Why did I ever thing Walmart was good enough to order wedding rings from? Why didn't I listen to the voice inside my head warning me against this? Why didn't I listen to Selo when he tried to talk me out of it? *sigh* So here's my story:
We go to Walmart and while we are there decide to look at what rings are there so we can get an idea of what we want. As we are talking I get excited about getting our rings and I suggest we order and purchase them from Walmart. Now this was going against my own intuition. "Order our rings from Walmart? Do I really want something that cheap? Do I really want a Walmart ring? It's almost like pulling a ring from a cracker jack box. . ." But I am too excited to listen to the warning bells in my head. After convincing myself to do it, I work on convincing Selo. He is not as easily persuade. "You are worth more than a Walmart ring. I want you to have a good quality ring. I want you to have a good selection to choose from." But after a while, he figures if I am working that hard to convince him to purchase at Walmart, I must really be okay with it. So we pick our rings, purchase them, and pay for them. We are told that Selo's ring has to be ordered and that will take 2 weeks. Mine has to be sized, and that takes two weeks. Warning bells are going off again, but I push them aside, again.
The next morning I get a call from Walmart. They cancelled the order for Selo's ring. I am very upset about this because I was so glad to have them ordered. Selo takes this opportunity to convince me to go to some jewelry shops. He takes me around to six different jewelry shops and shows me some beautiful rings. Each store we walk in to makes me wonder more and more why I EVER considered purchasing our rings at Walmart? Why did I think we should settle for Walmart, when these stores have real quality incredible rings? What was I thinking? So after deciding (again) exactly what we want, Selo says he wants to go one more place before we place an order anywhere. I agree and he takes me to Jared The Galleria of Jewelry. He walks me into this place that is incredible. They have an entire section just for ladies wedding rings and for men's wedding rings. We first pick out Selo's ring. He is so happy about it. And wow! it looks great on him. He totally deserves this. Why did I ever think I wanted to buy a Walmart ring? Then they take me over to the ladies rings. Holy goodness. I've never seen so much sparkle in my life. And all this is for me! Selo tells me pick whatever you want. I try on ring after ring after ring. He points out that one and this one. "This one doesn't look right, try that one." "That one doesn't sparkle enough, try this one." He tells me he is having a hard time finding a ring that sparkles as much as my eyes. How sweet! I finally decide on a ring. It is beautiful. The most beautiful ring I have ever seen! Once I have finally decided, Selo says to me "You are worth so much more to me than a Walmart ring. You deserve this." Oh, I could have melted.
Anyway, I got distracted. Back to the Cracker Jack rings. I called Walmart to find out what their return policy on jewelry was. "It's the same as everything else: bring in the receipt and get your money back. No problem." We go to Walmart, and they give the money back for Selo's ring because THEY had canceled the order. Hand over the receipt for my ring, and they refuse to give the money back. Their excuse? The ring has to be in the store. "Fine, when will it be back?" "Oh we don't know that. It was sent off to be sized." "So you sent the ring off the same day it was ordered, but now that the order is canceled, you don't have any idea where it is or when it will be back?" Stuttering, shuffling, and cast down eyes. Needless to say, I am not happy. The associate tells Selo to come back tomorrow when the department manager is here. The next day when he goes back, they still don't know anything. He calls me, and I go in there. Oh boy. The department manager was not looking forward to this encounter. With a very calm voice, I hand over the receipt, and tell her I want the refund for this ring. She tries to give me the same excuse she gave to Selo, but then lamely trails off when she realizes all she is doing is provoking an already angry Bride. Then she tells me what no one else had the guts to. "So you are telling me, that you don't expect this ring to be back until two weeks AFTER we are married? Did you plan to just let this go and hope we wouldn't notice there was no ring at our wedding?" And now I am livid. She doesn't really have any answers for me. She finally calls the company that has the ring and asks when it will be sent back, they tell her it will be sent Monday or Tuesday, and be back by Tuesday or Wed. How funny that it is sent off so quickly, yet it takes almost a week to be sent back.
So I go back on Tuesday, and hand over the receipt again. They still don't have the ring. "When will it be here?" "I don't know." "Will you call and find out please?" Now I give this lady credit for being calm while I am so livid, but do I really have to walk her through every step of her job? Give me a break! All I want is a measly hundred dollars back for a ring that isn't even worth half that! It's not like it's gonna break Walmart's bank. So I leave without the refund- again. Only this time, I call Corp. I explain that I understand their policy. But the speed of it is ridicules. If that's the way they have do things, fine, I can respect that and live with that. What I'm NOT going to live with is that nobody is doing anything TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. Guess what happened later that day? I got a call saying I could come get the refund. Amazing how that works, huh? So we get the money back, and Walmart can keep their Cracker Jack ring.
So I have learned two things here. First I will talk about the negative, then I will end on the positive. Walmart is exactly what it sounds like- immediate satisfaction. If you can't walk out of the store with it that day, you are going to get screwed. Don't work there, don't let your spouse work there, and don't think you are going to get good quality jewelry from there. The pain and suffering you have to endure, is just not worth it. I used to love Walmart- it had everything! But Selo has helped me to realize that it's just not worth it.
I still can't believe the rings we have. Selo and I have beautiful, classy, elegant, good quality rings now. They are incredible! Selo's ring is a Carved Wedding Band, and mine is a White Gold Anniversary Band with 14 stones down the sides. PLUS my ring has a lifetime gold and diamond warranty. That means I can have it cleaned and sized anytime I want as often as I want for the rest of my life. If the gold gets scratched, banged, or even smeared, I take it in and the fix or replace it on their penny. The diamond warranty means that if ANY of the diamonds EVER fall out, crack, or chip, they will replace it- on their penny. We had a lesson in diamonds while we were there shopping, and we were offered refreshments at the same time! Selo was so right when he said we should go to Jared. They treated us fabulously AND they have good rings. And I thank Selo every day that he showed me our future in such a kind manner.
No comments:
Post a Comment