My experience at Teavana.

[Dreamer]

Join Teavana Sucks on Facebook and share your experience.

Really? You went to the trouble to create a username here on TeaChat just to post this? Really? I don't give a rat's patootie about Teavana, but you must have something better to do with your time than this

[chris&amy]

They do not need a Facebook to tell them they suck! They already know that! It is a shame because they really have some nice teas and would be nicer if they came with less sales preasure!

I can guarantee you that they get plenty of complaints every week and if that does not change them FACEBOOK surely will not change them

[Beav58]

I can definitely see where you are coming from, I am glad I decided not to try to work there at the one just opened new my home.

The one thing that always bothers me is when the sales associates seem to try to sell things with a misleading facts. The biggest, is how Gyokuro tea is the the most commonly drank tea in Japan. Hello liars. Anyway, I am sorry for your experiences. I imagine that is a rather unique twist, as the store probably shouldn't have been created in the first place with a mall as you have described it. But definitely an example to show the true nature of the overhead company. Its a shame.

[chris&amy]

I still buy from them but the first thing I tell them now when I walk in is...(I do not need any help or sales pressure , I just wanna look and when I get ready to buy I will ask for your help.) I had another asst. store manager tell us last week that they get a lot of complaints each week about sales pressure. She was really nice and she told us that upper management puts constant pressure on them to sale and do whatever it takes to make the sale. Having said that I have bought some really nice Teas online but Teavana has some really nice Tea and Tea Blends. Some say they are pricey, but I really see no difference in their price and a lot of the online retailers. It would be a pleasure shopping there if the sales pressure was not so strong .

[njh]

Thanks for sharing your experience with Teavana. I have shopped at our local Teavana store for some time now and have never really paid attention, or just let it go when I felt the pressure sale. Lately, though, I just got fed up with it, so went to the Galleria store for my purchase. They too talked me into buying a more expensive tea (I didn't mind that) but I asked for a certain amount and was sold more than I asked for and was told I would get a discount for quantity and didn't. This time, I checked my receipt and got a refund. This tea is expensive, but I didn't care, I just want honesty. I will not tolerate this kind of business practice. After this incident, I started reading posts like yours and it was right on with what I have found. I will not buy from Teavana again and hope more people will become aware of their deceiving business practice.

[keensense]

I know I'm a year late since you posted this, but I do appreciate the info. I stopped by Teavana a few times, mainly to grab the free samples. I have made some purchases there, but most of the time when the sales associates try to use their spiel on me, I'll just reply, "Look. I've been drinking, studying, blending and enjoying tea much longer than you've been working here. So chill." Or something to that effect.

It sounds like Teavana has a lack of morals and camaraderie. I really dislike (and boycott!) stores like that, so you can bet I'll avoid Teavana from now on.

Adagio is far superior anyway! Thanks for sharing that story. I hope your life is a bit better now.

[djentropy]

Hi everyone - this is my first post, been lurking for a few weeks here.

I am a current Teavana employee. I've been working at my store for a little over two months now, and I did not want to respond to this until I had a little more experience at my job.

First off: It has become quite obvious to me that depending on the region and the managers, the experience and tactics that we use to sell tea vary widely. Sure, if you come into my store and buy some tea I am going to try to sell you a $6.00 airtight tin to keep your tea in, but i'm not going to spend more then about 20 seconds talking about it. I also am not going to make you say no more then once. If you come into my store and want to look around without having me explain the benefits and drawbacks of the item you are looking at, you don't have to be rude and standoffish - you can just tell me politely that you don't need any help at all, and I will leave you alone until you approach me or until you have an obvious look of confusion on your face.

I've worked a couple of shifts with my DM, and she has never forced us to be any more aggressive then you would find in any other retail store in any mall, generally. Sure, i'm going to try to sell you a piece of cast iron. Sure, i'm going to top-down sell product. That's called retail, and is hardly unique to Teavana.

As for sales goals and the like - i've found them to be nothing but reasonable, and I have had no problem meeting or exceeding my goals. I've also had a few weeks in a row where I was not meeting my goals, and my management staff did not cut my hours or do anything drastic - however they did coach me on some basic sales techniques and helped me and boosted my performance.

There's a lot of things about my job that I don't like. We tout health benefits that are dubious at best - and I really wish someone would get in touch with the FDA and put a stop to that nonsense. I refuse to do it. I rely on basic time honored sales practice (find out what the customer wants, do my best to find a product that meets their needs) to make my goals, and I have never been given any grief for it.

The story from the original poster is pretty heartbreaking - I really am glad that I don't work in that region/store/area and have to put up with anything like that.

I'd be glad to answer any questions anyone might have about how we do business. We don't have to sign any form of NDA or anything like that, and nothing is off limits. Any questions?

[keensense]

Hi djentropy,
You are correct - different regions most definitely have different responses. Please know I'm not rude to the sales people; I worked in retail myself for four years so I would never be rude to them. I usually just say that I don't need any help. The problem is, where I live, some of the sales people can't take a hint - they keep pushing and pushing. I live in a very pushy place, so I fault the region for sure.

