I went to Yorkdale with my mom in search of a watch to buy her for around $800. We went to the first jewellery store we found - EJ - and browsed through the collection of watches. A Gucci in the display window caught my mother's eye and we asked a salesperson to have a closer look at it. As soon as we told the lady we liked it, she offered us a similar Gucci for $1000 more with a small diamond ornamentation. We politely declined and asked for the price of the white one with no diamonds. The list price was $795, and the employee told us she could get us a small discount. She seemed very eager to close the sale and was pushing for it as soon as she gave us the price. Didn't offer warranty information or anything. We told her we needed to think about it and left.
We found another store called Marex Jewellery (EJ's sister store) and found the same watch in white and brown. We asked a saleslady to have a closer look at the two different colors it came in for comparison. My mom liked the brown dial more and again we were immediately pressured to close a deal. I inquired about the warranty and was informed it was a standard 2 years for inner repair. The employee told us about the additional "buckle to buckle" warranty. We said we weren't interested, but she kept rambling and giving us this meaningful look like we were missing out on a great deal. She also gave us a 10% discount, but it didn't seem too good considering the advertisement of large sales. We also overheard a male employee talking to another customer nearby, discussing the no payment for 12 months deal. He actually told the man that if he was smart, he would make a down payment on the item. Of course, he was implying that the customer wasn't smart, since he was choosing no down payment.
My mom wasn't sure what to do, so I told her I'd quickly return to EJ and find out their discounted price. I asked the same saleslady from before if they carried the watch with the brown dial and at what discount. She told me to wait a moment and then spent 10 minutes on the phone. She said that they did have it. I again asked for the discounted price but she refused to tell me, ordering me to call my mom now and get her to come to the store. I said that I just came to find if they had the brown watch and at what price but that I wouldn't call my mom unless I thought we should buy it. She ignored me, ordered me again to bring my mom to the store, and said she'd be right back to get the watch. "Where was she even going? " I thought to myself. Frustrated, I walked out before she came back.
I really didn't appreciate being talked down to. I may have a young-ish face, but I am 18 years old and shouldn't be treated like a child instead of a normal customer (I even towered over the lady because I'm tall for a girl).
When I looked up EJ reviews, I saw many bad ratings and comments and also found out that Marex is the sister store. That's where the saleslady was going - to get the brown watch from Marex! The two stores were probably in the same mall so that customers wanting to compare prices would find the same ones and decide to buy from one of the stores since they couldn't find a better deal. I also believe the extra warranty is rip-off because intead of having a professional doing watch repairs, regular store employees were at the counter tweaking with watch parts.
Bottom line: VERY unprofessional behaviour toward customers and useless warranty!
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