Very interesting thread and one in which all the oft-mentioned gripes are laid out very clearly for Steve Bennett to see.
I'll start with the good things about Gems, and that is that ladies with slender fingers are catered for in terms of ring sizes. Like Fluff, I have to spend money to resize rings if they are larger than a size 5, and the idea of having to do that puts me off purchasing something even if I really like it.
Secondly, Gems has a terrific asset in Alan Miller and should make his manner and style of presentation the standard all the presenters aspire to.
As to the things that still bother me and stop me from watching or purchasing these days, they are the same bugbears I've mentioned time and time again on other threads, but I'll recap here.
1) The continued stance that Gems is a genuine reverse price auction format. It isn't. In such a format the auctionee controls the price not the auctioneer. Everything is auctioned until it sells, even if it goes down to £1, and the auctioneer wouldn't be able to end the auction and move on in the way they do now. I think the point I want to make clear is that I'm not criticising Gems for having a price and stopping there - I simply want some transparency, and I don't feel we have that at the current time.
2) The hysterical screeching and shouty style of presentation so beloved by virtually everyone at Gems. It's unappealing and an immediate turn-off for a lot of people who would otherwise watch and then more than likely make a purchase. Add to that the exaggerations and misleading information given and you have a prime reason for former viewers switching off.
3) Meaningless price comparisons. We've been saying on here for ages that the gold price comparison with three shops on the high street is farcical and misleading, and now the ASA has agreed and told you to cease. All well and good. However, a couple of weeks ago I was checking the website to see the items still available, (I no longer watch the channels), and I was perturbed to see Victoria Norris holding up a piece of paper with a photo of a diamond ring and the words "available on the high street today" or something very similar, and another line about the gold weight being unknown, and then a price of something like £549 or £599. I didn't need to turn up the volume to realise that this was a way to get around the ruling on the price comparison malarkey. Frankly, I was disgusted. No way would a presenter do something like that off their own bat, it had to come from management, and it was an extremely cynical and dubious ploy to mislead the more gullible viewer. Meaningless nonsense. Where on the high street was this ring being sold? What was the gold weight and how many carats did it contain? Was it from a high end jeweller or a downmarket seller? So many factors that need to be taken into consideration when giving a realistic price comparison, and not one of them addressed. I'm thinking the ASA would have a field day with that one.
3) Ghastly musack and heartbeat and irrelevant shots of dancers onstage (I saw that on Gems Xtra ages ago. Yes, I realise that it's a kind of X factor vibe you're going for there, but it's meaningless in terms of selling jewellery and looks tacky and downmarket.
4) You have said that you agree with the points about grooming, particularly nails. Yet I've no doubt that if I tuned in now I would see someone (probably female...) with hideous tippexed acrylic monstrosities on view. You often talk about Gems being a family run business, yet virtually every female on the channel has what are referred to euphemistically as 'porno nails'. Not really the best representation of a family orientated concern. There have been numerous threads about this and how tacky it looks on camera, but it never seems to change.
5) Unacceptable wait for refunds. A little birdy on here tells me that in the latest Scoop magazine you encourage people to take their refunds in the form of a credit (fair enough), but you tell them that that will save them having to wait for their banks to credit their accounts. Erm, they're not waiting for the bank to deal with it, they're waiting for you to process the refund. If money can be taken from a customer within a matter of a couple of days, then surely it can be refunded just as quickly or near enough to make no real difference?
6) On a purely personal level I would be more willing to return to the fray if more elegant and dainty pieces were featured regularly. I absolutely abhor the huge knuckleduster type rings and find a lot of the Tookalon and Violent Vermicelli or whatever it's called pretty ghastly. Also, what's with the obsession (I presume it's still in place) with mystic quartz/topaz? Yuck.
7) Agree with the general consensus about melee diamonds and gold weight. I want to buy jewellery I can be fairly confident will last a reasonable time, not something fragile that cannot bear the weight of the gem it supports. The melee diamonds too often look like granulated grey sugar, and the rings would be much better without them. It is very disappointing to receive an item with poor quality diamonds, even if they are used simply to accent, they can very easily make a ring look unappealing.
8) I think it's important to reiterate that the reason so many people are disenchanted is that they thought you were different, a refreshing change to the hard sell, and ethical in your outlook and methodology. That seems to have changed quite drastically and it's disappointing to say the least. For instance, the use of gimmicks to sell, even though you say you don't like them; the endless clearances complete with presenters spouting nonsense like "I can't believe that this is in clearance, what a brilliant time to be watching" etc. All nonsense and misleading to newer customers who will very quickly move on once they realise they're not getting the ultra bargain they thought they were.
Why not just treat people as intelligent adults with the ability to make informed decisions when given the correct information, and not as children tuning into CBeebies?
If people care enough to tell you what's wrong, you should listen and act as and when appropriate. Yes, criticism hurts and is never pleasant, but dealing it with is the only way to ensure the future growth of a company trading in financially difficult times. I've often said that I thought you were short-termist in your outlook; that as long as new customers were buying everything would be alright, but that simply isn't so; a successful company needs loyal customers who come back time and again and feel happy about giving their money to that company.
