Engagement ring debacle be careful ladies

[Lucia]

From weddingwire forum (not my story):

http://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-...tmare-has-come-to-close/ba3639b93fcb72cb.html

I don't know if any of you remember my engagement ring nightmare... It has been about 6-7 months in the running, and we have finally resolved it. For those of you who don't know what happened: My FH bought a ring that I LOVED from a jeweler in our area (not allowed to say who the jeweler is for legal reasons now) and I had the ring for a few days and one of my small diamonds on the band fell out, I took it back, and they "fixed" it, that day I noticed my main diamond was extremely lose and yellow looking. Come to find out, the jeweler had switched my original diamond with a cheaper diamond. Well, long story short we eventually had to get lawyers involved and I was no longer allowed to speak to the jeweler or be on his property. (he knew he was guilty) And so we settled on an agreement with the jeweler that if he gave us my original NICE CERTIFIED diamond back we would leave him alone. So that he did, and we all signed papers that we would just move on from the situation. CONT.
YES FH and i learned the hard way we should of read reviews on the jeweler, and we should of gotten a ring with a warranty ETC, so I know this already. I had the ring with my original diamond all fixed and wore it for about a month, then noticed the diamond was lose again, along with losing one of my diamonds on my band every month or so. Finally, I became enraged and talked to FH about it. My original ring was gorgeous, beautiful exactly what I ever wished for, but I had to let it go. It wasn't meant to be, and it was causing way too many issues for us. So we decided to go to a jeweler that is in my family, and have my diamond put into a different setting.
We were out $400.. because the new setting was a little over $1,000 and the jeweler gave us $600 credit towards my old setting. (he was just scraping it). So now I have a NEW ring, with my ORIGINAL diamond. It is smaller than my original e-ring, but I am ecstatic that we are finally done with this nightmare.

 

[LovelyNaps26]

while i see the advantage of going to an independent jeweler (i.e. having a unique ring), this is one advantage of going to a chain. if you lose one of the small diamonds and the jeweler closes down, then what? this has actually happened to women on the wedding boards. i'm sure someone at zales or kays might consider switching a diamond but the incentive is pretty low since they sell so much jewelry, rather than being an independent jeweler who might need to pocket the extra cash.

b/c some of the chains now sell special lines that feature certified, quality diamonds (i.e. neil lane line at kay's) you can get a good quality ring w/o dealing with the inconvenience of having to travel to your jeweler if you move or them trying to rip you off if their business slows down.

 

[mnemosyne]

I don't understand why she couldn't find a similar setting at another vendor once she got the original diamond back.

 

[MizAvalon]

I don't want to blame the woman and her fiancé for what happened but they really didn't do their due diligence on this jeweler. You can't buy such an important piece of jewelry from just anyone.

I knew nothing about diamonds, so I researched like a mad woman. When I walked into jewelry stores they would give me the same song and dance that they give all of their customers until I started asking questions that only a knowledgable person would know. Shut them down QUICK. Believe me, they wanted me to leave by the time I was done with all of my questions! I just wasn't taking a chance with such an important piece.