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My boyfriend and I just picked out my engagement ring yesterday. One of my close family friends is a jeweler so we went to him. We already have a diamond from my grandma so just needed a setting and he will be custom making it for us. He gave my boyfriend a price and my boyfriend found a price for half of that online. Are we getting ripped off by my family friend jeweler? What to do!
If he's charging you what he charges everyone else, then no, you're not getting ripped off. It's common for brick-and-mortar shops to cost more than online sellers, due to lower overhead, cheaper materials and labor, and so on. I wouldn't expect him to work for free. Some people would see this as a gift to your family friend, doing him a favor by contributing to his business, while others would see this as an opportunity to make a gift to you by cutting his price. If you're ticked that he didn't, well, that's up to you. Go to another jeweler in town to see if the price is much different. If it's not and he isn't ripping you off, decide whether you want to approach this as a customer (who wants to save money) or a friend (who patronizes a friend's business when possible). You're both, and as you can see mixing the two gets dicey.
If the ring from your family friend is custom designed to fit your grandmother's stone, how exactly did you find the same thing online?
^^^ This.
Before you scream ripoff, make sure you are comparing two identical products... all the way down to metal.
AND... don't forget to add the labor (and finding someone willing to mount it) to the online price.
They look pretty much identical, same metal. Yes, would need to have the diamond fitted into the setting but would it make up for double the price? I guess we also are more secure in buying from a friend in that it is a good quality setting and if we had any issues he would take care of it.
My guess is if he is smaller, he probably does not get the special rates that a huge online retailer does, but on the flip side - he probably has better workmanship and quality over the huge online retailer because even if they look the same it doesn't mean they are the same.
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