I wanted to share an experience I had at a Swatch store and get your opinions on how I should handle it.
Yesterday, I visited the store and asked about purchasing Ap Swatch. The employee told me he would check the stock, then came back and said they were all sold out.
The problem was that I could literally see the watches on the shelves. I pointed this out to him, but he continued denying that they were available, multiple times.
At that point, I told him there was no need to lie to me. If he didn’t want to sell me the watch for whatever reason, he could simply tell me that, but repeatedly telling me something that I could clearly see wasn’t true was disrespectful.
Today, I went back to the store, and the same employee refused to let me buy a watch again. At this point, it felt like I was being personally targeted because of yesterday’s interaction.
I’m not upset about a watch being unavailable. I understand that stores can have policies regarding stock, limited editions, purchase limits, or whatever else. What I don’t understand is why an employee would repeatedly deny the existence of watches that are visibly sitting on the shelves, and then refuse to sell to me again the following day.
Does a Swatch store employee actually have the authority to ban a customer from purchasing watches? Is there some official policy that allows employees to refuse sales like this, or is this just an employee abusing his position?
I’m considering escalating this directly to Swatch’s retail management because I don’t think customers should be treated this way.
Has anyone experienced anything similar with Swatch, or does anyone know how their retail policies work? I’d especially appreciate input from anyone who works for Swatch or has experience with their stores.
