*This is the same review I posted to warn people from using GoldMax.* On Thursday, December 29,…read more2011, I decided to sell all of my gold jewelry I no longer wore. It was just sitting in my jewelry box gathering dust when I could be doing something with the cash I got from selling it back. Plus, a friend's house had been broken into a couple of weeks before and I was thinking it would be better to unload jewelry I never wore rather than deal with the insurance company if someone stole it. Anyway, I did a Google search for companies that bought gold in the vicinity of Gainesville, GA (where I work). GoldMax and Gold Vault Bank were at the top so I wrote them both down.
I went to Gold Vault Bank, located at 5201 Browns Bridge Road in Gainesville, GA, first during my lunch break. Monique and Dale were both very nice to me from the moment I walked in the door. Monique quickly separated my jewelry according to carat and then weighed it. She then calculated how much they would give me and wrote me a quote. I told them that I wanted to visit another place and get a second opinion, but would be back if their price was higher.
After work I went to GoldMax. I had figured that since they were a national company that they would give me a higher price so I had saved my visit to them so it would be on my way home. They are located in a new commercial area in Flowery Branch so I tried to call and ask them where exactly they were located. Their phone number was completely automated and when I pressed zero the woman that answered was not at that location and just read what was available on the website, which I already had. I finally found the place and went in (well, the door is locked and you have to be buzzed in). The woman asked if I had been to any other stores to have my gold assessed and I said that I had and I thought they had quoted me a fair price. She then, very slowly, began sorting my jewelry. She even pulled the backs off my earrings and sorted them separate than the earrings. While she was slowly sorting she struck up random conversations with me. Looking back I realized that she was trying to start a rapport, just like a used-car salesman. I was starting to get fidgety because she was taking an inordinate length of time compared to Gold Vault Bank.
FINALLY she put each sorted bunch into containers and weighed them. After she weighed them, instead of giving them back to me to put in my bag, she slid them next to her behind the scale. I started getting more upset because now she had my gold and I was uncomfortable with her used-car salesman pitch. As I am typing this I can feel the tightness in my chest from the memory. She then wrote out an amount that was less than half of what Gold Vault Bank quoted me, slid the paper across the desk and said, "This is the amount we will give you for your gold and if you will just fill out this information we will give you your check". I told her there was no way I was going to sell my gold for that price since I had been quoted more than twice that the same day. She then said she was going to call her manager and see if she could get more. I mean, really. Was I at a used-car lot? Her manager? Gold is traded on the open market. Therefore, on any given day gold worth is based on the market and someone buying gold should be giving you a percentage of that amount based on the gold content of your jewelry. Not some mystical number that they just write down and hope you will accept.
After a lengthy conversation with her manager on her cell phone, during which she pointedly said that I had been to an other shop but would not disclose the name, she finally wrote down another amount that was again far less than Gold Vault Bank's price and slid that back across the desk like she had just worked a miracle. I reached across the desk, got my gold, back and got the heck out of there. As I was walking out of the store she kept trying to call me back, "Ma'am! Ma'am! Ma'am!", just like a used-car salesman losing a sale. It was unbelievable. They are located right next to 985. After I got on the highway and was headed back to Gold Vault Bank I realized after a few minutes that my car was whining. I looked down and realized I was exceeding 90 mph. That's how upset I was from that experience.
On my way back to Gold Vault Bank I stopped by a third shop, a pawn shop, to be 100% sure that Gold Vault Bank was indeed the highest price. That guy was nice, even though he insisted on testing each of my pieces, but the price was nowhere close. So back to Gold Vault Bank I went where Monique completed the sale. I was still so upset from my GoldMax experience that I had a headache. Dale and Monique asked me what happened at GoldMax so I told them the story. They said that GoldMax had changed their name after getting into some sort of trouble. I can only imagine what sort of trouble given the awful experience I had with their shady business practice
