GRIPE LIST: Your Brick-n-Mortar Jeweler Problems/Issues/Rants

[iLander]

I got this thread idea from StonieGirl, and wanted to start it because I have some gripes I want to get off my chest and I couldn''t wait to do it:

Here''s my experiences with "competent benchmen" in my area: one guy tried to engrave a platinum band, ruined it (the letters are stamped on there like 3 times, skipping around like he was drunk) and then asked me "what kind of metal IS this?"

This is my husband''s 25th anniversary band. It looks like hell inside.

Then i had another jeweler quote me $3,600 to put my 1 carat diamond in a standard three stone mount (which I picked out of a catalog, no melee, etc.) . Of course, he was including the pair of blackish 3 mm blue sapphire rounds that he was going to plop in on either side, so that made it a bargain.

Obviously, that ring never got made.

Yet another experience; I asked a jeweler to swap out a small 3 mm stone that was an I2 for at least an SI stone. When I picked up the pendant, I was looking at a yellowish stone that didn''t match anything else in the pendant. Stuck out like a sore thumb. For this privilege I was charged $200. I don''t wear the pendant anymore.

How about the jeweler that cleaned my DH''s Rolex? The crystal was put on poorly, and a month later it got moisture inside and he wouldn''t fix it. That was $700 down the drain.

Another favorite is the jewelry store that orders every single ring it has in a size 4, then charges $75 to size them. Even your new overpriced $40,000 ring, he wants that extra $75 (I didn''t buy the ring). I felt better when they declared bankruptcy this year, but then he reopened 2 months later under a new name, so he was just sticking it to all his suppliers and getting out of his lease. I fully understood his pricing when I saw the same ring at his store and at Costco. It''s a very distinctive ring, not your standard fare, so it was easy to spot. His was priced at $22,000 and the costco one was $6,400.

Or the jeweler that wants $12,000 for a synthetic emerald ring with .75 ctw diamond melee. It took 3 tries at questioning before they admitted it was a synthetic, kept calling it "Chatham". They were willing to "make a deal" at $10,000.

I could continue, but thinking of all these morons and shysters is making me mad, so I''m stopping.

SO, is it any wonder I have resorted to setting stones myself?

 

[RockHugger]

10k for chathum emeralds?! Wow!

I had a tanzanite set that I got back all scratched and chipped up. I mean, multiple scratches and chips everywhere.
That was my last setting experiance. I'm too afraid to set anything else now lol.

I had a ring with a paraiba tourm in it sized. The stone had a feather inclusion and he went to steam clean it. I was like an action movie leaping over to him in slow motion yelling " noooooooooooo!". I caught him before he blew my stone thank goodness!

 

[StonieGrl]

LOL, nothing like getting mugged INSIDE the mall

The second question I ask when I buy anything over $100 now is "What happens if I''m not happy with it/it breaks/etc?"

I also like to use my Visa, because no matter what, it ain''t over until I say it''s over, hehehe.

I''ve been in a lot of jeweler''s and I worked alongside jewelers when I was repairing musical instruments (seems that going from jewelry repair and fabrication is transferable to fixing a sax) and one thing I leaned is that unless you know the owner, it is caveat emptor all the way and depending on who runs the shop, a lot of beautiful jewelry and watches get ruined by incompetent/uncaring bench staff and the empty=headed twits who man the counters out front.

My latest jeweler experience in Chandler, Arizona, at a family run establishment:

Me: Looking at a ring with a green stone/"What kind of gemstone is that?"

Saleswoman: "A green one." (Serious and rolling eyes as if I was stupid.)

Me walking toward door and pausing at another ring. Saleswoman: "That is a rootbeer tourmaline."

Me: Out door.

My Best Jeweler Experience:n Scottsdale, Arizona at Oliver Smith:

Me: What kind of deposit do you require?
Bench Jeweler: Nothing, we don''t expect payment until you are happy with the ring. If at any time you are unhappy with it, please bring it in and we will make you happy. There is no limit on the guarantee.

 

[Michael_E]

I find this pretty funny. It''s as if you were expecting jewelers to be somehow different than any other business person ? Many people in many businesses will say anything in order to sell their stuff.

