> > Find a jewlery shop that isn't too pushy and are generally good people. Some of those people are way pushy and/or rude.
>
> Others are amusing. When I was shopping for an engagement ring, I had it narrowed down to two diamonds of similar price but different physical characteristics -- the choice boiled down to a small trade-off between size and clarity/flawlessness. Both diamonds were within a good range as far as both things went, so it was a matter of which thing I wanted on the better end of the scale.

> It was fascinating, because whichever way I leaned, she started leaning, and if I leaned the other way, she started leaning the other way.

I went yesterday for a "consultation" with a photography studio about a "free" portrait sitting I'd won. As I suspected, it turned out to be "free" in the sense that it would cost me a minimum of $240 if I wanted to actually keep a photo afterwards, so I won't be wasting any more of their time. But listening to their selling tactics was somewhere between irritating and very funny.

I was shown into a small and determinedly trendy room with a large wall screen. The photographer arrived, and proceeded to subject me to a painfully false interrogation straight out of "How to Win Friends and Influence People", attempting to give the impression that she was sincerely interested in me. Why the hell should I have to tell this person all about my job, where I live, what I do for a hobby? Considering she hadn't even taken the time to look in her appointment diary and remember my name, I found this pretty offensive.

Then she made me watch a slide show of before and after portraits taken by her studio. I didn't care about this at all. I was there in the first place because I wanted (or at least had won) a portrait. I didn't need to see four thousand photos of other people, and I *really* didn't need some of the hard-sell comments she made during the slide show. "We can make even a very unattractive person look like a film star!" Gosh, thank you SO much.

Other bits of the sales pitch just floored me. I was told "It's such a unique opportunity. You'll never do anything like this again. You'll never get another chance." Huh? Photography is about to become illegal? There must be over a hundred professional photographers in a city this size. I can have my portrait done seven days a week just by walking off the street, any time I have the money and inclination. I seriously almost fell off the couch laughing at this statement.

I broke all the rules by cutting through the stream of babble and asking what the minimum cost to me was going to be. She looked shocked and hurt at this departure from ritual, and started mentioning how *usually* the portrait sitting would cost several hundred dollars. I cut through the stream of babble again and asked what the minimum cost to me would be. She said vaguely that the smallest photo package was a couple of hundred dollars, but "most people have SO much trouble deciding which one they like best! The most popular choices range between $300 and up to $1200." Later I got a specific price -- $240 was the minimum I would be paying for this "unique opportunity."

Since I don't have $240, I tried to cut the interview short after this, but it was hard going. The funniest part of the whole thing was the amount of rapid switching between gratuitous insults and gratuitous compliments. In one breath the salesperson would start wittering about my BEAUTIFUL green eyes, and tell me to WEAR THAT SHIRT, it looks SO GOOD on you, and one second later I'd be hearing how they could cunningly disguise the roughly seven thousand things wrong with the way I look, and probably make me look almost human in the right light and with a lot of effort and makeup.

So, whatever. It was a rather amusing and informative experience. Then I went home and, to celebrate my escape from paying a large amount of money for no good purpose, I took a grainy digital photo of myself in the bathroom mirror instead. For free.

Brunnen-"and it's all tilted sideways so it's artistic, too"G