Photo: TikTok & AlesiaKan / Shutterstock
They judged him by his outfit, and that turned out to be a big mistake. Big. HUGE.
By John Sundholm — Written on Jun 06, 2023
"Money talks, wealth whispers" as the saying goes, and a woman on TikTok's story about her dad reveals just how true that maxim is. We shouldn't be judging people by how much money they have anyway—classist much?
But as her story proves, if you're going to judge someone by the fatness of their bank account, going off of looks is a really ineffective way to do it.
A woman's dad was snubbed by rude sales associates at Tiffany's because of how he was dressed.
Originally posted by TikToker @itsfrannnnnn, the story is a reaction to another user's experience with a rude sales associate. Fran shares a personal story experienced by her dad.
Photo: TikTok
Fran describes her dad as "a short Latino man, [who] usually wears swim trunks and a black v-neck and flip flops." She also describes him as "wealthy," but that definitely didn't register with Tiffany's employees, because Fran says that when her father went there to buy his wife a ring, he waited a full 45 minutes to even be acknowledged.
But then it got even worse. When Fran's dad returned to Tiffany's a week later to get the ring resized, he was again treated dismissively. Fran says the rude sales associates tried to caution him against the resizing, warning him that it cost $600 and clearly assuming he couldn't afford it. "And he's like, I'm not asking you how much it is, I just want to resize."
Photo: AlesiaKan / Shutterstock
Her dad emailed Tiffany's CEO and then returned to the store the following day with a bag full of Cartier merchandise to confront the rude sales associates.
Rather than continue dealing with the Tiffany's associates, her dad and stepmom left and went to Cartier instead, "because they're like, okay, F Tiffany's." But then he took things a step further.
"He writes the CEO of Tiffany's an email" from his business email, which shows his title at a very well-known company. Unsurprisingly, Fran says, "The CEO is so apologetic."
"My dad's confrontational a-s goes to Tiffany's to humble the sales associate," Fran said, "and he basically goes with his Cartier bag and in front of her entire team, he's like, you need to be careful and be kind to everyone because you never know who the richest person in the room is, and most of the time, it's not the person that's decked out in designer [clothes]."
People on TikTok loved the story and thought it was a perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its cover.
Of course, there's probably a bit *too* much emphasis on wealth in this tale, and several commenters called that out. "You should be kind whether [or] not anyone is rich," one person wrote. The notion that people are entitled to a different level of treatment because of their wealth is… well, distasteful, to say the least.
But there's still plenty of good advice to be gleaned from Fran's tale—that you simply cannot ever truly know who you're dealing with just by looking at them, and anyone who judges them accordingly is probably making a bad call.
Several commenters on TikTok reported having learned the exact same lesson during their time in customer service roles. "Reminds me of when I used to work in banking," one user wrote. "The richest people looked [and] dressed…like farmers. That was a life lesson for me."
Another agreed, writing, "I used to work at a bank when I was in school and the people they were all decked out in designer [clothes] were the ones living paycheck to paycheck."
They all applauded Fran's dad for teaching the Tiffany's associates a valuable lesson—though many felt they should probably have already learned it long ago.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.