Rogelio Villarreal was paging through Cartier’s web page in a moment of idleness when he came upon on offer that seemed too good to be true. “I broke out in a cold sweat,” he wrote on his account on X, formerly known as Twitter.
What followed was months of back and forth during which he says Cartier offered him a consolation prize instead of the jewelry, and during which Mexican officials backed his position that the company should honor the advertised price.Villarreal finally got the earrings last week, at his price, and he posted a video online of himself unboxing the merchandise.
Some observers criticized Villarreal for taking advantage of what they saw as an honest mistake by the top-end jewelry company. Some claimed he should give the earrings back, or pay taxes on them. Some called him a thief.Villarreal, a doctor doing his medical residency, said he had to fight for months to get the company to actually deliver and claimed that it offered to send him a bottle of champagne instead.