Do not be lured into Brian West Jewelry in Kinston!!! This guy is horrible! Granted, he hand-makes most of his jewelry and the look of each piece is nice. However, his prices are not competitive in price and God forbid you take something in for repair. My husband purchased .10 Carat diamond earrings for me and was charged almost $300!!! Not a good Christmas morning when I found out!!! I took a necklace (made by BW) for lengthening and he kept it for months on end. When I finally got it back, the thing snapped when I picked it up out of the box. Over a year later, I finally had to go in and sit in the store with a (thick) book to "wait him out" and force the issue to get my necklace. During the year long wait, I got all kinds of dramatic excuses from his shop but never any apology or offer to get my jewelry back. I'm sorry his mother died, he had brain surgery, his daughter got married, etc. Life happens. Make plans to run your business in the meantime. Or, at least call your customers and let them know what's happening. This taught me to never do business with someone who ignored the Better Business Bureau and treated a customer with such disinterest. Go anywhere but here!!! Oh, and also, the place always reeks of smoke. I had such a hard time breathing when I had to go in that they ended up opening the door to vent their cigarette smoke. Yuck! My clothes were so stinky that I took them off and ran them thru the wash as soon as I got home with the hot water/heavy soil setting of my machine and they still had some smoke lingering afterwards. read more