The fact is that some "jewelers" are not jewelers. They are sometimes business people who have little idea about what they are selling and who hire others to do every part of what had traditionally been referred to as being a "jeweler". Ask them anything and they will need to refer to the person that they''ve hired to do that particular job. Often they will hide this need to refer to others by acting as if they know what they are talking about and it often comes out as a bunch of smoke and mirrors. The customer is either left totally baffled and believing something which isn''t true, (the cost of a Chatham emerald being valued as highly as was mentioned), or left with very poor work, (in the case of the Rolex...whose repairs are supposed to be handled by certified Rolex repair people).

While all of this is a problem, it would only be fair to mention that the majority of jewelers are quite honest and forthright people who do not act this way. The only reason that the scoundrel types persist is that their customers either don''t know that there is a difference or don''t care. The key to getting good quality and fair prices is in the customers being caring and educated enough about what they are buying. This will allow them to ask the right questions BEFORE doing business with the wrong people.

My advice in dealing with a jeweler is to see if they have a bench person or gemologist on site. I would then find out if you can talk with the bench person and see how much experience they have, see if they have a portfolio and whether you like their previous work. In these sorts of places the owner is either the bench person or has some experience at the bench or is a gemologist. They will know what they are talking about and will be honest about it if they don''t have an answer for you and need to obtain an answer from an associate of theirs. Honesty and being able to talk freely without the constant sales buzz is the key here. After all selling is 80% listening to find out exactly what you want...the rest is supplying it to you.

Doctors are different, lawyers are different, plumbers are different and car dealers are different...so is everyone else. Like it or not, it is up to you to find the proper people to do business with. Since you are gaining enough knowledge here to have an educated conversation with a number of jewelers, you can filter out those would would take advantage of your previous ignorance and maybe even help some of your friends and acquaintances as well. Rants can be fun, but the point is to avoid having to make them at all. I''d keep looking for the right place AND keep practicing your own setting skills. When are we going to see some of your handiwork anyway ?

 

[redfaerythinker]

I''ve actually had pretty good luck with D Geller and Son in Atlanta... *gasp* However for my graduation ring I wanted something more high end, so I bought a gorgeous tourmaline from precision gem and bought a second hand Natalie K setting from the jeweler that my e-ring came from. Well I knew they were all uppity a**hats, but they have good prices and they''re well known so I let them set it asking for double claw prongs and for them to put a new white gold smaller head in the ring. My mom picked it up and not only had they left the same yellow gold head on but it was now visibly crooked and they had just gauged a line down the middle of each prong to make them look like two. I was horrified. So I then took the ring to Solomon Brothers, another big name jeweler in the city. There resides the ring nazi. First he refused to put claw prongs because it wouldn''t be safe. But he then agreed to do it because I insisted. I came back to pick up the ring and there were no claws in sight... he blatantly ignored me because he thought I was wrong to want them!

So after he made me sign a release form saying that he was doing it against his better judgment he took the ring back. I came back later in the week to pick it up, and the prongs had just been clipped to give them a point and my stone had been scratched in multiple places. They took the ring back and 30 minutes later came back with the excuse that it had been leftover polishing compound and that I had been mistaken. Whatever. I then grabbed the ring and basically sprinted out of the store to get it away from them and only when I got home I realized that they had knocked one of the diamonds out of the setting. It''s been almost a month and i''m still so upset that I won''t even go back to make them fix it. I am SO MAD.

 

[T L]

I have major issues with chain jewelers, like Rogers&Holland, Tiff&Co (yes, I have a lot of issues with them!!), Zales, Jared''s, and others like that. Not only are the staff totally clueless, I have found one big name jeweler, CD.Peacock, selling a giant CZ as a pink tourmaline and refusing to acknowledge it as anything different. They''re only supposed to be selling natural stones, according to the sales people. The super scary things is that the G.G.''s often seem just as clueless. They only seem to know diamonds, and that''s it. There are also, like you said iLander, many jewelers trying to sell synthetics and highly treated stones with prices that make me gasp.

That being said, like Michael E. stated, not all B&M jewelers are dishonest or bad, but unfortunately, I think way too many are in my experience. However, there are also dishonest online sellers too. That''s why Pricescope and other education are so very important to the consumer.

