Why I Hate Michael C. Fina
The wedding feels like a million years ago already and I have this backlog of posts in my head covering two months of last-minute planning, as well as the aftermath of the wedding. So here begins the series of random posts, not necessarily in chronological order, as they come to me.
Why do I hate Michael C. Fina? They have a plethora of beautiful china, expensive watches, and, most importantly for this story, rings. Admittedly j. and I left the buying of our wedding bands somewhat until the last minute. It was exactly 4 weeks and 4 days before the wedding when we went to the Michael C. Fina store on 5th Avenue. It was raining. I was running late and stupidly decided to take a cab from the office. I had planned on walking, but it was raining too hard. So while j. was waiting, he very patiently carried on a conversation with Max the salesguy, who was every bit a salesguy. Overly friendly, a little bit overwhelming, and filled, just FILLED with wedding factoids. Poor j. But he was very very nice. So by the time I got there, he had found his ring, but wanted me to go first. So Max started out with the bands with the diamonds and being polite, we went along with it, even though we knew I wanted something simple and cheap and plain. Finally I cut him short because I actually had to be in Brooklyn for dinner with friends and didn't have all that much time to kill looking at ridiculously expensive rings I knew I didn't want. I didn't blame Max, though, I know that's how the salesguy thing works.
Finally we found this beautiful Vera Wang band, totally plain, totally perfect. j. showed me the titanium band he wanted and we were done.
Then I very clearly remember Max asking us when our wedding was. I said September 30. He said perfect. I said, when will the rings be ready? He said three to four weeks. I said great.
Visa was being a real b*tch that week and Max had to call them to verify my credit card, which I found really embarrassing, even though I knew I shouldn't have. But it's my complex of feeling like I don't belong in a store like that because I'm not at all rich and we were buying probably the cheapest rings they sold. But the same thing happened when I picked up my wedding dress a few days later and the very kind owner of the store told me it was happening to everyone using Visa that week.
So after three weeks and three days, I called the store to see if our rings were in. They told me j.'s would be in the next day and mine would be in on....wait for it...October 12.
They weren't kidding.
I very calmly explained when the wedding was and how Max had told me it wouldn't be a problem. Max was conveniently on vacation that week, could I please tell them what exactly Max told me? And then the salesperson, who sounded very confused and about twelve years old, told me he would call me back. I swear to God I remained calm. I told myself it was all a mistake and they would call me back very soon to sort it all out. But here's the thing, they didn't call back.
Their terrible customer service came to be the thing that bothered me more them f*cking up the ring order. I called Michael C. Fina four times that day before someone returned my call finally. I just needed to know that they were working on it, that there was a plan of attack here, just anything.
The next day they offered me a loner ring to use for the wedding and then I could replace it with the Vera Wang ring when it came in. The thing is, Vera Wang makes each ring to order, so my ring was still a mass of platinum in it's pre-ring state. I was picturing Lord of the Ring fire pits and Orks hammering away in the background as a posh Vera Wang customer service person told the people at Michael C. Fina they had nothing in the vault for me.
I told Michael C. Fina to f*ck off, though in not so many words. I was actually quite nice. I told them to cancel the order and that was it. Though Max called himself from wherever he was to offer the loner ring. He was about the last person I wanted to talk to. He made me so mad.
Then I ordered the exact same ring from Blue Nile for half the price and it arrived 24 hours later.
You thought the story ended there? Two weeks after the wedding, I checked my credit card account and discovered Michael C. Fina still hadn't credited my account. I had to call them AGAIN. They said there had been some sort of mix up and the accounting department hadn't processed it the way they should have. I couldn't believe it.
Blue Nile over Michael C. Fina any day.
Why do I hate Michael C. Fina? They have a plethora of beautiful china, expensive watches, and, most importantly for this story, rings. Admittedly j. and I left the buying of our wedding bands somewhat until the last minute. It was exactly 4 weeks and 4 days before the wedding when we went to the Michael C. Fina store on 5th Avenue. It was raining. I was running late and stupidly decided to take a cab from the office. I had planned on walking, but it was raining too hard. So while j. was waiting, he very patiently carried on a conversation with Max the salesguy, who was every bit a salesguy. Overly friendly, a little bit overwhelming, and filled, just FILLED with wedding factoids. Poor j. But he was very very nice. So by the time I got there, he had found his ring, but wanted me to go first. So Max started out with the bands with the diamonds and being polite, we went along with it, even though we knew I wanted something simple and cheap and plain. Finally I cut him short because I actually had to be in Brooklyn for dinner with friends and didn't have all that much time to kill looking at ridiculously expensive rings I knew I didn't want. I didn't blame Max, though, I know that's how the salesguy thing works.
Finally we found this beautiful Vera Wang band, totally plain, totally perfect. j. showed me the titanium band he wanted and we were done.
Then I very clearly remember Max asking us when our wedding was. I said September 30. He said perfect. I said, when will the rings be ready? He said three to four weeks. I said great.
