Nelson Estate Jewelers — Local services in Mesa

I selected Nelson Estate Jewelers after researching and reading a lot of great reviews online. On 2/18/23, I took 5 rings and 2 bracelets in to get them resized and fixed. We discussed how we would resize my wedding ring from 4.75 to a 3.5, since it had diamond channels and it could cause a problem going that small. Dave, the owner, said he could try it, but he wouldn’t be responsible if something happened to the diamonds. I didn’t want to take that chance, so Dave suggested putting in a half gold band along the bottom of the ring with a smooth finish, which sounded great. This would prevent any issues with the diamonds. Three of my other rings were going to be resized from a 5 to a 4 and the other ring from a 7 to a 6.5. The two bracelets were also going to be resized from a 7 to a 6 once they were fixed. I traded in about a dozen pieces of jewelry (rings, bracelets, necklaces, charms, etc.) for $870, which would almost cover the cost of having the work done. I still had to pay $50 after it was said and done. Yikes! He did replace some watch batteries for me and said it was no charge, which I appreciated. I was excited to get the work done and was told it would take 2 weeks.

After two weeks, I checked to see if they were almost done. I spoke with Aubrey, Dave’s wife, and was told they haven’t even started yet. She said they are really busy and it would take another 1-2 weeks! I was not happy! I could have worn my wedding ring for the last two weeks if I had known. She also made a comment about my wedding ring being more complicated because of the channels. Why? Did they forget what we discussed? I texted Dave to ensure my wedding ring would be done like we discussed.

Dave called me and was justifying how busy they were and that he never said two weeks. He said he would try to get everything done for me by Tuesday even though he would be working on his day off. On Tuesday, I picked up my jewelry and tried on all the pieces. Everything looked beautiful, but I had a hard time getting a couple of my size 4 rings on and thought my fingers were swollen. My wedding ring was not what I was expecting either. Instead of a half gold band going along the bottom (as discussed), he soldered on a gold pad to the bottom center of the ring that acted as a bump. I was disappointed, but I let it go since it fit.

I tried my rings on for a couple of days and still couldn’t get two of them on. I finally checked the rings with my ring sizing tool and sure enough one of them was a 3.5 and not a 4! Another ring was 6.75 and not a 6.5, but since I could wear it, I let it go. One ring didn't fit because it was flatter on top, which prevented it from going past my knuckle. I had to take two of them back in, since I couldn’t wear them. They could have saved me a trip if they checked the ring sizes when I was there. When I dropped the rings off on 3/11/23, Aubrey said she thinks Dave just assumed the 3.5 ring was the wedding ring size even though it was on the receipt to size it to a 4. They never said sorry or took ownership of their mistake. She said it would take 2 weeks, because they are really busy! It was their mistake and I was still at the back of the line.

On 3/31/23, I messaged them that it’s been 3 weeks and I still haven’t heard anything about my rings. A few hours later, Dave texted the rings were done a week ago and that they left a voicemail! They never left a voicemail or I would have picked them up. And they were only going to call once? I feel they were overpriced for what I got. I paid $920 (trade in value and cost) to have 5 rings and two bracelets fixed/resized and 3 out of 5 rings were not done correctly or as discussed.

My advice to the jewelry store is to do what you say you will do (i.e, wedding ring), check the sizing of the rings once you complete the work and with your customers, under promise and over deliver and don’t make excuses for wrong time frames and ring sizing mistakes. When you make a mistake say you are sorry and put your customer first. Sadly, I will need to go elsewhere to get my rings...

Dave found a way to mount these Wobito snowflake-cut topaz and they’re beautiful. In the second picture, I brought him a star sapphire that I bought in Sri Lanka on a trip I went on from Dubai where I lived and I went with a colleague who tragically died at age 61 on a job in Vietnam. It looks beautiful, right? Well, it fell out of the setting and I took it back to Nelson’s. It turns out I was ripped off in Sri Lanka. The stone was glass-filled.

I could hardly believe what happened next. Since Dave had identified it as a true sapphire and it cracked when they tried to reset it, he said he stood behind his work - he ordered 3 matching real star sapphires from Sri Lanka. He replaced my “tourist” stone with a real 6.4 carat stone for free. He told me he would set my original cracked stone in a pendant.

This was all so generous. I declined to have the bogus stone set in a necklace and told him that replacing the bogus stone with a real stone was enough. He stated that he stood behind his work and would give me a store credit. I thought that replacing my rip-off stone was enough.

This jeweler is the best in all of the Phoenix area. Their prices on jewelry are almost wholesale and my husband purchased two rings there on my birthday, one was on sale...

Oh my gosh where do I start! I googled places in Mesa that specialize in antique platinum jewelry because I needed to have an heirloom ring fixed so that I could wear it. The first place I saw I didn't really like and this was the second on the list so I decided to give them a call and see what they said, and boy am I so glad that I did! Not only did they do amazing work fixing my antique ring but I found a ring that almost exactly matched mine to make a full wedding set! I needed the band thicker so we ended up taking a ring I had at home and mixing them together to make a gorgeous unique ring that now has a thicker band. The jeweler there did the BEST JOB EVER and is an amazing talent!!! She was able to keep the internal engraving intact and also able to keep the outside engraved design intact as well but still take and make an entire new half shank to make it thicker and bigger. I highly recommend them to anyone that has an antique piece of jewelry that they need fixed or worked on as they did an amazing job and they have a ton of antique options in store as well. They even do custom work and so many of the pieces that they have are amazingly gorgeous!! The owners are super nice and welcoming and extremely knowledgeable and all around...