Jewelry store rant...

[dobie]

No, I''m Chinese Canadian living in Vancouver. The Asian population here is probably 30 to 40%, if not more. Vancouver is the most expensive city in Canada. The average home is 450k. In the nearby city of West Vancouver, the average home is closer to 900k. There were a lot of wealthy Chinese people that came here before HK was returned to China. You can always tell the newcomers from those like my family which have been here for over a hundred years. The newcomers have those 8,000 sq ft monster homes. And their 16 yo kids drive at least BMWs. I do think customers are much better treated in Canada. I do spend at least a day each week in the US, but I always get excellent service. In fact, the only time my GF and I were at Tiffany, the Chinese American sales lady was too helpful and showed us everything we glanced at. Of course, my GF couldn''t refuse to try the stuff on after the sales lady had already removed them from the display cases.

 

[BLINGQUEEN]

SJS and Emeraldgirl, I like the way you think. I also like the Pretty Woman response!!
OMG AELI: I would have made sure I got the ring and my money back after that. That was horrible!!!

 

[Diamonds4Me]

Date: 1/20/2005 10:16:45 PM
Author: Dancing Fire
you never know

back when i was doing coin shows a gentlemen stop by my table (sloppy looking) want to look at some coins in my show case, i show it to him, he end up spending almost 25k purchasing 4 coins from me,then he said let me show you what else i brought here.he show me like 14 or 15 other coins that worth over 100k......so you never know.


now i''m on the other side of the counter...

one time i went into a jewelry store (t shirt & jeans) and ask the salesmen if i can try on the rolex s/s submariner, he ask me are you ready for a rolex ? by this time i already took off my lange watch and lay it on the pad on top of the counter,i know what he''s thinking ,he''s thinking that i''m gonna head for the EXIT as soon as he hand over the watch.so he turn to make eye contact with the manager and the manager walks up behind the salesmen then he ask me is this your watch ? i said yes,may i see it ,i said sure,he got his loupe out and look at the movement on my watch and he said ''magnificent watch'',he then told the salesmen my watch cost more than their 18k gold rolex....and the salesmen almost sh!!!t in his pants.

See? It just goes to show that you should never judge a book by it''s cover

Here''s another good example: Around here you see farmers in dirty over-alls, old plaid shirts, dirty work boots, driving beat up old pickup trucks that has more rust than paint, just laid back as can be and you wouldn''t believe the money they have. Then you see a young couple with nice cars, designer clothes, huge house and they''re scraping the barrel for the next mortgage payment.

Also, I absolutely hate car shopping. Last time I went alone (I was 18 or 19) I went to a nationally known chain. I don''t care if they do have thousands of cars. The salesperson came out and promptly asked me what I did as far as work. Told him I was a waitress. His answer: Come back when you have a REAL job!

Talk about TICKED! That was one of the hardest jobs I had ever had aside from the furniture factory I had worked in before that. The nerve! I haven''t been back to that one or any other in that chain since. You just don''t treat people like that. But..everything comes back to bite ya at some point

 

[Billyba36]

Try this one: when I was in law school I went to Brooks Brothers to buy one nice suit. I was wearing my typical jeans and sweater outfit, but was only 23 y.o. at the time. I walked in there and the sales lady intercepted me and said "I''m sorry we don''t have anything in your size." I''m a 46 Regular. Go figure. I IMMEDIATELY thought about Pretty Woman, laughed and have vowed to never buy a Brooks Brothers suit ever again. Hmmmm...maybe if someone can slip and fall in one of their stores I can exact my revenge...

 

[Diamonds4Me]

Date: 1/21/2005 7:52:25 AM
Author: Billyba36
Try this one: when I was in law school I went to Brooks Brothers to buy one nice suit. I was wearing my typical jeans and sweater outfit, but was only 23 y.o. at the time. I walked in there and the sales lady intercepted me and said ''I''m sorry we don''t have anything in your size.'' I''m a 46 Regular. Go figure. I IMMEDIATELY thought about Pretty Woman, laughed and have vowed to never buy a Brooks Brothers suit ever again. Hmmmm...maybe if someone can slip and fall in one of their stores I can exact my revenge...

