The stone was apparently set by a butcher, not a goldsmith.
Uneven prongs, metal not hitting the stone like it should,
ect... Well, she wanted me to "pop the stone out and put the
new one in". I refused to do the job. Period. She came
unglued and contacted the manager and the owner of the store I
subcontract for and they both stood behind me. I'm sorry for
loosing a customer, but she was one I didn't want anyways. Any
comments?
Any jeweler, no matter how experienced, has his or her limits in
what he or she is comfortable taking on. Especially those of us
who are general smiths are probably not doing enough hours of
only setting work every day to take on these most risky setting
jobs. Some repair jobs, as well, simply are known loosing
propositions. We’ve all got to be free to refuse any job we
cannot be reasonably sure of doing well, or which expose us to
risks we’re not prepared to cover. However, in any such case,
how you refuse a job is almost as important as the awareness that
you must do so. In this case, you might have been able to still
refuse the job, while explaining to the customer that: Emeralds
are exceedingly fragile and risky to set, and resetting a
different stone in prongs fitted to another one was a risky poor
idea compared to new prongs, especially if the old ones were
mangled and unlikely to look well, and given the potential for
loss if the mangled reworked prongs then didn’t hold, and
unsetting and resetting stones ia already a risk, even with good
prongs and durable stones, since you’re increasing the risk of
stress cracks in the prongs that might later fail due to bending
back and forth in the unsetting/resetting process. You go
through all these things, and then explain that goldsmiths too
have limits, and that since you’re a general goldsmith, and not a
specialist stone setter, you cannot be sure that you have the
skills needed to be sure of setting the stone without damage.
Yes, this means admitting limits. But knowing your limits is
important, and showing that you do know them only enhances youre
professionalism. I’ve never yet found a customer, no matter how
imperious, who, when I’ve told them I didn’t think I was quite a
good enough setter to be sure of safely setting their stone in
the manner desired, who’d fail to agree. Usually, I can offer to
do the job the way I feel it should be done, explaining why this
would increase the quality of the job, or can offer to do what
goldsmithing I can, then referring the actual setting job to
another setter who I feel is better experienced in this type of
work. Now, if that other setter than also refuses to do the job,
I’m not at the end of the chain, and my opinion (as well as the
other setter’s) has been seconded by another expert. The trick
in all this is to make it clear to the client that your refusal
to do the job is to protect their interest and stone, not to make
your own day simpler. As with so many things in this life, it’s
as important how you say the thing, as it is what you say.
Hope this helps.
Peter Rowe