Jack Ass At The Jewelry Store
You already know that my wedding ring had been lost for so long,that I finally bought a replacement. The nice young man at Zales was very sympathetic about me losing my ring and was more than happy to help me find a suitable replacement. He couldn't have been nicer or more supportive.
Several days after the purchase, Taylor found my old ring. I was so happy to have it back! I was also happy when my wife discovered that we could take the "new" ring back for a full refund. We wasted no time going back to the Zales in our local mall. The same nice young man who was overjoyed to "help" me replace my original ring was there to help us once again.
Except this time he wasn't so nice. When I told him what had happened he turned absolutely sullen. First he tried to talk us into taking a store credit instead of cash. When I told him I wanted the full refund, he turned his back on us and made a phone call. Once that was over, he said no more than five words while he was doing the paperwork and completing the transaction. Obviously, we are never going to buy anything from Zales again.
The guy just lost his commission, so I understand why he would be unhappy, but is there any reason at all to be a total jackass?
Am I the only one who thinks inside sales people should not work on commission?
Seems like that is the fix for finding a lost ring...buy a new one!
ReplyDeleteA few years ago, my bride lost her ring, and the same day we went down to buy a new one, The Daughter found the missing one!
But we were lucky, the store took back the new one and refunded with no hassle.
So happy to hear you found your wedding ring! No replacement ring could ever feel the same as the one your wife slipped on your finger during the wedding. And shame on the salesman for not having the decency of celebrating that fact with you, rather than indulging in his own dismay at a loss commission.
ReplyDeleteI have my own Zales story -- hubby and I don't shop there anymore, either.
What a jerk - to be so obviously sore about losing his commission.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that you have your original ring back, and so soon after replacing it! It's funny how the Universe works. - G
when people work on comission, does that mean the companies aren't legally entitled to pay them minimum wage, like how it is for waitress with a certain assumed amount of tip figured into their wages? if so, i feel pretty bad for the guy and would not blame him but the company he works for for the sullen behaviour he exhibited. maybe he was really hoping to get to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring or something and now he doesn't have enough. maybe the jerkwads he works for don't really pay him enough to get by. or maybe he has to have a certain amount in sales to keep his job.
ReplyDeletei don't know. it's tough to say. but my opinions are those of a bottomdweller, a cashier who's cried before because of things customers have said and done, knowing they have absolutely no way of knowing what's wrong with me, but probably wouldn't care anyway because they're not living paycheck to paycheck just praying to have enough for rent. to them, i'm not a person. to them, i'm there to serve them, and that is the natural order of things, because i must just be too lazy and stupid to have a "real" job and be successful like them.
sorry i ranted at you. i'm not saying your one of those heartless people. i'm just saying that it's usually impossible to really tell what makes a person act a certain way at a certain time. it might not have had anything to do with you at all, and sometimes we bottomdwellers fall out of our daily act a little bit (as much as everyone likes to throw it in our faces when it happens). we're only human, afterall.
i feel like you do about "inside" sales people working on commission. One of the things I hate the most about this is the way the salesperson will hound you and follow you around the store ready to pounce on you if you take interest int anything. I hope you got the refund!!
ReplyDeletePat -- when Ellen and I first bought this house on 1994, we spent the first couple of years gettin' down and dirty doing the remodeling ourselves. Then one day, I don't remember what she was doing, but I heard Ellen gasp and cry out that her wedding ring had just slipped from her finger. I had also heard it plink and roll across the tile floor and disappear into a 'toe-kick heater' opening where the family room stepped up into the kitchen. I searched for two days days even using shards of mirrors on long pieces of wire to look cracks and holes. All to no avail. Eleven years later while remodeling the family room, I had reason to be working on removing that heating device (we had centralized the heating and cooling for 1st floor rooms), and while measuring and fitting the filler for the hole, there laying on a ledge I noted a small bright glint as I passed the flashlight over the opening. Low and behold, it was Ellen's wedding ring. How it had bounced onto that hidden ledge, only God knows. But, yet there it was. There were tears in my eyes as I called to her to come see what I had found. Then we both had a happy cry for joy. The ring was was not valuable in a monetary sense, but being both widowed from our first marriages, we had purchased used wedding rings as a symbol of our second time around. The Christmas before my discovery, I had finally purchased a replacement ring for Ellen over her protest. Now she had three wedding rings, but she wears the one I gave her when we were married 31 years ago. Reading your entry about loosing your ring made me think of our experience.
