As a bench jeweler how do you get over the stupid games people play with their stuff?
Been a full time corporate repair jeweler for 2 years now and I still get pissed at the customers on a daily basis lol. My boss hates it but I call it "jewelry games"
Here is a recent example, keeping in mind that I pride myself on doing really clean work and take my time with every project. I will go the extra long way around if it means a strong and beautiful outcome. Also I do not interact with customers in any way. So much of this I put on the Salesfloor staff but I understand their hands are often tied in these situations.
Husband comes in (on his own) and gets a set for his wife. Ring and enhancers. Comes to the sizing and says "oh yeah shes a six for sure, always been a six, and I put one of her rings on my pinky and it fit so shes a 6"
We encourage finger sizing but ultimately we have to do as he says
Comes in next day, "what did you do?! She says its too loose he wants you to make it a 5!"
Keep in mind this is 3 rings now bent and soldered together with easy solder. So it's now become a common shank sizing which I absolutely hate.
Still no fingersizing just them guessing at a size and the wife being too lazy to come in and be sure.. fine man youre the boss.
Take it down to a 5.. its a little thinner, a little wonkier, stones aren't sitting as comfortably as they were..but whatever.
You know where its going, next day its too tight, next week its too loose, next month its too tight. Now Ive resized these rings maybe 4 or 5 times in a few weeks. They look bad, they got pits, I basically have to retip because the settings have all been pulled too much to hold their melees properly. And dont get me started on these skinny bitches all wanting to take their cheap pave rings down to sub 5s like thats just no big deal.
Then the customers going like...well what happened why did I lose a stone why is it thinner now etc.
Im bad at telling stories but you get the point. This is a constant in our store and it drives me absolutely insane.
I recently had a pregnant woman who resized her ring every month of her pregnancy and after so she could wear it continuously while gaining and losing weight. By the end her brand new ring is thin, weak, loose stones.. Ive basically given up on cause there is no reason for me to do a good job when its just coming back next week. I swear to god we have customers that eat a big lunch and decide that means they need to go up a size. Its absurd.
I also cant stand how women will wear their ER for YEARS until its worn down to a paper thin pos then come get some 3mm thick enhancer bands and expect the rings to all perfectly align and solder together with no issues. Solder your bands at the time of purchase if you can! So sick of having to fill in huge gaps with solder because you fucked up. Then when you inevitably want your monthly resize I get seams popping and solder flowing in the wrong places.. Just a mess. Or wanting to attach some modern band to great grandmas 100 year old ring...ones like that I send off to the masters and they can wait the 2 months or whatever cause im not gonna be liable for the precious family heirloom theyre desperate to make ugly with a modern band that doesnt even match lol.
Another common one is when they've been wearing 2 or 3 rings together unsoldered, then they come in and go "they fit great just solder them" but then once soldered they've turned the 3 rings with wiggle room into one big 8mm ring and surprise its too tight!
I could go on and on with examples but this has just turned into an angry rant. I just wonder what people think about this and if they have any advice for mitigating these issues. How do we make them see you can only bend things so far, you can only file so many times, not every ring is designed to go up or down 4 sizes!
It sucks all the pride out of my work sometimes, like why even try?