Sold Gold?

Have you sold any of your old gold lately?  Thinking of selling some of your unused, broken, or unloved gold jewelry?  As you may have read in a previous post, I sold some gold to a jeweler who seems to have had trouble reading the weight of some of the items on his scale; i.e., items weighed less at his store based on the fact that he paid more per gram of 14K (carat) gold, yet gave me less for some items than another shop I had visited.  If you have good reason to believe a business has some scale issues, here is what you can do:

Call your state Department of Weights and Measures and your local Better Business Bureau.  If you were the victim of a scale that did not seem to weigh items correctly, these two sources can steer you in the right direction.

I filed a brief complaint with my local Better Business Bureau and the Department of Weights and Measures.  Weights and Measures was most interested in scales that were incorrect.  I told them the scale could be correct and it is the jeweler "reading" it incorrectly or "adjusting" the weight in his favor.  Nevertheless, they sent someone to the jewelery shop to inspect the scale.

It seems the jeweler has four scales!  None are licensed with the state.  That is bad.  He could be fined from $300 to $500 per scale!  Bad jeweler!  Thank you Department of Weights and Measures.

It seems the jeweler did not want to hassle with the Better Business Bureau, so he said he will be sending a check in the mail to cover the amount that I was shorted.  Have I heard that one before?  The old, "Check is in the mail" routing.  We'll see.

Waiting by the old mailbox,
Southwest Desert Blogger
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