What has your SA given you after you bought your jewelries?

[musicscrip]

I recently got engaged and the ring was bought from Tiffany back in Aug. The sales never sent a thank you card. A month later, my fiancee bought a white and yellow gold bracelet for 1/14 of the price of the engagement ring from a different SA and today we received a thank you card from her with a Tiffany style book wrapped nicely in the famous blue box with white ribbon (it's hardcover with 300ish pages). Why is that? I don't understand why SAs from the exactly same Tiffany store aren't trained the same way? Are they salary based or comission based?

What have you received from your SAs?

 

[onegirlcreative]

well, it just sounds like the sales associate the first time was being lazy and obviously doesn't care about increasing her clientele.

i used to work at nordstrom, saks, neiman marcus and ralph lauren and believe me, that is a big no-no what your first SA did (or didn't do, in this case). you always always want to follow up after a large purchase (or any purchase where the SA spends a significant amount of time with that client) with a thank you card. i imagine buying something as expensive as an ering, you guys most likely spent a great deal of time with this SA, so it bothers me that she didn't follow up with you.

i would stick with your second SA from now on and basically, it's her loss. kwim?

i know with regular clients that were ongoing, sometimes we would send a nice little basket or floral arrangement, but these were for our regular clients that we have worked with for a long time.

i don't necessarily think the SA should "get you anything" other than a follow up thank you card, like your second SA did. but i'd be curious to hear what others will say from their regular SA's.

 

[musicscrip]

well, it just sounds like the sales associate the first time was being lazy and obviously doesn't care about increasing her clientele.

i used to work at nordstrom, saks, neiman marcus and ralph lauren and believe me, that is a big no-no what your first SA did (or didn't do, in this case). you always always want to follow up after a large purchase (or any purchase where the SA spends a significant amount of time with that client) with a thank you card. i imagine buying something as expensive as an ering, you guys most likely spent a great deal of time with this SA, so it bothers me that she didn't follow up with you.

i would stick with your second SA from now on and basically, it's her loss. kwim?

i know with regular clients that were ongoing, sometimes we would send a nice little basket or floral arrangement, but these were for our regular clients that we have worked with for a long time.

i don't necessarily think the SA should "get you anything" other than a follow up thank you card, like your second SA did. but i'd be curious to hear what others will say from their regular SA's.

I totally agree with you and all we want is a thank you card. My bf then (now fiancee) went into Tiffany and spoke with the first SA only for about 20min (to tell her his budget and ask her to have diamond rings to show us on the day when I'm in the US). When we went in, she was away so a male SA showed us the rings she put on hold for us. He was not very happy to work for us and he didn't smile even ONCE that whole afternoon. We decided on a ring that's over $10K in just 30min. We couldn't pay with a USA visa card cuz my bf just moved to US for work so he said he'll come back the next day to pay by a bank certified cheque. Then the male SA said personal cheque is fine and we asked him TWICE "REALLY?" because we couldn't believe that personal cheque is accepted for this BIG purchase. Then the next day my bf went in to pay the first SA wasn't there so a manager helped my bf with the payment. That's when he found out he HAS to have two pieces of US ids but he only had one. So now she charged my bf on his Canadian visa card and told him to get bank certified cheque the next day then she'll do a return on the visa. Because she said it counts as SAME days transaction so it will be OK. Guess what? A month later, we were charged $800 as transaction fee from the Canadian Visa card company.

We told the whole story to the first SA and she didn't even offer to help to solve the problem. I was so sad that we got this kind of service from Tiffany. We then talked to the manager who did the transaction for my bf and she said Tiffany can't do anything about it cuz we have to deal with Visa company ourselves. Visa company isn't willing to give back the $800 we were charged so we lost it all...

We had really bad experice buying the Tiffany engagement ring and we don't know how we can file a complaint to Tiffany. I wish they can do something about the $800 because it wasn't our fault...they gave us the WRONG info at first place.

 

[Classic Chic]

Tiffany SA works on commission, and I'm sorry to hear Tiffany didnt' care to fix the 800 charge. Definitely write a formal complaint to district and corporate office, in this soft market, power houses should be even more careful about client experience!

 

[ame]

We had really bad experice buying the Tiffany engagement ring and we don't know how we can file a complaint to Tiffany. I wish they can do something about the $800 because it wasn't our fault...they gave us the WRONG info at first place.

File a BBB complaint. That WILL wake them up. They had a whole division of folks devoted to it.

I have filed 2, 1 was our local store, 1 was corporate. Ill-treatment as a whole, and then they lost my engagement ring that THEY damaged, and wanted US to pay for their damage and loss. They permanently lost our business with that mess, but their BBB people got the situation resolved so that we were not out the money.

 

[PinkKitty2]

I have worked in customer servoce my whole life (not jewelry), and to me, when the CS is so uneven, it is a management level problem. OP hit the nail on the head how they are trained.

I have had such uneven CS experiences there, It seems as though the training must really be lacking there. I just have one SA that I know and stick to now. Too bad b/c I love the jewelry, it would be nice if the experience was more consistent.

At Links of London, I bought some silver allorts earrings , the SA was a sweetie ande wrangled me a discount and a free polishng cloth, plus a coupon for $50 off a future purchase. He also got my # and called recently to let me know about an upcoming sale. Now that's good service!

