Gold Buyers Of America

When I first walked up to this place, I had high expectations, as they are advertised as «the experts». The sign out front wasn’t even a sign, it was a banner strewn across the cement façade of the front of the building.
When I walked in, the first thing I noticed was how vacant and old and dirty the place was. Dirt littered the floor, the drop ceiling had gaping holes in it and water stains all over. There was no one in the entry office, but a large hallway carpeted with awful blue carpeting led me back into a larger area where an older gentlemen sat behind a nondescript wooden desk. To the left of him was a PC that was not on, nor plugged in?
I asked him if they owned a vacuum, and he laughed and offered me a seat. This was the first sign I should have ran far away.
I took out the jewelry that I had purchased at an upscale jewelry shop in a big city from reputable indian jewelers. I had bought 22k Indian gold, and anyone that has ever held gold in their hand knows the difference between this and generic 14k semi-​gold type that you buy from JCPenny or any department store.
This was quality, HEAVY jewelry and judging by what I weighed it at when i was home, I had a good idea what it was worth.
The gentlemen started off telling me how much he knows about gold, and how long he has been doing this. Blah blah blah it continued for a while and eventually I took out my gold and let him take a look.
The first thing he said was that it might not really be the carat that I expect it to be, and that he will go ahead and do some tests for me. He said that his tests might damage the jewelry and asked for my consent.
Since I planned to sell this stuff one way or the other, I agreed. He took out this little kit from a small box on his desk, that looked as if it came from a Cracker Jack box. It also seemed old, worn, and almost like a prop from some movie scene.
He dropped some water looking substance onto a black smooth stone, and scratched the surface using my jewelry. I won’t go into the details of the other tests he ran, but suffice to say, when we were finished, he had used 3 out of 4 of the bottles, and told me it wasn’t 22k gold. He even went to far as to be «fairly certain» it wasn’t going to test at 18k either, and that most likely I had been robbed.
Well, I’m no spring chicken, and I wasn’t born yesterday, and I know what I bought when i bought it over 15 years ago, so I wasn’t believing this guy for a second.
Then, the magic moment I had been waiting for arrived… the time when this supposed gold buyer expert would give me his offer. No offer of taking the items and giving them a real appraisal, no, not at all.
$ 300 is what he offered me, and he told me he doesn’t think I will get much more for these items.
I thanked him, and bit my tongue as I left for I sure wanted to tell him to change his suit, cut his hair, vacuum or maybe just plug in his computer and people might take him a little more seriously, but I decided against it.
I took my gold to the place I cash my checks, and in 20 minutes, they offered me more than 2x what he had offered me, about what I expected to get for my 22k gold jewelry that I sold.
I would not chalk this up to simply one location. If the corporate parent wants to allow these «franchises» or whatever they call them to use their logo, their company name, and their reputation, then they need to expect to get some bad marks against them when they let yahoos like this guy represent them in the big world.
I for one will NEVER go back to this company ever again for anything, they ruined their one chance in my opinion to win me over.