I have given up on jewelers for pearls. I have heard some insanely dumb comments from jewelers about pearsl. My favorite lines have been:
Saltwater pearls are *always* round. If it's not perfectly round, it's surely freshwater.
Once when asking to see an overpriced freshwater keishi strand in the case of one of our nicest jewelry stores in town, the sales person looked at the tag which said "keishi" and said, "Keishi? Oh...uh...yes...Keishi. I believe they're a very fine producer of pearls, like Mikimoto."
Yes, yes...nice save.
And my very favorite...once, while passing through a major department store at the mall, I overheard a customer ask a salesgirl what made one pair of pearl earrings more expensive than another pair (mind you, both pairs were on the little spinning earring tree-thingie that sits on top of the display counters so I'm sure both were very low end freshwater) and the salesgirl actually said, "Oh well, this pair may not have been cleaned as well, it may have a little sand on it or something, so it is less expensive." Now, I had not yet discovered that I loved pearls. I did not yet know a thing about pearls. But, I tell you, it stopped me dead in my tracks. I stood there, staring in disbelief at that statement and then at the customer who said, "Oh. OK." and BOUGHT the "sandy" pair for the value!!! Can you BELIEVE someone accepted that explanation??? Amazing.