Where are they located????

lol, J/K!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[fire&ice]

Date: 1/20/2005 6:16:46 PM
Author: diamondlil
I must say I have endured my share of snooty sales people not only in jewelry stores, but also car dealerships, and model homes, of all places.

My husband and I both look younger than we really are, and in our mid-20s, I think people assumed we were in high school. Thankfully, it does not happen as often now that I''m 40 and he''s 45.

DiamondLil

My poor mom experienced some age discrimination in reverse. For Christmas, she wanted to buy my niece a nice black suit - one my niece saw in Anne Taylor. She''s 80, attractive - but like most older people has some trouble walking about - and definitely not AT target audience. A fish out of water - no one would help her. She was completely ignored. She asked a question about one black suit & was abruptly dismissed. She ended up going to another mall w/ an Anne Taylor, asked to see the manager, told her of her experience & the manager couldn''t have been nicer. $300 or so dollars later, the women made a nice sale.

I received similar treatment in Abercrombie. Some kid copped an attitude when I asked what a particular jean style was. Won''t shop there. I think any sales person should welcome anyone.

I have to say though - for every sales person nightmare - a similar customer from heck could be told.

 

[canuk-gal]

HI:

From the other side of the counter........

In high school I held a part time job and an upscale jewellery store. One Sat. in December, some midly dressed guy came in looking for a gift for his wife. Although there were several sales people who were free--and hovering around the diamond ring counters since that is where the biggest commissions were--they gave him the once over and decidedly left the "scraps" to me. I never cared about appearances, I just served everyone.

He said he wanted a watch--so I began to show him all the silly watches I liked, playing with the chronographs, etc., then he walked over to the Rolex counter. He picked out a diamond bezel 14K ladies watch, Cellini collection. Then he asked to see a selection of diamond pendants--and bought an expensive piece.

I trembled putting the sale through, since I didn''t usually get the "big spenders"; my crony colleagues seethed/gasped since they missed out on a big commission and knew I made none, and my wonderful kind store manager applauded for me b/c he knew what the older salepeoples "games" were.

Sometimes the clothes do not make the man........................

cheers--Sharon

 

[ForteKitty]

Date: 1/21/2005 4:17:23 AM
Author: dobie
No, I''m Chinese Canadian living in Vancouver. The Asian population here is probably 30 to 40%, if not more. Vancouver is the most expensive city in Canada. The average home is 450k. In the nearby city of West Vancouver, the average home is closer to 900k. There were a lot of wealthy Chinese people that came here before HK was returned to China. You can always tell the newcomers from those like my family which have been here for over a hundred years. The newcomers have those 8,000 sq ft monster homes. And their 16 yo kids drive at least BMWs. I do think customers are much better treated in Canada. I do spend at least a day each week in the US, but I always get excellent service. In fact, the only time my GF and I were at Tiffany, the Chinese American sales lady was too helpful and showed us everything we glanced at. Of course, my GF couldn''t refuse to try the stuff on after the sales lady had already removed them from the display cases.

You see the same here in Los Angeles and OC. An old, 2 bed/1 bath, 1000 sq. ft. home (1500 total including lot) starts at $400k, and I don''t live in the nicer part of town! My high school friends had BMW & Lexuses as soon as they turned 16, and my teenage brother & sister''s female friends all have Tiffany''s jewelry. It''s really disturbing.

You would think that with such a diverse population of wealthy people in LA, stores would know better than to discriminate by race/appearance, but it still happens a lot.

My aunt has a favorite sales lady in Nordstroms that she always asks for... she was always nice and helpful, even when my aunt dressed like a bum and everyone else ignored her. Imagine the horror of everyone''s face when she ended up buying $800 worth of shoes!

 

[jenwill]

I think maybe in the SF bay area, sales people have gotten a clue. Too many people here have (or had- pre 2001) A LOT of money and no qulams about wearing ''not quite it'' clothing. Software engineers and the like- not usually known for their snazzy dressing style, whether they are male or female. And, this area has a very diverse ethnic popluation- many of whom have the same stock option cash as the others.

