West Coast Gold Buyers

SELLER BEWARE — THIS STORE IS A RIP-​OFF FOR SELLING GOLD
I collect jewelry and occasionally sell some of my gold pieces that I no longer need or want at various places around Santa Clara county. I ran across an advertisement for West Coast Gold Buyers in a local mailer and decided to check them out as they offered a coupon to pay an additional 50% on top of their «best prices» for gold.
I called their main telephone number to get a quote for what they were buying 14Kt gold at that day and was told that they do not quote prices over the phone and that I would have to go to one of their stores.
I stopped by the store on Bascom and was assisted by a young lady working there. I asked her what they were currently paying for 14kt gold per gram so that I could quickly assess whether their offer would be worth my time. The young lady informed me that they purchase based on «penny weight» (DWT) not gram weight — strange to me as gold is usually always dealt with in terms of grams (and I used to work in a jewelry store and have gone to the buying shows where everything is done by the gram); however, she still didn’t offer a price per penny weight for comparison.
At this point, I took out one of my pieces and weighed it on my jewelry scale (approximately 5 grams of 14kt gold) and offered it to her to weigh so that she could tell me what they would pay for the piece. She told me that they would offer me $ 35 for the piece — I was shocked as this was far lower than the $ 100+ I could get from my usual source and much lower than most other jewelers and buyers would offer.
I can usually get 85% — 90% of the spot price for the gold pieces that I sell and most gold buyers will offer at least 60% of the spot market price BUT these folks were closer to an incredibly low 30% of spot price! So just say NO to getting ripped off by this establishment because you can get way more at most other reputable gold buyers than you can here!

This was my first experience in getting gold appraised, so I was not sure how the process worked. I did tell the woman working that I wanted to obtain a quote for the gold pieces before we began our interaction. Unfortunately, I did not get her name. The employee’s demeanor was barely friendly, but professional. She weighed and tested each piece, then wrote down a quote. I asked if she could remove the gems in the rings and weigh them again, which she did do. We mis-​communicated, and the lady thought that I had accepted the quote so she proceeded to photograph my license and jewelry pieces, took a print of my thumb and entered information into her computer. I thought that this process was part of obtaining a quote. I only realized that we had not understood each other when she got out the check binder to write me a check. At that time I reiterated that only wanted a quote. The staff person became angry and asked my why I had made her go through the whole process if I did not intend to sell my jewelry. She was quite nasty.
I realize that it was a hassle for the staff person to cancel the information that had already been documented but I did not intend for her to do extra work on purpose. The woman did return my jewelry and I left the store. Given the situation, even if the employee gave me the the best quote for my old gold jewelry, I do not feel comfortable going into any one of these stores, and at this time, I would not recommend West Coast Gold Buyers to any of my friends and acquaintances.
I sent an email to their company, detailing my concerns but did not hear a word back from them. Their website says that they pride themselves on the relationships they’ve built with people throughout the community, but unfortunately, I do not feel that my experience with this woman was an accurate reflection of that statement.