 

[iLander]

This thread is a pretty sad commentary on the state of jewelry business today. All I hear on TV is how B&M businesses are having difficulty, and I am starting to think that some of them have only themselves to blame! To TM''s point: It''s because of the net and forums like this that we have options now.

@Rock Hugger: Thank god you were able to save your paraiba!

I''m sorry your tanzanite suffered, that''s such a common stone, that you would think they would have more experience handling it. But apparently not . . .

@ Stonie Girl:Love the green stone story, so common. Why are some salespeople so snotty? They don''t want to make sales? I''m moving to Scottsdale so I can shop at Oliver Smith, LOL!

@ Michael E: I did all that, each jeweler had a benchperson, with "tons" of experience. The engraver with the platinum did all the engraving for the city, 2 jewelers sent me to him. Yet he didn''t recognize hallmarked platinum? .

I was stunned. If there are honest jewelers out there, none of them live in Florida. You probably won''t see any of my setting, it''s pretty basic stuff, nothing to write home about, just stones popped into basic pendant or ring settings. But my fire opal is intact, my tourmalines didn''t get scratched, and nobody treated me poorly. Considering some of the sad stories on here, these are victories. . .

@ Red Faery: I''m so sorry to hear about your ring

and the snotty Salomon Brothers jeweler. I won''t ever shop there, if I run across them in my travels. Please contact your credit card company to see if you have any options, as per Stonie Girl''s post. Have you contacted Richard to see if he can polish out the scratches? i think he also works closely with several jewelers who can help you out. i''d like to follow this story on a thread. . .

@ TL: I also can''t stand the chains, and I am thrilled to have found PS, which has expanded my options tenfold.

 

[Indylady]

At a Kay Jewelers that carried Mikimoto''s Blue Lagoon/etc. lines:

Me: Are those akoya or freshwater?
Them: Well, let me see. It doesn''t say. They''re pearls.
Me: Well, Mikimoto is known for akoyas but I know this line carries freshwaters too.
Them: We don''t carry akoya.
Me: So they''re freshwater?
Them: No, freshwaters like this. (points to picture with baroque freshwaters)
Me: So what are they.
Them: They''re not freshwaters and we don''t carry akoyas. These are Mikimoto pearls.
It turns out they were freshwaters. And of course, they were ridiculously rude and condescending, as if I was being difficult and asking stupid questions. It was awful. I wrote to Kay, to Mikimoto, to Sterling Jewelers, everyone.

Next, I asked a different mall store whether the rubies in a band were natural or synthetic. He replied they were so small it didn''t really matter.

 

[Indylady]

Ilander, What part of Florida are you in? I can name a decent benchman in north Florida.

 

[klewis]

I once made a general enquiry at a local jeweler who offered to email some information to me. In the email, she mentioned the stone was a hardy stone according to Noah''s scale of hardness.

 

[StonieGrl]

klewis, PRICELESS! "Noah''s scale, " bwahahahahahah! Like the clarinet student I had, who when asked, said "trouble clef" when I asked him to name the TREBLE clef. The yuks were on me, because in that kid''s hands, it WAS the trouble clef.

Michael, I won''t be setting any of MY stones, that is why I wll be sending biz to you

My 11-mm spessie will be your first from me.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

Ironically, I haven''t really had bad experiences with the local Kay Jewelers back home. The women who work there know me and my mom and are super nice but not pushy. When my mom walked in with her BGD upgrade, they just couldn''t get over how gorgeous it was and told us it was beautiful.

Now a local, overpriced crook of a jeweler in my hometown - still gets me steamed thinking of it.

So let''s call this jeweler Tom''s Jewelers (not real name).

First Tom''s Jewelers tries to sell us a navy blue, massively windowed, 2.5 ct. sapphire in a weird trapezoidal cut (did I mention the window you could drive a Humvee through??) to us for $18K. Yeah. And he said it''s because you rarely find sapphires in that size. Uh-huh.

Then we look at some diamonds. I look at a loose 2 ct. RB diamond. It''s like an H SI1. He''s selling it for $40K. I asked if the stone was certified. He said really sarcastically (he hates me by this point for all my questions about cut and certs), "Yeah. It''s certified by Tom''s Jewelers."

At that point I told my mom in Korean, we need to leave. He''s a crook.

