Portofino Jewelry — Local services in Avon

One star only because the owner refunded our money, but they don't even deserve that. My wife and I took our watches in for battery replacements at Portafino's in Avon Colorado and they left a piece out of my wife's Bullova watch when they replaced it with an old/new battery. My wife and I returned a few months later to replace the battery under warranty (1 year) and when we arrived the girl behind the counter said "Oh we were hoping that you would come back because we left out a piece out of your watch and that's probably why it won't keep time". The girl took the watch into the back room and put the piece that was missing back in the watch and brought it back out to us and apologized for for forgetting the piece when they changed the battery.

Three days later, the watch is keeping time even worse and my wife decided to bring the watch back in to the store and have the battery replaced. The owner of the store used a piece of tape to hold the battery down in the watch and told my wife this and proceeded to tell her that it was damaged previously and that it wasn't anything they did. The watch has worked fine for several years until we brought it into this store! They did not take responsibility of damaging the arm that holds the battery in my wife's watch and proceeded to tell her that she has been doing this for 28 years and never had any problems changing batteries before. Then at one point she said she has used tape to hold the battery down in other watches where the arms didnt hold it down. The girl that replaced the missing piece three days ago proceeded to tell my wife - that she didn't brake the watch and called it a cheap $45 JC Pennies watch. The owner of the store said she was in training! Caught in many lies or should I say - shot herself in the foot.

Take your watch to a real jewelers, not a jewelry clothing store. Watches have delicate components and should be done by a professional jeweler, not someone in training that doesn't even use magnifying loops.

The shop we went to was Portafino Jewelers in...

Edit to respond to the owner's response: I'm disappointed by the defensiveness of your response. I was very clear in asking whether the chain and pendant were solid gold, and you confirmed multiple times—not just to me, but also to both of my family members who were present. The claim that I was told the chain was gold-filled is simply untrue. Additionally, bringing up unrelated details, such as my oxygen, feels like an attempt to deflect accountability.

I understand that solid gold jewelry comes at a higher price, but your statements led me to believe I was getting a bargain, especially since you specifically mentioned purchasing the jewelry from Italy during your visit. If there was any misunderstanding, it was not due to a lack of clarification on my part. I trusted your word as a small business owner, and the information I later received from Williams Jewelers confirmed that I was misled.

I shared my experience to help others make informed decisions.

Original review: I had a very disappointing experience with Portofino Jewelry. I purchased a chain and pendant from this store after the owner assured me—on multiple occasions—that both pieces were solid gold, and that the pendant contained a diamond chip. To be absolutely sure, I asked twice in person to verify the type of gold, and the owner confirmed again that it was solid gold. Later that day, my family member called the store to double-check and was once again told the same thing.

Unfortunately, when I took the jewelry to Williams Jewelers to have it tested, I found out that the chain was actually gold-filled, and the pendant was gold-plated with no diamond at all. I trusted Portofino Jewelry to be honest about the quality of their merchandise, but I feel completely misled and disappointed.

Sadly, the old saying holds true: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

I included photos of the results from the Vanta GX precious metal analyzer at...

Regarding your response to your post - You told me you changed the battery and then told me you were training your employee to do it. You didn't realize she left the watch piece on the counter out of my watch. My watch was loosing about 4 minutes in time and when I came in and was told the piece you saved was from my watch was holding the battery in. After she put the piece in, my watch, it was loosing 25 minutes. It was worse than the first time. Bottom line, you shouldn't be training employees to handle the internal delicacies of a watch without proper equipment and loops. She didn't know what she was doing and accidently damaged the tiny arm that held the battery in. You both were nasty with your comments to me and didn't want to take responsibility. I've owned many watches over the years and never had a watch stop working after a battery replacement. Very Sad at the whole experience.......Karma always comes...