I just went with ARA and am very happy. The guy called as soon as my package arrived and asked what I wanted to do with the stones. Then told me he'd have the results of melting later that day. He sent an email with the update. It was more than I expected (with the stones, I tried my best to estimate gold weight), and he was well above what I thought I'd be getting. Check was sent out immediately and arrived promptly. Wouldn't hesitate to deal with them again.
I believe it was midwest where I had several problems with when I used them a few years ago and would never consider them again. 1st - got far less than expected, the guy on the phone told me about 5% of the metal was generally lost during the process, AND, they hand wrote a date over the invoice date which was printed. Gold dropped the day after my stuff was melted and I believe they kept the difference. Wasn't a good experience at all.