On September 13, 2014, the love of my life asked me to marry him. I, of course, said yes. Steven gave me a ring that exactly met the few things I had described as my preferences:
On Saturday, January 31st, Steven and I ran a bunch of errands. In search of a tool set for his car, we decided to swing by the downtown mall. Once there, I convinced Steven to let us go by Kays so I could get my jewelry cleaned. From there, things started to go downhill.
When we walked in, all the employees were with people. We walked over to the men's wedding bands to kill time. After Steven and I had made up our minds on which ones we liked the best, one of the employees was finally free. He was standing across the room, facing the mall instead of the store. Suddenly Steven and I were the only customers in the store and were getting ignored.
I walked around to face him. He smiled and asked if he could help me. I asked if I could get my ring cleaned. I then proceeded to pull a very expensive ring off of my left ring finger (that doesn't exactly have a small stone on it) and handed it to him. He walked away with it to clean it. When he brought it back I gawked at just how much it sparkles when it's clean and vowed to try to keep it that way and slipped it back onto my left ring finger. The gentleman then asked if there was anything else he could do for us.
I asked the man if we could get Steven's ring finger sized. The salesman pulled out their sizing gizmo and we determined that Steven has ginormous fingers when the biggest size they had barely fit. (I'm a five and a half... he needs at least a fifteen and a half!) Then I asked if we could go look at then men's wedding bands. I said there were a couple we wanted to know about. We talked about a few of them and got the price of the one we liked.
Before Steven got the chance to try to make us leave, I asked the salesman, "Can you show us the women's wedding bands?" Notice my words there. I asked to see the wedding bands.
The gentlemen led us over to a section of rings and had us sit down. As we were sitting down I told him that I was torn between getting "a plain gold band or a band with a few diamonds in it for some extra sparkle". Do you understand these words, reader? Because the salesman wasn't listening at all.
He began giving me a spiel about Neil Lane engagement rings. I notice that there are some wedding bands mixed in with the engagement rings, though, and figure that was what we were here to see. While he's talking, Steven and I look at what the have. He finally asks if there's anything I see that I like. I mention that everything they have behind the glass is white gold and that I am looking for yellow gold to match "my ring". (As in, the one he cleaned. The one sitting on my left ring finger.) The man seems to listen for the first time. He mentions that he's a fan of yellow gold, too, and flashes me all of the gold he's wearing. This whole time we're talking, Steven is silent and looking at the rings.
I take off my ring (again, from my left ring finger) and ask Steven what he thinks would look good against it. The salesman takes the ring from me and begins scrutinizing it. I think he is going to assess it and make some suggestions for things to go next to it.
"You know," he says, "We could probably just pop this ruby out and replace it with a diamond."
Both of our jaws drop. Steven, I can tell, is about ready to get up and walk away. I laugh to cover up our anger at this man's incompetence and inability to listen and deliver what we're asking for and say, "I don't think he would be too happy about that. He paid a lot of money for that ruby." At this point the salesman finally realizes what I want. It occurs to him at last that he is holding my engagement ring and that I am asking about a wedding band seeing as how he just helped us look at men's wedding bands. He could have taken this moment to find a quick way to correct his previous misunderstandings (as I would do at work when I misunderstand what a customer is asking for). Instead, what comes out of his mouth is this:
"Oh, you're planning on getting married in this."
Upon seeing the looks on our faces after his statement, he seemed to finally grasp the situation, what his statement implied, and that he was dangerously close to pissing off potential customers. Well, unfortunately for him, he pissed us off. He finally managed to show me what I wanted, but he convinced me to shop somewhere else. We'll be going back to Shane Co to get our wedding bands. Thanks for nothing Kays. I'd liked you up until that day.
- yellow gold
- a ruby instead of a diamond
- emerald cut
 |
| Is that not gorgeous??? This was 100% what I asked for. |
When I asked for these things, I knew that they were what I wanted and (although this wasn't the main reason I chose these things) figured that the whole "not a diamond" would make it look less like an engagement ring. I accepted that having a ruby would throw some people off, but since getting engaged I have noticed that there are quite a few women these days taking the same route. I've seen women with rubies, sapphires, pink sapphires, emeralds, black diamonds and so on. I began to feel that my choice of having a ruby (to match my other red jewelry: necklace, bracelet, watch...) and yellow gold (because I think it looks better against my skin tone) was less of a weird choice and would shortly become the mainstream. Well...
On Saturday, January 31st, Steven and I ran a bunch of errands. In search of a tool set for his car, we decided to swing by the downtown mall. Once there, I convinced Steven to let us go by Kays so I could get my jewelry cleaned. From there, things started to go downhill.
When we walked in, all the employees were with people. We walked over to the men's wedding bands to kill time. After Steven and I had made up our minds on which ones we liked the best, one of the employees was finally free. He was standing across the room, facing the mall instead of the store. Suddenly Steven and I were the only customers in the store and were getting ignored.
I walked around to face him. He smiled and asked if he could help me. I asked if I could get my ring cleaned. I then proceeded to pull a very expensive ring off of my left ring finger (that doesn't exactly have a small stone on it) and handed it to him. He walked away with it to clean it. When he brought it back I gawked at just how much it sparkles when it's clean and vowed to try to keep it that way and slipped it back onto my left ring finger. The gentleman then asked if there was anything else he could do for us.
I asked the man if we could get Steven's ring finger sized. The salesman pulled out their sizing gizmo and we determined that Steven has ginormous fingers when the biggest size they had barely fit. (I'm a five and a half... he needs at least a fifteen and a half!) Then I asked if we could go look at then men's wedding bands. I said there were a couple we wanted to know about. We talked about a few of them and got the price of the one we liked.
Before Steven got the chance to try to make us leave, I asked the salesman, "Can you show us the women's wedding bands?" Notice my words there. I asked to see the wedding bands.
The gentlemen led us over to a section of rings and had us sit down. As we were sitting down I told him that I was torn between getting "a plain gold band or a band with a few diamonds in it for some extra sparkle". Do you understand these words, reader? Because the salesman wasn't listening at all.
He began giving me a spiel about Neil Lane engagement rings. I notice that there are some wedding bands mixed in with the engagement rings, though, and figure that was what we were here to see. While he's talking, Steven and I look at what the have. He finally asks if there's anything I see that I like. I mention that everything they have behind the glass is white gold and that I am looking for yellow gold to match "my ring". (As in, the one he cleaned. The one sitting on my left ring finger.) The man seems to listen for the first time. He mentions that he's a fan of yellow gold, too, and flashes me all of the gold he's wearing. This whole time we're talking, Steven is silent and looking at the rings.
I take off my ring (again, from my left ring finger) and ask Steven what he thinks would look good against it. The salesman takes the ring from me and begins scrutinizing it. I think he is going to assess it and make some suggestions for things to go next to it.
"You know," he says, "We could probably just pop this ruby out and replace it with a diamond."
Both of our jaws drop. Steven, I can tell, is about ready to get up and walk away. I laugh to cover up our anger at this man's incompetence and inability to listen and deliver what we're asking for and say, "I don't think he would be too happy about that. He paid a lot of money for that ruby." At this point the salesman finally realizes what I want. It occurs to him at last that he is holding my engagement ring and that I am asking about a wedding band seeing as how he just helped us look at men's wedding bands. He could have taken this moment to find a quick way to correct his previous misunderstandings (as I would do at work when I misunderstand what a customer is asking for). Instead, what comes out of his mouth is this:
"Oh, you're planning on getting married in this."
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment