Anyone else have a bad experience with buying Cartier?

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EmileH

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Apr 13, 2015
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#1
I'm fairly disgusted with Cartier. I have been purchasing the trinity pieces. So far I have earrings and a ring (as well as three Carter watches) and for a big birthday I am buying the large model trinity bracelet for $16,200. It was out of stock in the US so my local boutique said that if I paid in full, they could transfer it from international stock. She said it was in stock in France. She estimated 2-3 weeks but said she would let me know within a day or two. She came back and said 12 weeks! [emoji15] Not, "I'm sorry. It's 12 weeks. Do you mind?" but "Good news, your bracelet will be here in 12 weeks."

I can see on their French website that the size and model that I want has been in stock this whole time. So clearly they aren't transferring anything. They are making me wait until they decide to restock the US. When I asked why they couldn't FedEx that bracelet in two days, they gave me a lot of vague answers. They aren't told much by corporate. "It's on its way and on time." [emoji35] Customs clearance takes that long. [emoji849] complete nonsense.

To add insult to injury I was in New York and walked by Cartier a few weeks ago. So I popped in on a whim to ask about their availability, I thought it was worth a try. I was honest that I had ordered one in my city but that I wanted to check on their availability. The salesperson then lectured me and belittled me and told me he was telling my SA at home that I was shopping around for the bracelet. As if I did something wrong....
 
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#2
My husband is so mad that he wants me to cancel the bracelet. I called Cartier corporate to complain and get more information. They said they would call back. They never did. I gave it a week. Called them back and said I was disgusted. They had the New York manager call to apologize for the SAs behavior. But they wouldn't give me any more information on where my bracelet was being pulled from or when to expect it other than "it's on time."

I'm now 7 weeks into the 12 weeks. It's not a custom order or anything. The bracelet is now on the US website in every size except mine. Has anyone experienced this? Were you forced to pay in full upfront and wait? Did they really pull something from international stock and if so how long did it take? Did your item at least arrive within the stated time? Any advice about getting decent service from them? They are pretty snotty both on phone and in person. (My local SA is polite at least.)

If I get to the 12 week mark and no bracelet has arrived I'm going to pop a gasket. I seriously doubt I'll ever buy from them again regardless of the outcome. Thanks for any advice.
 
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#3
I'm surprised and so sorry to hear this! I've never had anything but a stellar experience at Cartier. In fact, after my first purchase at my local store (Boston), my SA has remembered all my purchases, who purchased them for me (whether I was buying or my partner) and always asks about my partner, where he's traveling for work, etc. Do you mind sharing the location where you had your first experience?

Not entirely surprised about your NYC experience - I've found that in a lot of bigger cities, luxury brand SAs tend to have less patience because I imagine they have a high volume of folks coming in and a large percentage of those lot of those folks come in to look, touch and take photos and aren't seriously considering a purchase (which I'm totally fine with but I imagine that gets frustrating!) I totally agree that the NYC SA seems to have been way too rude and could have taken a much more customer friendly approach.
 
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#4
ravenruby said:
I'm surprised and so sorry to hear this! I've never had anything but a stellar experience at Cartier. In fact, after my first purchase at my local store (Boston), my SA has remembered all my purchases, who purchased them for me (whether I was buying or my partner) and always asks about my partner, where he's traveling for work, etc. Do you mind sharing the location where you had your first experience?

Not entirely surprised about your NYC experience - I've found that in a lot of bigger cities, luxury brand SAs tend to have less patience because I imagine they have a high volume of folks coming in and a large percentage of those lot of those folks come in to look, touch and take photos and aren't seriously considering a purchase (which I'm totally fine with but I imagine that gets frustrating!) I totally agree that the NYC SA seems to have been way too rude and could have taken a much more customer friendly approach.
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Thank you. I'm in Boston. Yes, the SA here is very nice. She could have handled the 12 week issue better. I think she's frustrated as well and would like to be able to give me more information, but Cartier won't provide it.

