Flash sales pioneer Vente-Privee trims U.S. ambition

Someone should inform Jacques that one of the keys to the American market is customer service. For a business that appears to be based upon ‘membership’ and therefore a word of mouth exposure, their customer service is sorely lacking. Yes, we expect great discounts on name brand items. No, we do not expect that in order to get those prices we must trade away our expectations for prompt, polite, and insightful service. If you look around the web for reviews you will see that instances of double-charging, unfulfilled orders, and rude interactions with customer service are not all that uncommon. Unfortunately it appears as if Jacques’ plan to improve the brand has nothing to do with improving its most basic flaw. Despite its size in Europe, I fail to see Vente-Privee making much of a dent in the US market, let alone coming close to Jacques 5 year projection.