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  • Xmas Jeweller's job

    Well I have my first steady job lined up since Christmas 03-04, not counting this week of working at the book fair, and it's a Xmas jobbie at F.Hinds the jewellers!! I'm actually really looking forward to it and it's a funny story how I got it, which I shall now proceed to share with you.

    All this summer, starting from May-time, I was searching for a summer job. ANYTHING would do, but no...there was jack!! I'd tried in every shop...
    Now, last august (not this one gone) F.Hinds held a valuation service, and I suggested me mam to go. She brought her wedding and engagement rings and her bracelet. The rings went fine, but this bracelet was the cause of all the trouble. Now it's a very unusual bracelet: It's a box-shape, not a chain or bangle at all, kind of like a mini-articulated train of filigree white gold boxes that clip together. Most of the boxes are plain but five are mounted with stones. The outer two are Ceylon (bright blue) sapphires, then two clear diamonds, then a large Australian (dark blue) sapphire. I love it to bits and it's part of my inheritance too. She hadn't worn it for years 'cause the last valuation had told her the diamonds were cubic zirconia. Which destroys the point of the bracelet if all else is fantasticly perfect except for two crumbs of crystallised crappy metal that CZ is.
    So she brought it to the service, and they told her instantly with a beeper that they were indeed diamond. Yay!! THEN they said the two outer sapphires might be a very early setting of tanzanite!! (Blue-lilac gem; been around for ages but only now in the spotlight; becoming rare and settings before about 1970 are also rare) My mum was confused and sent it to their office...or something...partially to confirm the stones and partially because they'd valued it wrong.
    Cue two months of mum repeatedly poking the F.Hinds manager about her bracelet...
    Now, back to me job-hunting. I know some of the blokes there when I went to the valuation thing. I asked the nice grey-haired guy who's the manager if you need any funky qualifications to work here, first of all, and he answered 'no, but it's helpful if you're slightly mad'. Then he looked at me and asked 'you're not related to that crazy lady with the sapphire box bracelet are you?' and I said 'I'm her daughter.'
    He replied 'oh God you poor thing. Look, come here in October and I'll give you a christmas job...'

    And wha-la.
    There is something I want to ask, too: this is a respectable English jeweller's chain, so will I be facing many types of SCs?
    "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

  • #2
    While I have no first hand experience selling precious gems, my theory has always been, the more money they think they are spending, the more SCish they get. Anyone buying jewelry thinks they are breaking the bank, even if they are buying the $99 special from the crappy place in the mall.

    I do wish you the best of luck. I would love to be able to be around all those beautiful stones day in and day out. My jeweler loves what he does. He makes all the jewelry he sells himself, and it is some fantastic stuff.
    The only words you said that I understood were "His", "Phone" and "Ya'll". The other 2 paragraphs worth was about as intelligible as a drunken Teletubby barkin' come on's at a Hooter's waitress.

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    • #3
      You're selling "special" gifts at Christmas, so yes, i suspect even in Hinds, you'll get more than your fair share of SCs. It could be worse, though, you could be selling Elizabeth Duke at Christmas, can you imagine? All those chavvy men coming in to buy clowns (or "claaarns" as they are known round here) on chains or sovereign rings, or giant hoop earrings, and thinking they are Donald Trump because they are about to drop £40 on a bracelet.
      A person who is nice to you, but not nice to the waiter is not a nice person
      - Dave Barry

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      • #4
        Yeah, I'm almost expecting plenty of chavs. Even though most of them go to Argos.
        "...Muhuh? *blink-blink* >_O *roll over* ZZZzzz......"

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