Bvlgari NYC Boutique Review

[broham84]

Apologies in advance for the long read.

Been in this hobby for more than 15 years, I have never visited any watch/jewelry boutiques that left me feeling disgusted like the Bvlgari 5th ave store.

About a month ago I contacted the store to inquire about a special edition (Octo Finissimo Tadao Ando) watch limited to the Japanese market. The sales associate (Jose) at the time was very helpful/pleasant and located the piece and arranged the shipping to NYC. As part of the deal, he assured me that he is authorized to give me 15% discount and he would convince the store manager to give me additional 5% to a total of 20% discount on the time piece. I happily left a deposit not thinking much else before leaving the store since they are a large brand and my experience from dealing with large brands have always been very positive. Fast forward 3 weeks (this past Monday), I got a call from the store manager (Alexander) telling me that Jose had left the company and he’ll find someone to help me since the watch had arrived in the store.

Prior to heading into the city (I live in NJ) today, I called and texted the manager to let him know that I would be going in to pick up the watch today. I didn’t get any response back, so I called the store and spoke to a sales lady (Maria) and let her know that I will be coming today and the agreement (20% discount) I had with Jose. She told me I’d have to work that out with the manager who isn’t working today, but she ensured me that we will be able to get a hold of him when I get there. My wife and I drove an hour to the store and was told there will be no discount on the piece because it was a special order. In addition, there is a list of people now waiting for this particular watch. At this point I am a little upset, not only they aren’t honoring the deal and they have been going around contacting other customers and advertising that this piece maybe available (since they knew they’d be backing out of our agreement). So I asked them to call Alexander so we can work this out. To my dismay, Maria tells me that in the morning Alexander had told her that there will be zero discount. They could’ve had the decency to tell me this over the phone before I leave the house so I can have sometime to react to it, especially I tried to reach out to both Alexander and Maria through calls and texts. At this point it dawned on me that they knew about the agreement I had with Jose while he was still an employee with Bvlgari. Alexander purposely ignored my calls and texts and pulled this shady and callous move so they can sell this piece to someone else at full price.

I understand businesses are in it to maximize profit, but agreeing to a deal and then backing out is shady to say the least. Not having the decency to let me know before I get to the store is a callous move especially they knew I’d be coming from NJ. a couple of thousand dollars isn’t a huge deal, but out of principle, I decided not to purchase this piece or any other products (was going to get a serpenti bangle for the wife as well) from this establishment.

Thank you for taking your time to read my encounter with this store. I understand my business means nothing to Bvlgari, but this truly left a bad taste.