On what planet should it cost this much?

[drivinmecrazy]

DD has been 'gifted' a few pieces of jewellery from my mothers collection for her birthday.
She has done this for the past couple of years to both DDs, gifting pieces she no longer wears.
One piece this year is an 18 Ct gold link bracelet.
DD has tiny wrists so took it into two local jewellers this morning to ask about having some links taken out.

First quote was £160 and would take 4 weeks. The other £200 and would have it back in 4 days.

I'm still reeling at the price!! I was expecting about £100.

Do they charge against the value of the piece? Is it relevant that it's 18 Ct?

Don't know, but I'm wondering if the jeweller gets to keep the links & how much scrap gold that amounts to.

Have you tried an independent jeweller rather than a big company.

I've just had a 9ct bracelet and an 18ct necklace repaired, both with new matching gold clasps (and had the old ones returned to me), and a silver gilt chain shortened, and the whole lot was £150

And took 14 days.

That was Lawrence's in Newbury. Great service 😊

Jewellers will absolutely not keep the links. They are returned to you. I’ve had links taken out of expensive watches and always had the removed links returned

They were both local independants and yes I would keep the links.

Also took in a Longines watch that was my late fathers to have links taken out to fit her. That was done there and then and only cost £30 but I did have to ask for the extra links!!

Was just a little shocked

I guess as a lay person I hadn't factored in the work involved.
Both were saying how to keep the repeating pattern intact whereas I might have said don't bother 😂

Cannot imagine this would more than an hours work, tops, so it does seem a bit much.

That does sound a lot but it depends on how complicated the link pattern is and you should definitely maintain it.

It sounds like they don't really want the job...

Easier to price yourself out of the reckoning sometimes than say no. If you do end up having the price accepted you can outsource and still make a profit or at least make a decent amount of money on a difficult job

And it is sort of relevant that it's 18C. That solder is expensive!

Jewellery adjustments and repairs are fiddly and labour intensive. It's skilled work.

Hmm. I had to have an 18ct yellow and white gold wedding ring repaired last year after it had to be cut off after an accident. They had to do some laser work to reinstate a tiny pattern on the very edges. It was £185 If that helps. If it's any consolation they valued it at £2k so proportionately it didn't seem that bad. I imagine the bra element must be quite valuable.

The other alternative op is to put the good stuff away until she's older and buy her something age appropriate from Ernest Jones or somewhere similar for now.