'But I Paid $350 for it in Mexico!"

Gal comes in with a pile of jewelry she wants a loan on. I can tell right away that a few pieces are definitely plated (fake). There are some questionable pieces, and several that look fine. She is a sometime customer; she speaks just a little English but enough to get by. She's stuck us with jewelry before so I just test everything to be sure.

I whip out the gold tester and the bangles I thought were fake, are real. (We've had a lot of fake bangles come in; people from Mexico are selling them to dummies in parking lots and ripping them off big time!) One of the necklaces is fake and closer examination shows some wear spots; another necklace that I could swear was real, is also fake. A pendant that looked obviously plated is, well, plated. When I told her about her items being nothing more than costume jewelry she becomes insistent that they are indeed real. I showed her what I could but you can't teach someone how to tell plated jewelry in just a few seconds, it takes time to learn it. And even then sometimes you can be wrong. She just kept insisting it couldn't be! I told her that we see a lot of fake Mexican gold and you can't just go by the stamp. "But I bought these there!" she said.
I told her yes, we see it all the time, people buying them in parking lots, at the flea market, etc., they are just not solid gold. "But I paid $350 for that necklace!" I told her I was sorry but she was taken for a ride. (AND FROM YOUR OWN COUNTRYMEN! LOL)
"NO you don't understand, I no buy them here at flea market parking lot, I buy them IN Mexico, I bought IN MEXICO!"
Well what do you want me to say? "OH yeah that makes all the difference, my gold tester is just totally wrong and that pendant with the bubbling flaking plating really IS real, I'm just full of crap! So sorry! If you paid $350 for it, it MUST be real!"
Stupidity. Wear it proudly.
Ironically, when I went to make a loan ticket, there was a note in there about her having tried to bring in fake stuff previously. So, she obviously has been told before, many times. The note was put there by me! How funny.