the value of a dollar…to a teenager

It’s true. The best way to teach a teenager the value of a dollar is to make them earn and spend their OWN money.

My kids have no problem spending MY money. It’s not any big deal for them to throw 25 things in my cart on a routine grocery shopping trip and not think anything of it. Or when we’re shopping at the mall, if we buy a pair of jeans, they think nothing of wanting to add a shirt. Or a belt, or a pair of earrings. Or a headband. Or a bracelet.

You get the picture.

But when they are spending their own money? They scrimp and save. They watch every single red cent. They are stingy. They wouldn’t loan you a buck to save your life, unless you promise you’ll pay it back.

So, my teenage daughter is learning that saving money for this cruise she wants to go on is going to be hard work. Saying YES to the trip was the easy part. Saving the money to go is where it gets tricky.

She got lucky in the fact that the trip is turning out to be cheaper than originally planned. She does not, in fact, need a passport. That alone saves her $105. Her friends’ parents ended up saving $98 on the plane tickets by flying out of different city than Des Moines. (Sidenote: See Des Moines? We’re not talking a few dollars… we’re talking big savings by going to a different city and a different airport. No wonder people don’t want to use our airport!!!)

Once the tickets were purchased and it was all said and done, the total cost of her trip including $150 for spending money came to $722.00– far less than the $1,000 that we had originally intended. (I just love it when things work out that way!) We agreed to kick in $300 towards the trip, because we paid $300 for our other girls to take a vacation with my mother-in-law earlier this summer.

That leaves $422. We made her a deal. We are paying the $722 upfront, and she owes us $422. $250 has to be paid by November 1st, and the balance has to be paid by Christmas. Whatever isn’t paid off by Christmas becomes her Christmas gift. I decided if we didn’t give her a deadline to have the money paid back, we’d never see it. Plus she has a goal to work towards, and she is taking it seriously, folks.

I don’t think she’ll have any problem coming up with the money. She has a birthday coming up next month, she’s been doing some babysitting fairly regularly, and she’s applying for part-time jobs. She’s also been going through her old clothes, books, and other stuff in her room to take in for consignment.

She’s got it figured out, people. FINALLY.

JewelryGate 2010

Almost two weeks ago, I wrote a pretty detailed account of my daughter’s  experience with four jewelry store chains while trying to purchase herself a purity ring.    I think after everything that has happened, it would be better to now refer to the whole ordeal as “JewelryGate 2010.”

After posting our story, I received several comments.  Some through my blog, and some of you emailed me directly.  Many people suggested that I contact each of the stores and let them know about my experience– the good, the bad, and the ugly.   

 So, on Monday, February 22nd, I did just that.  I went to each of the store’s corporate websites (Rogers, Greenbergs, Helzbergs, and Zales) and posted my contact information with a write-up of my review, exactly as it appeared on my blog.  I also included a link to my site, should they wish to see the post themselves.    

And then I waited.

That same day, I received automated responses from both Zales and Helzbergs, both indicating they had received my comment and “someone will be contacting you shortly.”

On Wednesday the 24th, I received another automated response from Zales, as follows:

 Dear Jenni,

We have received your concern, please provide the store location in which you had your experience as well as some detail on what occurred. Thereafter, we can forward your concern to the appropriate executive.

Should you have any further questions, or require additional assistance, please contact us at 1-800-311-5393, or email us at customerservice@zales.com and a Customer Service Representative will be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,

Zales Customer Service

That same Wednesday, I received my first REAL reply from a store. I received a call on my cell phone from Kevin, the store manager of the Helzberg’s store we visited. He had been contacted by his district manager, who had been contacted by their Corporate offices as my complaint made its way through the company. 

Kevin, also being the father of a teenager, was appalled at the treatment my daughter received in his store, and promised that it is NOT how they do business. He indicated that he believes every customer should be treated with respect, whether they have $1 in their pocket, or $10,000 and whether they are purchasing something or not. I explained to him that while I do not suggest people boycott their store (I hate to have a repeat of the recent local Legends restaurant saga), I will make sure I visit Rogers first should I ever be jewelry shopping again. Kevin also informed me he would be sharing my review at their next employee staff meeting, as a training tool for how to deliver great customer service. (Go Kevin!)