SO, after the first few big sales were lost due to snobbery, I don''t think most salespeople ignore the ''doesn''t look like they could afford a cuppa coffee, but could probably buy the whole store'' person wandering in anymore.

 

[ForteKitty]

Date: 1/21/2005 9:54:16 AM
Author: fire&ice
My poor mom experienced some age discrimination in reverse. For Christmas, she wanted to buy my niece a nice black suit - one my niece saw in Anne Taylor. She's 80, attractive - but like most older people has some trouble walking about - and definitely not AT target audience. A fish out of water - no one would help her. She was completely ignored. She asked a question about one black suit & was abruptly dismissed. She ended up going to another mall w/ an Anne Taylor, asked to see the manager, told her of her experience & the manager couldn't have been nicer. $300 or so dollars later, the women made a nice sale.

I received similar treatment in Abercrombie. Some kid copped an attitude when I asked what a particular jean style was. Won't shop there. I think any sales person should welcome anyone.

I have to say though - for every sales person nightmare - a similar customer from heck could be told.

Your poor mother... I hope she made a complaint about that store. I cannot stand to see the elderly treated with disrespect under any circumstances.

When I was shopping for an interview suit, AT was the first place I stopped at because they have very nice suits in petite sizes. I needed a pair of pants and was completely ignored by every single sales rep because I appearantly looked like a stupid college kid not worth their time. (Fashion Valley, San Diego) I left, went to Nordies, and bought an even more expensive suit there.

Abercrombie is one of the worst stores I've ever been in. They literally roll their eyes at you if you even attempt to get their attention.

And for the record, I've worked retail during college, so it's not all one-sided for me. I worked for the Disney Store and Discovery Channel, and we were told on the first day of training that we should never discriminate based on appearance, because you never know who has money and who doesn't. They had a cute little video of a little boy shopping for his mom, and ended up spending $100 on a stuffed animal with his dad's credit card!

 

[codex57]

Date: 1/21/2005 11:39:39 AM
Author: jenwill
I think maybe in the SF bay area, sales people have gotten a clue. Too many people here have (or had- pre 2001) A LOT of money and no qulams about wearing ''not quite it'' clothing. Software engineers and the like- not usually known for their snazzy dressing style, whether they are male or female. And, this area has a very diverse ethnic popluation- many of whom have the same stock option cash as the others.


SO, after the first few big sales were lost due to snobbery, I don''t think most salespeople ignore the ''doesn''t look like they could afford a cuppa coffee, but could probably buy the whole store'' person wandering in anymore.

I think it''s cuz they''re more liberal up there and the Asian population (particularly Chinese) is so huge, that they know that appearances are deceiving due to the Chinese culture valuing different things from the American norm.

I''m in SoCal and live in a small city with a LARGE asian population. I never have problems in teh Monterey Park/Alhambra/SGV areas, but that''s cuz the salespeople are asian as well. However, in my city, the surrounding cities don''t have many asians and my city still has a good population of non-asians. So, not all the sales people are quite attuned to the culture and buying habits of the asians here.

In my Toyota story, the salesguy didn''t know about Asians, but his sales manager did. Part of what the manager was yelling at the salesguy for ignoring us was "What the hell are you doing? Can''t you see they can drive? They pulled up in a BMW you idiot! That means they have money." By that time we were already mostly back in teh car, but I did hear the manager lecture the salesguy on how the Asians in my city buy cars. How the parents send the kids to the dealerships to find a car they like b/c the parents may not speak English very well and they''ll just show up later when the kids call with the check or cash for the car.

 

[onedrop]

Date: 1/21/2005 1:25:35 AM
Author: ForteKitty

Date: 1/21/2005 12:40

0 AM
Author: dobie
I really don''t understand why so many of you ladies and gents had so much bad services. Like I said earlier, I never had any problems. Is it because I''m a man? Perhaps it is because I''m a Canadian?

