I went in wanting to have my jewelry cleaned and it has been a nightmare ever since. A diamond fell out in the cleaner, which happens from time to time so I thought nothing of it and left it to have the stone reset. They gave me a little slip from the jewelry repair envelope, to bring in later to claim my ring. It had a spot for estimated cost but was left blank. I didn't think there would be a cost as they never mentioned one and the envelope was left blank. Also, having worked in the jewelry business in the past, I know that most stores generally inspect the jewelry before cleaning it, and won't clean it if there is an issue with stones, therefore, if a stone does fall out, they reset it for free. Anyway, a few days later, I received a call from the jeweler/owner to let me know he reset the stone and two more fell out so he reset those as well and it would be $15 per stone. This is where I began to see red flags as it's very unethical to do repairs and charge a customer for them without informing them first. I was especially irritated as I have a policy that covers repairs on the ring through the store I originally purchased it from. If I had known there was going to be a charge, I would've declined to have the ring worked on. After telling the jeweler this, we settled it so that I would pay for the first stone but not the resetting of the other two as he did the work without my permission. I went in to pick up the completed ring over the weekend and was appalled at what I saw. The work was really subpar, in fact, it was some of the worst work I've seen, and I've seen thousands of jewelry repairs. I will admit, it is a very detailed ring and the stones were bezel set. Unfortunately, what was returned to me looked like someone had glopped gold around the stones and then smashed them with a hammer, none of the detailed design work was replicated. In fact, where the stones were reset wasn't even rhodiumed and they don't match the color of the rest of the ring. Instead of throwing a fit in the store I tried very had to keep my mouth shut and not say anything rude. I just took my ring and walked out. It was very apparent I was very unhappy with the work but I knew if I said anything it would be really rude and very likely full of nasty things so I thought it was better to just leave. About 20 min. after leaving the store I received a phone call from the jeweler/owner's wife, saying that she heard I was displeased when leaving the store and wanted to know what happened. As I recounted the story to her, instead of taking responsibility for the actions of her staff and store, she began to interrupt me repeatedly to tell me that her husband was such a great jeweler and was trained by, "one of the best jewelers in town." This made me laugh on the inside, one of the best jewelers in Ontario, Oregon huh, I'm impressed. Eventually I just had to hang up on her as I had had enough. I understand her need to defend her husband but the truth is, he does shoddy work and it's very apparent and noticeable even to those who do not have experience with jewelry. My main issues with this store are 1, if there is going to be a charge on something, inform the customer before you do the work, 2, don't do additional repairs without asking the customer in advance, 3, if you aren't capable of doing a great job on the repair, decline it, don't go ahead and do it and return the ring to the customer with a repair job that looks like a 3 year old did it, and 4, if you want to call the customer to perhaps diffuse the situation, wait longer than 20 minutes so both parties have time to cool down and listen to what the customer has to say with an open mind instead of immediately becoming defensive. read more