I think the issue we have - and I speak for myself, but others can piggyback - is with the company Teavana itself, its products and its way of business. The products at my local Teavana are sometimes stale, or they don't fill the tin up all the way, or they don't zero out the scale (I have to ask them too) when refilling. (Before you Adagio fans start throwing tomatoes at me, I only buy the chai blend there - because I have been unable to replicate it myself.)

Anyway, I don't mean to ramble, I just don't want to portray myself as someone who is nasty to sales people who are just trying to make a living. Honestly, djentropy, if you worked at a Teavana near me, I would come to your store for my chai!
-keensense

[djentropy]

Keen:

Now that's just.... wrong I've never seen anyone at my store neglect to zero a scale, or do anything like that -- just blows my mind that my employer has stores that engage in that kind of behavior and has not done anything about it. Sure, those kind of sales practices might nudge them above other stores in the sales rankings, but I would hope Teavana would understand that in the long run they are going to chase off the good customers and cost themselves a lot more money then they make by doing silly things like that

By chance; is your local location at a mall that does not really have good traffic and generally busy days? I'm lucky enough to be at a really upscale mall in a nice part of town, and I think being as busy as we are keeps us from having to resort to getting desperate to please our corporate overlords <lol>

The chai we have is just amazing - i've never been able to make a blend that tastes anything like it either

[Geekgirl]

By chance; is your local location at a mall that does not really have good traffic and generally busy days? I'm lucky enough to be at a really upscale mall in a nice part of town, and I think being as busy as we are keeps us from having to resort to getting desperate to please our corporate overlords <lol>

I would guess this has more bearing on the Teavana Problem than anything else. Teavana Corporate seems to hold stores with less foot traffic to impossibly high standards set by the busy boutique mall stores. I know the location here is in a nice mall, in a newly built wing, and it's large and spacious. Although the sales tactics still tend toward high pressure, and I've seen some of the issues that other posters describe, it's not as bad as it seems the smaller locations can be.

Still, I actually have several tea stores in the local area that I can compare them to, and in comparison, they fail on all counts. I do like some of their teas, but I tend to choose other tea shops to visit instead, for my own comfort.

[AdamMY]

I actually just got back from my local teavana, and while I am at a higher end store, I do feel that they weren't bad today. I did get bothered twice by a sales person but they backed away at a simple I'm just looking, or no thank you. But while the store was somewhat empty, I was never pushed to purchase anything.

[keensense]

By chance; is your local location at a mall that does not really have good traffic and generally busy days? I'm lucky enough to be at a really upscale mall in a nice part of town, and I think being as busy as we are keeps us from having to resort to getting desperate to please our corporate overlords <lol>

I would guess this has more bearing on the Teavana Problem than anything else. Teavana Corporate seems to hold stores with less foot traffic to impossibly high standards set by the busy boutique mall stores. I know the location here is in a nice mall, in a newly built wing, and it's large and spacious. Although the sales tactics still tend toward high pressure, and I've seen some of the issues that other posters describe, it's not as bad as it seems the smaller locations can be.
.

The Teavana closest to me is at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, so no, it's not tucked away or anything. The mall is pretty busy most of the time; I do have to say that I've been pressured by other sales associates not from Teavana so that's why I suspect it is a regional thing. I'm originally from San Diego and the adjustment has been extreme.

The other one near me is at Tysons Corner in Virginia, which is a ginormous shopping extravaganza in Virginia. I've yet to have any issues there. A friend of me actually drives out of her way to go to that Teavana instead of the Bethesda one.

Me, I choose Adagio! There just aren't any good tea shops anywhere near me...

On a lighter note - YES that chai rocks! I love how you can let the bag brew until the end of the cup and the flavor doesn't get bitter, but gets spicier!

OK, time to brew up a cup!

[Maitre_Tea]

If you go to DC there's a decent tea shop in Georgetown, I think it's on Wisconsin Ave., just a little bit past M Street. It's called Ching Ching Cha. Fairly decent selections for what it is, and prices on reasonable IMO. It won't beat any online vendor but for a physical store it's quite nice. There is also a place around DuPont Circle, though it was more of a sit-down lunch with tea place.

[chris&amy]

Come to Annapolis Maryland and u can see first hand what goes on. I was there the other day ( Yes I shop There because they have some blends that are no where else to be found) . I only shop now when one of the ASST Managers is working. When I entered the door three sales persons jumped me and wanted to push their products on me and when the Asst. Manager saw me he came over and told them I knew what I wanted and did not need anything else. Having said that I still say that they have some really good teas and they have their blends down to a science.


Thanks,

Chris

[Chip]

and they have their blends down to a science.

Heh, more precisely, SpecialTeas have their blends down to a science ... and some are only sold through their adopting parent company ... Teavana.