Gem Here.. Bad Jeweler exeperience.

[MINE!!]

It was recommended that I pass along my story in this forum.

I recieved my stone from Richard Homer yesterday and was completely in love.
The name of the store is Lauteres (it is NC)

Here is the tale I posted in Colored Stones....

Hey everyone!!

I recieved the stone yesterday @ about 4:30.  I had already run home when the FI called me to come back and open the package.  So I ran across town and there he was standing there with the package and three very eager secretarys!  It was funny.   I was so excited that I was shaking!!  I opening it up and realized that I was not looking at a stone!!!  I was looking at a masterpeice!!  Facets Facets and more Facets!!!!!!  IT was unbeliveable!!!  We ooohhhedd and ahhhheeeddd and the secretarys hugged me and gushed... I can''t even explain how the color was.. it was just..... yummy!!!!

So.. we walked outside and I realized that I had NO CLUE how beautiful the stone was!!!  When I walked outside and looked at it in the sunlight one of the ladies said "MY GOD, the cutter has stolen the sunset and put it in that stone!!!"  I think Richard just may have!!!  Ladies it was the warmest, most lovely color !!!!  MY heart is racing just thinking about it right now!!

Soooo... I figured that I would take it over to the jewelers and let him ''set'' it in the setting and take a coupla of pictures for everyone...  Well, I was just on cloud 9~~~  I was sooo excited.. and I am still sooo excited:  But here is the kicker....

Need background.... the jeweler that has my setting is one of the more ''presitgous'' jewelers in this area.  He has very little competition, he does custom work and everyone who own a boat or lives on a golf course will  only buy from him.  Well, when we first went into this shop, he and the ladies who worked there treated me with one of those "and who are you?" Looks.  BUt eventually they seemed to warm up and come around and  be very helpful in getting this setting ready for my stone.  I told him that I was going to order the stone and that we would recieve the stone sometime Mid-Late May.  I told him what the stone was and who was cutting it.  BUt this man refuses to be impressed with anything... but that was it, I would not be trying to impress this man or anyone there anyway, this is my ring, th ring that I have been working on and researching and bugging people here on P-Scope about for months.  So we put a nice payment on the ring and told him that we would pay it off as soon as the stone came in and was set.  This was.... let''s see... March?  Yeh, March I think...  Well, he said that was certainly fine.  We have kept in touch with him and given him updates on the stone and when it would be in over the past 2 months. 

Well yesterday... I walk into the store...  With my two children in tow... I must have been glowing cause I just could not stop smiling.  This "lady" walked  in right behind me... There are 5 sales people all looking at me like I was vermin off the street.  Now, keep in mind.... it is not what is said.. it is the tone.....  So I walk up to this counter.. and all the laides ignore me and look at the lady behind me and asked if they could help her.  Finally one looks at me and says in a nasty condesending voice "Yes, can I help you... " while looking down her nose.  I told her that I had recieved my stone and was bringing it in to be set.  Well, one of the other ladies look at her and say "Oh yes, you need to  get Billy for this one" (Billy is the owner and the jeweler)  So I wait, wait and wait and meanwhile everyone is helping every other person who walks in the door.  Finally I hear a lady yell, you need to go tell Billy someone is here.  HE walks out and I tell him that I have my stone he gives me a ''uh-huh'' and takes the setting that had been tossed down on the counter and opens that paper to look at the stone and says "and exactly WHAT is this again?"  Really in a ... well...  really nasty way.  I was taken aback by his attitude and everyone elses... I told him again what it was and he said "uuuhhhh-hhhhuuuhhh hmmmm"  and layed the stone in the setting for me to see it.  HE said that it would need to be pronged and I agreed since this is what we had agreed on...  I was still very happy and it looked sooo beautiful.  So I remarked on how beautiful it was and he he said.. "um yeh, it is definitely"different".  It will look nice.. for a "garnet"  I just.... well I didn''t know if I wanted to scratch his eyes out or cry  I couldn''t believe the snotty tone.  I wanted to tell him that the tsnoe was worth more than all of those large windowed, washed out, shallow cut peices of crap irradated gravel that he in the case below him.  BY this time, I had forgotten all about getting the pictures. 

I asked him when the stone could be set and whether he wanted me to pay the balance on the setting now or whent he ring was finished.  He said.. "no you can wait, but let''s not leave it in here forever and make sure you FI comes in here and pays it off"  I was in shock  I wanted to just scream!!!  HOw dare he... He treated me like I was nothing and like my ring was some charity project that my po little white trash life could never afford.  I couldn''t beleive it.

So I left in a state of shock and went to FI and told him about it. And bawled my eyes out!  FI is going to go pay it off today and hopefully pick up my ring by Fri or Tuesday. I promise promise promise to take pictures then...  I just could not beleive the way I was treated.  A freind of mine made the point that the first thing he did when he walked in the back room was to test it and see if it was real....  Well, when it finds out it is I hope he realizes what an A$$ he is.  He has lost aLALLLLLL business from us... there is one other jeweler in town that is a little more pricey but they have all of our business and everyone elses who we are going to tell about our eperience.  Sorry ladies, I promise to have pictures of the ring real soon.  Thanks for being excited with me.

