The Breitling Watch Source Forums

Strange thing occurred to me Sunday night when visiting Caeser's Palace in Las Vegas. I was with my wife and a deep pocketed wealthier-type friend heading to Il Mulino's (one of the BEST restaurants in LV, btw). I own a World, and convinced my friend to visit the Breitling dealer as we were passing through the shops on our way to the restaurant. He is considering updating his collection by adding a $31K diamond Rolex. As an ambassador of the Breitling brand, I sort of pointed him in this direction as I feel that anyone's collection can be smartly enhanced with a Breitling.

This said, we stood at the counter for no less than :12 minutes waiting for an associate to come come over and see us. We were surprised to see few staff members standing around in the disctance, even looking at us, but making no contact or gestures to indicate that they'd be "right over". I know they saw us standing there but we felt ignored.

OK, let me ask, do you think that people are judged by how they look and whether their affordability of a $6-$10K watch is contingent upon appearance?

Do you feel that customers should be soliciting assistance from the shop keepers/staff?

Should we walk into these stores with our Platinum/Black Amex cards posted to our chests hoping to get a little service?

Anyway, I just thought it was funny to see this sort of thing take place, and wonder. When I'm out gambling (or better yet, donating money to a casino), eating, drinking, and of course, a little Vegas debauchery, I generally leave my Armani suits at home. On this night, however, I became a Breitling representative and just pointed to the collection through the glass, and described them as best i could. Suffice it to say - The Platinum card never came out of his pocket and I don't see him going back.

Dinner was awesome, though.

Sometimes, but its not usually in Vegas. Anybody can have money in Vegas and I think the dealers are well aware of it. Could be the guy in swim trunks and slippers or the guy with the expensive suit. Thats just bad service, and its good that you didnt buy anything from them.

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-RJ

Well said RJ... I've seen bum looking guys drop 3k in a matter of minutes at the roulette table... the roulette table!

I think the true whales don't play among us mere mortals in the general area... anyways, that is bad service... but I'm a bit surprised as usually when I go anywhere in Vegas, the service is pretty good... whether it's restaurants, shops, etc. Even the valet guys are friendly when I roll up in my Toyota...

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"I don't got the bright watch I got the right watch" -Jay Z

Bad service, plain and simple. As RJ points out, they should know that appearance does not correlate to cash, especially not in Vegas. If the salespeople are too dense to figure that out, it's their loss. Then again, it might be Breitling's loss, too, since that was a pivotal moment to get your friend into the brand.

If it's the AD I am thinking about, the turn over rate of their sales staff is staggering. They take in a large amt. of desperate employees, of which a few rise to the surface. Fewer still last a year and one in 25 stays for longer (real numbers, btw) to become "cream". Somehow, they turn product with this business model. Staff are treated like cattle and in turn, staff see customers as 'marks'. BSA is keenly aware of how this works, but business is business and since they (T) sell Breitlings, it is overlooked or outright ignored. I am aware that Rolex and Panerai suits also know of the way things work at this establishment, and while they publicly love their customer base, they allow the big t to carry their product because people love to shop there.
Of course, Walmart has it's fans as well.....

Didn't they see Pretty Woman?

If Darston and company were dressed like hookers, then those salespeople are dumber than I thought.

To Quote Tom Peters author of Passion for excellence "Who are you to demand good service " to quote me "mediocre men are always at there best " referring to sales people at Caesar's Palace . Perhaps tough love was needed when I'm being ignored ,by sales people I like dropping 25 to 50 K in cash on the counter in front of sales people and stating You suck at sales why don't you go back to being a fry cook at MC D's. Now is there someone here who would like a fat commission tonight ? I guess I'm just used to not being blown off .

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Veni, vidi, vici

I'd like to quote Strunk and White.

If your talking about the Tourneau there the same thing happened to me last year. I looked around the whole store and wound up standing in front of the Panerai counter for about 10 minutes before someone finally asked if I needed anything. I proceeded to try on about half the watches in the place.

Normally I feel a little bad about trying on watches and not buying one but that dude was a complete douche. Plus he told me a used PO was $3k without B&P's, no thanks.

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"Leave the gun, take the cannoli."

Yup. It was Tourneau.

My brother and I were at the big T back in June and they were very nice and accomodating.....might be the turnover that was mentioned adn now they have poorer sales people, or maybe we were there on a good day a few months ago

I gotta be honest, I wish it were somewhere in the middle, and that goes for all sales people. I absolutely hate when someone asks if they can help me the second I walk in a door. It is called shopping, let me shop, then ask if you can help. I also dont like it when I have to wait too long, but usually you can give them "the look" when you are ready to talk. give em a little nod or even ask for help. I once bought a vette from a salesman's manger due to the sales guy not wanting to service a guy wearing jeans or even open the car for me to have a look. it was a pleasure writing the check in front of him.

Its a funny thing, how much help do you get and how quickly? each person expectds something a little different.

If you ever listen to the Hourtime podcast you should listen to them ranting about "The Big T" in last weeks podcast. Quite funny.

I always thought, service quality would be better in the US, than in Europe.

I would not tolerate any employee, who ignores a potential customer. The customer has to be greated the moment, he enters the shop. As long as he is browsing around, he should not be disturbed, but as soon as he stops at a display for more than 10 seconds or as soon as he moves up to the frontdesk, he has to be serviced. If every salesperson has a customer, he has to be greated anyway by the nearest one to the door, and he has to be asked to please wait for a moment, until someone can care for his wishes.

Quite simple rules.

BG
Thomas

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http://www.ellert.at