Be Careful Who You Trust

We had two rings that needed some repair.  One of them was my husband's turquoise ring.  It was too big and the stone was loose.  This was a replacement ring to one his mother gave him in the early 1970's.  He wore it everyday for thirty five years.  Then one day we were bringing the boat into the landing and as he reached out to grab the rope, off came the ring into Green Lake.  We searched and searched.  Our daughter even went early the next morning and dove into the water to look with a mask and wetsuit.  Of course, it was never found, at least by us.  He didn't want that to happen again to this ring.  The second ring was mine.  I received it after my mother in law passed away.  I wore it for a while but the band was hinged and it broke off.  All I needed was to have it sized and a new band put on.  So just after Christmas, I decided to take them to a jewelry store in Berlin Wisconsin.   They are a store that has been in business for many many years.  The ladies were very nice but said they couldn't repair them in the store, but they would send them to whoever they use for an estimate.  They told me that my ring had two little diamonds missing.  I said I couldn't even see where they were missing, so I didn't need to buy any replacement diamonds.  A few weeks later, I got a phone call.  They said they couldn't make my husband's ring smaller because the turquoise stone would be compromised.  They said they could fix mine and it would cost $600.  I told them I would think about it.  Then the end of January 2013, we attended a children's theater performance that our granddaughter was in.  When we were leaving, we saw there was a store across the street that said Goldsmith.  The store was open and I had the rings in my purse, so we went in.  He was an older gentleman who owned the store.  The store smelled like pipe tobacco.  He put his little eye piece on and said he could easily fix my husband's ring.  Then he sized the ring.  Next he looked at my ring.  He said that there were NOT any diamonds missing, and he could replace the band.  He said he was sorry that it would cost $200 because the price of gold was so high.  I told him to do the work.  Now months have passed and I kind of forgot about the rings.  In June,  we got a call.  The goldsmith asked why we hadn't picked up our rings.  I told him that I had not gotten a call that they were done, and we would come right over.  The store was in Green Lake Wisconsin and was about twelve miles away.  He fixed the turquoise ring for $30 and it fit perfectly.  He told me that mine was a lovely ring, and the band would last for the rest of my life.  He saw I was old so I guess it was a pretty safe statement.  He was old too, so any guarantee he would give wouldn't mean much.  Anyway, the point of my story is that you have to be careful even with well established businesses and that it is good to get a second opinion.  Now we can wear the rings everyday and not worry about losing stones or having them fall off.