 

[onegirlcreative]

Tiffany SA works on commission, and I'm sorry to hear Tiffany didnt' care to fix the 800 charge. Definitely write a formal complaint to district and corporate office, in this soft market, power houses should be even more careful about client experience!

i agree. in this economy, they should be kissing your ass, not treating you like crap. that just makes me angry to hear what horrible service they offer. believe it or not, this is not the first time i have heard horrible stories about the treatment from tiffany & co. what a shame. i'm sorry, but if i were you, and it may be too late, i would inquire about returning the ring BECAUSE of the horrible experience. that SA is going to be getting a nice commission check for basically treating you like crap. that's too bad.

at least threaten to return it if you have no intention of doing so. and like classic chic suggested, i would definitely write a nasty letter explaining the situation to their corporate office because i would have to believe at that point, they would do something. i'm sorry, but $800 is a lot of money to "eat" because they were too eager to get you to buy the ring right then and there instead of waiting for your fiancé to get a bank certified check. sick.

I have worked in customer servoce my whole life (not jewelry), and to me, when the CS is so uneven, it is a management level problem. OP hit the nail on the head how they are trained.

I have had such uneven CS experiences there, It seems as though the training must really be lacking there. I just have one SA that I know and stick to now. Too bad b/c I love the jewelry, it would be nice if the experience was more consistent.

At Links of London, I bought some silver allorts earrings , the SA was a sweetie ande wrangled me a discount and a free polishng cloth, plus a coupon for $50 off a future purchase. He also got my # and called recently to let me know about an upcoming sale. Now that's good service!

now THAT'S excellent customer service. that's how it's supposed to be.

 

[musicscrip]

i agree. in this economy, they should be kissing your ass, not treating you like crap. that just makes me angry to hear what horrible service they offer. believe it or not, this is not the first time i have heard horrible stories about the treatment from tiffany & co. what a shame. i'm sorry, but if i were you, and it may be too late, i would inquire about returning the ring BECAUSE of the horrible experience. that SA is going to be getting a nice commission check for basically treating you like crap. that's too bad.

at least threaten to return it if you have no intention of doing so. and like classic chic suggested, i would definitely write a nasty letter explaining the situation to their corporate office because i would have to believe at that point, they would do something. i'm sorry, but $800 is a lot of money to "eat" because they were too eager to get you to buy the ring right then and there instead of waiting for your fiancé to get a bank certified check. sick.

I couldn't threaten them to return the ring anymore because by the time we saw the visa statement, it was more than 4 weeks later. Tiffany manager told us to deal with the visa company and they can't offer tnay compensation...what a joke! I was so down for a good 2 days because $800 is A LOT for me in my stage of life right now.

Tiffany SA works on commission, and I'm sorry to hear Tiffany didnt' care to fix the 800 charge. Definitely write a formal complaint to district and corporate office, in this soft market, power houses should be even more careful about client experience!

Now that explains why the 2nd male SA didn't seem to care at all when I was there for the first time to look at 3 rings. He wasn't smiling AT ALL and had a poker face the whole time. I guess the first SA only talked to my fiancee for less than 20min and made a big comission on my engagement ring. It's really sad that she made so much from us yet she didn't follow up at all...no thank you card nor ask us about the $800 afterwards. We told her about the situation and she told us to deal with the store manager...

 

[LeeMiller]

Why was he charged $800 on a return? Is it a currency transaction fee? I would follow-up with Visa, I guess the SA gave the wrong information. Too bad they didn't just wait a day to run the sale through.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I've had mixed service. Last SA we got a nice jewelry cleaner with our purchase (channel set diamond wedding ring). I don't remember if we got a thank you card or not, I think with some purchases we have gotten them, but not with others. My DH has gotten a mix of diamond & silver jewelry for me there over the years. I just hope that you can remember the happy parts of your engagement and not remember this!

 

[skyqueen]

Terrible about the $800. charge, Music...that's an expensive "mistake". I'd be PISSED, too!!! My jeweler offers me free replacement of diamonds, if they fall out of the settings. I have to have the jewelry checked every 6 months, by the jeweler...but I have had 2 20pt diamonds replaced already. Usually you buy "replacement insurance" when you originally buy the item...but they waive that for me. I'd say that's a nice thank you!

 

[surfergirljen]

I'm on the cusp of buying a replacement e ring from Tiffany's so I'll let you know! So far the SA has been very professional, sweet, patient and it's been an overall great experience so we'll see!

I had no idea they sometimes sent cards or gifts until coming on this website... my SA at Birks has sold me quite a few VCA pieces in the last 6 months and she is GREAT, I love her - but no card in the mail (a follow up email once, call the second time) or gifts! Boo!

 

[risingsun]

I've had thank you cards, gift cards, and flowers--on two separate occasions. We have been doing business with this jeweler for quite some time and receive excellent customer service, along with some perks!

 

[LabRatPhD]

My fiance purchased my engagement ring from Tiffany about 6 months ago and we had a wonderful experience. I was involved in the process so my SO and I looked at rings together. Our Tiffany SA was amazingly patient and honest with us. He had almost 20 different rings brought in to our local store over the span of a month because I kept waffling over which style I wanted. My SO was traveling a lot during that time too so he was very nice about holding the rings for us. After SO purchased, we received a very nice thank you card in the mail. SO expressed an interest in purchasing wedding bands from our SA as well so I think our SA definitely wanted to be very nice to keep the business. I had read on other forums that some Tiffany's will give you champagne when you purchase the ring but we definitely didn't get that. Our ring purchase was pretty big so maybe it's just because our local Tiffany is somewhat smaller and new.

I'm sorry you are going through this Musicscrip. I hope you are able to get this resolved soon!

 

[kristie]

We purchased a Tiffany eternity band that was over 8K for my soon to be wedding ring and I got a hastily scratched out thank you note......which is better than nothing but still kind of lame IMO.

 

[tillie46]

When I bought my Cartier love bangle, the SA gave me a beautiful, Cartier pen and red suede flap bag to keep it in . I had a choice of the pen or a bottle of Cartier perfume. I thought it was pretty nice.!!