I''m still mad that she bought a South Sea pearl (way overpriced) from him when I wasn''t home, and he didn''t give her a receipt, and wouldn''t let her return it. My mom isn''t exactly the most consumer-savvy. Ugggh my blood pressure shoots up whenever I think of that store.

 

[marcy]

One of the jewelers at the mall was having a remount sale. I bought a gorgeous (and overpriced) tsavorite PC and picked out a thick gold band for it. First they want to mount it in a round basket; I said No. They said they would modify another mount that would fit it. I went to pick it up and they''d cracked the tsavorite right in 1/2. I was so sad.

 

[Indylady]

BEG- My mom isn''t really consumer savvy as well, and it took me a long time to get her to trust an online vendor over a brick and mortar. Thank goodness she finally does!!

Marcy, that sound awful!! Did you have any recourse?

 

[StonieGrl]

Hey iLander, you are moving to Arizona?

When you get settled in, we could GTG at Oliver Smith''s, they''ll never know what hit ''em! I can keep telling you the statewide lie they feed newbies here: "Its a DRY heat" and I''ll buy you a nice frosty Stoli martini so for at least 30 minutes you can believe it!

He has a good web site, click on Custom Jewelry and look around, their fabrication site is interesting and you can judge the custom work they have done.

When I went into the store, it was heavy on the ice (diamonds) but I can''t fault him for that in Scottsdale, Arizona, ya gotta make a profit and stay in business, but Nick loves gemstones and I always feel better when I talk to bench staff/design staff who know their gemstones.

Also, one time I emailed and asked for a bid on a ring, I supplied specifics, and Oliver himself wrote back with specific prices and he was reasonable.

http://www.oliversmithjeweler.com/boho1.htm

 

[T L]

I always look at my rings, and think, "wow, I wonder how much they would have cost if I got them from a B&M (if they could even get such exotic gems)."

If they think they can charge $10K for a synthetic emerald, OMG!!

BTW, what is it with these chain stores? They can't even find natural gems to sell anymore, and they love selling synthetics, for high prices too!! What a crime!

 

[Liane]

I''ve been lucky; thanks to PS, I''ve avoided getting seriously burned so far. I owe this forum a LOT in helping me dodge bullets. I''m so sorry to read about your experiences, iLander.

As yet I don''t have any horror stories to add, but we''ll see if I have to bump this thread next week...

 

[iLander]

@ TL: Ladies, let's all take a guess at how much TL's collection would have cost in brick-and-mortar stores. Wait, I can't, my calculator doesn't GO that high! LOL. Seriously, TL, you have some fabulous stuff

, your collection could easily be in the six figure range.

@ Indy: I love that dialogue! LOL! I've found that when people are condescending or mean, they're covering something up. Ignorance, insecurity, whatever. Not north FL, south. The hot part. The hot, moist, part. You know, nature's armpit.

@klewis: Noah's, LOL

@StonieGrl: I'll check out Michael as soon as he finishes his website. Jerry Newman the cutter is in Arizona and he keeps telling me how it's not humid there. But then he tells me he has to play golf at 6 a.m., so I AIN'T falling for the dry heat thing! I'll take the Stoli, though . . . I keep thinking maybe FL is better because the humidity will keep my complexion dewy, then I look in the mirror and I realize it's just not so . . .

I'll check out oliver smith.

@Liane: Knock on wood!

 

[marcy]

Date: 6/19/2010 8:50:25 PM
Author: IndyLady
BEG- My mom isn''t really consumer savvy as well, and it took me a long time to get her to trust an online vendor over a brick and mortar. Thank goodness she finally does!!


Marcy, that sound awful!! Did you have any recourse?

IndyLady, after a few days of dickering with them they gave me a full refund.

 

[Indylady]

Thank goodness. Though I think the traumatic experience of having a gem broken can't quite be rectified even though a refund, I am glad that they gave you one. I can't believe you had to spend days working on it either! That should have been the first thing they said right after the words, "We broke your stone IN HALF."

 

[loriken214]

Zales got to my DH once and I was SO PO''d....he thought he had done a great job picking out a diamond pendant and earrings for me for Christmas years ago. You could see the feathers in the stones and I was beyond unhappy, but didn''t say anything to DH since he was really proud of surprising me with the special gift. Once the bill came in, he opened a credit card account with Zales, I flipped my lid when I saw what he paid for crap. It was too late to return them and I traded them in for something else.