A few minutes later, I also received a call from Art, the store manager at Rogers, the only store in which we had a GREAT experience. He thanked me for my blog post, and told me that he very much appreciated our honest review of their store. He indicated he printed off the review and had it framed, and proudly displayed it in their store window. Art told me he was also contacted by Jody of Iowa Geek to inquire about their store participating in the 2010 Moms Nite Out coming soon. (See what good customer service gets you?).  

I had planned on writing this follow-up several days ago, but I wanted to give all four stores the chance to respond first. As of today, I have yet to receive any further response from Zales, and I have not received ANY response at all from Greenberg’s.

I did, however, get another phone call from Art at Rogers Jewelers on Friday, February 26th. He let me know that if I should happen to stop into their store, I would no longer see my review posted outside their store for all to see. Apparently, some of the other jewelry stores complained about it, and mall management asked them to take it down. If you’d like to see it, though, it’s now posted INSIDE the store, in a display case.  (I’m sure it has absolutely NOTHING to do with the fact that one of the jewelry stores in question — HELLO ZALES!– is located right next door.)

Sometimes I think people underestimate the incredible buying power teenagers have.   They do have disposable income, and they are more than willing to spend it.  While my daughter may have walked around with the intentions of spending $50 that day,  she also sat in the jewelry store and texted all of her friends, letting them know she bought the ring, and also WHERE SHE BOUGHT IT.   Word of mouth is a powerful tool, and it doesn’t matter how old you are.  If anything, its more powerful with the younger generation, as I am sure her friends would be more than willing to just go to the exact same place my daughter went to, simply based on her suggestion.

Bottom line, like cars, jewelry is not something that we go out and purchase every day.  And with the current state of the economy, every company is fighting even harder to earn your business and mine.  The best way for them to do it is by providing excellent customer service.  It might be the advertising or the sales that draw people in, but when it comes down to it, it’s all about how they treat you.  

Disclosure:  While I was not compensated for writing this, I was informed by both Rogers and Helzberg’s that their Corporate Offices would be sending me “something” in the mail.    This did not in any way influence my review, especially since I dont even know what they are sending me. 

The Real Game of Life

Sunday night, after a particularly long weekend of kids’ sporting events, the girls and I decided to have another Family Game Night. Husband had homework to do (darn him for being such a good student!) so it was just me and the girls.

Rather than playing another game of Mexican Train Dominos, we opted for Life. And for the record, can I just say how hard it can be to find a board game that a 36-year old, a a 14-year old and a 9-year old can play together? And ENJOY IT?

I digress.

While we sat at the kitchen table and played this board game, I noticed how similar the game really can be to REAL LIFE. Or at least depending on the players.

Take my 9-year old for example. Her attitude in the game was like me in my twenties. She was immediately willing to borrow $100,000 from the bank to fund her college education. She wanted the biggest and the best house possible, irregardless of what she could afford. She would borrow more money from the bank, simply because she could. She was basically willing to beg, borrow and steal to get more money (or more credit). She didn’t think she would need insurance, so she passed up the auto and homeowners insurance at every opportunity. There was no urgency to get her debt paid off throughout the game, even though she knew it would hurt her at “retirement.” When she retired, she still had some student loan money to pay back.

Then there’s my 14-year old. She represents me in my early thirties. She took a little safer route. She looked at the two choices at the beginning of the game– college education or going straight to work. In the game, the college education requires a $100,000 loan from the bank, but can mean a higher salary later on when you choose your career. She took the loan, but she was hesitant. She paid attention throughout the game to how much money she had, but again was not concerned when she had to go the bank for a loan. She waited for a couple catastrophes to happen before finally ponying up the money for the insurance. She didn’t purchase any stock, but tried to keep a cushion of money in case of emergencies. She paid off some of her debt at the beginning, but made it pretty close to the end of the game before getting it all paid off.

