Vent about Birks in Montreal

[anne_h]

Hi all,

For those of you who have seen my previous posts, you know I got my e-ring from a vendor in New York... for many reasons, including price and service.

Anyways, I''ve always said Birks is overpriced and full of rude salespeople... and I''ve just had another experience with them that reinforced my opinion.

Birks is one of only two local carriers of Cartier watches (the reason I was back in there... otherwise I avoid it!), and while browsing one of the jewelry showcases, I noticed they had some beautiful micro-pave canary diamond rings, which I''d never seen before. (I''d only ever seen Vera Wang pieces in there having any micro-pave). Anyways, I asked to see one up close, and the (middle-aged) saleslady was super snobby. We had to go into a speical "salon" (understandable), but she would not let me touch the ring or even see it up close. I explained I was just interested in the pave (ie: did they do it as custom work; yes, btw). When I asked to see another pave piece (a much less expensive white diamond ring), she acted like she didn''t hear me and just walked away. I''m serious!!

Anyways, just a vent. To his credit, the (young) guy working the watch counter was super curteous and helpful, gave me lots of his time, explained things, etc. That was my first positive experience there ever! So I let him know this, and told him about the poor service I always got at the jewelry counters. He said he was surprised, and that Birks prides themselves on providing great service to everybody. Yeah right!!

Again, I would NEVER buy diamonds or gemstone items at Birks, because of the total overpricing and horrible service!

Anne

 

[Kaleigh]

I''m not surprised at all, seems like they have been rude to many PS''ers. What a shame, ughhh!!

 

[ame]

See Id have raised my voice in the middle of the store at her and remind her she works in retail and if she has a problem with customers expecting her to DO HER JOB she should consider a career change.

 

[anne_h]

Oh, I should add for those non-Canadians out there... Birks would probably be the closest thing Canada has to Tiffanys. But of course, not quite the same.

Anne

 

[Demelza]

It''s interesting that it always seems to be the Birks in Montreal that people complain about. I''ve received good customer service the handful of times I''ve visited their store in Vancouver. I wonder why the Montreal crew are so snotty?

 

[allycat0303]

Anne_h....Oh the stories I can tell you about Montreal Birks. When we first looked for an engagement ring we went to Birks to look at their "Caresse" In any case, I asked her for the exact price of a 0.5 carat set in that setting, and she said " Well I''d have to go upstairs for the price and I''ll do that if you''re ready to buy. But I can tell you in the $12000 range, so think about it first." I thought that wasn''t really nice (and I was with my boyfriend too!) The second time I went back there the woman said (about my ring) "You mistake was not buying this from Birks."

But the funniest thing ever (NON Birks) was when I went to this store Lavigeur (a montreal chain store) and asked to try on a 1 carat ring, now mind you it was an I1 (seriously generous) though cause it looked cracked. In any case, she slipped a metal chain through it (that attached it to the counter) and let me try it on.

And when I went to jewelery stores to try to have my ring fixed, I went to LSM (another Montreal store) and when I took off my ring so the woman could look at it with the loupe, she put my ring on and admired it on her hand for a good 25-40 seconds!!!!!!

 

[anne_h]

Alleycat,

Loved your two non-Birks stories, especially the chain bit! lol

I''m not surprised about the rude innuendos you experienced at Birks either. BTW, the day I was in and experienced the micropave story above, I saw something I hadn''t seen in there before... a few salespeople serving Perrier to several clients while they browsed (!) Guess they must be repeat customers or something.

Anne

 

[Demelza]

Yeah, the last few times I was in there, they offered me Perrier which is weird because salespeople often don''t take me seriously (I look younger than I am and dress casually). Just out of curiosity, is the Montreal store their flagship store? It really sounds like they have a rotten attitude.

 

[allycat0303]

Birks is crazed

But it's cool to know that I'm not the only one that's had mean salespeople. I just figured it was because I look young (and I'm not dressed like a high powered corperate perosn) so therefore they assume I'm wasting their "potential commission" time. Although if they had been nice to me, maybe I would have bought the 0.5 carat ring, in "Caresse" and paid $12 000 + tax. That's almost $15 000 for a G, VS2 in their setting. So I'm REALLY happy the woman was such a snot.

Demelza: I think it is their flagship store. It's very pretty/intimidating. And very, very big. Although I'm totally confused about how they stay in business, because their prices are so high, and they are so mean.

 

[Shay37]

Date: 11/4/2005 3:55:13 PM
Author: ame
See Id have raised my voice in the middle of the store at her and remind her she works in retail and if she has a problem with customers expecting her to DO HER JOB she should consider a career change.

My kind of gal. Then I''d have called the manager over and explained to him or her that if this person wanted to work in retail that they should only do so if they were expected to ask, "Paper or plastic?" because they were obviously under qualified for any other position.

shay