What brand of watch are you looking at?
I have my eyes on a watch from Ernest Jones, and before making a purchase some digging has shown that it's possible to buy Ernest Jones gift cards at around 15% off via employer rewards benefits at certain companies. These can in turn be used as cash equivalent towards a purchase.
I got a decent 10% off RRP just by phoning them up, however wondering if anyone has experience using gift cards on top?Are there any catches to this, assuming I were able to find someone with easy access to said discounted gift cards?
Last edited by jayleb; 16th October 2018 at 23:54.
What brand of watch are you looking at?
Pretty sure that in the small print in my employer’s discount scheme Rolex, Tudor, Omega and maybe a few others can’t be purchased with the gift card. Check before you commit!
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Have a look at the terms and conditions.
My work has a similar thing for Goldsmiths too, but it excludes virtually every decent watch brand.
yup - check makes in the smallprint - and beofre you buy the giftcard - be sure that your negotiated discount will stand with the gift card being used - sometimes they will only take rrp with cards
Restrictions seem to be different between Goldsmith's and Ernest Jones.
Goldsmith's T&Cs:
"If your Gift Card was sourced through a third party affiliate, it is classed as a Corporate Gift Card.
- The Card cannot be used against the purchase of Rolex, Breitling, Omega, Cartier, IWC, TAG Connected, Tudor, Mappin & Webb Jewellery, SALE, Pre-owned Watches and any Online Only products."
Ernest Jones T&Cs:
"If you have received one of our gift cards or eGift card, you can use it to make full or part payments on items online or in any Ernest Jones store. Your gift card(s) or eGift card maybe used along with other payment methods. You can use up to 2 gift cards, eGift cards and/or insurance replacement cards combined per order."
For Ernest Jones there is no mention of "Corporate Gift Cards" at all, so it seems it might be cash equivalent there. I'll have to do a bit more digging around this today
Last edited by jayleb; 17th October 2018 at 08:28.
It'll be fine with Tudor. 100%. I had 2 cards ready to go for a Pepsi GMT with the 15% employee benefit. Unfortunately I was out of the country when the watch became available and they would not hold it. I was going to load the cards with the required amount when I was at the point of sale to avoid any potential miss-communication issues. They are instant reloadable cards (at least they are on my scheme).
My work scheme is 18% off at Ernest Jones but rather annoyingly the T&C's of that card state:
Ernest Jones Gift Cards or Egift Cards cannot be used for the purchase of the following prestige watch brands: Breitling, Omega, Tag Heuer, Longines, Cartier, Tudor, Zenith, Bremont and Jaeger LeCoultre.
Which doesn't leave much!
I have used these in store twice before at EJ and not had a problem. I have the same T&Cs.
I think it is luck of the draw really if you get away with it.
Just to update this thread: I managed to acquire two Ernest Jones gift cards at a healthy discount. They were swiped at the till and treated as cash towards the negotiated price, the balance of which was paid by credit card. No issues at all using them towards my purchase.
I was told there is a £2.5k limit for using gift cards towards a purchase, so that's something to keep in mind if the value of the piece is significantly higher than that. Also, before using the cards I was asked if they were Ernest Jones branded gift cards, so there might be other restrictions if the gift card is a multi-brand "use in many shops" variety - best to call and double-check in advance in all cases.
Last edited by jayleb; 19th October 2018 at 14:00.
Nice one!
May I ask if your gift card had the same T&C's as the one I mentioned earlier (ie that it couldn't be used for Tudor etc)?
9.9% actually, they were very careful to make sure that the discount % didn't touch double digits anywhere official. Rolex is getting much tougher on discounts for Tudor; I was only offered 5% initially then bumped to 9.9% after I (truthfully) said that I was flying out in a week and could get a better price from WoS at Heathrow.
If you have a good relationship with an AD I've seen past reports that 15% can be secured, but that seems exceedingly rare. Seeing how Rolex typically approaches discounting and how they're slowly but surely pushing the Tudor brand upmarket to compete more closely with Omega and others, I suspect it will get more strict on Tudor discounts in the future.
Last edited by jayleb; 19th October 2018 at 18:51.
Has anyone tried using one of these cards at Ernest Jones in Gatwick? I'm after a Speedy Pro so if this is do-able I'll be jumping in with both feet!
I used one when I purchased my Navitimer in Beaverbrooks....
I negotiated a 15% discount on RRP + a leather strap. I then pain in full using a Beaverbrooks voucher card which I had purchased via my work discount scheme (Perkz) for 13% off. Ended up paying £5k for and RRP item of £6800 or so at the time.