Visa was being a real b*tch that week and Max had to call them to verify my credit card, which I found really embarrassing, even though I knew I shouldn't have. But it's my complex of feeling like I don't belong in a store like that because I'm not at all rich and we were buying probably the cheapest rings they sold. But the same thing happened when I picked up my wedding dress a few days later and the very kind owner of the store told me it was happening to everyone using Visa that week.
So after three weeks and three days, I called the store to see if our rings were in. They told me j.'s would be in the next day and mine would be in on....wait for it...October 12.
They weren't kidding.
I very calmly explained when the wedding was and how Max had told me it wouldn't be a problem. Max was conveniently on vacation that week, could I please tell them what exactly Max told me? And then the salesperson, who sounded very confused and about twelve years old, told me he would call me back. I swear to God I remained calm. I told myself it was all a mistake and they would call me back very soon to sort it all out. But here's the thing, they didn't call back.
Their terrible customer service came to be the thing that bothered me more them f*cking up the ring order. I called Michael C. Fina four times that day before someone returned my call finally. I just needed to know that they were working on it, that there was a plan of attack here, just anything.
The next day they offered me a loner ring to use for the wedding and then I could replace it with the Vera Wang ring when it came in. The thing is, Vera Wang makes each ring to order, so my ring was still a mass of platinum in it's pre-ring state. I was picturing Lord of the Ring fire pits and Orks hammering away in the background as a posh Vera Wang customer service person told the people at Michael C. Fina they had nothing in the vault for me.
I told Michael C. Fina to f*ck off, though in not so many words. I was actually quite nice. I told them to cancel the order and that was it. Though Max called himself from wherever he was to offer the loner ring. He was about the last person I wanted to talk to. He made me so mad.
Then I ordered the exact same ring from Blue Nile for half the price and it arrived 24 hours later.
You thought the story ended there? Two weeks after the wedding, I checked my credit card account and discovered Michael C. Fina still hadn't credited my account. I had to call them AGAIN. They said there had been some sort of mix up and the accounting department hadn't processed it the way they should have. I couldn't believe it.
Blue Nile over Michael C. Fina any day.
posted by hannah at 3:54 PM
6 Comments:
I cannot get off their mailing list. I have sent at least 5 e-mails (to the e-address at the bottom of their e-mailings) which is an almost unintelligble address (check it out yourself). I think it's designed to cause errors so they are covered for not taking (former) customers off. Today was my final (threatening) e-letter to the company. We'll see. I have had other negative experiences with Michael C. Fina, but I will save them for another time.
I felt compelled to send this letter as I have received substandard service with my registry at MC Fina.
Upon trying to register, I received the run around trying to pick out my china pattern. I told the gentleman helping me I would want every piece that matched the china pattern I chose including platters, teapots, etc… After
7 hours of matching stemware and flatware to the china pattern we picked out, the gentleman helping
me (Peter? Paul? – an older gentleman) realized there were no matching pieces as all were discontinued. No apology was offered after spending 7 hours running around the basement of your store.
I returned two weeks later to try again and spent another 5 hours in which I was bounced to 3 different
people. I realized after this experience that I could no longer deal with MC Fina. Planning a wedding was suppose to be the happiest time in my life and MC Fina made it so stressful for me.
Several MC Fina staff encouraged me to come during the week when the store was less busy. Am I the only woman in NYC getting married that works and has a career?? The “assistance” I received was appalling to say the least. I just
called today to ask when I could receive the few items that ended up being purchased off my registry and was told that
registries are normally released within 60 days of the wedding. I got married October 21, 2006 (although MC Fina could never get my wedding date straight either) and NEVER received information with respect to releasing my
registry.
I work in a service industry and I cater to my clients every day. If I ever treated a customer the way I got treated by MC Fina, I would be fired from my job. I could never in good conscious refer MC Fina to any friends getting married.
What happened to customer service?? What happened to the customer is #1??
shit happens.. maybe you should plan a little better next time. you want people on this blog to be sympathetic with your "awful lives" but you come across ignorant and trashy.
listen to yourself.. complaining about china and wedding rings. i feel bad for your husbands. hopefully you don't dwell as long on there shortcomings.
I think you will look back on this in years to come and say: "Geez, I was young and immature and waaaay too focused on myself back then!!" Point is, this kind of stuff happens every day and it is unfortunate it happened in a wedding-related matter, but it really was no big deal. The company offered to help you with a substitute ring which really should have been okay with you - not the end of the world. Rings are symbols and some people change them out over the course of their marriage - so don't worry about having a substitite ring on your wedding day. Think of the sweet stories of those poor people with cigar band rings! They have rich stories to tell the grandkids and you could have, too. The wedding is a one day thing. The events you outline happening to you while shopping are really quite trivial but perhaps were magnified due to wedding planning stress. Glad you are happy now & good luck in your marriage from a wife of 17+ years.
Customer service like this tells much about the culture of an organization. Most reputable retailers, particularly in the BUSINESS of weddings and bridal registries would not have let this happen -- and likely would have fallen over themselves trying to rectify the situation.
Business owners know that dissatisfied clients broadcast their dissatisfaction much more than satisfied ones -- hence the initial blogger's ring entry.
I have heard similar stories about this retailer, and would be unlikely to use their services.
Actually this place sucks!!! Customer service, all aspects of this company.
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