Velez Galleries — Attraction in Colorado Springs

To start with the positive, a beautiful store. Lots of art and jewelry ranging from the Pacific Northwest to Central America. Now, unfortunately, less pleasant points... hefty mark-ups. Many antique stores in Colorado offer vastly better prices. If you travel around the four corners area, know that stores in Arizona and New Mexico can be even more attractive. as mentioned by other reviewers, the person in the store (by his demeanor, likely the owner) offers comments and guidance in a rather condescending manner...At a glance he had judged me both poor and poorly educated about antique jewelry. Lucky for me, he was wrong on both counts. DO NOT TRY TO PAY BY CREDIT CARD. He will tack on an extra "fee"... if you ask why, he will launch into an angry word-soup rant about how he doesn't think it's fair for him to pay for your miles on your credit card (dude what ???) so he recoups that by essentially, well, screwing you. By a few dollars maybe, but I do hate to be taken for a moron. If you ask for a detailed invoice he will print you a scrap of paper that shows nothing about the suddenly inflated price. So you pay and flee the store to escape the crazy-nomics lecture. After asking other local store owners if that was something like a specific, local tax policy or whatever, I got flabbergasted looks, so clearly it's just a rip-off.

I fully expect to see a response saying that I was not a customer, seems like the go-to defense. I did buy one item although it will be my first and last purchase there. And that's unfortunate, because this gallery could be awesome...

I never write reviews, never ever. 99.9% of the time, I've gotten excellent customer service everywhere ( all over the country) because I am polite / don't walk in with food or drinks / don't touch anything / don't walk around with dogs or toddlers / don't take pictures or essentially don't do anything that could be seen as disrespectful. For me to have written all this, I was unsettled to...

Around Christmas time, I had a $45 credit I put down on a pendant for Mike to hold for me. He set it aside. I did that so no one would buy it during the Holidays. At that same time, I purchased two pendants from him for my friends Wedding/Christmas presents. A few days later, I came into to buy chains for the pendants. I purchased one with the help from his son. His son was helping him during the holiday season. I couldn't find another one to my liking. A couple weeks later, I came back in to put more money down on my pendant. During this time, he told me I owed him for the chain I never purchased from his son and that I never put any money down on the pendant, that's why he put the pendant back up for sale. I was completely baffled because I've spent over $3500 in that shop in the short time I've known him. I contacted his son to have him confirm to Mike that I purchased the chain, which his son did. Shortly after that happened I got a phone call from Mike cussing me out and telling me never to come back again. He also made another poor excuse after the fact his son confirmed that I bought a chain...he told his son he was talking about another chain. There was no other chain. I asked him about my $45....he said there was no $45 .Everything I bought from him, I bought for people I cared about dearly. There was another time, he made my girlfriend a nice pendant for her birthday. On her birthday, she was on the phone and I was in his shop so I wanted to show him that she had it on. He told her... " I don't want to see what's on top of your shirt but what's underneath it." That's the Mike Velez I got to know. It just depends on what kind of mood he's in, whether you're going to get treated with respect or not. Total disappointment....

Velez galleries was like taking my little guys to a museum. I walked in with my two little guys and I was originally going in to look at men’s turquoise and rings and there is definitely plenty to see here. Although I didn’t buy one on this trip, Mike made me think about the origin of each piece and craftsmanship behind the art and love in every piece of art/jewelry. My two boys bought a few stones from Mike and before we left the store he told them to make sure and let the stones out so the energy can flow from the freely. As soon as s we got to our hotel in Santa Fe , they remembered and began to google each stone and information on them, the boys also staged their stones/crystals on the nightstand before bed. Thank you for taking the time to explain each stone to my boys and for the stories. Out of all the places we visited on this trip, your shop is the thing they talk about most. I stopped at many stores looking for a ring on my trip through Colorado and New Mexico, and at each store the history and details Mike shared with me made me look at the jewelry in those big shiny stores a lot closer and made me consider things like the source of each material and who benefits from the purchase. I will definitely be back next time I’m...