Pretty Woman Moment

[JuliaRobHurts]

DH and I were at a homebuilding and renovation show yesterday as we're in the middle of an extension project. Specifically we 're on the hunt for a new front door and while looking around one of the vendors we had a "pretty women" moment.

We had a look at the various products on show before trying to get the attention of one of the representatives who appeared to be avoiding our gaze. Eventually she approached and I said 'hi, we're interested in bespoke front doors and quite like this one on show'.

Without asking our budget or any of our requirements she went into a spiel about how the doors were very expensive, how they were imported from Lithuania and the import charge was also expensive, all the while wincing as she was saying it. She then said we might be better off with a more mass manufactured door. I was absolutely stunned at her condescending tone. She hadn't asked a single question about what we were looking for.

I was so close to confronting her about her approach, but held back. DH calmly told her her sales pitch needs some work and we walked away, but I was fuming. We were both dressed smart/casually so the only thing I can think is she guaged our age (late thirties) and made an assumption we couldn't afford it (even though we can).

WWYD in that situation? I'm half inclined to email the company and provide feedback on our experience but I also don't know if it's worth the energy.

Would love to hear if anyone that's had a similar experience but DID confront the rude person as I'm still annoyed I didn't give her a piece of my mind.

This happened to us once but it turned out to be a success story. In our late 20s we came to look around the house we now own. Couple were getting divorced and showed us round. They basically implied they already had someone who wanted to buy it who was about 15 to 20 years older than us. Implied we couldn’t afford it and we might as well not waste our time.

Fast forward six months and the sale fell through with their buyers, so the estate agent rang us back. They were getting divorced and desperate to get rid of the house.We are both legal, I knew they were desperate to sell the house so in essence my husband absolutely rinsed them. They ended up selling it for the exact same price theyd bought it for six years ago, even though they’d renovated half of the house.

more fool them, we called it the t**t tax. We would’ve been willing to pay about 50 grand more, but they treated us like rubbish.

That makes a lot of sense. I’d be willing to bet this is what was really happening.

I had this once when buying a tote bag for work, I went to into Hobbs after I'd been swimming so was dressed casually, wet hair, no makeup and was carrying my ancient and scruffy gym bag. I asked the assistant to take the bag down so I could look at it and she very snootily told me it was 'very expensive' so I told her I knew the cost because I'd seen it online but wanted to see it in real life and her manner changed immediately, it was so funny to watch. Hopefully she learnt not to judge a book by its cover.

I’ve had plenty of moments like this unfortunately! I went to a kitchen appointment on my own without my husband as he’d woken up feeling rotten, and they just weren’t interested in designing our kitchen! I also do look young for my age which doesn’t help.

The worst one was in a shop when the sales assistant looked me up and down and said oh no that dress won’t fit YOU! A size 10/12 at the time, she was at least double my size! Got the dress off the mannequin and the dress fitted me like a glove!!

sales assistants generally avoid me in nice shops too like I can’t afford things! I definitely can!

In what way? It has nothing to do with age, it has everything to do with attitude. It was obvious I meant business, I could´ve been 20 or 80. That they were passing the time lesurely was also very evident. Zero to do with age. I have been trying on stuff when I was early 20s with my friends in the same fashion. I had worked for long enough in retail to spot it by then.

Years ago we wanted new gutters, soffits and drain pipes. A sales guy came round, from a local company that was well known in our area, after cancelling twice and being late. He spent more time talking about himself and his holiday than he did answering any of my questions. I chased him twice for the quote and then gave up. About 6 months later we got a call from the MD of the company asking if we had had the work done by his company. Turns out the sales guy was working for himself as well as the other company, he creamed off the jobs he wanted and would say that potential customers weren’t signing up. The company went bust. Point is OP, I wonder if she’s only working on the stand temporarily or until she gets her dream job and so cba to woo customers.

sad how nothing has changed

Definitely let the company know 🥰

Who knows they might be so delighted to understand their lack of sales...they'll send a thank you door 🤞🍀🤭

This happened to me only once. I was ordering flowers for my wedding of all things. You would think a florist would want to upsell you, not question whether you can afford something, but no.

My mother was an avid gardener and an expert especially on flowers. Me, not so much (it must skip a generation because my daughter is a skilled gardener). Anyway, my mother made a special trip to join me when I went to the supposedly best florist in town to order my bouquet and the bridesmaids' bouquets. I was willing to defer totally to her as she had excellent taste and also was paying (bless her). We were both dressed well and were very polite, but when she told the sales person what we (she) wanted, the response was "that's very expensive, but we can do such and such for much less." My mother told the woman that the price quoted wasn't a problem, but she (sales person) became really resistant. It was so odd. My mother persisted and eventually the order was taken; my mother paid, and we left. The flowers were lovely, by the way.

