My Awful Experience With Midwest Refineries

[goldshark]

Sorry, I took your calculations to be those presented to you by Midwest as a basis for a calculated settlement. Another post contains language that suggests that Midwest purchases small lots outright. If that’s true, your calculations are not material to the sale because you accepted a cash offer for the item.

I retract my advice to keep your gold. I do recommend that you consider the cost & risks associated with transacting business in small lots with strangers as you decide whether an offer is too good to be true or not. Sharp operators looking for rubes abound, and there’s lots of ways to drain you of valuables that don’t involve breaking the law. Sharp businesses rely on said rubes not reading — or reading but not understanding — the fine print and getting distracted by pictures of piles of gold and “You’re getting paid, Boss!” memes.

Play fair, be suspicious, and walk yourself through why you believe what you believe when you think you’ve been wronged. I think you didn’t get what you wanted or expected, but did you get what you bargained for? I suspect that you did. Consider the $80 a cheap, hard lesson. A really, really, really cheap lesson. If you fail to learn the right lesson, the remedial lesson may cost you much, much more. You’re not going to change Midwest Refineries or any other multi-million dollar enterprise. Do something else. I think you got lucky that you didn’t get disappointed to the tune of $5k for failing to read the terms. It happens every day. Good luck, seriously.

Thumbs up on your reply. I have been the man inside the barrel, to the tune of $5,000. My rectum is still a little sore, and that was over 3 years ago. We all gotta pay for the high education lessons. These are the ones you don't learn in academia. Not saying Midwest did anything wrong, but these lessons are the ones that drive you further, to expand your knowledge. It might surprise you. The forum hears your pain, but we cannot do a thing about it. It does sound like you are getting a better insight to the world of Gold.

 

[Martijn]

Nothing was itemized either, it was just bought outright and assumptions made

How far did you want them to go for this very small amount of gold?
Paying a worker to have it itemized or even write you a reply to this post would be cutting heavily on their margins.
I bet every customer wants to have a double check, but they will charge you for it.
It does not matter what you bring them, they have to melt it, take a sample to analyse and the sample size relatively gets bigger with smaller lots.
As they say, the refiner is always the last liar, but how good did you check your supplier? Did you itemize the 14 grams and have each item scanned with XRF to check for plating or slightly lower karat gold?
A refiner does this to make money, obviously, and can not afford to be on the customers side when there are tolerances in the process. this will all be in the terms.

 

[Xing]

terrible experience. so big difference. generally gold refining are very low loss i think like this content.

 

[Martijn]

Have you read the whole thread with all the replies and arguments? there are two sides here, actually maybe only one true side and one ignorant one.
Read the terms one accepts before complaining? Nothing is for free.
If you want to sell something to make money, you will never get spot price for it. If someone wants to buy from you, you can do better than spot. Who is in need, and who has all the time?

 

[Argentum Auricle]

A little extra irony, 14.31g of 14k gold or 0.46 of a troy ounce, 4% of that was lost from melting, that decreases the weight down to 13.74g of 14k gold. Now, that 14k gold isn't actually 58.5% pure gold, it is only 54% pure gold. That leaves me with 7.42g of pure gold. Their fee is 5%, so now I'm left with 7.05g of pure gold. Considering the $2,174 troy ounce price. When you do the math I should have received $492.76. I only received $475. Assuming he is not lying at all and I trust his word 100%, he still owes me $17.76

Actually, 14k gold is 14/24 = .5833. So it is 58.3% gold.

 

[Devildog]

Thank you!

My issue arises when comparing to other's valuations, mine seemed incredibly low. Also I'm not a big fan of "just take my word." Also losing 4% in the melting process seems a bit extreme and embellished. My gold was stamped "ZRW" as well, the trademark of "Jewels America Inc., NYC," I only buy from reputable dealers. I figured I'd warn the members here, as the owner of "Midwest Refineries" did not care at all. I can only imagine if I sent in more, like, a lot more

Ever tried GRC? In New York? They pay 90%. I know it's less then the 5% but may be worth a shot. Man's name is Dave Greenfield.

