[Jewelry making - Article 00110] - [Orchid] Trying to Educate Customers

[IMMENO1Ls]

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people,

    do you try to educate someone floating around dispensing statements
    180 degrees from fact? if so, how? 

    my partner sells on eBay, over 5300 sales with 99.7% satisfaction
    rating. a buyer bought items including 2 strands of amber nuggets -
    those ubiquitous 26" strands with 3/8" nuggets everyone has seen
    around forever. she got the order and sent this email (in part): 

>     most everything was fine, the two [strands of] amber nuggets are
>     not amber but plastic or acrylic. 

    my partner replied they were baltic amber (bought from his regular
    amber dealer from poland who is not about to cheat himself out of 4
    digit dollars a year by selling fake amber to a regular customer) 

    part of the buyer's email (read slowly): 

>     I am also very familiar with "plastic" amber. Amber is very heavy
>     and has a beautiful shine to it that no artificial amber could ever
>     duplicate. Plastic is lightweight and while "see through" does not
>     have that shine. These nuggets are so obviously plastic that I did
>     not even have to look at them. As soon as I picked them up, still
>     in the bubble wrap, I knew they were not real as they were much too
>     light to be real. The same size strand in real amber should have
>     been at least 5 times as heavy. Natural Amber, in the size of the
>     strand you sell, would have been too heavy for a woman to be able
>     to wear it around her neck by itself, that is why usually only a
>     few nuggets are used in each jewelry piece. 

    my partner - who will hereafter be 'm.p.' to save keystrokes -asked
    her to run some tests on some of the nuggets. she, who could feel but
    not smell, said they smelled like plastic. i performed the same test
    on the same beads when she returned them and not only got the pine
    resin scent, but also burned just like the references said. attached
    a picture of the bead she had marked xx and a picture of the same
    bead burning away in the email i sent. 

    so there we were with a customer who could 'feel' material through
    bubble wrap and didn't even need to see the stuff, she just 'knew'.
    the more my partner (who had already decided to refund the 2 x $9.99)
    tried to reassure her, the more we kept reading "i am very familiar
    with amber" and the more it became evident she wouldn't recognize it
    if it bit her. 

    my partner - who will hereafter be 'm.p.' to save keystrokes - asked
    her to run some tests on some of the nuggets. she, who could 'feel'
    but not smell, said 

>     the two amber nuggets are not amber but plastic or acrylic. 

    she returned the nugget strands, and upon performing the same test
    on the same beads i not only got the pine/resin scent, but also a
    nice flame going just like the references said. attached pictures of
    the burning bead she had xx marked. m. p. had enough and handed the
    mess over to me, deciding the buyer deserved whatever i wrote to her. 

    out came untracht's "concepts", some sinkankas books, rice's "amber
    the golden gem of the ages", a few lapidary journals. quoted some
    quotes, listed some experience with cutting and polishing amber (not
    just sticking it on a string) prefaced it all with my desire to stop
    someone from embarrassing themselves with erroneous statements and
    sent it off. no response yet but i have a sneaky feeling (no bubble
    wrap to feel it through) that she will send a scathing negative
    report for m.p., who would not sell a fake (i would tell his mother)
    and won't even take a landlord's tax deduction for a pack of
    lightbulbs without a receipt. 

    people, do those who refuse to reevaluate incorrect information need
    to learn? do they need reality or should they just be allowed to
    coast through life, eyes tightly shut and basing their knowledge on
    what they "feel" through bubble wrap? 

    ive 

    who 'feels' like shutting the studio, going to south beach, looking
    up "art" and vegging out with him at his favorite sidewalk cafe table

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