Makes me wonder how many other people get screwed!

Also, Zales ran Bailey Banks and Biddle into bankruptcy. I''m so mad I could spit. BBB was a decent company for many years until Zales got ahold of them.

Lori

 

[blackberry16]

This is great!
My favorite recent encounter was at Morgan Jewelers while shopping for an ering with a friend.

Me: Can this setting be done in platinum?
Salesperson: White gold is better. Platinum cracks, turns gray and doesn''t hold a gem securely.
Me: My ring is platinum.
Salesperson: You should reset it (reset a James Meyer? that is crazy talk)
Me: Do you have an asscher cut stones?
Salesperson: Azure cut?
Me Asscher cut.
Salesperson: Ma''am that is not a real shape. Diamonds come in round, princess and marquise.

Then we walked out!

 

[loriken214]

Date: 6/20/2010 1:02:26 AM
Author: blackberry16
This is great!
My favorite recent encounter was at Morgan Jewelers while shopping for an ering with a friend.

Me: Can this setting be done in platinum?
Salesperson: White gold is better. Platinum cracks, turns gray and doesn''t hold a gem securely.
Me: My ring is platinum.
Salesperson: You should reset it (reset a James Meyer? that is crazy talk)
Me: Do you have an asscher cut stones?
Salesperson: Azure cut?
Me Asscher cut.
Salesperson: Ma''am that is not a real shape. Diamonds come in round, princess and marquise.

Then we walked out!

I''m about to wet my panties......this is the most outrageous thing I''ve heard in a long time!!!!

Lori

 

[loriken214]

Date: 6/19/2010 7:02:11 PM
Author: Brown.Eyed.Girl
Ironically, I haven''t really had bad experiences with the local Kay Jewelers back home. The women who work there know me and my mom and are super nice but not pushy. When my mom walked in with her BGD upgrade, they just couldn''t get over how gorgeous it was and told us it was beautiful.

Now a local, overpriced crook of a jeweler in my hometown - still gets me steamed thinking of it.

So let''s call this jeweler Tom''s Jewelers (not real name).

First Tom''s Jewelers tries to sell us a navy blue, massively windowed, 2.5 ct. sapphire in a weird trapezoidal cut (did I mention the window you could drive a Humvee through??) to us for $18K. Yeah. And he said it''s because you rarely find sapphires in that size. Uh-huh.

Then we look at some diamonds. I look at a loose 2 ct. RB diamond. It''s like an H SI1. He''s selling it for $40K. I asked if the stone was certified. He said really sarcastically (he hates me by this point for all my questions about cut and certs), ''Yeah. It''s certified by Tom''s Jewelers.''

At that point I told my mom in Korean, we need to leave. He''s a crook.

I''m still mad that she bought a South Sea pearl (way overpriced) from him when I wasn''t home, and he didn''t give her a receipt, and wouldn''t let her return it. My mom isn''t exactly the most consumer-savvy. Ugggh my blood pressure shoots up whenever I think of that store.

BEG,

I need to learn how to speak Korean to my DH as a signal to leave! How can I learn to say what you told your Mom?

Lori

 

[RockHugger]

Many jewelry store workers know NOTHING about jewelry. The last bm store I worked at, we were talking about stones and one girl INSISTED all aquas were synthetic/lab. Not to mention most of the employees were babysitters or factory employees before that job and only knew what the boss told them.

I quit that job.

 

[T L]

What drives me also nuts is the incredible markup. Knowing what I know about how much some of these gems must cost the trade, and seeing how much dealers charge, especially for synthetics and melee. . . well, it's an incredible markup.

Okay, I was at my jeweler the other day, and mind you, I wouldn't buy much from them, but they set my stones, and that's fair enough. None of their colored gems, in particular sapphires, come with paperwork indicating treatment, and that bugs me with 99% of these stores.

