Is it common practice to solder gold with platinum???

[rebtopaz]

So I am quite upset. I have pretty much determined my platinum ER''s prongs have been soldered with gold. I took it in over two years ago to have the jeweler see if he could raise the diamond in my mounting. It had initially been mounted pretty low and I thought if the prongs were raised it might catch the light better. I wasn''t sure if it could be done but they said no problem. They never said anything about having to use gold to make the prongs taller. A few months later, I noticed pitting on the prongs, and then one of them completely shore off when my hand got caught taking it out of my pocket. Yeah, I don''t think they used platinum! Anyway, I took it back just thinking that maybe it was a fluke and asked them to fix it. (At this point it hadn''t occurred to me they may have been using gold instead of platinum.) They did, free of charge and I didn''t think much more about it.
Well, we went swimming at a pool yesterday and I noticed very visible pitting on my prongs today!

I am really mad, because it never occurred to me that I needed to ask the jeweler if they were using platinum to work on a platinum ring.
Anyway, my question is: is this common practice? Especially without disclosing it to the consumer? I''m feeling somewhat guilty though - maybe I shouldn''t have modified my ring!
Please say something to make me feel better!

Rebecca

 

[strmrdr]

are there diamonds in the band?

 

[Ara Ann]

We just found out something similar last weekend...my husband had his ring cleaned at our jeweler and the prongs inspected (he has 5 good sized diamonds in his band) and were told the last prong repair was done using solder and not gold (about 10 years ago). The quote to redo the prongs in white gold is going to be $250.00, so if someone fixes a prong for free, I guess that is a red flag.

I hope you can get your situation settled to your satisfaction!

 

[rebtopaz]

Date: 2/8/2009 7:07:56 PM
Author: strmrdr
are there diamonds in the band?

No, it is a solitare Lucida setting - 4-prong princess mounting.

 

[rebtopaz]

Thanks, Ara Ann!
It is super-expensive to get stuff re-tipped! I thought it was just great customer service that they didn''t charge me (even though I would have paid it at the time).
I used to work in the jewelry industry, so I am completely aware that platinum is more difficult to work with than gold (and I should have had my red flags up a lot sooner than this!) but I just trusted that they would disclose that to me.
I really like this jeweler and I don''t want to have to "blacklist" them from businesses I frequent, but have not been happy with this situation at all!

 

[LGK]

It is relatively common I guess. I had an antique platinum ring worked on by the bench guy I use, and he said that the prongs had at one point been rebuilt with gold, and it had been sized up with gold. He took all the gold bits off and redid it with plat. He said it was something he sees pretty regularly, and that some benches will do that as a shortcut/cost cut. And that it isn''t terribly secure, the gold will be a weak point.

So yes- it is a very good idea to ask if your platinum ring will be soldered with platinum. Weirdly enough! Sounds like yours was shoddy work all around though, with the prong shearing off, and the pitting, etc.