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 think people are getting mixed up between:

the width of the pendant

and

the length of the chain

Hence some of the confusion.

I can see why you might by the slightly smaller pendant you liked, if they were basically trying to suggest the larger one never existed/they didn't have it, and you really liked the design.

I wonder if the larger one on display was the only one they have and instead of simply explaining that they could not sell you the display version, the sales person decided to bring you the smaller version and fudge it.

Whether the original intention was to see if you noticed and charge the higher price if you did not... who can say, only the salesperson involved. It would be a sneaky way to pocket extra cash, for sure.

Are you a jeweller then

And yet you still bought it. Even though you thought it was dodgy. I’ve got a bridge going in London with a couple of towers on it if you’re interested?

She probably wanted to buy it herself.

I wouldn't have bought the smaller one. Take it back and speak to someone different/ask for the manager.

Was it different in length or bigger links/style?

Lol. Oh stop it.

Wider. Bigger.

But why did you buy the one you didn't really like? If they were in a catalogue presumably you could have got the one you did like, either ordered in that shop or you could have found it somewhere else, it wasn't a one off piece.

Perhaps they realised that the one on display had been promised to someone else who might have paid a deposit, who knows.

Thank you. At last. A post that actually understands what I've been trying to say. Yes. Exactly. I'm still.wondering if the saleswomaen had something going on where they thought people wouldn't notice and they'd pocket the difference. Trouble is. I simply can't prove that the one I saw originally was bigger. Bit of a stretch i know, but........it made me wonder if jewellers are up to.more dodgy practices than we realise..

I don’t accept you can know this 100%. The difference in size will have been small (being already a small item- necklace) and you hadn’t seen it for 10 minutes and you had no direct comparison. The fact that you can’t see that it’s even a possibility that you were mistaken about the size suggests to me that you might be the one who was being odd in the scenario,

Well I noticed that the biggest looked slightly wider at the widest points snd that's what made me think it would look really good on my cousins neck. That was precisely why I liked it. Snd when I saw all 3 in the catalogue I could see the difference quite clearly. I could see the biggest one was the one I'd seen. The fact it was bigger made it look slightly wider.

@Daygloboo maybe she was going to clean it and broke it. Hunted round for another, couldn’t find one and decided to sell a smaller one hoping you wouldn’t notice - just didn’t want to lose the sale?

Well it was definitely odd the way she was gone for so long.

I worked in a very high end jewellers for 10 years, and it would be more than their good name was worth to do something like this.

Imagine Tiffany's reputation if something like that ever came out by a customer on social media, so "jewellers" certainly dont do this as common practice. At least good ones dont.

Having said that in your case you say a jeweller in a market town, for whatever reason they weren't selling you your "big" necklace and were dodgily bringing the smaller one out. Had it been me, when they showed me the three sizes in the catalogue id have said no, sorry its the £145 bigger necklace, we seem to have got mixed up, and left the shop.

But you liked the smaller one enough to buy it at 125, so im confused at what all the fuss is about really. Assistants in the back went shit that's left over for someone else they've paid a deposit, let's try the cheaper one? And it worked.

It's very strange, OP. I'd also be suspicious and confused. At best it was a mistake and she was too embarassed to admit it; at worst it was a lie. Why they'd lie about that though, I don't know.

Well....erm.....all the fuss would be about not particularly wanting to be served by assistants going " shit.... let's palm this off on this customer ......" I dont know about you, but I don't want to be served by people with no integrity .

Did you pay cash? If someone was "pocketing" customer payments I don't know how. There's not really a way for a cashier to put through a £125 item, charge £145, give you a correct receipt for the item you took away in case you came back with it faulty etc. and personally take the money out of the credit/debit card transaction. Plus - it would be noticed at the first stocktake.

Can you go back to the shop? See if “your” necklace is back on display. Compare with the “replacement” necklace. Then ask to exchange,

God knows why everyone is jumping on you and trying to make an argue after a very innocent request for advice/ opinion...I think a bit too much wine is flowing tonight possibly!

Yeah, that's precisely why I was trying to work out different scenarios and asking other people on here if they'd had weird experiences in jewellers. But a few people.on here preferred to focus on the ' fact' that me buying the smaller one was an obvious indication of my complete and utter psychopathy. 😂😂

Weellll err

They showed you three necklaces each different prices in the catalogue?

You knew your big one was 145

You knew this one was smaller

You were charged 125?

So you knew you weren't buying the big one but bought it anyway? I did say a reputable jeweller wouldn't scam their customers, maybe they aren't a good jeweller.

It's strange when a poster comes on Am I Being Unreasonable, Folk take the time to reply with an honest answer and OP takes the hump.

Yeh this exactly

OK, maybe you have a point sbout the post being AIBU. It's not about taking the hump, its about making what I think is a reasonable argument. I've never claimed that I bought the smaller one with my arm twisted behind my back. I genuinely think the most striking thing about my story is that there might be jewellers out there who are trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. I would have thought that was more worrying than whether I've put this on the right thread./ post/ title. I think two rhjbvs can be true at the same time. It can be true that it's bought the smaller one as I still.liked the design but also that I was pissed off that I felt something weird was going on.

Maybe she broke it when she took it out to clean it. I doubt it's a scam as there's nothing in it for her.

The more unusual part is that you still bought the necklace.

Fair enough.

I think i got snippy because I was so proud of the jeweller i worked for, and the staff who were expert at their jobs, its not just flogging sparkly stuff! . So when you said 'do jewellers do this' it touched a nerve.

They should have come out and said why it wasnt for sale, that this was the finer version. You probably would still have bought it but it left a bad taste.

So yeh they were unprofessional, possibly not dishonest though. And its not endemic in the industry I dont think

I hope she likes it.

Then why carry on with the transaction? You are 100% certain that something dodgy is happening, why the hell do you buy it anyway and then spend hours arguing about it with people that can't possibly know?! Why did you not just leave if you were so certain that they were up to something! And why can't you see that this is a reasonable question?