Fuck you, Tourneau and your deceptive business practices!

The BBQ Pit
1

For those of you that don’t know, Tourneau is a high end watch store, and for the life of me I can’t figure out how they stay in business. This Christmas re-affirmed my disgust for this company and I would love to know how they pay their bills.

My wife bought me a nice Omega for Christmas. She wasn’t sure I’d like it, so she wanted to know the return policy. There IS no return policy. So, my wife said she wouldn’t buy it. Given the cost of the item, she (rightly, in my opinion) stated that she wouldn’t pay the price of the watch with no ability to return it for a refund if I didn’t like it. The manager came out and wrote on the receipt “return for refund approved”, and my wife bought the watch.

Turns out, I didn’t like the watch. Now, I’ve been to Tourneau before, and I would never buy a watch from them because their sales approach is so abrasive, they sell everything at full retail (which is insane these days, with the web options that are out there), and they also told me I couldn’t return a watch if I bought one. So, I went somewhere else to buy a watch for my wife. The same watch, for approximately 30% less, with the ability to return it for full refund if my wife didn’t like it. Little did I know my wife would go into that same store and deal with the nonsense of the Tourneau “touch”.

She went back on the 26th to return the watch, only to discover that the person who checked her out at the cash register scratched out “refund” and wrote “exchange”. So, the store salesperson said “there is nothing I can do. You can exchange this for a watch of equal or greater value, but I cannot give you a refund.” Well, that set my wife off. It also set off the next customer in line, who had his receipt similarly changed at the last minute without his knowledge (scratched out “refund”, wrote “exchange” over the correction).

This is a high-end store in a high end mall. The male customer took over the verbal barrage that I would have been a part of if I happened to be there, but according to my wife, he did just fine. After a 10 minute stand-off, and demands to see the manager went ignored (and a larger crowd forming to return Christmas presents forming), the salesperson finally went in the back, got the manager to approve the exchanges and my wife and the other guy both got the refunds they deserved.

So fuck you, Tourneau, up your corporate ass with a red-hot poker, fuck your bait-and-switch sales tactics of scratching out “refund” and writing in “exchange” on the receipt, and fuck your salespeople and business model which basically says “we don’t care about you or your return business. We just want to sell you this watch and then tell you to piss off.”

Tangentially, I would also like to say “Fuck you” to any and all customers of this company that have purchased items from them and kept them in business, especially those that have been hoodwinked into buying a watch they weren’t crazy about because a salesperson convinced them that they couldn’t return a watch for a refund but would have to settle for an exchange without complaining to the BBB or anyone else for that matter. Get a fucking backbone! This company should have its doors shut and padlocked.

How they remain in business is beyond me. I would love to know if any of you dopers have dealt with this outfit, and if so, can you explain to me how they make money? I am writing a complaint to the mall management, Tourneau management, and the BBB, but I doubt I will have much impact. But what they do is WRONG, and it should not be tolerated. Fuckers!

2

Sounds mighty close to criminal fraud to me. I’d write about ten letters, at least one of which would go to the state AG.

3

If I had to guess, I’d assume that the reason they have that policy is because douchebags will buy a watch for a business meeting or clubbing or something, just to seem like a bigshot, and then return it after.

High end watches are like jalapeno poppers for douchebags.

4

Can you explain your last sentence? Your first comment makes sense, but I don’t think everyone that buys a high end watch is a douchbag.

5

As is pretty clearly stated on their web site.

Never been to one of their stores, but if it’s clearly stated that there is no return allowed, it sounds to me like the beef here is with the folks that “approved” then switched the approval at the register.

Just for clarification, what receipt did the manager write this on before your wife purchased the watch? I’ve never seen a receipt for anything before I bought it, that’s what you get after you’ve paid for something. Also, if someone wrote that on a receipt I had, it would go straight in my pocket, with a copy of a business card. And if the clerk wrote scratched something out and wrote something else on the receipt, I’d sure notice that.

6

Anyone who buys things for the “look at me, see what I own” effect is likely to be a douchbag of some order. Do you know any other reason someone would own a “high end” watch?

However, I don’t think Lobohan said everyone who owns one is one.

Glad you got your refund.

7

No, but douchebags in particular are drawn to them.

I would think if you isolated every person wearing a high-end watch on Earth and subjected them to a douchebag test (perhaps by unpopping their collars and seeing how long it takes them to re-pop), the douchebag ratio of those killed would be higher than the population at large.

A high-end watch is for some people a sports-car you can show off indoors. In my experience.

