Anything You've Ever Wanted To Know About Tiffany's

[TylerDurden]

I've been posting on this forum for a few months now but I haven't made it known that I'm actually a salesperson at Tiffany's. Technically, I don't think we're supposed to speak on behalf of the company since it's a public relations issue. Anyway, I graduated from college a few months ago and I quit my job at Tiffany's after 3 1/2 years of working there because although Tiffany's is a great company to work for I absolutely hate retail.
I'll be moving to Europe in a couple of months and hopfully spending the next year or two traveling around the world (if I can afford it.)
So, if there is anything you've ever wanted to know about Tiffany's feel free to ask and I will answer your questions to the best of my knowledge. Now that I'm no longer an employee I can pretty much say whatever I want but I'll be sure not to give away any trade secrets so I don't get sued!

[Hokaplan]

Wow that is great to have an experienced Tiffanys SA here! My next wishlist item is the aquamarine legacy ring. Unfortunately it will not be anytime real soon. I have 3 questions though. When you have price increases, is it for ALL items or select pieces? Have you seen many increases on legacy rings? The one I tried on the other day cost $7600. How popular is this ring and which color is most popular? Thanks!

[boston girl]

Oh my TylerDurden, I bet you're going to be very, very busy answering questions! First, congrats on your college graduation and for moving on to pursue you passions! I do have a question(s): How difficult is it to get a job at Tiffany? Do you need prior fine-jewelry sales experience? And if hired, as a newbie, do you face a lot of sales competition or "office politics"?

[jan228]

What kind of discount do employees get? I knew a girl who worked there a few years ago and she got 30% off.

[TylerDurden]

Originally Posted by Hokaplan

Wow that is great to have an experienced Tiffanys SA here! My next wishlist item is the aquamarine legacy ring. Unfortunately it will not be anytime real soon. I have 3 questions though. When you have price increases, is it for ALL items or select pieces? Have you seen many increases on legacy rings? The one I tried on the other day cost $7600. How popular is this ring and which color is most popular? Thanks!

The price increase is usually for select pieces for example: one day it will be anywhere from $10-15 up on MOST silver pieces. Then maybe a month or two later it will be about a 5% increase for all fine jewelry and individual diamond pieces. This may happen 2-3 times a year (usually before christmas) however I don't see it happening much in the upcoming year since as I mentioned in previous posts we recently had price decreases on many diamond pieces.
Legacy rings are very popular and in general they are kind of in short supply throughout the company. The diamond legacy rings is the most popular but I think the colored stones are beautiful as well.

[TylerDurden]

Originally Posted by boston girl

Oh my TylerDurden, I bet you're going to be very, very busy answering questions! First, congrats on your college graduation and for moving on to pursue you passions! I do have a question(s): How difficult is it to get a job at Tiffany? Do you need prior fine-jewelry sales experience? And if hired, as a newbie, do you face a lot of sales competition or "office politics"?

Thank you for the congratulations, I'm excited for what the future has to offer. I personally didn't think it was very difficult to get a job there, however it was a very long process. I had about 4 interviews and it took about 6 weeks altogether. You have to list your experience for the past 5 years and they do an extensive background check.
I didn't have any previous fine jewelry experience but I did have high-end retail experience, speaking a second language is also very helpful. I think the trick to getting into tiffany's is to start in a smaller market, trying to get into new york or beverly hills from the start could be nearly impossible as they make so much money there that no one ever leaves.
As for office politics, yes it can be tough. From my experience the older SP's who make a lot of money don't take kindly to new people and they do have a lot of pull because they perform well. It's kind of a double edged sword because if you want to perform you have to step on some toes, if you try to get along with everyone it may affect your sales. I say try and find a happy medium. In my opinion, and I'm sorry to say the company cares more about performance than customer service so I see a lot of SP's ignoring certain customers. Hopefully it's not like this at all stores.

[TylerDurden]

Originally Posted by jan228

What kind of discount do employees get? I knew a girl who worked there a few years ago and she got 30% off.