The NY SA actually looked me up and saw my purchase history including the bracelet and continued to be nasty. I'm shocked at corporate's unresponsive and snotty attitude even after all of that.
 
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#9
I had a bad experience earlier this year. I will never buy through Cartier again. I may through the saks Cartier but never through one of their boutiques.
 
#10
A friend is in Paris. She inquired at the boutique for me. It appears that they have several bracelets in my size in stock. I will confirm on Monday. If so I'm going to cancel my order in the US and buy it in Paris, because clearly the story about paying upfront so they could transfer it from worldwide stock was a lie. I don't care that it will cost a bit more. A least it will not have these negative memories attached to it.
 
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#11
Confirmed. The bracelet is in stock in France. Cartier US has completely lied. In return for my good faith of paying in full upfront they have done nothing for me except to keep me on a waiting list for when they decide to eventually restock.....and lie to me about the entire process.
 
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#12
Yikes PBP, that's awful.
For your $16K and for a classic gold bracelet, I'd take a look at Verdura. pieces can be purchased in their NYC salon (which is worth a visit) or through Neiman Marcus. Their customer service is unparalleled and I've never had to pay for a repair, even when the damage was my fault.

Their curb link bangles are gorgeous as well as the criss cross cuff.
 
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#13
etoupebirkin said:
Yikes PBP, that's awful.
For your $16K and for a classic gold bracelet, I'd take a look at Verdura. pieces can be purchased in their NYC salon (which is worth a visit) or through Neiman Marcus. Their customer service is unparalleled and I've never had to pay for a repair, even when the damage was my fault.

Their curb link bangles are gorgeous as well as the criss cross cuff.
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Thank you etoupebirkin. I will take a look. Unfortunately I have wanted this particular bracelet for several years. I saw it on one of my trips to Paris and I was waiting for a special occasion to buy it.

The salesperson never should have lied and said she could pull it from international stock if she in fact couldn't, which is what I'm being told now. It seems like they are used to confabulating stories to explain delays at Cartier. I should have known. I had terrible experiences with them servicing my watches a few years back. Since then I learned about the class action lawsuits concerning their watch service center.

I think I'm finished with the brand, which is a shame because I have quite a number of their pieces either handed down from family members or purchased on my own. I'll check out verdura.
 
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#14
Pocketbook Pup said:
Confirmed. The bracelet is in stock in France. Cartier US has completely lied. In return for my good faith of paying in full upfront they have done nothing for me except to keep me on a waiting list for when they decide to eventually restock.....and lie to me about the entire process.
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Let us know when you cancel it. I'm glad you won't reward that bad customer service. I've had fine service with Cartier in Asia. But not great service in the US. One time in the US I wanted to see a watch and the SA said "that's gold" to me. I wasn't dressed up and wasn't wearing my jewelry but I was a bit surprised by the response. I didn't give that store any business. :smile: I feel that if you give a brand enough business eventually you will run into some bad service. I hope that doesn't sound negative- I just think every store has at least one badly trained SA. Your situation was pretty unacceptable though. I might be tempted to spend that 16k elsewhere!
 
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#15
westcoastgal said:
Let us know when you cancel it. I'm glad you won't reward that bad customer service. I've had fine service with Cartier in Asia. But not great service in the US. One time in the US I wanted to see a watch and the SA said "that's gold" to me. I wasn't dressed up and wasn't wearing my jewelry but I was a bit surprised by the response. I didn't give that store any business. :smile: I feel that if you give a brand enough business eventually you will run into some bad service. I hope that doesn't sound negative- I just think every store has at least one badly trained SA. Your situation was pretty unacceptable though. I might be tempted to spend that 16k elsewhere!
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I'm sorry for your bad experience. My perception is that Cartier in the US is the problem. I'm glad to hear that you have had a better experience in Asia. If I want anything in the future I'll try to buy in Europe.
 
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