Pretty Woman Moment

Ha I can never make assumptions. Remember seeing a client in a horrible dingy council flat. If someone is in genuine need I can work pro bono. However had to go through his finances and he had literally hundreds of thousands sitting in the bank.

A friend who is a corporate lawyer was once given 50p by a lady when she was waiting outside a super market 🙈. Gave her a nudge to dress abit better!

I would have turned to hubby and said, "She thinks you're Richard Gere"

This has happened to me in the past when I was with my ex. He was rather well to do but generally wore old jeans and t shirts. He was looking at buying a new small boat and the salesman ignored us when we walked in. It was really pointed. We were sort of bewildered and sort of amused.

Another sale lost.

Following an inheritance, I went to a CERTAIN well known Swedish vehicle sales garage. I currently have pink hair (thanks to son's Kpop Demon Hunters Obsession) and was wearing clean and neat but casual clothes (jeans, graphic t shirt). I am also in my early 30s and a woman which I think is quite key.
I had an appointment but waited and waited while various 60 year old blokes in suits were seen before me. Eventually 45 minutes after my appointment time, I located the sales associate who I was meant to be seeing (who was incidentally have a coffee and chatting with colleagues). I calmly but firmly informed him that I was leaving having been kept waiting for so long. He had the AUDACITY to roll his eyes and said 'oh ok then'. What followed was a perfect Pretty Woman moment where I asked if he worked on commission (yes) and told him that I'd been in wanting to test drive and purchase a new electric SUV with a starting price of £70k - cash.
Despite not getting the car, the look on his face made it one of the most satisfying moments of my life. 10/10 would recommend.

Your DH's response was perfect. I'd just try and forget about it now and buy elsewhere - at the end of the day, giving your business to a competitor is the best revenge.

My DH went to the Southampton Boat Show a couple of years ago specifically to buy a load of new Raymarine instruments for our boat. The salesmen on the Raymarine stand couldn't have been less interested so he walked to the Simrad stand and bought the lot from them. Huge mistake, Raymarine. Huge. 😂

I was once told by an Estate Agent that I needed to ‘cut my cloth according to my coat’ after I gave her a list of things I was looking for in a property. She had no idea of my circumstances or budget it was based purely on my looks. I just walked away but it did grate on me somewhat.

I remember reading an interview with Tracey Emin

She'd gone to a designer shop in somewhere like Sloane Street and was trying on shoes - the assistant who obviously didn't recognise her snootily asked if she'd won the Lottery

I've always presumed that some crap salespeople do this as a tactic. "And just to serve them right I bought everything!"

Yep a few times.

back pre internet as a first time solo buyer I went into an estate agent with a few properties in the window within budget and what I was looking for. Nothing flash, just a two bed flat in a reasonable area.

i asked if I could view. No that one’s under offer. Oh ok, what about this one. Under offer. And that one? Under offer. What, everything on your books in my price range is under offer? Yes.

i do enjoy the reverse though- I recently walked into a car dealership looking like a middle aged hobo 🤣. Fresh from work and had thrown on very old sweats. In my own, no man. The suits all casually found something to be busy with, until this one teenage lad came over. He had a cash sale in 10 mins as I knew what I wanted already.

Purely out of interest, I'd love to know how much this door actually cost.

As someone who dresses like a homeless person and, accordingly, has a rubbish income, I think her approach would have been suitable for me.

I’m not making excuses for her because that is very rude, but perhaps she is from a culture where people really dress up. I was surprised at how some Polish friends dressed up recently, obviously she shouldn’t judge ppl on their clothes and that won’t make her successful in the UK.

Why would being late thirties mean someone thought you wouldn’t be able to afford to buy a bespoke front door. Fair play if you said you were both 19 or something but both being close to 40 isn’t exactly giving young and broke vibes.

This happened to me with flooring, at a flooring shop, not a trade show. The salesman refused to give me a price for some of it, saying: "that's top of the range". I got my flooring from that place because they had what I wanted, but he was rather obstructive.
When it was all done and they asked me to leave them a review on Google, I emailed instead, saying I was happy with the flooring but rather than leave a review in public I wanted them to know how much trouble I'd had with the salesman all the way through. I said he knew his technical stuff, but that his failure to respond to my emails had delayed the purchase and installation by about a month, so that I was already living there when the flooring was installed.
I said I was ready to spend money, and it shouldn't require a commanding presence to deal with the salesperson.
To my surprise, the owner rang me and thanked me, saying he wouldn't have known otherwise, and that he was going to have a serious talk with the salesman. They also sent me a bottle of expensive floor cleaner.

I had a similar experience - got a door company round and chose what I wanted. The salesman laughed and said “you’ve chosen the most expensive door - don’t you think you ought to ask your husband first?!” I replied “I am not married, it’s my house that I own and pay for myself as well as the doors!” I said thank you and goodbye and went with another company. Where do these people get their sales training?! 🙄

DH and I were treated like that in Dior in Amsterdam. He was looking for specific pair of shoes that he had seen. We walked out empty handed and we spent a lot of money in other shops who gave great customer service instead.

Not in a shop but DH was looking over a fence at a house that was for sale. We were looking to buy our first house at that point. The neighbour came scurrying out of her house and told him "it's a lovely house, but I'm afraid you won't be able to afford it."

Another non-shop experience...I bumped into someone from my NCT group. It was just before all the DCs were about to start school. I asked her where her DS would be going to school and she said, "oh it's a private school so you won't have heard of it."

It’s not to do with being pretty, it’s just a scene where they think she doesn’t have enough money to shop there.

It's not really anything to do with being pretty.

Even though that trade show might be open to the public, it's very possible that they're actively seeking B2B customers. Think property developers, overseas clients, distributors, international retailers etc. Most companies use those shows as a way of setting up big deals and meeting their existing contacts in person.

It's no secret in trade show circuits that many businesses actively dislike the private customers who are only looking to buy a single unit of a product. Even if that one item is very expensive, it's still not a big sale for them. Behind the scenes, they will moan about certain days where visitors to the show are usually private families, mom and pop stores etc. Many salespeople will avoid eye contact or engaging with people who clearly look like private visitors. Or they will give you an anti sales talk so they don't have to process the paperwork for one unit.

In all honesty, if you received that treatment when you walk into their showroom then it would be grounds for complaint. But at trade shows, it comes down to whether you look like the buyer for Habitat, a property developer from Dubai or just a random couple wanting a front door. She knows you can afford it, but she's probably tired and hungry and doesn't have the energy to give the whole sales pitch for just one door. And this is obviously with permission from her boss so complaining is not going to do much.

EDIT: Especially considering they barely have an online presence, it suggests the company is very B2B, not B2C. They aren't selling single doors but they're looking for real estate contacts who will buy 20-50 doors at once when constructing a new development.

It's about a shop refusing to serve a woman because she is a street prostitute.

There’s a famous scene in the movie Pretty Woman where snobby shop assistants won’t let Julia Roberts try on any clothes because they assume she’s too poor.

In the film Pretty Woman there's a snobby saleswoman who won't serve the main character because she thinks she can't afford anything in the shop.