1 /5 Allen Worcester: I first stopped by Brians Jewelry because of the outstanding reviews. Unfortunately, my experience here was shockingly bad.
On January 8, 2024 I dropped off a pocket watch to be engraved. I was told there might be a bit of a longer wait as the machine required wasnt set up but that I could expect the piece to be done by the end of January. It was not ready by then, so I suggested a new deadline of Valentines Day. It still wasnt ready. I mentioned my husband was being promoted in mid-March and Id love to present the watch to him then. Again, it still wasnt ready. The excuse was always "weve been busy" which I took to mean that they opted to fulfill other requests which they received after mine instead. I pointed out how long it had been, and they promised it by mid-April.
Which brings me to today, April 4th 2024, when I finally got to pick up the pocket watch.
The engraving did not match what I had written down on the order slip. Punctuation had been moved and added. Not only did this alter a direct quote from a poem but it was grammatically incorrect. I was in such a hurry to be done with the place I told myself that my husband wouldnt care, paid, and left. Brian did not offer a discount for the absurd wait time or the errors, and he barely apologized for the former. I cried the whole way home at the thought of giving my amazing husband such a marred gift. I looked at it again and tried to convince myself I was overreacting, and thats when I noticed the most egregious error of all.
The engraving is upside down.
I called and spoke to Brian about it, and - despite the fact that the engraving does not match the order slip and is in fact upside down - he had the gall to claim that he did what I asked! He refunded the cost of the engraving, at least, but he didnt so much as offer an apology for ruining an expensive pocket watch and what was meant to be a deeply meaningful gift.
Im appalled at the utter lack of precision, care, and responsibility I encountered at Brians Jewelry, and I highly discourage anyone from trusting them with expensive or sentimental pieces.