Ulman's Jewelry — Local services in Fredericksburg

Summary: if you don’t have a lot to spend, you will not be valued. This place does not deserve your money.

We took a sentimental silver pendant to be polished/restored which involved removing old lacquer from the piece and to have the chain be removed (it had no clasp). The piece had an engraving of my recently passed father’s initials, and I was adamant that we did not want the engraving to be removed. We asked what, if anything, could be done to restore the piece and the jeweler asked permission to polish a corner to show us what it would look like. I agreed, and after seeing the polished corner decided to leave the piece for the entire back to be polished, again confirming that the engraving would not be removed. The polished corner shown to me at that time did not have any polish marks/scratches. When returning, we see the chain had not been removed, the engraving had been worn away, and “polish marks” covered the entire back of the piece. It looked rough in the light when all the marks were reflecting and visible. I asked if there was any way the engraving could be made more prominent and why there were scratches. I mentioned I was not happy with the result, kindly and calmly. The woman at the counter took the piece back to ask, and returned with the jeweler in tow. He explained why the engraving was less prominent, saying that it had been engraved through the lacquer and removal of the lacquer meant the engraving was not as deep and therefore not as prominent. (This was not mentioned as a possibility when dropping the piece off.) When questioned about the “scratches” (I am not a jeweler, so I did not know to use the term “polish marks”), he became defensive saying he thought he was “doing us a favor” and “I shouldn’t have even touched the thing”. (Sir, we came in asking for a paid service. Not a favor. If you could not perform the paid service, do not take on that responsibility.) My response was “I don’t think that was necessary.” He then began speaking over us, in a very rude and confrontational manner, simply because we were asking about the piece and expressed disappointment in the result. No one should ever treat a customer the way he spoke to us. We originally intended on buying a new chain for the pendant at Ulman’s, but we told him we were done and turned away to pay for the damage done to my deceased father’s pendant. It is important to note that at no point were WE rude or confrontational.

For obvious reasons, we chose not to purchase a replacement chain at Ulman’s and walked down the street to Crown Jewelers. We were immediately met with a warm welcome from multiple staff members. As I explained the situation, the weight of what had just transpired hit me and I became emotional. The women working there were very kind offering me a tissue and expressing their condolences. When shown the pendant, the staff at Crown Jewelers immediately saw the problem with the “repair” completed by Ulman’s and offered what solutions they could. They also informed me the link to connect my pendant to a chain was STILL OPEN, and therefore could have fallen from a chain if placed on one. The staff proceeded to help me pick out the perfect chain while the owner took my pendant and cleaned it up (apparently it was not cleaned before it was given back to me, which was accentuating the “polish scratches”) and closed the link (he recommended I have it soldered closed, which I will be doing after the holidays). The appearance of my pendant was improved as much as it could be and I felt like a valued customer when I left. Today I learned Crown Jewelers will show you care no matter what amount you are spending.

I strongly feel our appearance and the amount of money we were spending had a huge impact on our treatment at Ulman’s. I doubt they would be in business so long if this is the way they treated all their customers. Be aware and do not trust them with your sentimental pieces, and certainly do not trust them to be kind and put the customer first. This business will never get my recommendation again...

Extremely frustrated with Ulman’s. I was quoted for a necklace at 21$ which was actually double the price. My father kindly went to go pick up the necklace and the bill was much higher 70$ (ish). I should’ve told them clip the necklace I’m done. Just overall; extremely frustrating. The customer service was okay; but kinda had the feeling they thought I made the mistake..I surely did not. They had me drive there to rectify the situation. They fixed it sure; but it was their fault and the customer is always right. They said ‘we’ve been in this business for 90 odd years’…well that’s not how you treat customers. You take the high road and expect repeat customer instead of wasting their time. I should’ve said something to the owner; but decided to take the high road. Ultimately; I will just find another Jewelry store and stop recommending them. Not about the price; it’s about time wasting and making me feel like I MADE the mistake…they did. I own a business and that’s not how I treat my customers ever under any circumstance. Ultimately; didn’t get the product or service I wanted because of their...

True jewelers, and I could not be more pleased! I have a pair of antique brass glasses that I wear, and recently snapped the temple piece. I called every store in the area that offered repair services, and found that nobody had any idea what they were doing. I was informed that they could only be fixed by laser (not true, there's a reason why soldering techniques have existed for thousands of years and continue to do so) or that they only worked in gold and silver (requiring the same exact tools to repair the problem, with no detriment to tool or metal as brass). Thankfully the real jewelers at Ulman's know what they're doing, and fixed the piece within minutes while i waited, at a very reasonable cost. Thank you, Ulman's, for greeting me pleasantly, being both helpful and knowledgeable, and for having the most beautiful damascus knives and lovely silver torque bracelets to distact me on my...