Casa De Oro Jewelry

Well, since there hasn’t been a Unilocal review on this business since 5/​2013, let me provide an update with OUR experience in ⁵⁄₂₀₁₅.
We were in the area to visit Hearst Castle, and had bought a necklace pendant in Cambria that we thought would make an exotic and interesting ring.
Upon purchasing the pendant, we inquired if there was a local jeweler we could take it to who was qualified to make it into a ring.
We were referred to Heather at Casa De Oro and my wife and I spent some time chatting with her and she seemed friendly enough and certainly qualified to take on the job.
She told us, in a week or so, she’d email us photos of the wax mold prior to starting, and gave a price of $ 170. Two weeks went by with no email or status so we inquired what was happening with our ring. She said she’d been busy and would get us the email later that week.
All along, we assumed our price was going to be $ 170 (her estimate, not ours), but, when she was ready to send the finished ring, she announced it was a «little more» than expected (nearly double!) and «offered» to «meet us halfway» and «split the difference».
When I balked and said «your estimate had been $ 170; offering to split the difference of double-​pricing the estimate amounted to making US half-​responsible for the misquote. I offered a 20% increase over the original quote and Heather reluctantly accepted.
The mood changed 180° between Heather and I during negotiations to come to a reasonable and fair conclusion and she was no longer pleasant, and, in fact, quite bitter.
Seriously, as a professional IN the jewelry business for so many years, she should easily have been able to make her quote/​estimate more on-​target and, if not, needed to communicate the additional cost once the wax mold was completed giving us the option of continuing or canceling. (My wife requested verification of the quote not once, not twice, but three times to no avail.)
Overall, the experience was quite disappointing, however, we WILL say this: the ring DID come out nicely and we are grateful for her skilled creation.

We love Heather and Casa De Oro-​always find something beautiful there and Heather is GREAT!

Heather was so helpful. Fixed my broken necklace, found me the perfect earrings to go with it! Love this place!

Heather made custom jewelry out of some old jewelry that I never wore that is gorgeous and innovative. She is a pleasure to work with and her store has items that are different than the usual jewelry store fare. I would go back for more design work or if I wanted to just treat myself.

I have going to this store for years, even though it is an hour from my house. Their service is great and I trust them to be honest with me. They are very friendly and do great work. She made me some earrings and has done other custom work.

Beautiful and interesting jewelry, wide range of prices, nicest store owner EVER. I bought myself a beautiful necklace and earrings, and there’s another necklace there that I really want to get for my BFF’s next birthday… we’ll see. Don’t miss this place if you love jewelry.

The owner is incredibly sweet and helpful. All of her jewelry looks hand made and unique. She actually encouraged me to «go ahead take it outside in the sun.» Just try taking unpaid jewelry out of the store in L.A. Needless to say, I ended up buying beautiful earrings and left feeling all warm and fuzzy.