And then there’s me. The 36-year old who realizes what credit and debt and overspending can do, even in a board game. I also reluctantly opted for the $100,000 student loan, but only after carefully reading each space on the board until I could “start my career” so I knew exactly what could happen. Upon choosing my career (I was a doctor!), I chose to begin paying off my debt to the bank immediately. Within my first few turns, I was out of debt and remained debt-free through retirement. I had homeowners insurance and auto insurance, and I even was able to purchase some stock. I played it safe by choosing a house that I could pay cash for, without borrowing any money from the bank. When I would come to a crossroads in the game, and needed to decide which way to go next, I would look not for where the next payday was, but also what obstacles were in my path. I planned ahead.

Care to guess which one of us won?

I should have gone all “Pretty Woman” on them

Sometimes the best posts come to me during a simple conversation with some friends.  Last weekend, my husband and I were at the mall when we ran into Shelby and her husband, who are some very good friends of ours. We sat outside the Dairy Queen at Jordan Creek Town Center and chatted for an hour or so.

Shelby and I began discussing the purity ring my daughter got. After telling her about the experience we had, I decided it would make a good blog post. Because I am very insistent on receiving good service at places I give my business to, I decided to share our experience with all of you.

When my daughter first mentioned wanting to go look at rings, she said she had researched them online and knew exactly which jewelry stores at the mall carried them: Zales, Greenberg’s, Helzberg’s and Rogers.

Our first stop was to Helzberg’s where there were NO customers,  and three employees working. My daughter walked in, looked in the cases for 2 minutes and no one ever asked if they could help her. When I walked into the store to check on her, they immediately approached me and asked if I they could help me find something, and my response was to point to my daughter and say, “No thank you, I am with HER.”

My daughter asked the employee (who had food stuck in her teeth–YUCK) if they sold purity rings.

Employee: No, we don’t have those.

Daughter: OK, well, I saw them on your website.

Employee: *sigh* Well, when you looked at them, did they say “Online only”? If it does, we don’t have them here.

(Yes, she really did SIGH at my child.)

Daughter: I don’t remember it saying that.

Employee: Well, when you go home, look at the website again and if you can remember to, write down the item number. Because it’s probably something you can only get online.

Daughter: Um, OK.

Oh yes, this really happened.

Seriously, they work for the jewelry store! They couldn’t look up their own damn website and see what she was talking about? Do they not have any of those fancy newfangled computer doo-hicky things in there? Not only would the employee not go to any lengths to help her, she also wasn’t even going to suggest seeing if they had something similar to it in the store. Her suggestion was to “go home and look at the website.”

Walking out of there disappointed, I told my daughter we’d head to Greenberg’s. That was where husband and I had bought my wedding ring, and hopefully they’d be able to help her. Again, my daughter walked into the store several steps ahead of me, and again, she waited for someone to ask her if she needed anything. There were two customers in the store and four employees, so like the other store, NOT BUSY. Once again, not being approached by anyone, she went up to one of the employees who was just standing around. Upon asking about a purity ring she had seen online, the employee responded:

“Um, no. We don’t have those here.”

End of discussion, apparently. Because the employee immediately dismissed talking to her, looked over to me standing at the other end of the jewelry case, and said “Is there something I can help you find?”

Again, I responded with “No thank you. I am with HER” while pointing at my daughter.

By this point, I was getting plenty upset, to put it mildly. We began walking to the other side of the mall, where the last two jewelry stores were.

The next jewelry store to be put to the test was Zales. Again, another store that had NO customers in it the weekend before Valentine’s Day. (Are we seeing a trend here?) There were a couple employees working, but after waiting for them to finish their conversation with each other, we again were told they didn’t sell purity rings, in the store OR on their website.

Really? Then they must not be familiar with their own website. Because it’s FULL OF THEM.   <==Seriously, go take a gander.

Finally, our last stop was Rogers. I had never even heard of Rogers Jewelers before, let alone bought anything there. They had a few customers in there, and four employees working. When my daughter walked in, she was immediately greeted.

Immediately. 

My husband and I stood outside the jewelry store to see how things went down, because I was getting to the point where I wanted to scrap the whole shopping expedition, except that the reason we were there was very important to my daughter.

Within seconds, an employee came over to her and asked if they could help her. Here’s how the conversation went down:

Daughter: I am looking for a purity ring. I have seen them online but wanted to find some in the store I could actually look at and try on.

