Does anyone have any experience with Skibell in Dallas?

[distracts]

As the title says - Does anyone have any experience with Skibell in Dallas? They are where we're taking my mother's messed-up engagement ring to be looked at. Of the local jewelers I have visited, I found Charles at Skibell to be most knowledgeable and friendly without being pushy, and my research on PS didn't really turn up other current recommendations.

If you don't have experience with Skibell, any other DFW jewelers that I can look at? Preferably someone who works with estate jewelry regularly. I know some PSers, such as Lauren the Partier, live in the area, so if anyone could point them at this thread, that would be immensely helpful.

 

[Punkymouse]

I don't have experience with Skibell, but I love Kube's Jewelers in Fort Worth. They're awesome! They are very knowledgable, deal with a lot of estate jewelery, and if I recall, have their own in-house bench. More than anything though, I appreciate that when I go in with my 3 year old son, they treat him like a person, not an accident waiting to happen (which unfortunately has not always been the case with other jewelers we've visited). When I get around to having my great-grandmother's diamond pendant restored, I will definitely be taking it to them.

http://kubesjewelers.com/

Hope this helps, and good luck with your mom's ring!!

 

[texaskj]

I second Kube's. I've bought/sold with them. It's not a fancy place, but they have some beautiful stuff and do nice work. I've never heard of Skibell's and I've lived in the Metroplex since 1985.

 

[distracts]

Thanks guys! We've called several jewelers and will be meeting with all of them to judge who we should go with. After the last brouhaha, we need to be SURE they're up to snuff before handing over any jewelry. Kube's looks promising - my mother is excited to make the trip out to FW to go there.

 

[distracts]

We visited Skibell on Monday and spoke to Charles Skibell, the owner. He was very nice and knowledgeable, answered all of our questions without fuss, and was pleased when I brought out my loupe and showed me which settings they had made (versus which were stock like Tacori, etc) so I could check them out. I was pleased with all of their craftmanship except the pave - the little prongs on it were not symmetrical and even like I like them, though this was only noticeable under the loupe. I also checked out some antique pieces they had restored, and couldn't tell the repairs from the original parts. Charles brought the benchman down to talk to us, and he was nice as well. I read stories all the time about how jewelers are intimidated by PS hobbyists, and I'm happy that this was not at all the case - they were both excited to talk to me about how they could replicate my mother's ring for her. They offered lots of suggestions and quickly honed in on my mother's preferences and made sure to explain what they would do in detail for her in a way she could understand (but, importantly, without being condescending), and the prices of each option. I've found at many jewelers that they are reluctant to tell you the price of things, which makes decisions rather hard, but Charles was very upfront. They weren't pushy at all when we said we were going to check out several other jewelers before making a decision.

We have two other jewelers we'll be checking out - this Kube's place you all have recommended and Sergio's in Casa Linda. Even if we don't end up going with Skibell, I was impressed with their service and had a fun time talking to them about their jewelry.

They also carry Alex Sepkus jewelry, which I'd never seen/heard of before, and I love it:
http://www.alexsepkus.com/flash.php/catalogue/4
Hello, yes, I will be buying one of those awesome bands one day!

 

[distracts]

Okay so I finally managed to visit Kubes Jewelers in Fort Worth. I was incredibly unimpressed with their service. They had a lot of beautiful things, but dissed my mom's broken wedding ring, said anyone would be crazy to want to keep chipped stones, dissed Old European Cuts when I was looking at their OEC diamonds (and told me I should be looking at round brilliants instead, and huffed when I said I preferred OECs), and kept trying to push a sale. Every time I tried to start up a conversation with them or ask a question, they just shut me down. They didn't have any bench people for us to talk to because they send all their work out. They pressured us to buy a replacement ring but couldn't show us any that looked similar - every other jeweler has immediately whipped out the Stuller catalogue and pointed to a Stuller setting that looks incredibly close to my mother's ring (hers is a six-stone with graduated stones and the Stuller settings are 5 and 7 stones with stones the same size, but the setting is the same style). It was dissatisfying on numerous levels. It's entirely possible the salespeople we were talking to were just not knowledgeable at all and having a bad day, but whatever was going on, we won't be going back there.

Which made our decision very easy - we'll be getting her ring repaired or remade at Sergio's Jewelry in Casa Linda, and if we are satisfied with their work on that we'll also have them do my mother's 30th anniversary ring. I know several jewelry buffs IRL who have been incredibly satisfied with them, and they were friendly, willing to listen and explain as much as needed, and understood my mother's desire to keep the stones from her original wedding ring even though they are chipped (instead of calling her crazy. which just. omg.).

 

[texaskj]

distracts, So sorry to hear about your visit to Kube's. I had no idea things had changed so much.
Did you see this thread?
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/finally-my-oec-has-a-home.173789/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/finally-my-oec-has-a-home.173789/[/URL]
They evidently aren't the store they were in the past which is a shame because family owned stores are getting rarer these days. Again, sorry for the time waste.

 

[distracts]

I had not seen that thread. I wonder what happened recently that caused the store to change - if they're going through financial difficulties or had a change in management or what. Whatever it is, they hurt my mom's feelings when talking about her ring, and for that alone they won't ever get my business. Which is sad because they had some gorgeous antique rings that I was interested in taking DF to look at - but I can find similar elsewhere.

Don't feel bad about recommending that we try them - you had no way at the time of knowing that they'd changed. And it was good for us to go if only to reinforce how well we'd been treated at some of the other places.