Be Kind to Sellers

In our past commercials, and in the new ones we just filmed, we say we do our best to NOT just buy as “so much weight in gold and diamonds…”

So I would like you guys to do your best to not act like we are buying anything as “scrap.” That doesn’t mean you pretend, you just do your best to treat their jewelry with respect as if we are actually going to resell it.

So don’t just “dump” their piece(s) in the pan on the scale, CAREFULLY place them in the pan with dignity, as if it is a family heirloom, WHICH THEIR NUGGET BRACELET MAY BE!

We say we try to resell what they sell us and not “just melt it down” so let’s act like it.

Make an effort at measuring and counting diamonds if practical rather than just estimate. I say all this assuming you don’t have people lined up and you have a few minutes.

Let’s leave the absolute BEST impression possible with people whether we buy or not.

Otherwise, we can get ruin our chances of a repeat visit, or get bad reviews online. Following is a Yelp (Internet review site) review of our company and specifically our buying operation, with which I am NOT very happy.

“About 15 years ago, these guys sold my mom a watch to give to my husband as a gift… they told her this was the highest rated watch next to Rolex. She paid a lot for it at the time ($2200) and was so pleased to give it to him.

“Now here we are 15 years later… he has never really worn it — it looks brand new… we have all the paperwork, the certificate etc. He went in to see what they’d give him for it…now all of a sudden the watch is a piece of @#!!% and they offer him about $300. They actually laughed when he brought it out of the box. All the employees were snickering. The gal that gives estimates wouldn’t even come around the counter to look at it — she just yelled out “$300 is all!” and that was it.

“Nice Leo Hamel — how trustworthy of you. Everyone BEWARE!”

I wrote to her asking what the problem was and this is what she wrote back:

“Thank you for your interest… I wish your employees had been interested. I wrote the review in July after seeing another somewhat disgruntled review on Yelp. The actual event occurred in May or June, we think. My husband only remembers that it was a woman, who was supposedly in charge of appraisals — she didn’t give him the courtesy of coming over or looking at his watch.

“This was a limited edition Krieger Chronograph that was sold to my mother — we wouldn’t have picked the watch ourselves (my husband bought a Rolex soon after) but she was told it was a very good watch by your sales team. We put it in a drawer and forgot about it. Come to find out it wasn’t such a great watch, many years later. But the reaction when he brought it in to your shop was really embarrassing to him, as I stated in my review. We have since given the watch to a young relative who doesn’t care about the value, but likes the look of it.

“As far as we are concerned the issue is over, but it left us with a nasty taste… for the way my husband was treated and the sales job someone gave my elderly mother 15 years ago. She and my father bought other items from you years ago at the El Cajon Blvd. store, including some diamond studs I wear still — I now wonder about their quality as well. My husband runs a company and we know that it is difficult to count on employees all the time, so we understand that your idea of customer service may not always be carried out. We appreciate your note.”

After reading the above, I believe that this is a real complaint. She is NOT correct about Kriegers being bad watches, because they aren’t, but they DO NOT have resale value. They mostly don’t have resale value because the parent company stopped, or reduced drastically, their national advertising budget. National advertising MAKES a brand and helps resale value.

I do believe that they were mis-handled at our counter. I don’t know who was involved but we all must learn from this.

We must NEVER say or even imply that anything being offered is junk or low quality. If we don’t want it we just simply say, “We don’t have a market for it at this time.”

You must be especially careful, because even though they may not have said so, THE ITEM MAY HAVE ORIGINALLY COME FROM OUR STORE.

Never say anything derogatory through a wall. Never say it in person. Treat every customer or seller like he or she is the most important person in the world.

In the old days when someone was an ass, you could tell them mean things and the worst they could do was tell a few of their friends. Now with the internet, they can tell the world and it can stay on the Net forever!

Be nice. Be kind and just shut up if you don’t want to buy it, but always treat what they brought in as if it’s valuable.