Protect your jewelry

You should get your diamonds " mapped" . It is the layout/blue print of your diamond. ...no other diamond will match yours. .....jewelers are notorious for removing your diamond and replacing it with a CZ when you get your ring cleaned or fixed.. And with out your mapping your stuck. You have no proof.

a reply to: Meldionne1
Exactly, and the mapping is done right in front of you.

Be careful though, even with this. I have had multiple people try to tell me they cannot properly map, or appraise a diamond unless they unmount it. Firstly, that's a lie. Secondly, unmounting makes the prongs weaker, and should only be done if you are replacing a stone, or having soldering done, as heat damages stones. Otherwise, there is never a purpose to unmount a stone, and likely an excuse to do exactly what was said, to swap gems right under your nose.

It also does not hurt to purchase a loop and get to know your own stone. It takes just a little practice, and I could tell my diamond now, from another. It helps, too, to check your jewelry for chips, cracks, and loose prongs, to prevent gem loss down the road. You should clean your jewelry in warm, not hot, soapy water with a soft brush, then inspect it for faults. Never expose gems to extreme temps, like hot or cold water, as this can cause breakage or cracking.

a reply to: Snarl

The only thing I can think of to do is my best to bring back some kind of relief to my wife. She's torn up over that ring because of the time we spent to make it exactly the way she wanted.

I almost have her convinced to make the gold and diamonds into a new ring. Something she can be proud of, and something that doesn't remind her of the wrong that was done.

a reply to: Libertygal

Our hope is that he has someone working as an apprentice, or someone he farms work to. That's the angle we're going to start with. If so, and he's honest and concerned about his reputation - I'm sure we'll have at least some resolution. It won't be a fix, because I doubt he'll offer to remake the ring (and I wouldn't allow him to).

The recording will be used to capture any admission, and also to protect us against any accusation. My wife and I have discussed it, she's allowed to cry but neither of us is allowed to raise our voices.

And Texas is a one party consent state.

originally posted by: Libertygal
The hardest part to cope with these days is, nothing is sacred. No one seems to get that. So shameful. People just think they are entitled now, to anything.

This ^^^^^^^^ is exactly right IMO. I can't really add anything better to it.

a reply to: stutteringp0et

That's terrible. Since it has affected her that much, I think your idea of melting it down might be the best way to go at this point. There will be no way that she will ever look at her ring again and not see the flaws that were put there. That isn't selfish, or vainess, it is simply being reminded of such an injustice all the time (IMO only of course).

Melting it down into something special will allow her to still have her ring, but a better (maybe) one that has meaning built into it.

If you have kids maybe add a stone for each of them. Add stones for the years you have been together (in a wrap maybe) Something like that. That way it still holds all of its sentimentality plus some.

Just offering up some ideas. She'll never get her original ring restored so as sad as it is, she will have to move on. It will be easier if the new ring has some significant meaning I think.

I hope you can get some sort of compensation tomorrow. Somebody should foot the bill for what has been done.

Don't confront the jewelry-repair guy tomorrow!
Do a setup operation where you get someone to take a large ring in that has been appraised and photographed from every angle and weighed and percentage-tested... and let the jeweler do it again. Then figure things out from there...

a reply to: stutteringp0et

Your wife has my sympathy. I understand, even if I seem to come off differently.

You ... need to throw somebody the beating of their life. I'd recommend you pre-dig a hole just in case you take it one inch farther than what the situation warrants.

a reply to: Snarl

SHTF hasn't happened yet, so no cowboy justice. I have a family to take care of, so my only recourse if this doesn't go my way is to ruin his reputation (I may do that anyway).

a reply to: kkrattiger

Let the jeweler destroy another ring that's important to someone.... Right....

a reply to: Kangaruex4Ewe

My wife's mothers ring was offered by her father to augment the stones/gold we already have to go toward her new ring. (Her mother died a few years ago and he's ready to let go of the ring), so her new ring will be extra special.

OK, so an update after our confrontation of the jeweler.

