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.

my experience was with Toyota and I bought a Rav too.

I have a similar kind of story, though, the sales person wasn’t rude.

I was in a garden centre buying a new set (sofa, two chairs and a table) for my conservatory and the salesman made a comment about it being cheaper to buy that than buying actual living room furniture, thinking I was using it in a living room.

About 20 years ago I went into a Vivienne Westwood shop. I don’t know if there was more than one. I dress very conventionally camel coat ,Barbour etc. and was on a stop off on my way to New York . The assistant said we have nothing for you here. My financial advisor had told me I needed to get rid of some money🤣 and was thinking of buying a treat for my daughter who had just had a baby.

“The assistant said we have nothing for you here.”

What the hell @Stanislas ! That’s so incredibly rude!

I spent a year in Ecuador as a nanny and flew home first class paid for by the wonderful diplomatic family (flew first leg with them but they stayed in Madrid.) At Madrid airport I went towards the first class lounge but was stopped (with a palm almost on my chest) by a woman who said in a very condescending voice.. with the facial expressions too... 'First Class only '. She actually spluttered when she was presented with my ticket..
I can still remember all the men in their business suits and briefcases looking up when I entered.. it was the 6am flight to Heathrow. I will admit I probably didn't look much like a first class passenger because by then I'd been travelling for nearly 24 hours and had worked on the plane. Twin 2 yr olds..This was in 1989 before the film was released but I still remember my Julia Roberts moment.

Not heard it called this before but was out with a friend in our lunch break a while back, tidily dressed because we were at work. Friend wanted a new kitchen (and could afford it). We went into an independent kitchen showroom shop to look. Salesman looked at us and said, 'These kitchens are very expensive'. Extremely condescending tone. We exited and laughed so hard and it's been a joke ever since.
Friend went with another company and spent £20 000 on her new kitchen there. A reasonable sum in 2006 or thereabouts.

AIBU to be disappointed you haven't been rescued from prostitution?!

The amount of people I serve in my job who dress shabby and/or could do with a really good haircut and then pay with their Coutts or Hoare & Co card, I have learnt never too judge a book.

God, how disappointing.

I was expecting to find a story about how a billionaire swept you off your feet and took you shopping for your dream wardrobe!!!

I had this in Harvey Nichols. I did complain.

I stopped in at my local car sales room and was happily wandering around when the sales guy appeared and tried to steer me away from a particular area as”these are the premium cars”. I told him I was looking for an Audi or a Mercedes (totally true) so he waffled for an bit and I left.

Maybe their products are shit and she didn’t want you to waste your money!

You should leave them their very first trustpilot review

This sounds like a sales tactic to embarass you into buying it.

thats really crap. I’d write and complain. My late sister and her ex-H both were happy to dress scruffy. She loved the look on estate agents face when they offered cash for their 3 bed house!

Pretty Woman, the film.

My nieces went to a very expensive school, and most of the 'old money' parents would turn up in old bangers, scruffy clothes, hair all over the place.. If you're that rich, you've usually mastered 'don'tgiveafuckism' a long time ago. The newer money people would appear to be much more concerned about what they looked like. It's very ignorant to think that someone who's not conventionally well presented has no money.

I would tell them, as I'd like them to know how offputting they are. We sell high end jewellery, one of our customers told us one store refused to serve her, I guess they didn't think she had enough money to talk to, but she's spent tens of thousands with us. I once had it with a hotel booking in Australia. I was backpacking and had a reservation, I was treated badly due to looking like a poor backpacker, until they realised I'd booked and paid - I hate that their attitude changed so much immediately, it shouldn't be like that.

It’s similar to the moment in the Film ‘pretty woman’ when the sales assistants won’t help her in an upmarket clothes shop because of the way she is dressed

About 40 years ago a colleague told me a story about how a mystery shopper in Harrods, dressed very scruffily, was completely ignored by the staff. The staff were taken to task on this and were apparently very pissed. Possibly that's why their training now tells them not to make assumptions.

I try to dress respectably when doing serious shopping; it does make a difference. It's annoying, but there it is.

nope. I won't go in dirty or smelly but anyone who wants my money can take me as I am. i waas a regular shopper in Harrods some 40 years ago (I had an account card) and never got anything but a pleasant attitude from staff

Mystery shoppers are on an extremely low income, self-employed, probably a mum or retired person earning an extra few pennies. They are more likely to dress inexpensively / look out of place, so store owners should be falling over themselves!

why on earth would a sham business go to the effort and expense of spending a whole day at a home reno show fair, which presumably included a fair bit of outlay on paying for a stall, mocking up a few prototype doors, brochures/flyers/banners, paying for at least 1 staff member to stand there for 12 hours, with at least enough basic knowledge about bespoke doors to briefly bullshit anyone who engaged with her?

Not to mention if you're trying to go under the radar with your fake business possibly the worst place to do so would be a building filled solely with hundreds of other people and businesses in the same trade, who would soon note red flags from a company they'd never heard of turning away trade all day and not being able to discuss even the absolute basics of their professed speciality!

I think you might want to take a walk outside and get some fresh air! Not everything is a conspiracy.

?? Trade fairs are the perfect front for money laundering. Many years ago I used to work for HMRC and the nature of taking orders at fairs with the high footfall makes money laundering very difficult to prove. It’s thankfully harder to get away with now than then, but over-inflating big orders can still provide a way to feed in dodgy money or allow legitimate cross-border invoicing to avoid tax. So small orders are of no use, big commercial orders offer the biggest possibilities. TBF the legitimate side of these businesses are often real and very good, but they are unlike to be interested in small orders.

Where there’s millions involved, stumping up £20k to put on a stand at a fair is small-fry. It absolutely happens, it’s not a conspiracy theory. There are lots of people across the financial industry who are paid good money to follow the paper trail of legitimate businesses that have sparked interest. They are never out of work.

Oooh, how do you ham up the damsel thing? Would like tips!