Gratiae BY Nature

This store sells «Tresor Rare» which is a ridiculously overpriced cosmetics line that comes in fancy packaging.
My roommate and I had the WORST experience at GRATiAE trying to return all of the Tresor Rare products that the employee convinced her to buy. The employees cat call people walking by with offers of free samples and anyone naïve enough to accept the bait and enter the store then gets high pressure sales tactics thrown at them. The store looks super glamorous with images of airbrushed models on the walls and the products are arranged in fancy packaging. Once the sales guy got my roommate in the store he gave her champagne till she became tipsy and began to prey on her emotions while flirting with her at the same time so that she would buy the products he pushed her to and agree to come back the next day for a «complimentary facial treatment and gold mask». She ended up spending $ 500 (before tax) the first day. The guy was telling her that he was giving her such huge discounts and she believed him. He ended up getting her to spend an additional $ 3000 (before tax), while he told her that she was saving something like $ 10,000. She realized it was all too expensive and not worth it, had buyer’s remorse and wanted a refund, so we went to the store on 11/​13/​2015. The only employee in the store started to give us the runaround saying that he could not process the return because he didn’t have the password and the manager was not there because he was at the Kalakaua store doing a treatment for a client. Any excuse for not just processing the return immediately is just part of the SCAM that goes on in GRATiAE. We had returned to the store well within the 7 days of purchase and the majority of the products were unopened. The employees will make excuse after excuse and try lie after lie to make you walk away without returning the products. They play mind games and try to make you feel guilty as if you are bringing negative energy, but that is a load of crap because it wouldn’t be necessary to argue and cause a scene at all if they would just allow you to return the overpriced products that you never needed in the first place. We called mall security to help us get the store manager to come to the store and when he finally arrived he said that he wouldn’t do the return for the full amount because some of the products listed on the receipt for $ 0.00 were not in the bag and he said the employee who had worked with my roommate had given her a special package deal and he refused to accept the return even though the items had no apparent value. I was so frustrated with this response though and he was arguing with us as we were leaving the store. Talk about terrible customer service!!! He brought up Nordstrom’s and said something about other stores wouldn’t accept returns easily and that set me off because I am a loyal customer of Nordstrom’s and happen to know that they really know how to keep their customers happy. Nordstrom’s would never have an employee or manager arguing with a customer and causing such a huge scene that it would be an embarrassment to the brand, the company and the store let alone the individual employee who was arguing with the customer. Such bad business for GRATiAE. We had to return this morning (11/​14/​2015) and the manager was again giving us the runaround and stalling. He was making phone calls and acting like he had to call people higher up about the few opened products and acting as if he was getting scolded over the phone, but don’t buy any of it because it is all an act. I told him return all of my roommate’s money. He was saying he didn’t know if he could because some of it was opened. I said at this point I don’t care if she opened it because now we are such unhappy customers at having had to come back to the store more than once and argue repeatedly with the manager over returning the unwanted products. So we called mall security again and had them call HPD. When HPD was already on the way the, I was explaining to the mall security the issue about the manager and you could tell he was starting to get nervous. By the time the HPD guys showed up the manager dashed in from the front of the store, grabbed the two receipts and said he was refunding both receipts for the full amount. Amazing what the Honolulu Police Department can do! Thank you to the brave men and women in blue!
*WARNING: Stay away from GRATiAE selling Tresor Rare. The products are ludicrously overpriced and the store will make it ridiculously difficult for you to return any of it on your own. You’d be better off buying some soap at the drugstore, a good moisturizer, SPF for the daytime and seeing your dermatologist. Just eat healthy, get regular sleep, and hydrate. You don’t need to waste thousands of dollars on rubbish!!!