Scam ??

[Daygloboo]

Something happened to me earlier today that has really upset me and I dont know what to make of it. If anyone else has had a similar experience, or can give some insight into it I'd be interested to hear about it.
I live in a market town and went into the local jewellers to look for a necklace for my cousin's 60th birthday next week. I eventually found a lovely silver necklace priced at £145 . I particularly liked it because it was a good size particularly 'across ' where it looked about an inch and a half wide in a kind of elongated diamond shape with sort of knotty twists. I could imagine it sitting very well on my cousins neck and thought it was a really good price. I pointed it out to the lady behind the counter and she took it out of the cabinet and said she was " going out the back to clean it "for me. She was gone about 10 minutes which I thought was a bit odd. I just stood around waiting getting increasingly confused as to why she had disappeared. I even asked the other lady behind the counter where she had gone as I had bought a necklace and the lady had gone off with it and seemingly not come back. Eventually she did reappear and when she laid the necklace on the counter I could see it was smaller than the one that had been in the cabinet. I said I'm sorry but I dont think that is the same necklace as I chose. I explained that I chose it especially because it was quite wide and I thought it would sit well on my cousin' s neck. I said i can definitely see it isnt as big as the one that was in the cabinet. She said it was the same necklace that I had chosen. She then rang it up and it was £ 125. I said " Look it can't be the same necklace because the one in the cabinet says £145 and you've just rung up £ 125 so it must be a smaller one. She then got out the catalogue and showed the page for my necklace and there were 3 sizes. I said are these the actual size because I can see that the biggest one is the one that was in the cabinet . She said yes they were pictures of the actual size. I could see quite clearly that the biggest one was exactly the one from the cabinet. Her and the other woman then started behaving defensively and saying if i wasnt happy I didnt have to buy it. She said she hadnt shrunk it and sort of laughed nervously. In the end I bought it but I felt something weird was going on. I dont know why she was out the back for 10 minutes supposedly cleaning a necklace that already looked really pristine. I know im not mad, I know the necklace Isaw and I know 100% it wasn't the necklace I saw in the cabinet. Admittedly I only paid £125 but I wanted the one from the cabinet that was priced at £145. I just dont know what was going on. I dont know if the woman was incompetent, or trying to scam me in some way that I can't quite work not, or if the shop itself was up to something scamming customers. Was she going to charge me £145 if I hadn't complained ?? What the hell was going on ? I feel really pissed off because the larger necklace was much nicer than the one i was given and also I feel like some manipulation was going on but I still can't quite work out what. It has really upset me. It's a very popular jewellers in the town. I dont know whether to take it further but it's my word against theirs and I wasnt charged more. I just feel something isn't right and it has made me angry. Can anyone shed any light in this. I honestly dont think i am being unreasonable to think that something weird was going on. I went very quiet as I walked out of the shop and sort of grunted as they were still trying to defend themselves, but I reslly felt like slapping the pair of them because I felt like they were somehow taking me for a ride. But I can't prove it.

I voted YABU as you should not have bought it.

No - we don't.

I dont think it's necessary to be rude, is it.

You chose to buy the smaller one. A retailer can withdraw an item from sale at any time. Maybe the larger one had a flaw, needed cleaning up or they got out a new one out if stock for you and they genuinely got mixed up.

This is such a strange OP. You have given so much detail about the kind of thing that probably happens a lot.

Of course it’s not a ‘scam’ because scamming implies a regular con trick and you were in any case given the choice whether or not to go along with her confusion, mistake or substitution. And for some reason you accepted it. It’s just a fairly normal but annoying situation which you decided to react to passively and then massively overthink. I would guess that your life has recently become smaller so you are spending too much time reading things into situations.

Ha ha ha. Read back what you wrote. You think MY life has got small. What absolute tripe.

I wonder if the display one was incorrectly priced and should have been more expensive and they didn't want to sell it for that price, so they sold you the smaller version for its correct price. It is a bit strange.

And how would I know if it's a regular con trick. I only went in once. Your post is illogical. And, frankly, rude.

How did she ring it up for £125? Maybe she’d have rung up £145 if you’d not have noticed the size difference.

£20 profit for their pockets.

Questioning you and saying things you don't want to hear isn't rude, OP.

You seem to be overreacting to a lot - the shop and on here. Maybe don't over-think everything!
No one has been rude to you.

That's the sort of thing I was wondering. I was wondering if anyone else had experienced dodgy behaviour and if it was a thing jewellers maybe have been known to do. Whether I bought the smaller one or not wasn't really the issue even though some people seem fixated on that. . I thought the women behind the counter were up to something.

Well I'm 45 and I've never been in a situation where I've asked to buy one thing and then the shopkeeper has sworn blind that something else that is clearly different, and differently priced, is in fact the same thing as the thing I wanted to buy. That strikes me as a very unusual situation indeed. I agree it's hardly a scam though, and I don't get why the OP bought the different thing she didn't want.

I disagree . The first post was rude and then people jumping on the bandwagon. Not really sticking to the issue but using the opportunity to be unpleasant. I've noticed it before on here. And people referring to it as ' mumsnet' as if mumsnet is one giant, collective mindset that must prevail. Weird.

Could you see the fastenings in the display cabinet? And if not, is it possible that it was displayed in a way that made it look longer than it was? Sometimes the whole chain is displayed and only the fastenings are hidden.

No. It was definitely bigger.

I'd like a picture. I cannot imagine these necklaces at all, with the wideness and twisty bits 'across'.

How on earth was her version believable? I'm sorry I dont get what you are saying. On what universe is it believable to make out that something t is the SAME SIZE as something else ......when i have just seen the other thing and KNOW 100% it was bigger.

I still don't understand why you bought it though.

I can't get past you purchasing an item you didn't select. I wonder if the original necklace you saw was incorrectly priced up. But that's by the by, why buy something that didn't fulfil what you had chosen in the first instance?

In what universe do you think you're being ripped off, by being given a smaller item than you asked for, but buy it anyway? You say that people are fixated on this, but it doesn't make any sense. In your own words, you were 100% certain you weren't being given what you asked for, so why didn't you just walk away?

Has anyone else noticed things like this happening in a jewellers ? Are they known for this

Well, I was the poster who took my late mum's 18ct gold chain in for repair, and when it came back they'd swapped it for a 9ct one, so that particular jeweller certainly was

It's different to your situation of course, but a useful lesson to learn ... if you leave anything with a jeweller always get a written receipt of exactly what it is

I don’t understand. Why would you buy it?

Well of course it’s here or there. It’s the whole point. You thought you were being scammed but you still bought it anyway. You’re a scammers dream. Most people would have just walked out.

I didnt hate the smaller one and i wanted something for my cousin and it was the nicest design I'd seen in the shop. I wasnt ripped off . That's not what I was saying. I just thinknits a bit dodgy for someone ro gonoutcthe back and come back with a smaller one and claim it was the same one rhey took out the back to clean.