Oaks Jewelry — Local services in Gainesville

I will have to edit this post later when I have more time but, I have usually had great experiences coming in to ask questions and get jewelry fixed. This time I felt so uncomfortable. And the woman I spoke with had so little experience and acted as though she knew what she was talking about, long story short I took 2 items in to have looked at- one of them to fix and the other to ask about its history possibly. I was VERY clear and let this older woman know I was NOT there to sell. My items belonged to my grandmother that had recently passed. She had no issues ignoring that, and kept telling me what she could offer me. She even went on the computer to find one of the piece and it backfired (I didn’t even ask for a price) she said I could give you 20/39 dollars and then went silent and pulled the computer screen back towards her when she saw the specific vintage piece sells for over 3200 in decent condition - since it is an old Tiffany’s larger piece. The other person was very interested in buying, but backed down immediately when I let him know I was sorry but I was not in there to sell anything. He also had to let her know that the “dent” she told me was on the piece was not a dent, but the “Tiffany and co” logo. I would usually shrug stuff like this off and say thank you and leave- but I couldn’t not write a review because I believe that this older woman tries to lie to get what she pleases. I used to really like oaks jewelry for little things I needed fixed or making small gift purchases. In fear of being ripped off/lied to or my jewelry being treated poorly, I will not be going back: I also forgot to add that the FIRST thing she did when I handed her one of my 2 pieces and started to explain I need them looked at and one fixed, and I am just here to talk about what they need.. she had already started “very roughly “ doing a scratch test, and did it 4-5 times until I told her I didn’t need her to check the authenticity.. bc honestly I don’t care if it’s silver, gold or made out of plastic- it’s very important to me and came from my grandmother who just passed. She just said she needs to find out wether it’s gold or silver..? I know there’s white gold but uh.. shouldn’t she know by eye? I am sorry this was such a large review but it’s important to speak up.- I wouldn’t want what happened to me to happen to someone else that maybe WAS selling and get lied to and ripped off OR be told something is of a different quality or base material so they can charge more to have it repaired. I moved here a few years ago from New York and this is a HUGE problem within jewelry stores. Stay safe...

My wife brought a ring that we were considering selling to this place today, and the clerk who helped her offered to buy it for less than $130. She also claimed that the sapphire in the ring was topaz. She said she tested it with multiple machines. Normally this would be a disappointment, and we'd just move on, except...

We had previously brought the ring to a jeweler in the millhopper area who had valued it at around $2000 and offered to buy it for slightly less. We ended up not selling the ring at that time.

The lady from Oaks made us doubt the previous valuation, so we took the ring (same day) to a third jeweler (Brittany's). They also valued the ring at $2000, and they assured us that the sapphire was both genuine and natural.

I don't know much abut jewelry. I don't know much about the machines that Oaks used to "test" the sapphire-- their accuracy or acceptability within the industry-- any of that. I do know that this store tried to buy a ring for less than 10% of its resale value and misidentified a very common gem. I suspect that an expert in their field wouldn't make such a mistake. In fact, I suspect even an apprentice jeweler could tell the difference between, but maybe I'm wrong. If I'm correct, this is really sketchy. If I'm wrong, then it's an unacceptable error.

The clerk was quite defensive when we called them after visiting Brittany's. I spoke as calmly and kindly as I could, and I explained the situation, who else had appraised the ring, and the values they had given us. While she was polite, there was very little in the way of apology, and she stood by whatever devices they're using to test the materials despite being contradicted by two other (very trusted) stores in town.

Moral of the story: be wary. Get at least one other opinion if you're selling here. Honestly, I'd be wary of buying here too, but that's just me. I understand a lot of people are very happy with their buying and selling experiences here, and that's great. In the best possible light, what happened to my wife today is a sign of incompetence. I think it's much more likely that they saw a young woman with a baby selling a ring with a fat gem, assumed she was desperate, and got greedy. We definitely won't be...

I always go here when I need a short term loan, of course it's expensive, but it's a business and they have to make money too...that's what happens when u borrow money. They give me top dollar and are always willing to negotiate, and the staff is AWESOME!!!

~jkuminka

Well At least this is how I USE to feel, when they had decent ppl working there....now they are a bunch of crooks who don't understand how a pawn shop is run! They do not try and negotiate and straight up STOLE FROM MY FAMILY! Just recently my b/f pawned his golf clubs w the bag which we just recently had the funds to retrieve after paying at least 6 months of 25% interest. Now I understand completely that this is part of the game BUT when my b/f went to retrieve his clubs they had sold his leather Cleveland golf bag and only gave him the clubs back and said since he defaulted once it was theirs....yes he had defaulted once, but came in immediately to make arraignments which they agreed to, and then t proceeded to take his clubs AND bag off the floor to put back in pawn…… HOWEVER later when he went to retrieve his items, the bag was not there. They then proceeded to charge him full price for his clubs WITHOUT the $200+ bag which was part of the initial “pawn” package...WTF! Not only was this just wrong in soooo many ways, every employee in there was rude, nasty and just downright unprofessional. The last crew they had understood ppl struggle and fall on hard times and they would work with you and not try and kick you while you were already down! This new crew is downright GREEDY AND NASTY! THIS PLACE WILL NEVER GET ANOTHER DIME OUT OF...