That would be correct. 30% on most items, you can get a way bigger discount on discontinued items that are sold only to employees. Buying diamonds the discount is smaller and usually varies depending on the diamond, count on 10-15%

[keodi]

Hey TylerD Congratulations on graduating college and your upcoming move to Europe! it's pretty interesting that you mentioned the discount being bigger for items that are/were discontinued. I always thought that once the items were discontinued it's gone...Tiffany had so many cool sterling silver pieces that were discontinued it makes me wish I was an employee

[elle tee]

Hey TylerDurden, congrats on graduation and your upcoming move! And thank you for sharing your expertise with us.
I have a question about repairs. I recently inherited a bowl that's been in the family for a while, ever since one of my grandfather's racehorses won it as a trophy in the 1970s. It's super tarnished, and I noticed while trying to polish it that it is hallmarked Tiffany & Co. on the bottom. Can I take it in to be polished? I called the 800 number but the repairs dept was closed, and the woman I spoke to said they would want to look up purchase records for the item, which seemed odd to me since I've never had them ask for purchase records on anything I've brought in before. Is it worth taking the bowl with me when I go to Fifth Ave. tomorrow, or will they decline to service it?

[TylerDurden]

Originally Posted by elle tee

Hey TylerDurden, congrats on graduation and your upcoming move! And thank you for sharing your expertise with us. I have a question about repairs. I recently inherited a bowl that's been in the family for a while, ever since one of my grandfather's racehorses won it as a trophy in the 1970s. It's super tarnished, and I noticed while trying to polish it that it is hallmarked Tiffany & Co. on the bottom. Can I take it in to be polished? I called the 800 number but the repairs dept was closed, and the woman I spoke to said they would want to look up purchase records for the item, which seemed odd to me since I've never had them ask for purchase records on anything I've brought in before. Is it worth taking the bowl with me when I go to Fifth Ave. tomorrow, or will they decline to service it?

It's hard to say since I've never dealt with anything of that sort, but from my experience a Tiffany employee can almost always tell if it's made by Tiffany just by looking at it so this is usually enough. Assuming that they do need to verify it at the very least you can leave it there while they verify that it is authentic. Worse case scenario, they will call you days later and say that they can't service it because the don't believe it is authentic (which I highly doubt) and then you will need to go back and pick it up. There will probably be a charge for the polishing and it might take a week or more however I am just estimating because I can't speak for how busy the other stores are.

[peace43]

Hi! Is the Frank Gehry collection a big seller for Tiffany? I don't really like any of the pieces in this collection, so I was wondering how well does the Gehry line sell for Tiffany?

Is the Else Peretti silver line of jewelry one of the best sellers? (My favorite!) or does the Paloma Picasso line of silver jewelry sell better?

Also, does Tiffany have any new designers that they'll be introducing?

Thx!

[boston girl]

Originally Posted by TylerDurden

Thank you for the congratulations, I'm excited for what the future has to offer. I personally didn't think it was very difficult to get a job there, however it was a very long process. I had about 4 interviews and it took about 6 weeks altogether. You have to list your experience for the past 5 years and they do an extensive background check. I didn't have any previous fine jewelry experience but I did have high-end retail experience, speaking a second language is also very helpful. I think the trick to getting into tiffany's is to start in a smaller market, trying to get into new york or beverly hills from the start could be nearly impossible as they make so much money there that no one ever leaves. As for office politics, yes it can be tough. From my experience the older SP's who make a lot of money don't take kindly to new people and they do have a lot of pull because they perform well. It's kind of a double edged sword because if you want to perform you have to step on some toes, if you try to get along with everyone it may affect your sales. I say try and find a happy medium. In my opinion, and I'm sorry to say the company cares more about performance than customer service so I see a lot of SP's ignoring certain customers. Hopefully it's not like this at all stores.

Thanks for the feedback TylerDurden. I suppose not surprised to hear about the political games that might go on within the company (or many other high-end companies, for that matter). I've been shopping at Tiffany for many years, and could tell what the "SP's" thought of me by the prompt service--or lack of service--I received. As a jewelry designer myself, in this waning economy, I think about trying to migrate to the corporate jewelry world.

[margaritaxmix]

Congrats on graduating!

I got a silver necklace from there about 2 years ago. If I go in, will they clean it for free or do I have to pay?

[peace43]

Originally Posted by margaritaxmix

Congrats on graduating! I got a silver necklace from there about 2 years ago. If I go in, will they clean it for free or do I have to pay?

Tiffany will charge you for polishing the silver necklace. Not sure how much and they would send it out to be polished. Try purchasing a silver polishing cloth and polish the necklace yourself - it won't take long to polish.

[aquablueness]

YAY! thanks for being here and starting this thread. i'm going to LOVE this thread so much!