ReplyDeleteJoe - I think that's correct. I've heard of this happening a lot to people.
ReplyDeleteNicole - I know! I thought he'd be happy about it. He seemed like that kind of guy. Or at least he did when he sold it to me...
Georgina - That's how I felt, like he was taking it out on me.
Vencora - I gotcha! Please know that I'm not one of those people you spoke of. It's a tough one. I don't put this guy in the same category as a waitress or cashier though. This guy was a salesman. I have much more respect for a person who has to "earn" their money, than the salesman who just has to sell you something. I really did feel sorry that he lost his commission. After I took my new ring back, I had to get my old one knocked down a half size. I took it to another jewelery store. One that doesn't work on commission at all. They told me about the wars that go in commission jewelry stores between the employees trying to "steal" customers from each other.
But I don't blame the guy for being upset,I blame him for being an asshole to me and my wife. I blame the company for paying people based on commission, I don't think it's right.
I don't look at people in the food industry as bottom dwellers at all. I've been there, I look at them as people who have to bust their hump every single day to make a living. I don't look down on anybody because my roots are mired in abject poverty. I know where I came from, and I remember how it felt...
What a jerk. I guess they don't teach customer service to their employers.
ReplyDeleteGood thing you got your refund! Obviousy everybody working on commission should know that there are ups and there are downs. I think this guy just wasn't well into customer service as a whole.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad he was so sullen and unhelpful. You might have been a return customer and purchased a lot more in the future when you become a famous writer and have diamonds dripping from your talented fingers.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the salesman wasn't a real salesman - he might have realized that in returning this ring he might have been able to secure a few more sales down the road - like 237 people who follow this blog are all now aware how Zales treated someone we respect and more specifically he should know that people talk to their friends.
ReplyDeleteWhat a loser the salesman..
ReplyDeleteThanks for your sweet comment on my blog!!
I don't like dealing with people who are paid on commission. I think it is bad for them and us in the long run.
ReplyDeleteWhen you find out the answer to that, pls let me know...
ReplyDeleteWanted to tell you that my 15 yr old son, who hopes to be in the Air Force, and is currently in Civil Air Patrol, AND is a military history NUT... has enjoyed your back posts on basic training and military lifestyle. THANK YOU!
Commission or not, that guy was a dick. In today's economy you have more choices than ever where to shop. And the best service wins...not price. Handled correctly he might have lost this sale but you would have been inclined to send someone his way should the opportunity arise. He never saw that far ahead. And I'm off the soapbox...
ReplyDeleteTim - Not on losing a sale anyway.
ReplyDeleteRA - I think you are right! I would hate to work on commission.
BB - We have a lot of family right around here, lot's of them female, some of them who like jewelery. Oh yeah, diamonds dripping off my fingers...LOL
Jhon - No doubt about it. word gets around.
myvisualillusions - yes, it's too bad. You are welcome!
Pam - I agree, it is bad for them.
The Empress - I'm sure I won't find it. I'm glad your son enjoyed the stories, but I hope he doesn't follow my example...
Chuck - that is so true, when i find a person who deals with me decently, I don't mind spending a little more...
See you just ruined my post today. That guy is truly beats me in the douche category!!!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that was pretty jackassish. I had something almost identical happen to me when I bought and returned a scooter last year.
ReplyDeleteCopyboy - He beat you by a long shot...
ReplyDeleteCheeseboy - It just doesn't make sense to me. If we would have not shown me an attitude. The next time I needed something I would have most certainly gone back to him. But no chance of that happening now!
They have just lost a customer. Being sore for losing a commission? Wow. That's poor customer service at its best.
ReplyDeleteI used to work in sales (not for commission only, my basic salary was OK and the commission added to it) and you have to send everyone away happy, even the lost sales, because you never know when that goodwill will pay off. This guy definitely made a big mistake.
ReplyDeleteAnd I no longer work in sales, so yay :D
Glad you found the original wedding ring, Pat.
