Top Notch Thread! I've read it all!
I own a Jewelry Kiosk in my local mall, I sell mostly Sterling Silver, but have a small selection of fake chains for kids.
Anyways, there's a kid that has been coming to my store for the past, oh, 2 years probably. The kid is about 10, has a terrible speech impetiment, and slurs like mad. Anyways, I cringe when i hear him coming.
He treats his parents like crap, he'll come up, demand something, and they'll say no. He'll start whining and pouting and start throwing a tantrum. Well, his parents usually look at me with the same ol "you know the drill" look and tell me to ring it up. Kid gets it, breaks/loses/trades/gives away what he bought within' a week and comes back 2 weeks later, does the same thing, and gets what he wants again.
It's pitiful, and the items he picks out are usually a 15.00 fake chain or a 20.00 watch, so it's not a 2-3.00 item either. He did this one time about 3 or 4 days before Christmas, after his parents had already bought him a chain and watch from me. He got what he wanted too.
Little boy always wears pink too. Goofiest kid I've ever seen, I just feel sorry for the parents.
Other than that, I have lots of "you're a kiosk and you're out to rip me off and lie to me and tell me this is real silver when it's fake" customers. I try to explain to them how I've been in buisness for 2 1/2 years, and I'm not running a successful store based on lies and deciet. They don't believe me, they still look at me and say "now, are you sure you aren't lying to me?" Like I'm going to say "oh yes, I was, I am so sorry...you have seen through my clever rouge."
Then you have the people who come around and lie about a price another store has a piece of jewelry I'm selling in hopes of getting it cheaper. Thing is, it's not a 5.00-10.00 difference, it's a huge massive jump! They come around, look at a 50.00 chain, and they say...
customer - "store around the corner has the same chain for 15.00"
me - "Well, that's more than it cost us wholesale, if the chain they have is real sterling silver, it's not 15.00, it must be fake"
customer - "no, he told me it was real, and it was 15.00"
me - "he's lying to you"
customer - "naw man, he's not, so you gonna hook me up with this for the same price?"
me - "nope, we don't negotiate prices here (we will, if you're not an asshole about it), if they have the chain over there for 15.00 I suggest you go buy it from them, but I guarantee it will be fake"
at this point, the customer usually walks off.
Bad thing is, being in buisness for yourself, you can't act like an asshole...you have to be nice to everyone and bite your tongue as not to lose any potential customers.
I get a lot of assholes, not very many "stupid customers", cept the ones that walk all around the store, look at everything, notice there is no gold, and then ask if we sell gold.
