Sondra's Fine Jewelry

Horrible experience! I had an appointment with Anthony (the owner's son) to review four large bags of jewelry for my mother-in-law's estate. Anthony and I specifically discussed that I had hundreds of items for him to look through and that I was bringing them in large vinyl grocery shopping bags. When I got to the store at the scheduled time, the store door was locked. I turned around (with all four large, heavy bags over my shoulders and in my hands) to find another door when I heard the door buzz, and then was able to open it. I was greeted by a woman who told me to leave the items, I told her I could not, that I had an appointment with Anthony. The only other person in the store, the owner, Sondra, piped up with a very dissatisfied look on her face that there was a big sign outside that said that I needed to push a button to gain access to the store - I looked behind me and apologized to her that I did not see a sign and after she gave me a look of disgust, I quipped that I couldn't be the only person that ever had missed the sign and the lady that opened the door for me said no, most do... which seemed to tick off the owner even more with her stating "the sign is as big as you are!" (I am overweight stemming from a car accident 10 years ago.) I could not believe that this woman just said that to me. Then she proceeded to tell me that Anthony did not know that I would be coming with so much jewelry and that they would be charging me $150/hour to go through the jewelry. (No condolences offered for my mother-in-law's demise.) Anthony and I specifically discussed whether a fee would be due and he said no, as long as his business was purchasing the jewelry. I told her that the fee she was stating was not what was discussed and she got loud, talked over me and said that she specifically discussed the amount of jewelry I would be bringing in with Anthony (yes!) and that Anthony needs to charge for his time (training him is my fault?)... I told her that was a really skanky thing to do as I specifically discussed all of this beforehand and wasn't appreciative of wasting my time and lugging around all the jewelry for no reason. She became loud and got in my personal space, indignantly asking me who the hell I thought I was using the work skank in her store. I picked up my things and walked out. Across the street incidentally was Northeastern Jewelers - I had never been to their store but I walked in with my four bags, was warmly greeted by three different people and spent the next 2.5 hours with a lovely, knowledgeable young lady (Gina) who confirmed that I had around $4,000 in gold and silver and sorted the rest as costume to be auctioned off by an estate liquidator. Nick brought me coffee while Gina worked on the jewelry with me and it ended up being a nice experience, doing the dreadful task of going through all of mom's things. Gina and Nick both offered their condolences and Gina and I shared many "mom stories" while we worked. While at Northeastern Jewelers, I noticed the huge selection of jewelry and will definitely go back! They have a birthstone white diamond ring that I have been looking for years for! A day turned from bad to good within a couple of hours. Shame on you Sondra - kudos Northeastern Jewelers!