Greg, the owner of the business is extremely creative, warm & kind. He made custom earrings for me in 1995 when he worked for Silva Jewelers. I come back & forth from CA and would only see him because of our rapport, his expertise & because I support small businesses. I had an extremely negative situation occur 3 days ago at his shop after asking him to change the design of a ring and earrings for me in Sept. A middle aged woman w/ blonde hair is his only clerk; she was very rude & dismissive to me when I 1st went in to the shop wearing jeans. I asked her the 2nd time I went in if there was something I brought in with me that rubbed her the wrong way. She said, "Don't be defensive." It didn't occur to her to ask me, the customer, if she had done anything or how she could help me. I felt judged by her.
I asked Greg to change earrings & a ring w/sapphires & diamonds. 1st, Greg forgot to change the gold posts on my earrings to French locks. He also forgot to appraise the earrings and ring. He apologized & asked me to come back so he could redo the earrings and get the appraisal. He gave me the ring. I left with plans to return. This was a challenge because I was staying in Wellfleet but we made it work. Greg will always make it work & is an excellent listener. His store clerk, however had me pegged as a problem client. I called to remind him I would need both the earring appraisal and the ring appraisal before I drove 1hr there. He said to bring the ring back to leave overnight because the other appraisal had not been done. What went wrong at this point was the sapphire was already reset & could not be weighed without removing it again from the setting. I returned for the earring appraisal and the new earrings. The blonde middle aged woman was super nice to me *when Greg was there. The earrings turned out beautiful. I left the sapphire ring to return again for the ring appraisal.
The ring appraisal I returned for had the measurements of the ring and the setting that held the sapphire but not the carat weight of the sapphire. Greg had asked me to bring in my previous appraisals of the stones if I could & I had left them in CA. I perceived there was a mistake in the appraisal; the clerk was rushed to charge me and she was put off I told her the carat weight was missing. The only purpose of the appraisal was for insurance. With irritation she told me she would see if the gemologist could be freed to speak with me.
Elisa Battles was prepped by the clerk & came in hot. She was immediately put off that she heard I thought there could be any mistake with her appraisal without a notation of the size or weight of the sapphire. I had no confidence USAA would accept the appraisal & tried to ask. First she haughtily told me she was not able to appraise a stone that was already set. It was as if she didn't know the stone had been reset by Greg and could have been taken out to be weighed if this was needed. Was it necessary? She yelled at me she was listening after I told her I needed her to listen to me differently & that I would try my best to listen to her too. She yelled at me her credentials as a gemologist, defended no mistake was made & then leaned in & yelled to my face, "You are offending me!" Because I asked if there could be a mistake? I tried to sidestep her ego by asking if I could ask a question. I was next told, "You have come in here 12 times and always have questions." I had been there only 3x by now. I became concerned I would not be able to get the insurance to cover the ring anywhere after I had asked for the sapphire to be appraised before the ring was reset & it was outside the original setting. She said that "We do not have that equipment here for sapphires."
Elisa next haughtily told me to get an appraisal somewhere else & pulled it back. At no point did Elisa consider her assumptions & unwillingness to put her ego aside problematic. When I originally asked for the appraisal Greg didn't tell me they didn't have equipment to weigh sapphires. I tried a last time to tell Elisa that Greg had asked me to bring the other appraisal but I could not find it while traveling. Could they confirm the 1.1 carat sapphire I previously had insured was the same stone in a different ring setting Greg made? Could it make a difference? As with each other time I spoke I was cut off and told by Elisa, "I don't care what the other appraisal said." She had no curiosity to learn why Greg had asked for it. I asked Elisa for my credit card back & she said "yes," just as the blonde clerk was smiling & catering to a friend of hers who came in, whom she liked. The clerk put her hand on my shoulder with a big smile for her friend to see her try to escort me out of the shop. "Mary, I have a client here. You have to go now." Elisa also demeaned me as I quietly walked out. I experienced grandstanding & classic female bullying with gaslighting. All because Greg was away. I left shaking & told my mother & daughters. read more
