Harry Windston doesn''t mind windows!!

[Arkteia]

Date: 1/30/2010 8:03:26 PM
Author: Michael_E

Date: 1/30/2010 5:52:56 PM
Author: crasru
One thing which is very common, though, (I wonder if it is part of the trade) is that the jeweler gives you one price at the beginning of the job and then in increases by 1/3 when the job is done. I am going to start getting every quota in writing!

This is definitely NOT common, (or at least shouldn't be), and I would have to say that I've never met a jeweler who was so lacking in common sense that they didn't write down the quote for a job and insist that their client sign it and take a copy with them. Any changes part way through get noted and signed as well. It's the only way to make sure that everyone is on the same page all the way through the process. This goes not just for the financial part but for the design and execution of that design. You sure don't want things to go bad right at the end of a project when things should be at their best ! Talk to the next person you choose to do work for you and make sure that everyone gets everything in writing and signed off as well.

Makes sense. Because of my work schedule, I was either dropping stuff at their offices and leaving, or would discuss the project over the cell phone. But now I am going start asking to at least e-mail me the quotes. Even an e-mail is hard to contest, although a personal signature is always better.
One of them I may still work with, the other one lost me after one project - one time is enough to see what personality you are dealing with.
And by the way, neither of them ever wrote down a quota.

 

[Sagebrush]

Crasu,

You have had a bad experience. When doing custom work, we provide sketches and a firm written estimate. Sometimes you eat the bear and sometimes the bear eats you. Usually we come out pretty close to our time/materials estimates.

 

[Arkteia]

Well, I guess it is just me. I just always imagined what would happen if my secretary quoted one sum to my clients over the phone and then they would realize that the price has changed while they were trying to find my office! But since there are no firm prices or anything absolutely definite in gem business, because ultimately it all comes to your personal impression, overheads for stones and services vary tremendously.
To add to it, designers have...personalities. (I see the point in Michael E's definition of "artists" and "craftsmen"). It is hard to call a well-known jeweller and say, I want to compare your price for a setting with such-and-such's price. To give you a quota, the jeweller has to to spend some time, so if you get three quotas from three well-known people and decide to go with the most reasonable one, the other two might get pretty frustrated. Unless, of course, you absolutely know what you want, point at the picture and say, "this". Till now I don't know who to commission to set my garnet.
I should probably look at your website once again.