Bernie's and Son Jewelers, St. Petersburg FL

I had a real good experience when I purchased my watch. The sales person was very knowledgeable and the owner even came out to help my questions. I will come back when I need something else.

This is the place to go if you value quality and customer service. I got my first engagement ring here a few years ago and they recently helped me pick out an upgrade. I appreciate buying from a family business that makes me feel like a valued customer. Highly recommend!

The place is in a great location but the guy named Bob that works there is somewhat of a smug, arrogant, and deceptive guy. He tried shamelessly to convince me and my mom that he could replicate my deceased father's wedding band and missed by miles. When we informed him that it was not the same ring, he insisted that he never claimed it was before hanging up on my mom. We are out $350 and he acts as though he had nothing to do with it. When I confronted him at the store he immediately told me to leave because he had a new customer in there and needed to sink his paws into him without interference. Bob, I will never do business with you again and neither will anybody I know, if I can help it. Just because you're paying through the nose for a high dollar property, it doesnt give you the right to hustle others and then bump your gums at them.
Edit ->> in the interest of being fair I wanted to edit my previous comment and let you know that Bob did just call my mother to rectify the situation. He is reimbursing her and all is better. Thanks for doing the right thing eventually Bob.

Bob and Kurt provided an absolutely phenomenal experience. Honest and fair! Will be doing all future jewelry business here

Brad is great and extremely knowledgeable. We got great service and great selection of jewelry.

Great service! Brad was very knowledgeable and helped me find exactly what I was looking for. My favorite jewelry shop hands down.

I wanted to surprise my husband with a custom platinum wedding ring for Father's Day.

Unfortunately, my jewelry designer had the piece produced at Bernie's & Son Jewelers.

The $4000 ring is a disaster.

The designer is absolutely devastated and says that in her 25 years in business she has never seen such bad quality.

Worst of all, Brad at Bernie's & Son refuses to accept any responsibility or issue any refund.

He says he inspected the ring personally and that to him, it is absolutely perfect.

When pressed about it, he just says that he doesn't want the ring.

Of course, who would want a ring like that? Look at the pictures.

Bernie's & Son are not honest enough to stand by their work or reasonable enough to admit when they make a mistake.

I have such low faith in them that I now feel I must go take the ring to be inspected by a reputable jeweler to see if there are any other surprises.

Reading other reviews here and elsewhere, I can see that I'm not the only one that has had problems with them in the past, and Brad in particular.

I really can't put into words how horrible it feels that this ring that was supposed to be a special gift, is now forever associated with the terrible quality and character of Bernie's & Son Jewelers.

I'm writing this review in the hopes that others can avoid having their special gifts and special days ruined by them.

I Love Bernie and Sons. I won’t shop anywhere else for jewelry. The whole staff treats you like family. The jeweler is fantastic and has taken care of me on multiple occasions. Great shop.

You can find professional jewelers here who have gone through GIA training and have a long standing family business for a reason! They have a strong positive reputation the community and I am happy I found them. Highly recommend jeweler!

What a great experience! I love the location, the staff was incredibly knowledgeable and kind, they helped me find the PERFECT diamond earrings at the right price. I would highly recommend this small, local, multi-generational family owned business if you have any jewelry needs!

Best Local Family Jeweler around. Handled all my items with care and very up front with the price of pieces and adjustments. I will return here again and send all of my family and friends here to purchase or customize jewelry!

I’m trying to be impartial with my review.

My fiancé brought our engagement ring to get engraved here. The ring is white gold (18K plated with rhodium).
Immediately after he proposed, I noticed the band had yellow spots around the engraving. Upon closer inspection, we believe that it was caused here after the engraving, when they polished it.

My fiancé and I came back to raise the issue, we politely explained the above and that we believe it happened here because I have barely worn the ring (it’s been less than a week).
They said they caused no damage before even inspecting the ring closely. I gently handed over the ring to them, but they only looked at it with the naked eye.
They returned the ring by placing it on the glass counter (not in a gentle manner) instead of handing it back to us.
When you go to jewelry stores, jewelry is carefully placed on velvet because you’re dealing with fine pieces in a luxury business.

While my fiancé said he inspected the ring in the store after the engraving and polishing, he was fixated on the engraving and not looking for yellow spots (under certain light, the spots are difficult to notice). I noticed the yellow spots under full white light.

