- Zarna Garg was locked inside a Hermes store bathroom in Berlin for over an hour without assistance
- Store staff refused to break down the door, citing the need to protect it
- No apology or explanation was offered to Garg or her family during the incident
Hermes is one of the most prestigious luxury fashion brands. Their bags sell for lakhs, and before you can buy a Birkin, you often have to build a rapport with a salesperson and demonstrate that you are a loyal customer, which can take months or even a year, depending on the product you are eyeing.
But when it comes to helping customers, the brand reportedly fell short of extending basic courtesy. Indian-American comedian Zarna Garg recently shared a video documenting an incident where she was locked inside the bathroom of a Hermes store in Berlin for more than an hour, while she described the response as "hostile".
Zarna Garg Calls Out Hermes After Being Locked In Store Bathroom
"We are all freaked out because I was locked inside the bathroom of the Hermes store in Berlin for over an hour and no one cared!" shared the comedian, adding that there was "no apology, no explanation" from the staff.
"Not even a word of comfort was offered. Not even to my kids or team, who were watching in horror from the other side. I was locked behind a door that was a cheap, flimsy piece of plywood in violation of the fire code," she added.
The comedian said that at first, she was fine and taking it lightly because getting locked in a bathroom can happen to anyone, anywhere. "We started recording, thinking we'd make a funny video about what you can do when locked in a bathroom," she shared.
She even made an origami village out of paper towels and played games like guessing how many paper towels she was holding. "As time went on, we got concerned that they were making no headway and demanded that the managers call the Fire Department. The store was adamant that the door needed to be protected!" Zarna Garg claimed in her video.
After 40 minutes, her daughter said that if they broke down the door, Zarna's family would happily pay for it. She asked the staff if the only reason they were not willing to break down the door was because they wanted to protect it. To this, a staff member replied, "Yes, a little bit."
"It became clear that we were in hostile territory," the comedian mentioned in her caption.
After an hour and 20 minutes, Zarna finally made it out of the bathroom, which was broken in the first place, and no one had told her or her family about it. "No one says a word, apologizes, or makes eye contact with me. On the way out, an associate pushes a cheap bottle of champagne into my hands. A peace offering? We declined, and they closed the door behind us and locked it shut," she shared.
Zarna noted that she is a lawyer and understood that the legal team at Hermes probably advised the staff not to say a word to her and her family, but she was stunned that no one said anything comforting to her.
"I write this with conflicted feelings as we're an adamantly positive page, but this ended so badly with such hostility that we felt compelled to share footage and dialogues of the people involved," the comedian further added.
Calling out the brand, she also wrote, "How ironic that the company that makes a bag that is impossible to open and close now has a bathroom door that is impossible to open and close. Shakespearean tragedy but also so authentic. Useless bags, useless door, useless people."
From celebrities to influencers, people reached out to Zarna Garg on social media asking if she was okay and called out the brand, urging it to train its staff better. In another video, the comedian also claimed that the brand has problem with "women, especially women of colour."
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