Bryn Mawr Jewelry Co — Local services in Lake View Township

This may be a little long! A little over two years ago, I needed to get an anniversary band adjusted and I had read that Bryn Mawr Jewelers did such work. It was an aquamarine ring and, not only did they make the adjustment, the work they did on the ring came out beautiful. I was really happy with the look. A few months ago, I started to develop a pretty nasty rash under my wedding ring. The rash got so bad; I had to stop wearing my ring. This was not easy for me. Everyone knows that a wedding ring has a lot of sentimental value and this ring especially, means the world to me. It’s not an expensive ring with a huge rock, in fact, it’s a quite modest ring but it means the world to me. I married my husband in Haiti right after the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti. When we married, the entire country was in ruins. I never even expected him to have a ring for me, but he did (I didn’t lol). Then, two days later, while stuck in traffic in Port-au-Prince, we were held up at gunpoint, and I almost had my ring taken. For the past seven years, I have only taken my ring off a few times but now with this rash under the band, I had to take it off for days at a time. Not wearing my ring after seven years on my finger felt really strange. Whenever the rash got better, I started wearing the ring again only for the rash to come back. I was devastated. I had an idea that if I could have the hallow part under the stone, where the water kept getting in, closed up, my rash would go away. I checked the Internet but every site I checked told me that it was impossible to do that to a ring. Then I remembered how Bryn Mawr Jewelry was so skillful in fixing my aquamarine anniversary ring. Desperate, I took the ring to Bryn Mawr Jewelry. Honestly, I thought they would send me away. I told the jeweler my problem and he said, “Yes, we can do that but the ring will be a little top heavy.” I asked what that meant and he explained it and let me make a decision if I wanted to go ahead with the work. Yes! I had no problem with it being a little top heavy since my fingers on each side would block the ring from turning anyway. Of course, I had to leave the ring at the shop. I had never parted with the ring for any amount of time so having to leave it for a week at the shop was not easy for me. A week later, I got a call that the ring was ready. I came to the shop and they brought out the ring. When I saw it, I was in absolute shock and awe. It was more beautiful that I had ever seen it before. The fill looked so perfect, it looked like the ring was made that way. The extra layer of gold made the ring look incredibly beautiful and suddenly, it even looked like a much more expensive ring (not that that mattered). The ring was cleaned and the stones sparkled. It was everything I wanted and more. I could not help but cry. All the emotions from the earthquake and the robbery, the good and bad times of our marriage are all captured in this ring and I believe that Bryn Mawr Jewelry understands the special emotions and memories a piece of jewelry holds for its owner. They took my ring and did not change it but made it better, more beautiful. I don’t even know how to describe it. I cannot say enough good things about this little shop! It is a special gem in the neighborhood. I’m so...

Update* I wanted to update my original review because the owner reached out after reading about my experience, and I really appreciated how everything was handled from there.

I had brought in a sentimental necklace pendant for repair and also needed a battery replacement for my watch. While the repair itself was flawless. I was initially disappointed with the drop-off experience. It left me unsure about coming back.

Since then, though, the owner has gone out of their way to follow up and make sure I felt heard and valued. We continued working together, and everything after that has been great. The communication, care, and quality of work really stood out.

It’s not every day you find a business that takes feedback seriously and genuinely wants to make things right, but that’s exactly what happened here. I now feel confident coming back and definitely look forward to working with them again in the future.

Original* I brought in a necklace pendant for repair and also needed a battery replacement for my watch. I waited until I received my jewelry back to write this review, and I must say, the repair itself was flawless. Seeing my grandmother’s pendant brought back to life after years of wear was truly special. Based on the quality of the repair alone, this would easily be a 5-star review.

However, my issue lies with the drop-off experience. I had called a few days in advance to ask about the process and was told to simply bring my items in for a quote great, no problem. But when I arrived, the service left much to be desired. I understand it was busy, but there was no greeting when I entered, which set the tone. When it was finally my turn, the woman who assisted me came across as quite condescending. She repeatedly questioned what material the pendant was made of, almost as if she didn’t believe me, and made sure to point out that the pendant was thin and bent, doubting whether it could even be repaired. She even wrote “very thin” on the receipt, which felt unnecessary and left me feeling like my business wasn’t welcome.

It’s unfortunate because the craftsmanship on the repair was wonderful, but the customer service made me reconsider returning, especially since this was a top contender for engagement ring shopping. I believe my money would be better...

My partner and I purchased a fragile necklace from Bryn Mawr. The piece very quickly got a small kink near the clasp so we took it back to Bryn Mawr for them to just cut out the kinked part and shorten the necklace. During that servicing, Bryn Mawr kinked the necklace further to the point that it was beyond repair. They offered to replace the necklace with a more durable piece of equal value, which they would need to order as they did not have anything on hand. They offered to order in multiple options so that we could choose. We live nearly an hour away from Bryn Mawr and we had already made several trips between the original purchase and the servicing.

When we finally returned to view the replacement options, we were surprised to find that everything they had ordered was between $400 and $1000 more expensive than what we had already paid. So our only options were to ask them to re-order less expensive necklace options in order that they would truly replace (not upsell) the piece that they destroyed and then take another 2+ hours out of some other weekend day to do it all over again, or to just pick the cheapest available option and pay the extra 40+% charge in order be done with it.

To recap:

We bought a necklace from Bryn Mawr for over $1000

Bryn Mawr damaged the necklace beyond repair

Bryn Mawr offered to replace the necklace that they broke

Bryn Mawr waited until we had come all the way back weeks later before revealing that we couldn’t walk out with our replacement unless we paid them several hundred additional dollars

I could have raised a complaint but I was left with the options of wasting additional money or wasting additional hours of my time. I realized at that time that Bryn Mawr does not do business with integrity. They took the opportunity of their mistake in order to swindle several hundred more dollars from my partner and I. They knew exactly how much we had spent on the necklace and still only ordered options that were drastically more expensive as replacement options. Despite having spent thousands of dollars on other pieces there in the past, we will not be doing any further business...