| Is
Your Jeweler a Crook?
Jewelers
themselves helped write these guidelines for the jewelry industry.
Ethical jewelers support laws against fraud. They want to
earn the respect of the public and to be regarded as people
of integrity.
Occasionally,
jewelers are accused of being crooks if they have mark-ups
of, for example, 100%. However, when one considers their overhead
and compares jewelry mark-ups to those of goods in other industries,
this seems to be an unfair accusation. How much of a mark-up
is involved in a designer scarf or suit? How much of a mark-up
is there on brand-name pharmaceutical products? Perhaps a
lot more than one will find on jewelry.
How many
other industries offer trade-in allowances equal to or higher
than the original purchase price when people trade in products
they've used for years on brand new ones? The fact that such
trade¬ in policies are offered on jewelry says a lot about
its value in comparison to other goods.
Questions to Ask When Choosing
Jewelers
There are a lot of things to consider when choosing a jeweler.
It's not just a matter of finding the one that seems to have
the lowest prices in town. When making your choice, consider
the answers to the following questions:
What
kind of reputation do they have?
How long have they been in business? If they're a fly-by-night
operation, their guarantees won't mean much.
What types of services do they offer? Can they do repairs,
appraisals, custom work and designs?
What types of guarantees do they offer? What are their refund,
replacement, and buy-back policies?
Do they contradict themselves during their sales presentations?
Are they willing to put their verbal descriptions and claims
in writing?
When problems arise, do they try to resolve them graciously?
Are they willing to let you examine their jewelry under magnification?
When you are seriously interested in something, will they
make an effort to find what you want even if they don't have
it in stock?
Do they have a range of qualities to choose from? This isn't
a necessity, but it is a convenience.
They
would give
when
one considers
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