 

[Rande Bly]

So, I sent "Midwest Refineries" 14.3g of 14k gold. I used a calculator and everything to determine the value at the market price they received and declared at, $2,174 per troy ounce of pure gold. Obviously, 14k is not pure gold, my pieces were 585 and "ZRW" marked, so legitimate pieces. Take that 14.3g and multiply it by .585 because only 58.5% of it is pure gold. You are left with 8.37g of pure gold at a market price of $2,174 per troy ounce. That comes out to be valued at $585.03. Of course, "Midwest Refineries" have to make money, so they take 5%. That should leave me with $555.78.

Now, what I actually got,
I received a check for only $475, $110.03 less than its actual value and $80.78 less than I should have got after their 5% fee. Overall, I lost 19%. I was under the impression it would be 5%, what a shock I got!

Gary (the owner of "Midwest Refineries") reasonings:
-Well, although your gold was marked as "585," 58.5% pure gold, it was only 54% pure
-Then once we found out the purity, we lost 4% of it during the melting process

I will never use them again and heed this warning because you will lose a lot of money!

-I shipped my gold to them on 03/08/24, it arrived on 03/11/24, my check arrived on 03/15/24.
-The "market price" declaration was correct and done so "in good faith," ($2,174 per troy ounce of pure gold on the date of which they received it)
-The website falsely advertises you only lose 5%, I lost 19%, from my overall gold's value.
-The purity assessment and mass loss during melting is not corroborated in any credible way. It is merely stated by him and you're supposed to take his word.

I feel as if I was scammed and baited by "false advertisement." I would like the remainder of the money I'm owed or for verifiable evidence to prove his valuation, otherwise. The company should also have to mention these "apparent" other ways in which your valuation will go down on their website.

 

[Yggdrasil]

Welcome to us.

What was this by the way?
This is not Twitter or other SoMe,
where we repeat things without some reason, like to ask a question or clarify something.

Edit for clarification.

 

[Rande Bly]

So, I sent "Midwest Refineries" 14.3g of 14k gold. I used a calculator and everything to determine the value at the market price they received and declared at, $2,174 per troy ounce of pure gold. Obviously, 14k is not pure gold, my pieces were 585 and "ZRW" marked, so legitimate pieces. Take that 14.3g and multiply it by .585 because only 58.5% of it is pure gold. You are left with 8.37g of pure gold at a market price of $2,174 per troy ounce. That comes out to be valued at $585.03. Of course, "Midwest Refineries" have to make money, so they take 5%. That should leave me with $555.78.

Now, what I actually got,
I received a check for only $475, $110.03 less than its actual value and $80.78 less than I should have got after their 5% fee. Overall, I lost 19%. I was under the impression it would be 5%, what a shock I got!

Gary (the owner of "Midwest Refineries") reasonings:
-Well, although your gold was marked as "585," 58.5% pure gold, it was only 54% pure
-Then once we found out the purity, we lost 4% of it during the melting process

I will never use them again and heed this warning because you will lose a lot of money!

-I shipped my gold to them on 03/08/24, it arrived on 03/11/24, my check arrived on 03/15/24.
-The "market price" declaration was correct and done so "in good faith," ($2,174 per troy ounce of pure gold on the date of which they received it)
-The website falsely advertises you only lose 5%, I lost 19%, from my overall gold's value.
-The purity assessment and mass loss during melting is not corroborated in any credible way. It is merely stated by him and you're supposed to take his word.

I feel as if I was scammed and baited by "false advertisement." I would like the remainder of the money I'm owed or for verifiable evidence to prove his valuation, otherwise. The company should also have to mention these "apparent" other ways in which your valuation will go down on their website.

First off I am sorry that happened to you. I have been doing this for a long time and the process this company uses is extremely accurate. Their scales are very accurate scales and their purity testing also is extremely accurate. The chances are much higher that your gold came from a foreign country or a scrupulous manufacturer. Gary has been in business for a long time and as a business owner myself I am positive he does not try to make his money by cheating. Good business practices are the only thing that leads to success over a period of time. You would not believe the gold that is coming out of China,India and Taiwan. I am a long time customer and have been very satisfied. Rande Bly