uk jewellery, expensive and shoddy, what do you think?

Question

my dad before he died, bought my mum a lovely matching bracelet/ earing set. mum lost one of the earings. they were 18c gold, she was heart broken. what i want to say is,, i have been to india and bought earings and they are all screw on, impossible to lose, a lot cheaper than here in the uk, and better quality. so why can't our jewellers be more safety conscience, or is this their intent?. by the way,, we went out and bought another pair of earings, dropped one in the garden, so my mum would find it..and think it was the one she lost, she cried with joy,, take this to my death bed,, for the look of joy in her face

dad, wasn't a rich man. just a working class man, so working class,he would be ashamd to show emotion by buying mum anything, he would rather give her the money and let her choose,, this is what upset her,my question is, still. do any english jewellers, do screw on earrings?, or have you got to be that rich, or buy really expensive, that you can claim on insurence,, fat lot of good that would of been to my mum

Answer 1

Dont tarnish all jewellers with the same brush. My husbands a jeweller and works from home, he repairs and makes jewellery from scratch anything you like. He is not expensive- doesent rip people off and charges purely for materials. I feel for your mum because she lost something that was priceless, please dont get put off, there are some geniune jewellers out there, but as you quite rightly state, 95% of them are rip off merchants, stick to old jewellers that have been around forever- not these high street commercial cons.

Answer 2

You are right in one way.
The thing that puts me off is the low karatage of the gold which is a standard 9KT.
Anything above that, you are going to pay exuberant price. That's because the majority of the jewellery in the market of late are imports.They passed thru the assay office of course,
for the regulations before they reach the shops.
Jewellery making is a skilled job and it's diminishing in the UK culture as it's very fiddly work. It's easier for the industry to make money if they import it as the manpower in other countries are a lot cheaper.
Gold in other countries are sumptuous, rich and unique in design.
I usually by mine in my travels ie: Dubai, Italy, Thailand. When I wear them, I always remember that one holiday I've had coz I have the jewellery from that particular place.

Answer 3

Depends which jewellers you shop at really.

Actually the cost of your flight to India would have bumped up the price of the earrings don't you think.

So pleased your Mum couldn't tell the difference - what a happy moment for her especially as she will never be able to lose the screw on earring from India.

Answer 4

i say ur story is sad but i think that its worth buyin' jewelry thats expensive don't u think?;}