[Jewelry making - Article 00297] - Re: [Orchid] Is rhodium plating a common practice?

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    to whom it may concern,and daniel grandi,       i had an offline
    reply from the daniel i responded to, and i responded back. he
    acknowledged that we had some things in common with the delemmas we
    face. those of us who are in retail have numerous situations that
    require more attention than most other types of businesses face, more
    disclosure, more treatments and more items that have had previous
    repair that are a nightmare waiting to happen. the level of awareness
    that i and my staff have to have about what we purchase and what we
    have to make the customer aware of is quite a chore. manufacturers
    can use products and not be aware of the retailers responsibility or
    liability, and sometimes we have no recourse. they won't stand behind
    their product.  its my reputation that will suffer. about the
    rhodium, i have had a retail store for 15 years, my experience is
    that if you do not take care of a customer for the small challenging
    pain in the ass stuff, someone else will, and make the future diamond
    sale. to be real about this, chain stores might have disclosure
    policies, but most employees are uneducated (or don't care),they 
    don't have product knowledge and sell more in one day than i do in a
    week. when i disclose, it has to be done right, or you turn the
    customer off and lose the sale. some customers don't listen and come
    back and blame me. honesty and integrity are tested on a daily basis
    because of the amount of attention that i have to pay attention to
    what it is, how it was treated, how it was made, the care the
    customer has to take. when customers bring in pieces to be cleaned,
    sized ect, i ask what they were told, most were not told anything.
    disclosure is a great concept, and realistically, i pay a price for
    disclosing that another retailer won't. i bear that burden, i am a
    goldsmith and a graduate gemologist in residence. some of the
    responses about rhodium apparently were from people who might not be
    skilled  or knowledgeable about how to deal with it, and not clever
    enough to send it to a trade shop who will do it. and if you have not
    been in retail, you have not walked in my shoes, so theoreticals are
    romantic, the world would be a better place if...! how many of you
    out there that retail disclose 14kt chain plated with 18kt? i would
    be interested in hearing from you.richard hart in denver  

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