Olde Towne Jewelers — Local services in Santa Rosa

This was my first time entering or dealing with either location of Olde Towne Jewelers or their eBay store. I chose the 4th st. retail store to bring in a gold chain I was wanting to sell & see what they would offer me for it. I chose them based on a Google search for Gold Buyers near Santa Rosa where they came up in the top 2 on the list of Non Sponsored results based not just on the 5 star rating scale but that combined with the total reviews submitted. The other place I considered with a comparable rating was Rinkor Coins but they were only open until 2pm on Saturdays while Olde Towne was open until 5:30pm. In addition to that I also read a summary of reviews for both places on Yelp. Anyway, on to my experience at Olde Towne Jewelers. I knocked on the front door (because the glass front door is locked, you have to be buzzed in) A pleasant looking lady noticed me right away, buzzed the door open and came to greet me. Not mentioning my earlier research I pointed to the small sign on the window that said, "Before you sell your old jewellery, scrap gold, etc. etc. Talk to us first!" and repeated the signs message. She replied warmly and cheerfully, "Well come on in! I'll go get our buyer for ya. It'll be just a moment."

After a couple minutes a man came out and asked how he could help me. (I don't recall his name but when I asked if he was the owner he said no, he was the stores manager) I handed him my chain and told him I was wanting to find out if it was even real gold and if so, what it might be worth, and if interested, how much he would offer for it to buy it. And also if he had time, if he could answer a couple "free advice" questions about how to go about scrapping some old broken watches I suspected were gold also. The first thing he said was, "You do have your I.D. with you?" I said "Yes I do." "Then I certainly can help you with all that." He replied. Starting with my chain (all done in my presence) he gave it a look over with the jewellers eye loop then asked if it was ok to do a non damaging gold test on it. I agreed. He rubbed the chain clasp on some little surface and applied a solution to it and told me yes it's real, 14k and weighed it. Told me what dollar amount he appraised it's retail worth as, and if I wanted to sell it he could offer me $xxxx.xx dollars for it. That amount was roughly 80% of the retail value he assigned it. Since we are talking about an average not so unusual, machine made, used gold chain, I felt the offer was fair enough so I said "Sold!" Then after giving a digital signature and thumb print he looked at a couple watches I had. Determined one was gold, the other wasn't. Told me how much the scrap gold on the one would add to my dollar total as well as information on the "at a glance" average cost if I wanted to repair either watch. I chose to hold on to the watches. Then along with some enjoyable friendly chatting he cut me a customary business check drawn on a local bank located a couple blocks away. That bank is closed Saturdays & Sundays, so for those of you without a bank account I'll update this review as to whether or not being paid with a check turns out to be a problem on Monday. But even if it is a problem, that will be a reflection of the banks attitude on providing good service and I'm confident Olde Towne Jewellers will help me find a solution if that should happen. Monday update (After showing my CA I.D., giving a thumbprint, signing it, and paying a $5 check cashing fee for non account holders, the bank cheerfully cashed the check) So to sum it up... Awesome job, awesome customer experience, awesome money in my pocket. Keep up the good work staff of Olde Towne Jewelers!

One Warning! When you go in there you'll notice they have a lot of very unusual and awesome high end stuff for sale. That will make the increased value amount they offer if you are selling something and want to apply the amount to a purchase of something there quite tempting! So if you're there selling to pay your light bill be ready to close your eyes or wear...

I am not one to write up reviews but this has to be shared. I went in to see about selling a beautiful piece of jewelry I had, with an appraisal to back up what my piece exactly was. I was helped by an older gentleman, glasses I believe his name was Larry. He looked at the piece and the appraisal and you could see he was not interested or maybe that was his tactic. He never gave me an offer only asked what I wanted for it. When I tried to inquiere what he would offer, his response was, “ nothing that will make you happy.” I then brought out a second piece, blue sapphire and diamond tiffany tennis bracelet. I noted that I believed it was platinum. He arrogantly said, gold is more valuable than platinum right now.” He picked it up, took a glance at it and asked what I wanted for it. I gave him a number and he said I’ll be right back. I could see he went to a computer, I waiting patiently and he returned saying that he could get the bracelet for less at wholesale price. I knew this guy was again not interested as if he would have really looked at the bracelet he would have noticed a diamond missing. I said okay, put my brackets away. He then said “if you find your self needing money, car problems, taxes then come back in and we can re visit a deal.” I was pretty stunned, I really couldn’t believe he just said that. I was appalled at his behavior, it was not the treatment you should give to someone, make them feel like you have garbage when you have valuable pieces. I will never be back and have made my friends and family know that this place treats you like dirt. I sent an email to the owner a few weeks ago to let him know about my experience. I didn’t get a reply back, not every a thank you for your feedback generic message. Really terrible business...

i spoke with someone on the phone yesterday about bringing in A LOT of jewelry to have appraised and sell. i talked with him for about 10 minutes, and he explained their process to me and i gave my thoughts as well. i called this morning to confirm i could come in, and drove 40 minutes.

when i arrived, i was the only one there. the two men there understood that i was there to have jewelry appraised to sell. two people came in after me, and they helped both of them first. one of the guys took close to 10 minutes for assistance- with his rolex. so he gets priority- because he spends more money there, noted. when they decided it was my turn, i told them that i didnt really appreciate that. if im coming to sell jewelry to you, i would expect at least a little respect.

terry, the buyer, was so rude when he was talking to me i was truly taken aback and asked for the guy i talked to on the phone to come over- he seemed nice enough. both him and terry proceeded to mansplain the process to me for the second or third time. at this point i was feeling so disrespected and frustrated, i said in a firm tone what my expectations/plans for the jewelry was.

terry didnt like that, and told me to leave and they didnt want to buy my jewelry… honestly all i could do was laugh. it was SO predictable for this old boys club jewelry store to be deterred by a strong and smart woman.

good thing there are countless stores in the area to sell to. also, all their engagement...