They said that the yellowing could be because of skin contact and reactivity, but I’ve barely worn the ring (it’s only been a week) and the yellow spots are not uniformly distributed where my skin makes contact. I’m super careful with jewelry (I don’t do chores with it, I don’t wear it to bed, I don’t cook with it, I don’t shower with it).

I thanked them for the engraving regardless of the issue we believe they caused.

After I posted my original review (which was more emotional than this one), the store replied back immediately and defensively stating that it was our fault, and they again argued that it must be because I have acidic skin.
My fiancé called them back to further discuss, and they offered to re-plate the ring at no cost without admitting any wrongdoing.
My fiancé is a gentleman and good with his words, he displayed patience with the store, and neutral ground was reached, but I’m afraid trust has been broken because it shouldn’t have taken so much time and stress by my fiancé to arrive at what is such a simple resolution.

Jewelry is precious, and engagement rings even more so because of the emotional significance. When dealing with luxury items and jewelry - trust, professionalism, and customer awareness are paramount.
Unfortunately I don’t have trust to return here again, and we will fix our engagement ring elsewhere.

Edit: other jewelers agree with us. After inspecting the damage under microscope, they said the only logical explanation is that it happened after the engraving and during the polishing step because polishing is how rhodium is removed when re-plating white gold (this store polished the ring after engraving it).

Disappointed to have to write this review, especially about a multi-generation jeweler on Beach Drive. Jewelry is both luxury and sentimental, and therefore one expects the jeweler to not only be a masterful craftsman but also to have exceptional customer service and an appreciation for luxury and sentimentality.

I went to Bernie & Sons to have my Fiance's ring engraved. Following the engraving process, they polished the ring. I didn't notice at the time, but subsequently my Fiance noticed that during the polishing process they had completely removed the rhodium plating from the white gold on the bottom half of the ring where they made the engraving. As newbie's to the jewelry industry we assumed it was from the engraving and so we took it back to Bernie's & Sons for repair.

When we approached the Father and Son team - we approached them all smiles, still in our honeymoon phase from the proposal - were met by the Father and Son with rather unexpected hostility, defensiveness, and a general lack of humility.

They said the damage wasn't their fault and it was my fault.

They said that because I inspected the ring with a loupe after the engraving I had no right to ask them to repair the ring. Agreed I inspected the lettering, however, admittedly I hadn't noticed the yellowing.

That doesn't change the fact that two other independent jewelers said it was obviously done from the polish - it is an industry known thing that when you polish white gold you remove the rhodium coating, therefore the bright white color is lost and it shows some yellowness from the gold beneath. The Father and Son would have known this as well.

Unfortunately, the Father and Son team didn't care and didn't have any interest in "making things right". It's a shame that they were more concerned about their egos, rather than a client's damaged ring and the ensuing damage to their reputation that this would cause.

I subsequently spoke to the Son over the phone who admittedly has better manners than the Father, still subpar I might add. I had to remind him that his attitude to this relatively small repair had cost him additional business - I wanted to buy a pair of earring studs and a tennis bracelet this year. I also relayed that I had evidence from two other jewelers who from inspecting it could easily verify that it was damage done by polishing. Only then did he offer to repair the damage.

While I appreciate this gesture - it's a shame it took so much effort and such a dry throat. Unfortunately my Fiance was greatly disheartened from the entire experience and prefers we take our business elsewhere.

This is a case of Bernie's & Sons tripping over dollars to pick up pennies - and caring more about their egos than their reputation.

Nowadays a lot of people are turning to online retailers and going abroad for jewelry because they are treated with much more respect and care when making such expensive and sentimental purchases.

I sincerely hope that this Father and Son team improve their customer service, humility, and desire to achieve genuine client satisfaction - so that it matches their prime location on Beach Drive.

Written with the utmost respect to Bernie's & Sons. Hopefully this is a teachable moment so the same isn't repeated to other clients. At the same time, hopefully it's a cautionary tale to others so they can interview the Father and Son team and see if their client service and humility has improved before they make such sentimental and expensive purchases from this store.

. Had an awesome experience! At Bernie and Son’s Jewelers Great selection, wonderful service. I was so pleased the sale person was so attentive and really helped with options within my budget. So I highly recommend Bernie and Son’s for all your jewelry needs.

I cannot say enough about Bernie's and Son Jewelers. They have a wonderful selection of unique pieces. If you have something in your mind you can bring it to them and they can design it for you as well. I know everything they do always comes out amazing. I love going to them.