate on Teavana...

by contra46 » Oct 23rd, '09, 23:34

Well I was recently employed there as part-time only. I was working 2-3 shifts a week. I took a week off to go to my brothers wedding and they told me I'd either have to skip the wedding or "be forced to resign." So as an ex employee yes they do overprice and yes they do know it. They teach you how to rush people into buying things they don't want, so they go home with a $170 cast iron tea pot when they would have rather gotten the $17 teamaker. My suggestion unless you get the 40% employee discount do NOT buy tea by the pound or anything else there besides drinks at the counter. Treat it like the starbucks of tea and you won't get ripped off, and by the way when they tell you that the tea back is a dirtier, lesser quality of tea they are lying, don't waste your money there guys.

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