I wonder if there was less profit for them in the more expensive flowers?

Old ones only tend to be worth the value of the gold in them, at least, that's how my grandfather's was valued. There was a whole box of old Rolexes too, very little value.

Oh dear.

I'm starting to think I must look rich, no nonsense and possibly single 😂 because I've never even had car salesmen ask if I want to discuss with my husband or father first. I've even bought a house by myself without anyone querying it.
I'm very good at hamming up being the pathetic damsel in distress if I need something though - they fall for it hook, line and sinker every time!

Ah, well in that case her rudeness was completely justified 🤪

I hadn't thought of that. Quite possibly the case.

To be fair, a lot of people under 40 might not have seen the film-I know you said you're in your 30s, OP.
And while a lot of Millennials can't even afford, a house, never mind a new door for it, I'd have though affluent Millennials were their target group!

Definitely email the company, many years ago I had a Christmas job in a very high end jewellers, it was drummed into us never to presume someone couldn’t afford something, she shouldn’t be representing the company if this is how she goes about things.

It very much depends on the model so if anyone is planning to scrap for gold weight please check first!

We sometimes have a stand at those sort of shows and I would be very grateful if someone had let me know if they'd been treated like that on our stand. The shows cost a fortune and I would be livid if the person on the stand had treated anyone like that.

A classy place will treat all clients and customers the same, whether you are there to spend £10 or £10000. Last century I got lost with some friends on a ramble in the Cotswolds and we stumbled (literally) into the car park of a veeeeryy naice pub and restaurant. We asked if one of us could go in to use the phone (before mobiles!) but they ushered us all in, covered in mud and soaking wet, rustled us up some sandwiches even though the kitchen was closed for the afternoon and didn’t bat an eyelid at the state of us. The car park was full of jags and land rovers with the odd Maserati but they charged a fair price for the drinks and sandwiches and were friendly and kind and pointed us in the right direction when we left. If I knew where it was I’d love to go back again!

OP, she’s bluntly telling you they don’t deal at your level, which is MOQ of 1. Whether she acted like the saleswoman from the bad store or the good store (that helps her find an evening dress) in Pretty Woman. If the owner of their company believes she was wrong to do that, then your complaint will matter. If the owner of the company couldn’t give a shit less, then he maybe won’t discipline his saleswoman for not “wasting her time” on you, regardless of what she said. It’s an incredibly short-sighted way for a company to act, but a lot of companies act that way, by making any assumptions about potential buyers based on visuals at a trade show or online. Any sales-person who’s not unintelligent or an arsehole would know that even a man in a wheelchair might need help selecting a bicycle, for many legitimate reasons.

But why does it happen in Pretty Woman? Because the saleswoman believes she has more power (in the interaction) than an unknown customer, and that’s usually a sign that a company is rotten at its core. So, maybe really think whether it’s worth your time to complain. They’re already going to drive themselves into the ground when they run out of orders that they got from their last saleswoman who wasn’t a judgmental arsehole, because the one you met definitely won’t be making deals 😂

After my husband and I got married we wanted to buy a nice bottle of champagne, growing up my dad was in the music industry and would often bring home very high end bottles which was an unusual luxury for someone who grew up on a council estate.

We went into selfridges and was greeted by a young girl who was clearly training, we got chatting and she started showing us the expensive bottles, the manager comes over and starts to steer us towards the budget sparkling wine, she leaves us there and mutters to the trainee "don't waste your time on people who look like that." (We're both alternative looking but own our own business) and walks off, the trainee is clearly embarrassed and comes back over, I ask if she gets commission and she confirms she does so I decide to blow some money on a high end vintage bottle.

We rock up to the check out and the manager looks shocked and starts asking questions, so I just smile and say "maybe don't presume people are poor based on their looks, my hair wouldn't be this colour I had a judgemental manager I had to report to."

Often people who act like this own the business themselves so complaining doesn't help.

So bizarre, losing out on potential sales like that.

My cousin went to buy a Porsche once, walked in and was told they’d be too expensive for her. She went to the dealer in the next town and bought one, and drove it to the other dealer and stuck the finger up at him while grinning haha.

🙄 you can google it even if you didn’t watch the film… it’s obviously a title of something or a phrase seeing as it’s in capitals!