Why me? Problems with custom rings!

[luv2bflyin]

I have been reading this forum for a couple months and have finally got the guts to post. In Septemer 2003 my husband proposed. He had a custom ring made through a jeweler in his hometown in Ohio. We live in Atlanta. I wasn''t exactly thrilled with the way it looked. I will post pictures later when I am home. Anyways I was just thrilled to be engaged. When we went to get my wedding band done with channel setting I was nervous. My husband had to send my engagment ring back twice casue he was not happy with it. Well we got the ring and of course all the diamond spacings on the ring were off!!!! I couldn''t believe how bad it looked. So we sent it back! We got it again and the wedding was within a couple weeks away so I kept it. I was not happy with it, but my husband was severely irritated with me!! (He reminded me that the meaning of the rings was more important then the rings themselves) So for a year I have been looking at this ring and how the diamonds are still not spaced correctly!!!!!! Somehow two months ago I bent a small piece on my ering. I took it in to be fixed and my wedding band to have the spacings fixed. Got the engagement ring back and it was not fixed. The jeweler had to then send it back to the company that made it to have it fixed. I got it back a couple weeks ago and guess what the ring was not fixed! My husband is so easygoing and we never argue, but this ring thing is about to drive me crazy!!! I have to fedex the ring back to him since I live in Atlanta, per his cost. The wedding band was just picked up by my husband. I will not see it until tonight, but guess what I have gotten a bill from the jeweler. It was $750 to redo the wedding band. He said he would cover half. So a 1300 ring has now cost me 2050. I know I should have taken the ring back sooner, but I would have never thought it would cost this much!! My husband has said he will never do anything like this again, because of how picky I am. My heart is broken. I have cried more about these rings than anything! I feel so silly about it, but these rings are symbols of him and I that I will wear forever and want them to be perfect! I know I have written alot but I just need someone to talk to to see if I am just crazy picky or plain crazy! What if this new wedding band still doesn''t meet my standards?!

 

[valeria101]

Oh, gee! Sorry to hear such story

Any reason why you went for a jeweler out of town ... especially if the service is nothing special? It sounds like these guys already did their 'best'

and there's probably no way to obtain better quality there. If you do want to rings remade and will pay anything more for it, I'd just go somewhere else, to a shop that can demonstrate they can do good work. It is simple enough.

Without seeing the rings, i can't say much else... but thinking of how much of off-the-rack jewelry looks like, I can easily imagine good reasons for your being so unhappy about the rings.

The thing about 'symbolic value' - well, gimme a break: if these pieces of jewelry were 100% all about symbolic value, jewelers wouldn't be making such brisk business on them. There's something to be said about quality.

Sometimes guys don't get it

.. that there is at least as much to know about buying jewelry as there is about buying cars ... or whatever kind of boyish ego props.

Btw. given that you already have the diamonds, the price quote for the band reminds strongly of custom work. You might want to have the stones reset elsewhere - at least there would be some better chance to actually get the work well done.

 

[finerthings]

I'm so sorry about your ring misfortunes. You have posted in the right place because there will surely be someone here that has gone through something similar, and maybe they will have some wise advice. Sounds like you as well as all of us here have Pricescopers disease of perfectionism, and that's a toughy since most jewelry out there really isn't up to par with our high standards. I think I would try to get the rings right and not bother my hubby about it. I certainly understand your frustration with stones that are not aligned properly.

Sorry.

 

[f0rbidden]

wow - I''m so sorry you''ve had so much aggrivation to deal with!

I, personally, don''t think you''re super picky because you want things to be the way you believe they should be!

hmm. Atlanta. I just moved out of Atlanta 6 months ago. I''ve heard really good things about Solomon Brothers, if you''re looking for some place else to take the rings or to have the stones reset. Union Diamond (who has a great reputation here and on diamond.info) are on Paces Ferry in ATL, too.

Can''t say I miss Atlanta, but I sure do miss knowing where I''m going and what places to go to when I''m looking for something in particular!

Best of luck!

 

[DIAMOND*QUEST]

So sorry to hear about your rings. I am in the Atlanta area and I would like to tell you about Tara Fine Jewelry. They are a well known B&M shop and I have purchased with them for the past 5 years since I have been in the area. I have shopped Solomon Brothers and I think they are over priced. Oh and there is another jewelry store that has a wonderful bench person who reworked one of my rings and did an amazing job. It is called More Than Diamonds and they are located in Dacula. Also, there are many companies online that I would feel very comfortable with using, if I didn''t have Tara. Do some searches here and you can find lots of info. I feel your pain over wanting perfection.