April 28th, 2010
We came to Tulalip Mall almost entirely for the purpose of coming to Ultra Diamonds. Your store had been recommended to me by a co-worker, and my wife and I were eager to buy our birthday presents for each other there. I want to underline this point: We came after having looked at your online catalog, making a short-list of things we wanted to look at, and after seeing them with our own eyes to make several purchases—we came to buy, not idly browse.
Well, the young woman who greeted us at the store was terribly rude to us. I asked her a question and it seemed like a burden for her to answer me. Sensing that I might have offended her, I quickly left the store because I didn't want my wife's shopping experience ruined. But it turns out that my wife was treated just as rudely as I was—maybe even more so. When I returned, my wife had lost all interest in buying anything, and though I was disappointed, I asked her if she just wanted to leave ... and she did. The whole time we were there a couple of men were standing at the back of the store talking and laughing amongst themselves. At one point I overheard one say to the other how glad he was that he didn't have to work until 9:00 that night. They didn't even acknowledge we existed, and did nothing to help us look at any items. It felt like an uphill battle to even ask to look at items.
So we just left the Tulalip Ultra Diamonds store and instead found the Zales outlet in the same mall. We were greeted much more warmly (despite the employee being interrupted in the middle of her inventory), and we ended up finding nearly everything we wanted there! The woman showed us items, gave us information about pieces we were looking at ... she made eye contact and just plain treated us like we were human beings, not a burden. I got a matching pendant and ring for my wife for her birthday, she got another ring and necklace for herself. At the Movado store we found a watch almost exactly like the one I'd seen in your online catalog, and so she bought it for me for my birthday.
So, you see, our birthday shopping trip turned out to be successful after all, just not at your store. Furthermore, I talked to my friend at work and told him about how rude that young woman was towards us, how our existence was barely acknowledged at all, and how much better we were treated at the Zales outlet (and the Movado outlet store). He said he'd check out Zales next time he's in Tulalip too.
I'm not complaining because I want anything from you—we got most of what we wanted from the other stores—but I thought you ought to know your Tulalip store lost about $400 worth of our business because of how we were treated.
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