Good grief!
Not a very mature response from Mr Bennett, is it? And to say "If you don't like it, don't watch it" is not the wisest and most business-like way of dealing with an issue affecting customers. The whole point that many have been making for some time now is that we don't watch Gems anymore, and we have given all the reasons why. If people aren't watching, they're not buying, I would have thought that was obvious to anyone. If someone is serious about a business venture, it should concern them greatly that formerly loyal customers no longer watch or spend. But silly me, I hadn't realised that I was being led away from the fold by the wicked machinations of the bullying and bribing Graham. I'd always been of the opinion that I was intelligent enough to make up my own mind about things, but apparently not. Like everyone else on here, I sheepishly follow others around and act like a brainwashed automaton. So that's what Mr B thinks of his customers, that they are gullible, easily led eejits with no intellectual capacity whatsoever. Well, that at least explains the use of the pathetic gimmicks.
I'm afraid that all credibility is lost when someone states that they don't like gimmicks but use them because they increase sales. Possibly they do increase sales when viewed or listened to by particularly gullible and vulnerable viewers, but I doubt that that sort of viewer has the buying power to sustain a jewellery company longterm. The gimmicks, along with the aggressive, hard-sell presentation, simply act as a turn-off for me since I won't be patronised and treated like a particularly retarded infant by anyone, and I certainly won't spend with a company engaging in such nonsense.
A serious aside to the aggressive, screeching, shouting presentations, is the fact that the presenters seemingly get away with lies and deliberately misleading statements. Some time ago I listened with disbelief as Lynn babbled on about a diamond ring, and said, "No way should this be in Clearance. No way, what a bargain you are getting." Firstly, the never-ending 'clearance' which is a bugbear of many former customers. Secondly, does she not know what the term 'clearance' means? It is completely misleading to the customer to insinuate that an item in such an hour is going to go to an all-time bargain price, when the savvier viewer realises that a clearance is simply the clearing out of end of stock items, and does not indicate a bargain sale price.
Oh, and then we get to the every other week or so 'Sale' that isn't. During these fantastically exciting sales, I have seen jewellery I own sell at much higher prices than I paid during non-sales times. Same for items sold as 'star buys' or 'manager's specials'. One star buy was a pink sapphire ring which sold for £69. The only problem was that I had purchased it when it first appeared and paid £39 for it! Star buy my arsenic.
As to the presenters being personal friends, well, how is that any concern of ours? If anything, it makes me feel that Mr Bennett is simply unable to take constructive criticism and avoids it by having his business staffed by people who are part of his non-business coterie. I wouldn't call that great business sense, and I'd be more concerned at the things being said about the presenters than the fact that these friends may be upset by what appears on this forum or in a tweet or anywhere else. Is Gems as a company really happy to have its presenters perceived as dodgy and misleading hard sell merchants who will say anything to shift stock? Is it content that presenters say that they have however many items to "give away"? That each piece they 'auction' is the best-ever example of a particular gem? I heard Liv exclaim some time ago, just after she had helpfully informed me that Thai rubies come from Thailand, an issue which had been baffling me for years, that the item she was presenting was "the ruby ring of the century!" Add to that the price comparisons with single items sold by American sellers online, the idea, as I mentioned in Meeshoo's Who's to blame thread, that the name Sarah Bennett is synonymous with the great design houses, the repetition of stock crappity phrases, the constant "rare, rare, rare", the peculiar grading system, along with the fact that everything you sell now appears to be graded, and I eagerly await triple A rose quartz etc, the "lots of lovely treats for us. Do you like this? So do I..." drivel, the hysteria of Angeline, who constantly rushes to the gallery to check that the amazing, incredible price is true, and not some dreadful mistake, the bursting into tuneless singing, and saying "Well done. You're doing so, so well, you're doing brilliantly", as if we were on a maternity ward, and so on.
Mr Bennett said on a thread he started that he was going to address the issues with presenters, yet he tells Graham that if he doesn't like the presenters he shouldn't watch. So he says one thing on a public forum and quite another in a one-to-one phonecall. I did notice that on that thread, he failed to answer the charges about gimmicks and now we see why. They are not to his taste, but they work on the gullible. Frankly, I would regard that as more apropos of bribery and bullying than anything Graham says or does. Is Graham not entitled to an opinion unless it accords with Gems? What a bloody cheek!
If people are telling you that something needs fixing, then address it. Do something about quality control, rein in the more aggressive and overly-exuberant presenters, and either get them to do something about their nails, or stop the camera from panning in for a close-up of a natural nail growing through under acrylic monstrosities, and the weeks of dirt acquired since the plastic was fitted, ugh. Don't patronise people by telling them that changes made are for their benefit when quite clearly they are not. Sort out the time it takes for refunds to be made. And accept that when formerly loyal customers are staying away there is something very badly wrong. Then you can deal with it or not, as you choose, but don't blame the customers, a forum, Twitter, or anything else for something that begins and ends with Gems and the way it is now run.
On a different note, Graham, I didn't know that you had been affected by the Marchioness tragedy, and I'm so sorry to hear it. xx
You keep on doing what you're doing, and don't let these spats get you down.
Yours, bullied and bribed of Manchester....
