I’ve written many times about the countless changes that have occurred in this industry over the last several decades. One thing I haven’t written about is the things that haven’t changed. As I start my 2nd 20 years writing this column, I thought I’d point some of those things out.
No, I can’t put a drop of solder on it.
This literally happened to me again a few days ago. Somebody brought in something that looked like it came from one of the Jewelry TV shows, and believe it or not, it was broken. It was a very lightweight bracelet that had about 100 square cut gemstones that are graduated in color from one end of the rainbow to the other. They look good on TV, but they are so poorly manufactured, they just don’t last very long. This one didn’t last very long either.
To the layperson, it seems like an easy repair. Put a drop of solder on it and, like magic, it’s good as new. There’s only one problem. Solder doesn’t come in droplet form. But, there is another thing that hasn’t changed – the way I handle this type of customer.
For a job like this, I’ll quote a price of around $4,200 to repair this $295 bracelet. All while wrinkling my brow, looking at it very seriously, and talking out loud to myself about all of the steps involved in doing a repair that I have no intention of actually doing. They elected not to spend the money to have it repaired. Score!
“How do I know you’re not going to switch my diamond?”
As usual, my first thought is; ‘Switch it with what, a better one?’ Because I damned sure don’t want this one!
There are a couple of things going on here. First and foremost, everyone has heard the old ‘wives tale’ about the jeweler that switched someone’s diamond in a land far away, and a time long ago. The only problem is no one actually knows the jeweler, or the customer that made the claim.
Secondly, when someone drops off a piece of jewelry with you for any type of service or appraisal, the first thing you have to do is boil it in acid for a few days just to get the funk off of it, cause I ain’t touching that nasty thing! If that ring hasn’t been cleaned in over 20 years, then your customer has been seeing it dirty and grimy for at least 19 1/2 years. When they pick it up, it’s going to look different! If it doesn’t, you didn’t do your job correctly.
But now there is a new exception to this rule. If someone drops off a micro pavé ring that’s missing a tiny diamond or two, there is no way I’m putting it in my cleaner. That act alone is guaranteed to knock another 50 out of it. That ring goes back to the customer exactly like they dropped it off, with the exception of the two new kanardlys.
Emeralds are still a bad choice for wedding rings
The advent of the internet has ruined people forever, I’m sure of it. Young couples can now look at thousands and thousands of terrible design ideas that shouldn’t exist. Think about this; before the internet, these couples had to actually visit jewelry stores and look at in-stock merchandise. None of us carried those dumb design ideas in our stores. We, as professionals, knew they could never hold up to the rigors of everyday wear and tear that a wedding band and engagement ring are subjected to.
Have most of us fallen victim to carrying something, like slide bracelets, that didn’t work as promised? Of course we have. But as a hard and fast rule, if we recommend and sell something, we have to stand behind it, and service that product. The internet doesn’t have to do that. And, for the record, opals suck even worse than emeralds in wedding rings!
I need this sized up one size
I’ve been sizing rings for over 40 years, and I still don’t know how big a size is, but the population at large obviously does.
“I need this ring to go up 1 size,” is something every jeweler hears about 10 times a week. So I always wonder; if I don’t know, without measuring, how can they? I don’t think, at any time in my career, that I’ve ever heard a customer say, “I need this ring to go up 2 sizes.”
While I’m thinking about it, I’ve never heard, “I need this ring to go up a size and a half,” either. Why can’t people just say, “My ring doesn’t fit anymore and I’d like for you to adjust it for me. Pretty please, with sugar on top!”
The customer is not always right
To be honest, customers are the most un-right people on the planet. I had a guy come in recently to have a ring sized. He told me exactly how the job was to be done. He also informed me that, because of all of the research that he had done, he was probably the most knowledgeable person on the planet regarding the subject of ring sizing. He also admitted that he had never actually sized a ring before. And of course, the way he insisted that the job had to be done was not even an option. He was not right!
As I stated earlier, the internet has ruined people. I’m certain that most of the information on the internet is produced by people that don’t actually work in the field they are writing about. And don’t get me started on the TV jewelry shows with their own jewelry and gemology classes.
In a jewelry shop, everyone has an opinion about how ‘not’ to do something. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve had another bench jeweler say:
“The jeweler I trained under told me…”
Stunningly, no one ever questioned whether that information he or she passed along was correct, or was it just an old wives tale? Heck, just stand outside of a busy mall store some Saturday and listen to what the salespeople say to the customers about the piece they are trying to sell them. You’ll just shake your head and wonder where the heck did they get that info? I can only assume that their manager told them, because the manager before them learned it from the manager before them. It’s like that old game of telephone. Each person changes the original information just enough so that it’s no longer even close to accurate.
I don’t know what happened to it. It looked like that when I picked it up.
Customers will never give up on trying to make you honor the lifetime warranty – that you never offered – on a piece that they didn’t buy from you in the first place. But, since you worked on it once, that must imply that you are going to warrant, and repair, free of charge, anything that happens to that ring until the end of time.
I had a lady come in once with a ring that was all bent up, twisted, scratched, gouged, and the shank was broken. Apparently I had sized it a few months earlier and of course she only wears it to church on Sunday. She swore it looked like that when she picked it up. I was in a foul mood that day, so I decided to play along. I told her it was a simple repair and I’d just put a drop of solder on it and she’d be good as new.
I soldered the bottom of the ring back together, but didn’t bother to straighten, clean, or polish anything else. Once it cooled down, I took it out front and handed it to her and thanked her for bringing it to my attention and told her there was no charge. Then all hell broke loose.
It was only then that she ‘noticed’ it was all bent out of shape. I reminded her that she said it looked like that when she picked it up last time. If it was good enough then, it should be good enough now. She also noticed that it was caked in some kind of goop that I would have had to sniff to figure out what it was. I passed on that. I reminded her that she only wore it to church, and she said it looked like that when she picked it up.
This went on for a minute or so, before I finally said something to the effect of: ‘Listen, it didn’t look like that when you picked it up. If it did, you wouldn’t have accepted it and paid me for the work. It looked completely different when you picked it. Do you want to know how I know that? Because I was the one that did the work, and I was the one that handed it to you. You told me it looked beautiful. Now, if you’d like for me to repair it again, and make it beautiful again, it’s going to be $195. You obviously got your ring caught in either a bailing machine or a garbage disposal, and I’m not going to repair it for free.”
Then, the best thing happened. She said, “Maybe I’ll just get a few estimates from some other jewelers first.” Score!!!
Write to me if you think of something that hasn’t changed that I missed.
