I recently brought in a pearl necklace the had bel...

I recently brought in a pearl necklace the had belonged to my grandmother in order to get it cleaned and repaired to wear for my upcoming wedding. Upon drop off, I was informed that the necklace was an imitation disappointing, but equally as sentimental to me and my family, so I went through with the work. I explicitly asked about cleaning when dropping it off, as it had lots of build up of grime between the beads from years of wear, and was told that cleaning was standard with jewelry repair. This also appears to be a general standard in the industry and has been the case with other pieces I ve had repaired in the past elsewhere. Upon pickup, the necklace was as dirty as it was when I dropped it off. The pearls were being restrung so they could have been cleaned when the necklace was disassembled, the dirt wipes off easily besides the very hard-to-clean location between the beads. I brought this up and was told that there was nothing that could be done and was given a cloth to clean them myself. It was implied that the necklace was in bad shape and not worth cleaning because it isn t real, but as I ve been gently working to get it clean, all supposed peeling is just the dirt that I had wanted cleaned off. Aside from one scratch on a bigger bead, the necklace appears to be in great shape for its age. I am extremely disappointed to have paid $135 (the price for repair regardless of the actual value of the jewelry fine if the work had been as expected) for only half the service I was expecting, and fear that my own attempt to clean them is going to damage the new strings since the dirt is located between the beads, making this all for nothing. I was considering bringing in my antique engagement ring to get a stone secured, but have the impression that they do not take the same care for work that they don t consider to be high end so I ll be looking elsewhere. On the plus side, the turn around time was reasonable and the pearls were restrung well as far as I can tell besides the cleaning.