Employee: Well, we don’t have anything in the store specifically called a “purity ring” but we have this entire section here that people have purchased as promise rings or purity rings. What’s more important is that you find a ring you like, and YOU decide what the reason is you are wearing it for.

*Me (thinking): Score one for Roger’s Jewelers.*

Daughter: OK, that sounds good.

They asked my daughter to sit down in one of their comfy chairs, and they proceeded to treat her like a queen. When another employee was done waiting on a customer, even he came over to help.   She had two employees waiting on her, making her feel very special.    They showed her ring after ring, and I swear they spent a good 30 minutes with her, as she debated which ring she liked best. What originally started out as a $50-$60 purchase turned into a ring on sale for $199. A customer in the store donated her $50 coupon to my daughter, which brought the price down to $149. Honestly, it was a lot more than I was initially planning on spending, but she picked it out, was happy with it, and the customer service was STELLAR.

While I was sitting with my daughter looking at rings, my husband mentioned looking at rings for ME since our 10-year anniversary is coming up. The employee helping my daughter (whom we later discovered was the store manager) motioned for yet another employee to go over and start helping my husband. 

Bottom line, to keep this long story from getting any longer, not only did Rogers Jewelers make a sale to my daughter, but their excellent customer service prompted my husband to buy my ring there, as well. And it was NOT a cheap ring. We were NOT treated as if we were a bother, and my daughter was NOT made to feel stupid or insignificant.  

The other stores failed to realize that my daughter was wanting to buy something very important to her, and whether the store carried the ring she was looking for or not, they could have offered to show her something similar or CHECKED THEIR DARN WEBSITE! (That one still bothers me!)  Not a single one of them even asked her what the ring looked like that she was referring to.  They saw a 14-year old girl come into their store, figured the sale would be small, and decided they weren’t wasting their time on her.  

Amount we originally planned on spending that day? $50-$60

Total amount of money we actually spent that day at Rogers? $3,889.11

The experience my daughter had in that jewelry store? PRICELESS.

It reminded me of that scene in “Pretty Woman” where Julia Roberts’ character Vivian walks back into that chic Rodeo Drive store full of snotty women that refused to help her only a day before:

Shop assistant: Hello, can I help you?

Vivian: I was in here yesterday, you wouldn’t wait on me?

Shop assistant: Oh.

Vivian: You people work on commission, right?

Shop assistant: Yes.

Vivian:Big mistake. Big. HUGE.   Well, I have to go shopping now!!!

Note:Obviously, I wasn’t compensated to write this post.   The opinions are mine, and the experiences are mine.  However,  if you are ever in the Des Moines, Iowa area and are looking to shop for jewelry, stop in to Rogers’ Jewelers at Jordan Creek before going anywhere else.  We had a great experience there.

This will be the only thing I will ask of you. Pinky swear.

I am asking for your support in a very special cause. As you all know, this is a cause that is very near and dear to my heart, as my husband Mark was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes over 23 years ago.

This year, I’ll be taking part in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s Walk to Cure Diabetes along with a half-million other walkers across the country. Our goal: To raise $105 million to help fund research for a cure for type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Type 1, or juvenile, diabetes, is a devastating, often deadly disease that affects millions of people–a large and growing percentage of them children.

Many people think type 1 diabetes can be controlled by insulin. While insulin does keep people with type 1 diabetes alive, it is NOT a cure. Aside from the daily challenges of living with type 1 diabetes, there are many severe, often fatal, complications caused by the disease.

That’s the bad news… and yes, it’s pretty bad.

The good news, though, is that a cure for type 1 diabetes is within reach. In fact, JDRF funding and leadership is associated with most major scientific breakthroughs in type 1 diabetes research to date. And JDRF funds a major portion of all type 1 diabetes research worldwide, more than any other charity.
I’m writing to ask for your support because now more than ever, EACH of us can be a part of bringing about a cure. Each of us can make a real difference

Won’t you please give to JDRF as generously as you’re able? Whether it’s $1 or $100, every little bit helps.

Together, we can make the cure a reality.

SINCERELY, JENNI

Please visit my Walk Web page if you would like to donate online or see how close I am to reaching my personal goal:
http://walk.jdrf.org/walker.cfm?id=87614454