Damaged Stone

Jewelry Discussion
1

This brings up a question I have for you “pros”. When you damage
a stone, who pays for it? Do you have insurance that covers this,
or is it just suck it up and pay for it

I do work only for retail jewelers. And have been at it a long
time, I am selective about for who we will work for many reasons.
Like, I want new clean work, not a bunch of old crap, I want
plenty of custom work, I want people who pay promptly ect. But a
big factor is how they will want damaged stones handled. The way
I do it is that I will pay for the recutting AND THATS IT (unless
its under 20 bucks). They are making the lions share of the
profit, and so they should take the greater share of the risk. If
I would do something stupid I would pay for it. If I were selling
it retail, I would pay for it. The only time I got stuck paying
for it when it was just an accident waiting to happen, I dropped
the customer. I have not found insurance to cover damaged stones.
I feel if someone is too undercapitalized to replace a stone,
don’t set it. We had a 100k cost diamond in at christmas and the
jeweler was really freaked out about the risk. I told him we
would make the mounting and he should have the diamond dealer
have it set at his risk if he wanted to sell it. This worked out
fine. I wasn’t worried about setting it, actually it was such a
beautiful clean stone there was very little risk. But the money
for me was in the making of the mounting, setting of the stone
was just a big fat unprofitable risk. We have done the same thing
with super expensive emeralds (20k+), if the dealer wants to sell
it he will assume the risk. If you are selling retail then be
sure to build in enough profit to cover yourself. If you weren’t
a bit of a risk taker you probably wouldn’t be doing this.

Mark P.

2

G’day; Mark sounds eminently sensible and his practice conforms
to that of other professional folk. When I retired I had a house
built to my specifications on my own section. I got a builder
who was prepared to build it on a labour only contract - which
meant I had to order, see to delivery and payment of what
materials were needed, but he told me what to get. Saved a whole
heap of money, as I got the discounts, etc. However, when we
talked price, he put $NZ400 dollars on his labour charge. "Why?"
I asked. He replied, “In case I make a mistake!” As it happened
he didn’t make a mistake, but I would have had to pay for it if
he had: he’d included it in his price - which was the lowest
tender I got. Which I reckon is the policy a jeweller would need

  • if he/she could get away with it! It’s a very competitive
    world, eh?

          /\
     / /    John Burgess, 
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   / //\    @John_Burgess2
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