The Gold ornament seller

Earlier this week I was with my wife to buy some gold ornaments at Tanishq (http://titan.co.in/Tanishq/)  and all went well until we paid the money for the ornaments.  There was scheme of gold coins as a promotion  and the salesmen told us that we would get two small coins but once we had paid the money the cashier insisted we were eligible only for one. After about fifteen minutes the cashier relented and give my wife the two coins, 

When I told my friend about this he told me the cashier was smart, because by denying us the gold coin, he would have been richer by one gold coin from the promotion.

It sounded strange to me that a company that spent  money on branding and marketing would have the customers buying experience marred by the cashier at the closure of the transaction.

All i could do at that time was to tweet about the experience

LS Subramanian ‏@lssubramanian13 May

Tanishq staff at Oberoi mall need training on customer closure at cash section!

But receiving no response to my tweet  I am convinced that Tanishq has no Social media presence !

This brought back memories of about 40 years ago when the jeweler visited my home.
A special place was made for him in the living room with a table on which he would set up his scale to weigh the gold ornaments he had to deliver or take back to be recycled.

I was always curious about the balance but he would always have a small weight on one side, my suspicion was that there was a flaw in the balance, but I was too young to ascertain that by forcing the jeweler to balance his two pans.

The jeweler was a great marketer and would always increase my mother's budget substantially during every visit. He carried no jewelry with him rather a catalog of designs and my mother would choose what she liked.  Today  we go the high street or mall to buy the gold ornaments.

But in conclusion nothing has changed, whether trying to pocket one gold coin or not balancing the scale, the finer points of the business remain same.

Gold, Gold ....all that glitters is not gold !