This article appears in Dec 18-24, 2008.
Ever heard of customer service
Dear Jewelers of downtown Halifax,Thanks so much for your snobbery and complete lack of customer service. My fiance, who is possibly the most polite, well-mannered man EVER, was excited to use your services to set an heirloom diamond (MY Grandmother’s!)
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my dad never managed to get my mom an engagement ring when they got engaged because money was tight, so for their 25th he got her a HUGE “engagement ring” and matching wedding ring. When she went to pick it up she was wearing sweats (I was with her) and the sales people at the jewelry store ignored her because they assumed she didn’t have enough money to be a “serious customer”…finally, after they started to wait on customers there after she arrived she spoke up, and they couldn’t’ve been more apologetic when they found out what she was picking up (and the price tag)…The problem is the mindset in Halifax in general. Halifax is SO pretentious it isn’t even funny. Last summer I went with a friend of mine who was ring shopping for his gf to Tiffany’s in Toronto, which smokes ANY jewelry store in Halifax I’m sorry to say, and the staff there couldn’t’ve been more helpful….and we were dressed in basic jeans/hoodies/shirts/etc.., you get the idea….It’s SAD when you feel more comfortable and less judged on how you look in a city like Toronto, than you do in Halifax. People just don’t give a shit there, but here? Well everyone seems to look down their noses at everyone else. It’s pathetic really, seeing as halifax is a farty little city compared to places like Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc…/rant
I’ve been living here for 18 years and I haven’t met anyone who looks down their noses. Where are all these crabby Nova Scotians? I’m in Halifax almost every day! There are no crabby people!Ok, maybe there are some fucked up taxi drivers, but the other ones are pretty nice.
you need to look closer Viego. I worked in clubs here and in TO and the people in TO were far better customers for lots of reasons. Halifax has no reason to be snotty.
I felt FAR more comfortable walking around in Toronto than I did here — even downtown at 2am. Halifax just creeps me out at night. Still, I felt far more “free” in Toronto. Perhaps because you’re WAY more anonymous in a larger city. Even so, I also had WAY better customer service there and I found that the people in general were WAY less pretentious than they are here. It’s like Halifax is some great cosmopolitan mecca just because it’s the biggest city east of montreal (I always crack the fuck up when I hear that because really, that’s not saying much). I was born and raised in Halifax, but I must say, first chance I get I’ll likely move to Toronto. I fucking LOVE it there.
I had the same thing done to my grandmothers diamonds for my engagement at a funky jewelery shop on Barrington. They were great about it (and I got a beautiful setting and decent price). I suggest you try there. (Granted this was 6 years ago, so the staff may have changed).
it may be jewlery stores in general- I was once dropping resumes off at the mall back home, one summer I was home from Uni, and I saw that one of those mall jewlery stores was hiring…. wasn’t even one of the super nice ones or anything. Well, when I entered, resume in hand, the lady at the desk refused to take it, saying they would never even look at hiring me, dressed as I was (I was wearing a professional blouse, and dark wash jeans, with a pair of heels- professional without being stuffy).
*sigh*. I remember the time I was in Tiffany’s on 5th avenue in New York. I was a poor Uni student (still am) but they treated me so kindly even though I was purchasing what was probably one of the cheapest items available in the 7 story building. The customer service their was leaps and bounds better than those trashtastic “jewelry” stores in Spring Garden Place.
I also lived in Toronto, loved it, but moved back. When I went to TO, everyone told me what a cold and horrible city it was, but I found exactly the opposite – mostly because I didn’t live downtown.Halifax is like any other city – good and bad parts everywhere. People can’t judge the entire worth of a place by one area – i.e: Spring Garden Road.I would, however, like to point out that at least 30% of the people working on Spring Garden are university students taking mostly evening and weekend shifts, and since many of our students are from away, is it not possible that it’s not Halifax that looks down its’ nose at people, but CFAs in sales and service who think their $hit doesn’t stink?That was my experience in Toronto as well.
Not sure which stores you went into, but you should give Trinity Jewellers a try. They have a store in Park Lane, near the escalators. However, their main store is on Quinpool Rd, right across the street from Canadian Tire. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with them. Learned about them from friends who’ve had lots of custom work done there. Initially I was skeptical, but after I went in there, they were nothing but awesome. Some people I know have had work done by this shop that is similar to what the OP describes (some even more expensive) and I couldn’t believe how much more affordable they were than any other store in Halifax. My last purchase from them cost about $1200. Every other place in the city wanted at least $1500 and a delivery date of about 3-4 weeks. These guys delivered it to me in 1 week and $300 cheaper. Needless to say, I’m not shopping anywhere else and I would definitely recommend you check them out.