Notice all the weasel words I used, I’m in no way suggesting that everyone who buys a watch for 10 to 1000 times the price of a comparably functional one is trying to strut like a pathetic peacock, but those type are out there and they will abuse the fuck out of a store like Tourneau.

8

Just because some people can afford nice things and you can’t doesn’t necessarily make them douche bags.

9

Just because I don’t think spending a thousand times the value for a bauble to impress the rubes is a good idea doesn’t mean I can’t afford them.

Now shut your whore mouth and re-read my posts. I didn’t say that every single person who buys an overpriced watch is a douchebag. I said that douchebags will gravitate to a store like that.

Sort of how a douchebag like you gravitated to the pit. :smiley:

10

The folks who would buy them and return them immediately after whatever gathering he wants to look impressive for probably can’t afford them either. You probably missed that part of the post.

11

Well, I don’t know about you, but I don’t always go to the store’s website before I shop there. Clearly if my wife did, she wouldn’t have gone there.

My wife bought the watch with the manager present. After she purchased it, the receipt was produced and the manager wrote the “Approved for refund” on it in front of my wife. However, the receipt wasn’t actually handed to my wife, as they held onto it to put it in the bag after the watch was put in it. My wife saw the receipt put in the bag and never looked at it again.

She clearly admits that she should have looked at it again before leaving the store, but didn’t believe that the store would change the receipt.

Your suggestions are good ones, and my wife and I have learned a lesson on being more aware of any promise that has been made verbally on a purchase like this, including taking immediate possession of the receipt.

I never thought of the idea of someone buying a watch and taking it back after wearing it for an event, but I guess that can occur.

I don’t know. Maybe people have issues with someone who can afford something they can’t. True, a $10 timex tells time. Hell, my cell phone tells time. But, I can think of a number of reasons to buy a high end watch. Not one of my reasons would ring true to someone that thinks it’s for the “look at me” factor.

Do you own a car? If it’s not the cheapest Kia you can buy, then you are buying based on a number of factors, even though a Kia will get you from point A to point B as well as a BMW 7-series. Do you own any nice clothes? Why? A shirt from the Salvation Army will cover you just as well as one from a nice store.

Maybe the fact that some folks can’t afford a high-end watch are douchbags for not going out and earning enough money to have one.

Or maybe everyone that owns or has purchased a diamond engagement ring instead of a CZ is a douchbag for spending thousands more than required for a stone on a ring that few people can tell the difference of without a close look.

We can go on all day. Everyone spends their money as they see fit. No one should be screwed out of their money under any circumstances, including deceptive business practices.

12

This I can agree with, but that’s not all that was said in this thread, including a store like that is one that douchbags gravitate to.

My wife is not a douchbag for trying to buy me a nice gift. Nor do I think I’m one if I wear one.

13

Actually, it was.

14

no it wasn’t… read the whole thread:

See? Lobohan is nice enough to tell us that not every single person who wears a high-end watch is a douchbag, but

  1. douchbags gravitate to a store like that
  2. In his/her experience, it’s like a person wearing a high-end sports car to show off indoors.
  3. If you did a douchbag test on everyone that wears a high-end watch, more douchbags would be found than not.
  4. Oh, and just because he/she doesn’t wear a high-end watch doesn’t mean he/she can’t afford one. :dubious:

I opened this thread to complain about Tourneau’s business practices, not to discuss the character of the people that shop there.

That would be like me going into the Avatar thread, or the George Lucas thread and discuss Lobohan’s opinions in terms of the douch-baggery of them. Not necessarily Lobohan’s, but people like that… in my experience.

15

Yeah, but you kinda are one for not accepting her nice gift, and making her go through the hassle of returning it.

16

So, talk to a lawyer and have them write a threat letter to the store. They will cough up a refund.

17

I worked for a very high end 5th Ave retailer for many years. We had a no return, no exchange policy with no exceptions allowed in a couple of departments. For example, people would charge a $30,000 to $50,000 fur, wear it to an event and then attempt to return it the very next day. It wasn’t an isolated thing either. It happened on a regular basis.

The funny thing was, some of the people who attempted to do this would have been loaned the fur had they only asked.

18

Apparently, such things can be rented…

www.blingyourself.com

19

perhaps. But for what the watch cost, why wouldn’t I want one that

  1. fits
  2. I like?

My wife doesn’t keep every gift I get her, either.
You’d keep something your spouse gave you that cost a few thousand dollars that you didn’t really want or like to spare their feelings?

20

I would have never thought this, but I shouldn’t be surprised. People never cease to amaze me.