Oh my, how wonderful it turned up, and what an amazing coincidence it should do that just as you finally resigned yourself to buying a new one!
ReplyDeleteI completely agree about how paying a commision based in-store staff does NOT make for good service. aside from the churlish and juvenille attitude of the guy you had to suffer, which I think (and hope) is probably more extreme then most, there is nothing more off putting than to find a posse of sales staff ready to pounce on you, the minute you enter their store. It's annoying, and extremley off-putting!
Having been a nurse for 30 years I often wondered which was worse...being the nurse or being the patient. I also wonder in this case. We should always strive to be "nice" but sometimes it's just so darn hard. I think the hardest is when you are nice and the other person is rude for no reason.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got your money back and your old ring. I'm still amazed over the fact that 7 year olds can read Nancy Drew. Maybe it's because I'm from Alabama. lol
Wow, that's incredible. How could someone take out their anger on a customer by being a jerk - how obviously rude. Wouldn't he think you might have liked him so much you'd be back for more biz at a later date? Weird.
ReplyDeleteMy hubs lost his white gold ring taking out trash. We never found it. I replaced it with a nice silver ring valued at $40. I know how slacker-like hubs is and begged him to go with a sliver ring in the first place and he refused. As usual, he should have listened to me.
I'm sad this happened. :( Had he not been working commission, I'm betting he would have been grinning ear to ear for you, rejoicing in the fact that you found something so sentimental that you thought was lost forever.
ReplyDeleteThat said, he should have been professional about it (even knowing he was losing his commission) and been polite and helpful. He could have moped AFTER you had left.... and then everyone would have gotten what they wanted, almost. :)
Mr. Stupid - I did a little research on Jewelery stores. At most the guy lost 20-30 bucks.
ReplyDeleteEllen - So true! Setting up relationships with customers is so important. I'm glad also!
Shrinky - Outside sales, maybe commision is okay, but never for inside. that's why I hate car lots the most...
dot - I know it's not easy dealing with the public. I've done it myself. She has no trouble with those books.
Ally - So true! I would have been back. We have a big family also. Now none of them will go there. I thought my ring might have been in the trash also. So I dumped it in the driveway and went through it....no ring there!
Marlene - I agree, that's why it's bad. Don't EVER let the customer see it.
I've worked on commission but not at the retail level. I would never have treated one of my customers that way. What a jerk!
ReplyDeleteOkay so, Pat didn't go into great detail about how we tried to "soften" the returning of the ring!! We didn't just walk up and say "I want to return this ring." We asked if he remembered us and had to refresh his memory with "I lost my wedding ring a few months ago" and empathetically said, "well we have good news and bad news." We told him we were sorry to have to return the "new" ring, but the the good news was, we had found the old one! That is when the "deer in headlights" look overcame his face!! The smile was gone and his lips turned to concrete!! Now Pat is a really, really nice and polite guy and after trying to make light of things with small talk and apologizing several more times, I started getting nervous that he was going to lose his temper and call the guy a jerk. He didn't, we just left and promised each other, we would never go back!!!
ReplyDeleteI didn't know they work on commission. I guess it was never so obvious to me (in all the many, many times I've gone to Zales and other fine jewelry stores), as this guy made it. Maybe you should've brought you GD to give him her cutesy, buymemarbles look.
ReplyDeletexoRobyn
Still smiling!
ReplyDeleteBut you're right. Poor kid, he'd already spent that money in his head. It's not a good system, at all, at all.
Wow, sad experience. Like Megan, I think 'kid' had already spent his commission in his mind.
ReplyDeleteWhat if you had bought an engagement ring? And your intended changed her mind, didn't want to marry - or didn't want THAT ring? Would the sales'man' be that rude? If you were suffering a broken heart, would he compound it or show some empathy?
Then I think - the sales'man' was rude/unprofessional; and he was equally mad at you. Which makes all this EVEN MORE WRONG!
Augh!!
Look at it like this, he chose to be a jackass and let it ruin his day...you're happy because your wallet is a little heavier.
ReplyDeletePerhaps if he had been understanding, decent, and adult about it, you and your wife re-telling the story might have actually generated new business for the company. Instead, the JA has now tarnished his employer's name.
ReplyDelete