Dare to Repair!? Part I of ?

Shall we delve into the somewhat confusing area of getting your jewelry repaired in an expert fashion and at a reasonable price. Can these two things be had together? Well sure, but you have to educate yourself a bit and possibly shop around to compare services and prices. OR possibly you have a friend who has already done all the work and you absolutely trust their judgement and will accept their recommendation of a good repair shop.

First some generalities I suppose. >Good expert jewelry repair is not cheap unless you have a friend like me in the business who can do it dirt cheap, sometimes free. >One fairly good thing about a corporate or chain store is that the prices should be fairly uniform, ie. if you use them in St. Louis for a repair, the charges should be about the same if you use them in Cleveland. >I would recommend using a store with an 'in store' jeweler, this way your valuables shouldn't leave the store and should get locked in their vault at night. >It's your property so ask about the jeweler doing the work....how long have they been a jeweler?....how long have they been with the company ?....do they do all the work on the premises?.....Don't leave it if the jeweler takes it home (not too likely they would tell you this anyway). >If the store has an affiliation with AGS or GIA this is good because they must meet certain standards to qualify for these affiliations; however, there are many very good stores with repair shops that do fine work without these relationships. >Read the fine print on the repair envelope before you sign....will the store be responsible if they damage a diamond or precious stone?....Make sure you put a correct value for your piece on the repair slip....this helps protect you if they lose your item or damage it beyond repair and have to replace it. >If your item has a large diamond in it make sure the person checking it in does what they call "mapping the stone"....they look at it under magnification and make notations of every little identifying characteristic....this way when it comes back from repair, you can check it again to verify it is indeed the same stone.
On to part II very soon. Thanks for visiting.