I had my first terrible experience at Bath & Body Works on April 19th, and it came down entirely to…read morehow I was treated by one employee, Kelsey.
I'm getting married in Cabo San Lucas and have been buying hand sanitizers in bulk for welcome bags. On a previous visit, staff had no issue with us grabbing sealed sleeves from the drawers, so I did the same this time. On this visit, an employee came over to me and asked if I needed help finding a specific scent and politely let me know that going through the drawers wasn't allowed, which I completely understood (though it might help to have those drawers locked or clearly marked if that's the policy). The only reason I'm putting 2 stars is because of this employee, and I'm so sorry I didn't get your name, but shoutout to you!
After this interaction, my friend told me the cashier, Kelsey, looked pissed, and was the one who called the employee over with her walkie-talkie, and was "mad-dogging" us throughout the whole interaction. I was like, "Whatever, I get it, they have rules, and the employee was super nice about it, so no biggie."
What I didn't appreciate was Kelsey's attitude at checkout. From the moment I walked up, her tone was cold, condescending, and frankly unprofessional. This totally caught me off guard because I was being very nice and friendly and thought there was no issue. While ringing me up, she removed all of the sanitizers from their plastic sleeves. When I politely explained that I needed them kept in the packaging for travel, she sighed, argued that they "weren't supposed to be in plastic," and thankfully went to get another sleeve.
While she was gone, she rolled her eyes and mocked me to a coworker behind my back, with my friend, who she thought was a regular customer, sitting in a front-row seat to witness the disrespect. That alone was unacceptable.
She returned with a replacement sleeve (which she also managed to damage), continued speaking to me in a dismissive tone, and only then decided to make small talk about my wedding as if nothing had happened.
I was calm and respectful the entire time, which makes this even more frustrating. If there are store policies, that's fine, but there is absolutely no excuse for treating a paying customer with that level of disrespect.
This experience felt less like customer service and more like being talked down to and mocked for no reason. I've always enjoyed shopping at Bath & Body Works, but this bully behavior has left a negative impression.