Just wondering... are you Caucasian? Because I''ve noticed that sales people generally roll their eyes or pretend to be busy as soon as they see a person of color walk thru the doors. Just personal observation... and experience. You don''t know how many times I''ve had money burning thru my purse and nowhere to spend it because of my race. How do I know? because they told me. A sales lady in a La Jolla boutique said that ''My kind'' is not welcome because we never buy anything... so I promptly took my $11K to a family jeweler and bought a diamond ring for my mom.

I have also been asked where my parents were when browsing thru the jewelry stores, because they do not allow kids under 18 to shop there unattended, as they are not a babysitting company. As if!

Fortekitty: That would have been my question as well. I really thought that maybe being a minority was my customer services "issue." But I see that it most often comes down to a class issue and whether you are perceived to have money to spend. Whatever the reason, it is so wrong to give poor customer service to a person because of stereotypes and outward appearance.

 

[fire&ice]

Car dealerships also are predujiced against women. At least in the early 90''s they were. I had decided I needed a mini-van. I narrowed it down to the dodge caravan or chrsyler/plymouth voyerger. It was *my* van. I visited a couple of dealerships, talked to a few on the phone & asked them to send me a offer to buy on a few cars. I gave them hubby''s fax number at work & *my* phone number if they had any questions. Nothing. Two of the dealerships called my husband asking questions about *my* purchase. He finally said to the last one - "She''s the one buying the car - not me". I was completely dissed.

Walked into a dealership in NC & was completely ignored except for one salesperson transplanted from NY. I bought the car from him.

 

[aeli]

Date: 1/21/2005 11:39:39 AM
Author: jenwill
I think maybe in the SF bay area, sales people have gotten a clue. Too many people here have (or had- pre 2001) A LOT of money and no qulams about wearing ''not quite it'' clothing. Software engineers and the like- not usually known for their snazzy dressing style, whether they are male or female. And, this area has a very diverse ethnic popluation- many of whom have the same stock option cash as the others.

SO, after the first few big sales were lost due to snobbery, I don''t think most salespeople ignore the ''doesn''t look like they could afford a cuppa coffee, but could probably buy the whole store'' person wandering in anymore.

I would have thought so too, but my bad Tiffany & Co. experience was at the San Francisco store. The irony in this - #1: My fiance is of dot com boom generation and made out pretty well. #2: Many Asian people I know in the bay area are label whores (I''m Korean and my fiance is half) and don''t mind paying the premium for a brand name (sorry if this generalization offends anyone - just a personal observation).

 

[njc]

My car was on its last couple of miles, so my grandfather was going to buy me a car for an early college graduation present, whatever i liked. I went around to all the dealerships at school to find out what i liked. Out of 4 dealerships i went to (Nissan, Toyota, Subaru and Chrysler) no one was willing to help me. The salesperson that sticks out the most was at Chrysler. I asked what they had used in Sebrings. He told me and started to walk away. I asked if i could see them. Gives me this nasty look, sighs and goes i guess. It took him 15 minutes to find the 2 sets of keys (guess he was hoping i would just leave). Any questions i would ask him about the car, he would reply with the least info possible. I even had my now FI with me.

I ended up at home going to the local Chrysler dealership where my grandfather bought an even nicer Sebring than i had been looking at (still used, but better options, etc). Because it was under factory warrenty i would use the dealership at school for service. One of the first couple times i brought it in, the same salesperson noticed it while i was walking through to the service dept and commented and asked about it and if i had bought it there. I said no, you treated me like i was wasting your time, so i went somewhere else and got a better, more expensive one than i looked at.

 

[Dancing Fire]

yes,car dealership are the worst,maybe because i''m chinese

back in 95 when i was looking to buy a new car went to local bmw dealership and i was snooping around the car lot for about 20 min there was 3 salesmen standing around smoking & B.S.ing with each other, paying no attention to me

,finally one of them walk up and help me (i think he loss the coin toss) i end up buying a 540 i (what a POS) all kinds of problems ,but when it runs its a awesome car to drive.however, i got ex service at a local mercedes dealership,they unwrap a brand new car for me to test drive.

