Charmed & pqcollectables,
I understood that the ring went in to the jeweler to make the setting more secure. . . I guess that I presumed that it was more than pulling a prong down over a stone or tightening a single stone in a channel that had simply loosened up through wear and tear.
With the comment of the stones falling out, I guessed that there may have been channel work or prong work that was required. In my personal experience, there have been rings that have come into my store via one of my sales people and the only thing that we were supposed to do was to tighten a single stone. Prior to working on any piece, we inspect the item under a scope and try to head off potential issues. We also require that the item be thoroughly cleaned so that we can properly inspect all aspects of the ring, and on occasion, through no fault of anyone who is currently handling the ring, when the dirt and/or debris is removed from the ring, the stones fall out of the mounting and into the cleaning tank. Now, this shouldn't happen, but, not all jewelry is created equal. Sometimes the prongs aren't over the top of the stones, sometimes the channels aren't far enough over the edges of the stones either. The fault of this kind of problem lies in the original setter of the ring. Generally speaking, just like some golfers are better than others, some setters are better than others. There are shortcut ways of doing things and then there are the right way to do things. The less expensive the piece, generally, the greater liklihood that a time saving method may have been involved in the original creation of the piece. Again, since I cannot inspect the item in question, all I can do is offer potential guesses as to why this happened.
While this may sound like I am letting the jeweler off the hook, from personal experience, it really stinks when you take on a piece and all you do is clean it and it falls apart on you. You know that that all you did, but the customer would never believe you because they had worn it for a while and it didn't fall apart on them. Unfortunately, hand cream and soap can be powerful adhesives and once removed, the ring must rely on its original manufactured quality to stay together.
~ That being said, he also could have done something that he is a fault about, and if thats the case, he should make good on it.
If you could post a digital picture of the ring from close up I could be of greater help to you
~the concerned goldsmith~