Our worst fear was realized. The jeweler has no apprentice or assistant. He stated that he himself did the work. All of the tool marks were explained as "loss due to polishing". He said, and I got this on video, that every time a piece of jewelry is polished - 6% of the weight is lost to the polishing wheel. I asked why he polished the inside of the ring when he was working on the prongs - and why polishing leaves gouges and tool marks because when something is polished, shouldn't it be polished when you're finished?

Long story short, my wife demanded a refund for the poor work on the prongs (that broke within 24 hours). He offered to fill the holes he drilled, and I told him that he would never touch another piece of our jewelry - at which point he shut the confrontation down and asked us to leave - all on video.

Other than the obviously false statement that jewelry loses 6% of its weight after polishing (I know some gold is lost, but 6% is a ridiculous lie) - he didn't incriminate himself. Many jewelers offer "free" polishing because they know they can sell the debris from their polishing wheel for more than the cost of a new wheel and new polishing compound (they call it rouge).

6% would mean that a 10 gram piece of jewelry would lose half its weight in 10 cleanings. Unfortunately, that math doesn't work for the amount of gold missing - 13% IF all of the gold was gradually lost over the course of the 3 cleanings he's done after working on the ring, but all of the weight was lost in this last visit - making the loss to "polishing" in this one visit a whopping 35%!!!

We got our $51 refund and left - still violated by the betrayal of trust, still minus the property stolen, but at least he knows that he went too far. I don't know that he'll change practice, and frankly I don't really care. The $51 was more than I expected to get (I hoped for a different scenario, but that was a fantasy).

Now, our only course of action is to spread the word. I have some influential friends in the community. I volunteer computer work for the local charities, which includes some senior citizens groups - and I think that I can plant some seeds with the right people and be sure that he'll feel the impact in a short time. Between myself, my wife and my families contacts - we can get the word out.

As an aside - while waiting to speak with him, I watched him offer a women $60 for a 5 gram gold bullion pendant (@$40 per gram, this is worth $200). She didn't take the offer. He's obviously a crook. I looked like an easy mark, and apparently I was.

My wife is now fully on board with the idea of designing her own ring using her original rings and diamonds as well as her parents rings to make something special. She's still upset about what happened, but we've reached the end of that road. Now begins the healing, which will be complete when she has her new ring on her finger (and we've had it appraised and documented).

This guy is a crook and a scammer.

Spread the message on the BBB website, ripoff-report and countless other scam reporting websites. Plenty of them exist.
Of course he didn't incriminate himself or admit his guilt, I didn't expect him doing that.

a reply to: NoRulesAllowed

Yeah, I was holding off those things until I confronted him today.

chances are this jeweler has done this to many people
not everyone is as level-headed as you seem to be, OP
..shopfront might be burned out in a few months

a reply to: UNIT76

Shop is in a brick building, part of the town square (right across the street from the courthouse). The jeweler took over from his father.

As you can imagine, we've discussed it quite a bit. It seems logical that he doesn't do it to everyone. Some pieces would be difficult to steal from as they're small, and I'm sure some customers would be dangerous to steal from. We can't be the only people he's ripping off, so eventually word will reach others in my situation and there will be some corroboration. -

Jewelers I've spoken with about this seem to think that nobody would do this, but I believe that someone sneaky could make a hefty sum stealing small amounts. Rip off 6 or so grams from the right 4 to 6 pieces and you could have an ounce of gold. Remake that into a few pieces of jewelry - with markup, could turn into double or triple the gold value. Steal $1300 (one ounce), make 3 pieces, markup (3-4x is pretty common) and make $3900 - $5200.

I believe in karma - people eventually get what they deserve. I just paid into the system, so I'm due some good luck.

Another followup.

I got a call from his watch repair partner regarding the watch he was rebuilding for me. My watch is ready.

I told him that I felt bad to do it, but I wouldn't be picking up the watch because of an issue with his partner. While I feel bad doing it, he has a repaired Citizen automatic from the early 80's which he says is keeping good time. I wished him well and that I hoped he could sell it for a price that would compensate his time repairing it. Without insulting him, I explained that because of his partner - I wouldn't be putting another dime through his door.

I didn't spend much on the watch because it wasn't working properly. Having such an old watch repaired and brought back to life would have been great.