 

[TLS]

these stories are all so awful. I remember my mom telling me that back in the 70''s or 80''s (can''t remember exactly) she needed to go buy a new car and she went down to the local dealership and was just being completely ignored/blown off by the salesmen (she wasn''t dressed up, had just come from work but had a definite agenda of buying a car). When she started asking questions about a specific one and told them she was interested in buying it they told her to come back with her husband!!

Meanwhile it was my mom that made all the big purchasing decisions in the family (dad had no interest!).

That was enough to send her down the road to another dealership where a nicer gentleman sold her a car.

 

[jenwill]

Date: 1/21/2005 1:25:37 PM
Author: aeli

Date: 1/21/2005 11:39:39 AM
Author: jenwill
I think maybe in the SF bay area, sales people have gotten a clue. Too many people here have (or had- pre 2001) A LOT of money and no qulams about wearing ''not quite it'' clothing. Software engineers and the like- not usually known for their snazzy dressing style, whether they are male or female. And, this area has a very diverse ethnic popluation- many of whom have the same stock option cash as the others.

SO, after the first few big sales were lost due to snobbery, I don''t think most salespeople ignore the ''doesn''t look like they could afford a cuppa coffee, but could probably buy the whole store'' person wandering in anymore.

I would have thought so too, but my bad Tiffany & Co. experience was at the San Francisco store. The irony in this - #1: My fiance is of dot com boom generation and made out pretty well. #2: Many Asian people I know in the bay area are label whores (I''m Korean and my fiance is half) and don''t mind paying the premium for a brand name (sorry if this generalization offends anyone - just a personal observation).

Aaaah- SF Tiffany''s. Now I get it....funny that that is still the one store REALLY holding on to its snob factor! I wandered in (in my business clothes, not cheap, with decent accessories! a rarity for me...) and still got ignored. sheesh! Maybe the Peninsula/South Bay are a little more relaxed than those city folk! There are still enough ''socialites'' around in the city that ''keeping up appearances'' that that is more of what is expected.

 

[BLINGQUEEN]

Date: 1/21/2005 11:44:31 AM
Author: ForteKitty

Date: 1/21/2005 9:54:16 AM
Author: fire&ice
My poor mom experienced some age discrimination in reverse. For Christmas, she wanted to buy my niece a nice black suit - one my niece saw in Anne Taylor. She''s 80, attractive - but like most older people has some trouble walking about - and definitely not AT target audience. A fish out of water - no one would help her. She was completely ignored. She asked a question about one black suit & was abruptly dismissed. She ended up going to another mall w/ an Anne Taylor, asked to see the manager, told her of her experience & the manager couldn''t have been nicer. $300 or so dollars later, the women made a nice sale.

I received similar treatment in Abercrombie. Some kid copped an attitude when I asked what a particular jean style was. Won''t shop there. I think any sales person should welcome anyone.

I have to say though - for every sales person nightmare - a similar customer from heck could be told.

Your poor mother... I hope she made a complaint about that store. I cannot stand to see the elderly treated with disrespect under any circumstances.

When I was shopping for an interview suit, AT was the first place I stopped at because they have very nice suits in petite sizes. I needed a pair of pants and was completely ignored by every single sales rep because I appearantly looked like a stupid college kid not worth their time. (Fashion Valley, San Diego) I left, went to Nordies, and bought an even more expensive suit there.

Abercrombie is one of the worst stores I''ve ever been in. They literally roll their eyes at you if you even attempt to get their attention.

And for the record, I''ve worked retail during college, so it''s not all one-sided for me. I worked for the Disney Store and Discovery Channel, and we were told on the first day of training that we should never discriminate based on appearance, because you never know who has money and who doesn''t. They had a cute little video of a little boy shopping for his mom, and ended up spending $100 on a stuffed animal with his dad''s credit card!

Probably because everyone that works at A&F is 18 years old. They have no manners or concept of life. They work to pay for the clothes the buy to wear to work!! They only notice attractive members of the opposite sex in their store. However, salespeople at these uspscale stores, ie Tiffany''s and Brook Brothers, work on commission and should know better!!