Jewelry

[kcladyz]

A few years ago I purchased a 10k gold sapphire ring at zales. The jeweler that sized it said it was sterling silver not gold. I was so mad I returned it but zales acted as if I was trying to pull a scam.  I repurchased a yellow gold emerald ring for that way I knew what I was getting. I even wrote to corperate  about this and got ignored. They are still selling this ring as a gold item.

This month I bought a ring at Kay. I was talked into buying 2 for they have the promo of $100 gift card with purchase of $300.  I thought great I can get matching earrings for arround $100. What they failed to tell me is I only can use the $100 gift card on another minimum purchase of $300.  So all together  Ill have to spend $600  to use the $100. 

I am not going to spend another $300  at Kay  unless money falls from the sky onto my lap. lol

Anyways  The rings are quite pretty. Sterling  Silver  Both have center stone of white sappire. One round cut other coushion cut.  both blue sapphires on the band  but one is a split shank

[chrystaltree]

Do you have the sales slip for the ring that was sold to you as 10K but is actually gold over silver?  They aren't going to respond to a letter but if you get an appraisal from jeweler documenting silver and you present them with the sales receipt that states 10k and take that to the manager of the store, you should get a refund for a price adjustment.  A letter means nothing to them.  It's also possible that sales clerk mislead you about what you were buying.   As for that $100 gift card, they always come with strings attached.  No company is going to give $100 away unless there is something in it for them.  Those types of rewards are meant generate sales. 

[bonnielu]

My mother had a bad experience.  She went to visit her family in Vermont where she was from.  Not even sure why but she went into a jewelry store (Burlington,Vt) and decided to have her diamond ring  cleaned.  She left if there for a few hours while she was shopping.  She came back and got the ring.  When she arrived home she showed it to my daugher who was then was a gemologist.  She looked at it and said, Grandma, this is not your diamond.  Someone swtiched it out.  It was replaced with a CZ.  She was home in DC and had no way to prove the switch even if she could go back and get it.  

[Greeneyedlady21]

@bonnielu Wow obviously that's criminal. Did you try calling the AG office in VT at the time?  Like you said no way to prove it. They should require people to fill out a form and get a receipt when getting jewelry cleaned.

I would never leave jewelry to be cleaned after reading that story. Unreal, smh. So sorry that happened to her.

[Effie54]

OMG - that's awful. I do believe that happens a lot. I'll leave my ring for 2 minutes tops when I want it cleaned. I'm so sorry that happened to her. What a disappointment. 

[violann]

A few, curiously both involving platinum.

First- I had a pair of earrings that I love, but they had a difficult to manage scr*w back, so I wanted to have them converted to a lever back.

When I left them with the (very well thought of high priced) local jeweler, (not a chain) there was no discussion about what material would be used to do the lever backs, and they were done with white gold instead of platinum.

THEN, I went to a different high priced local non-chain jeweler to have a ring sized. As it happened, it had sizing beads in the band of the ring, something that I liked very much. This time, the ring was acknowledged as platinum, and instead of making it larger and leaving it as it was, they removed the sizing beads, added to the band, and charged me about $60, even though they benefitted from the beads as profit.

At the time, I wasn't able to challenge the work because of life complications.

I have not used EITHER jeweler since, though.

[SANNA]

My only bad experiences at the jewelry stores were  the snootiness and lack of gem knowledge by the staff. The ladies look good but I could do a better job selling things.Sad.  But many are nice, but still lacked knowledge.

[esmeraldagooch]

Yes, I had my wedding set totally ruined by a jewelry store repair then the jeweler left town.  I ended up melting the set into a new ring.   Totally horrible experience.

[depglass]

One assumes jewelry stores are staffed by knowledgeable people.    I once purchased a blue Peruvian opal pendant in 14K gold from QVC.  I took it to my local jeweler and asked if they had any matching earrings in this stone.  She looked at me and said "Are you sure this isn't plastic?"  Yes, that's the way to build a business relationship, insult your customer.  I found a new jeweler.

[jlkz]

Heard and read horror stories about gems being changed out during " cleaning " so I ordered and have been using a very professional at-home steam cleaner.

The sonic cleaners and toothbrushes really do very little...I used them in the past.  Whenever I had the cleaning done by my friend who designs and sells jewelry, the shine was so significantly different.  It was the steam.

For a gift to myself last year, I ordered a stream cleaner from SharperImage.  To say my jewelry sparkles is an understatement.  People really notice the rings !

If you use it near a sink, please put something over the drain:  you don't want to have to take the sink plumbing apart or worse yet, lose the item forever.