Well, while I was waiting on the sales lady to get to me so I could give her my stone and ring for setting, she sold a lady an emerald necklace. I heard the price, $3800. What did that buy her? The necklace consisted of a 14K gold chain, barely any diamonds, and an emerald of mediocre quality that appeared to me, to be around a carat in size, very included, and blah color. I kept thinking, "if only I could take that lady aside and tell her." It was really an ugly necklace, but oh well. It reminded me of 1980's jewelry design

The funny thing is that I know my saleslady has very particular taste, and only really like Laurence Graff pieces and that type of quality, but the whole time she told the lady that the necklace was "exquisite." It made me chuckle inside to know that she was lying her butt off, but that's her job.

I also thought, well, some jewelers might charge even more than $3800 for that same necklace, at least the emerald appeared to be natural, unlike the Chatham someone tried to sell for $10K.

I still can't get over that story.

 

[RockHugger]

What many people who buy don''t know, is that at many stores, the sales people are told to make a sale no matter what. I have worked in 3 stores, and all three (all bm stores) store owners told me that If I didn''t know an answer, to make it up.

My last store, I was given a lecture because I didn''t make a sale. The woman came in looking for a ruby ring, something we didn''t have. I was told to convince to customers to buy something we did have even I''f it''s not what they want.
We sold colored diamonds as well, and I was told not to disclose treatment of them unless asked, then to only disclose heat, not radiation.

I couldn''t manipulate, and lie to someone like that, so those jobs didn''t last long. Most the problems in these stores isn''t the sales team, but the management forcing the sales team to push a sale no matter what has to come out of their mouth.

 

[klewis]

Date: 6/20/2010 11:25:33 AM
Author: RockHugger
What many people who buy don''t know, is that at many stores, the sales people are told to make a sale no matter what. I have worked in 3 stores, and all three (all bm stores) store owners told me that If I didn''t know an answer, to make it up.


My last store, I was given a lecture because I didn''t make a sale. The woman came in looking for a ruby ring, something we didn''t have. I was told to convince to customers to buy something we did have even I''f it''s not what they want.

We sold colored diamonds as well, and I was told not to disclose treatment of them unless asked, then to only disclose heat, not radiation.


I couldn''t manipulate, and lie to someone like that, so those jobs didn''t last long. Most the problems in these stores isn''t the sales team, but the management forcing the sales team to push a sale no matter what has to come out of their mouth.

RH - Having a love for gems and working under those conditions must have been torture.
I stepped in to quite a flash store a few months ago and asked to look at a nice Tanzanite that was in displayed in their window. The sales person was very friendly and obliging and told me a woman was in love with the stone for her ering. I didn''t comment but I looked at that salesperson something like this...

 

[iLander]

@ marcy: why did they even dicker? If you broke something of their''s they''d expect you to pay right away.

@loriken: I am amazed every day that Zales is still in business, I really am.

@blackberry: "Not a real shape". LOL! Attention PSer''s your stones are all imaginary

LOL

@rockhugger: wow on the aqua! I think you''re right, if I had a jewelry store, I would hire only GIA''s to sell the stones. I can''t believe you weren''t supposed to mention the radiation! I would never spend big money on a natural blue diamond, because everybody would think I picked it up at (gasp) Zales.

@TL: here''s an example: I went to a fancy store here, and they had a 4 x 6 orange garnet (he said it was a malaya) in this EXACT twin to this LOGR setting:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Diamond-14k-White-Gold-Semi-Mount-Ring-Oval-7x9mm-/390209294780?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Fine_Rings&hash=item5ada4951bc#ht_5162wt_912

He wanted $4,500.00 for the ring.

@klewis: I have scraped gum off my shoe that is more durable than tourmaline. In an e-ring? Scary.

 

[digitaldevo]

Even knowing, informed them, that I am a Gemologist and a cutter and have been in the trade for over a decade, a local(supposedly higher end store with all GG''s) even the salesperson was supposedly a GG, tried to pass off an obvious synthetic blue star sapphire in 10K ring as completely natural and untreated. Even when questioned, "this stone is not treated?" She stated, "No it is completely natural.". "This isn''t a synthetic right?" She stated, "Of course not, it is a natural star sapphire!". The funny thing is this particular ring/stone combo is a common marketed preset ring sold by quite a few wholesalers, lmao, even had the makers mark in the ring, rofl.

And at a differing time at yet another Store a salesperson tried to push a "synthetic" tanzanite on my Wife. I found this comical since there is no such thing on the market.