FALSE & MISLEADING JEWELRY STORE ADS

ARE JEWELRY ADS IN MAGAZINES, FLIERS AND NEWSPAPERS MISLEADING?

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Richard Scott

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something I may earn a commission. Thanks! As an Amazon Associate I also earn from qualifying purchases.

RANT/

You see it all the time…

Big huge headlines in catalogs and magazine ads that scream:

80% OFF!

You get sales fliers in the mail, postcards, inserts, newspaper ads, billboards… Everywhere they claim they’re having the biggest sale of the century.

WOW!

Jewelers and jewelry ads are no different. But really, the biggest sale??? (I thought that was last months sale?)

Are these types of sales misleading?

It always seems like stores offer huge discounts on everything… Except the few items that you actually want to buy.

Grrrrr…

Doesn’t it always seem like that?

Somehow, even though red discount tags are everywhere, you always end up paying full price.

Sigh!

Maybe it’s me, but I hate these kind of crappy ads. The good stuff is never on sale.

It’s “up” to…

You read the small fine print in the ad… “It says ‘UP TO’ 80% OFF!”

‘UP TO‘ is the real discount and sale.

It’s pretty easy to miss. It also means that there may be only a couple of items in the entire store that really is 80% off. Everything else is only 20%… WRONG!

Does not apply towards…

Or you see the small disclaimer on the bottom of the back page of the magazine or advert that reads “Discount does not apply towards:

Previous Purchases
Lay-a-ways
Repairs
Special Orders,
Loose Diamonds
Watches
Pandora
Hearts and Arrows
Chains
Diamond Earrings
Gold Hoops
Financed items
Cannot be combined with any other Sale, Coupon, Offers, Discounts, Mark-Downs, Holidays, Tuesdays, Full Moons, Give-A-Ways, Contests
One Discount Per Customer
Must be 18
Excludes Platinum
Good for one Item Only!
You get my Drift?

blah, Blah, BLAH!

And then you ask the jeweler “So where are the items that are 80% off?”

The jeweler leads you to a showcase with 10-20 items in it. “OH!” The junky stuff. The things that no one wants (Ten year old inventory).

“We already sold those…”

A couple other things around the store are 70% off, some things are 60% off, but the majority of the “real” sales in the store are only 20-30% off.

What gives?

Is this just your luck?

The salesman claims “We sold a lot of jewelry already!”

BULL!

Is this really the biggest sale?

False advertising?

Misleading?

eh, it is listed in the fine print… But still…

Can’t a 50% off sale be a legit 50% off?

I mean, come on, give me half-off like the ad says!

What gets me ticked off, is when they give you that “fake” discount (unlike fake news). You know what I’m talking about, they say it’s 50% off, but really it’s 30% off with an additional 20% off the already marked-down price…

Egads!

Which means, the item isn’t really 50% off, when you do the math it’s really only 44% off.

*Deep sigh!

I understand jewelers (and every other business owner) doesn’t want to give the merchandise away. I understand that they can’t afford to… They have bills to pay, and overhead, payroll, commissions… But to a customer’s eyes, it’s misleading and leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

No one likes it.

No one likes to be lured into the store with fake 80% off sales and end up leaving with only 30% off. What a disappointment.

Those ads are not fooling anyone.

If you truly want to impress your clientele (talking to the stores now), if you really want great word-of-mouth advertising and you want your customers to trust you and rave about you… then play fair.

Don’t hide the details of the sale or pull the bait-and-switch.

(Which is showing one item that is no longer available to sell another higher priced item.)

“And… Sorry, no rain checks!”

If you give them a sale, give them a true, honest sale. No sale-stopping disclaimers that void out pretty much anything anybody wants.

While supplies last…

My favorite tactic is when jewelers advertise a beautiful diamond pendant for only $99.

Great!

Until you find out they only had two of them. Of course it does say “while supplies last.”

Argggggggg!

The next step up in diamond pendants is one for $299. Lovely!

Quit fooling us.

I only want the price that’s marked and the item advertised. Is that so much to ask? I don’t want a substitute. I don’t want to leave empty handed. I want my 80% off.

“Not responsible for misprints or errors in advertised prices marked.” BAH!

Approximate?

And you must also be aware of statements like: “*Approximate carat weight.”

Approximate means that carat weight could fluctuate by +7 or -7 points!!!

You don’t know. A half-carat (50 points) could be 43 points or 57 points… Just make sure you know what the exact carat weight is when you buy it (get it in writing – most jewelers will give you a free appraisal upon purchase).