 

[valeria101]

Ugh... well... perhaps this is their way to try and turn you off from buying elsewhere. The shop assumes to have a certain position of authority (they are the experts in the area, as you say) and wage it. Hopefully they would act more professional in their actual work than did with communication.

I am sorry you came under such undue pressure.

 

[websailor]

This is so sad MINE!!.

Don''t let their negativity get you down. I''m sure you have a absolutely gorgeous stone there.

I''m with you - once you get your stone set and paid for, this store would not get another cent from me after that kind of treatment.

Gggggrrrr.

Yes, pictures please when you get it back - we want to ooohhhh and aaahhh over it.

 

[AChiOAlumna]

Wow!! That''s one tale!! I''m so sorry you had to endure that...I guess you''re "lucky" that he was still willing to set your stone

?!?!

Can''t wait to see it!! Once it''s in your possession, hopefully your FI will examine it with a fine tooth comb so you''ll have no reason to go back and this way if there IS something wrong with it, it''ll be caught before he leaves the store....

Good luck!!

 

[codex57]

If this had happened to me, you can bet your *** I''d have posted his name and the name of his store to warn other people.

 

[pearcrazy]

Rude people suck!

Don''t let him rain on your parade. Get your ring from the man and then tell him exactly why he won''t be receiving any more of your business. He''s complete caveman. Enjoy your beautiful ring and post lots of pictures when it''s finished.

 

[MINE!!]

Thanks everyone:
I called yesterday to see when the ring would be finished and I got some major butt-kissing on the line. "Oh yes oh yes.. it will be finished Tuesday. It is such a beautiful stone and it is going to look so wonderful in that setting... I bet you are so excited" It was just DRIPPING with honey. HUMPH... I was excited the day I brought it in and you thought it was paste or glass too.

So hopefully I will have some pictures Tuesday Night!! Thanks for the support everyone!

 

[diamondlil]

That''s just terrible, Mine. It always amazes me how a store like that can stay in business when they are so judgemental and down right rude!!!! Each and every person who walks through their door should be treated with the same respect whether they are spending $10K or $10. If it was just the snooty saleswomen, you could at least talk to the owner about it, but since he was also guilty, I''d absolutely take my business elsewhere in the future.

I''m really looking forward to seeing your rings (halos are HOT

). I may have missed this in a previous post, did this jeweler custom make these rings for you?

DiamondLil

 

[codex57]

Date: 5/27/2005 9:32:08 AM
Author: diamondlil
That''s just terrible, Mine. It always amazes me how a store like that can stay in business when they are so judgemental and down right rude!!!! Each and every person who walks through their door should be treated with the same respect whether they are spending $10K or $10. If it was just the snooty saleswomen, you could at least talk to the owner about it, but since he was also guilty, I''d absolutely take my business elsewhere in the future.

Exactly! Everyone should be treated equally. My jeweler, and all the salesgirls as well as teh owner, treated everyone equally. I hadn''t even bought anything yet and he was offering me drinks like he was doing with one of his good repeat customers who was there at the time. During another trip there, someone was there for a $30 chain, another was picking up a $3,000 item, I was looking at some stones costing a decent bit more, and an old lady was checking out this $60,000 monster of a rock. We all were treated superbly. That''s how it should be.

Bad treatment bothers me a lot cuz I look 10 years younger than I do so it happens to me a lot. And I hold grudges, which is why House of Imports will always get my family''s business and Fletcher Jones won''t.

 

[MINE!!]

Date: 5/27/2005 1:50:58 PM
Author: codex57

Date: 5/27/2005 9:32:08 AM

Author: diamondlil

That''s just terrible, Mine. It always amazes me how a store like that can stay in business when they are so judgemental and down right rude!!!! Each and every person who walks through their door should be treated with the same respect whether they are spending $10K or $10. If it was just the snooty saleswomen, you could at least talk to the owner about it, but since he was also guilty, I''d absolutely take my business elsewhere in the future.

Exactly! Everyone should be treated equally. My jeweler, and all the salesgirls as well as teh owner, treated everyone equally. I hadn''t even bought anything yet and he was offering me drinks like he was doing with one of his good repeat customers who was there at the time. During another trip there, someone was there for a $30 chain, another was picking up a $3,000 item, I was looking at some stones costing a decent bit more, and an old lady was checking out this $60,000 monster of a rock. We all were treated superbly. That''s how it should be.


Bad treatment bothers me a lot cuz I look 10 years younger than I do so it happens to me a lot. And I hold grudges, which is why House of Imports will always get my family''s business and Fletcher Jones won''t.

I too hold a grudge for a very long time.... I won''t go there to even pick up the ring becuase I am afraid of how nasty I will be. I am so confrontational,

LOL>>>>>> FI is supposed to pick it up Wed

Daimond Lil... I am excited. He had actually made it for someone else and they didn''t like... Their loss, my gain. I love it!!! It had to be modified a bit to fit my stone....But that was fine...

Codex57: I had a wonderful experience with another jeweler just a few blocks down... who was WONDERFUL. We decided to go with Lauteres because we feel in love with the setting. Now I wish we could have gone to the other place.. OH well... They will defintely NEVER get our bussiness again. And I have been spreading the word about my experience there and I feel good about that..Many people were disgusted about it.