Sleazy salespeople, definitely would avoid.
When we came to get our two watches adjusted, the salesgirl looked generally uncomfortable as we approached. She looked at us, and quickly looked away, then back at us, then quickly away as we walked toward her, her body language all but saying "I'm a tree! You don't see me!"
She seemed like she genuinely didn't want to talk to us even as I engaged her in conversation about adjusting our watches, causing someone I assumed to be her manager to walk over. I say assume, because not once did he introduce himself as he stood there awkwardly giving us the side-eye.
She only seemed to calm down once she got our watches out and looked impressed, remarking that they were very nice to herself. She asked if we bought them from Lugaros? (No.) Where did we get them from? (Wedding gift). Then she began rifling through the certificates and reading them. Then, she announced it would be $45 a watch to remove the bracelet links.
I was obviously taken aback by this. 'Just to remove the watch links,' I asked. She said yes, and I quickly deferred to my companion that we should go elsewhere. The manager, overhearing us naturally, quickly snapped that it was to cover labor costs, to guarantee the workmanship and integrity of the piece, and to give us a lifetime of free adjustments. Sure, for a servicing this would be understandable, but for a five minute unscrewing adjustment?!?
Then, just as quickly as he offered his wisdom, he sauntered off. I declined, and then the kicker. The salesgirl used a technique every sleazy used car salesman, or desperate seller at a flea market is familiar with: "it's actually usually $50, but since you are so nice, I'm only charging you $45."
I had to decline again when I realized the salesgirl was in no hurry to give us back our watches. To her credit, she seemed pleasant enough as we parted ways, but this store just reeks of pretention and desperation.
I ended up getting my watch adjusted for free at a different store altogether, which was $90 well saved.
-UPDATE BELOW-
After reading the (since deleted) response by Lugaro's management to my original review, I'll be sure to actively warn as many friends, family, and future contacts as possible to avoid this place as well.
Seriously, the arguments made in Lugaro's aggressive response takes none of my complaints into consideration. In fact, the bullet points that Lugaro chose to make in their response was-
A) "did courteously attend to you at the time of entry into our store at 13:25:01 on Apr 23, 2018."
If you say so. Courteous is subjective after all, and you choose to conveniently ignore all my objective points. Furtive eye contact? Checking registration? Looking generally uncomfortable and giving us a bad vibe?
B) "She offered to shorten at onset $45 according to your review paragraph 3"
Yup, that's what I said. Not arguing with that one.
C) "Our Rolex inventory manager did offer you added value for the charge."
Sure, if you consider randomly interjecting that we can come back anytime for future adjustments on the same watch an added value. Again, this was what I said in the original review.
It's furthermore interesting to me that Lugaro chooses to argue that it is completely within their right to charge whatever prices they want. True, absolutely true. But at the same time, consumers have every right to publicly maintain that certain businesses charge exorbitant prices. It's not like anyone told them not to charge those prices, I, as Lugaro said, simply chose to "decline the charges."
Overall, an interesting response, and a textbook example of what NOT to do when you get a bad review. No "we'll take your feedback to improve future interactions," no "we apologize for the misunderstanding," but rather somehow trying desperately to attack and discredit us, even going so far as to argue the semantics of my wording by arguing: "Spending a total of 2 minutes and 25 seconds exactly in our store, you have made a judgmental opinion, our sales people are "sleazy" yet you go on to mention that our sales person was pleasant enough. We see no merit in this contradicting statement."
Yes, it is possible to be "pleasant enough" and sleazy, just as it is possible to be downright rude and sleazy. And if you seriously want to split hairs, being "pleasant enough" is typically not a compliment. On a similar note, newsflash, judgmental opinions are made within mere seconds if not minutes all the time in businesses, which is why a basic business tenet is that the customer is always right, and if they complain, don't start trashing them in public.
And the cherry on top? They seriously posted a video of my wife and I at their establishment on a public forum without our consent in the hopes that this somehow "refutes" our claims? Classy move, yep... Definitely not sleazy at all... read more
