Seikos probably ARE the best watches you can buy at price to quality ratio, in fact i love em. i have a 30 year old seiko that doesnt miss a beat, hand wound 17jewel keeping very accurate time, and i dont think its ever been serviced.
she was probably just trying to sell you some merchandise because she figured you had the capital to do so. like if i walked into an authrozied omega dealer with a rolex on my wrist theyd probably tell me about what great omegas they had and their adjustment service was free or something. i was wearing my sub in a watch tools supply store and the guy was trying to sell me a citizen miyota dress watch. i didnt feel insulted, i enjoyed seeing it.
if it was purely a jewellery store than i understand, theyre there to sell products and dont need to know much else, theyre sales people first, the guy in the back probably knew the difference. sometimes the people in the store dont really know much about anything other than whats in their store.