I work in fine jewelry in a department store. All jewelry repair services are shipped out to a second business we contract with. I’m serving a woman who came in to pick up a piece that had a broken diamond replaced, at a price she agreed to before they touched it. She has been perfectly friendly, calm, and smiling.
Me: “Everything’s set, and your final total is [amount].”
She holds out her hand to swipe her card but stops and pulls it back a little.
Customer: “Can I get the broken diamond back?”
You are ALWAYS able to request any broken or removed gold or stones to be returned to you, but this needs to be asked when you send the item out. Repair places normally don’t bother sending back small amounts of gold or broken stones.
Me: “Oh, since the item has already been sent back, the repair company probably doesn’t have it anymore. I can have our clerical give them a call in the morning, just to double-check?”
Customer: “Oh, please.”
Me: “Do you want to wait and pick up your [item] tomorrow?”
Customer: “Yes, that sounds good.”
I made the necessary notes on her account, put her piece away, and passed it off as a totally normal transaction.
A week later, I came into work to the story that our clerical team had called the company and been told that yes, the customer had up until the piece was repaired to request the broken diamond back, but at this point, it had been tossed.
They called the customer to let her know, and she reportedly came into the store and proceeded to lose her s*** all over the place. Our clerical team said she was screaming like a banshee and throwing a fit to her and our manager. This also happened to be one of the days that a group of regional managers was doing an inspection of our store, so they came down to see what the ruckus was and the whole lot of them ended up spending half an hour trying to appease this woman.
She ended up getting the entire price of her diamond replacement waived, got her item returned to her, and left… for about ten minutes. She flew back in out of nowhere and started screeching all over again, and my manager was left to try and calm her for another half-hour while the clerical tried to hide from the crazy underneath the jewelry counter. She finally left again an hour before I came in.
I am so glad I missed all of that.
