Trading Up

[BosoxI]

There have been a number of threads addressing the dangers or delights of shopping in the Carib. Let me warn of another bad situation. My wife had made a sizeable jewelry purchase in one of the big chains always recommended by the hucksters on board ship. She was quite satisfied with it and its price was fair, so no problem there. But she had decided to upgrade the stone. On cruises we made in March, May, and June of this year we visited this merchants stores in the various ports. What we found was that the value of my DW's stone was essentially added to the asking price of the new stone and then subtracted, bringing the price back to it's original level. I know this sounds unbelieveable, but it's true. When I complained about the practice, I was given the run-a-round. I even took the time to call the manager we dealt with in one store after we had returned home and I had a series of e-mails with the manager of a second store upon our return home. Now, I'm sure there will be posts from people who succeeded in trading up, and I'm happy for you. But our experience has been quite different. I am talking about a big ticket item, incidentally, worth tens of thousands. I stress that the original stone was a good purchase and was appraised by a GIA trained appraiser at more than 25% higher than we paid. But trading it in is impossible. Maybe it works for lower priced items and maybe it depends on the salesperson involved. But be aware of what can happen.

[BobT172]

We, too, have found difficulty in the "trading up" selling point.

 

We also have found that, in some cases, the $$$ we paid (and we really bargain hard) are still higher than an appraised value back here in the states.

 

We came to the conclusion that we should only buy if there is something we (she) really likes about the piece and understand that we may not be getting the best bargain. We bought a really unique diamond/sapphire bracelet that perfectly matched her other pieces that we had never seen elsewhere. I know we paid a premium to some degree but we felt it was worth it.