Blue-Seeker
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- Messages
- 158
I've been debating about whether to post about this or not, because I'm still upset and not feeling very logical right now. But I could use some advice before it's too late for me to change my mind. A few months ago, after looking at dozens of sapphires, I bought a precision-cut sapphire, one of Roger Dery's. I bought it because the color was really unusual, it was untreated, and the price was great. I like wide bands, so I asked my jeweler if they could set the sapphire in a plain 4-prong rose gold basket-style head on a wide, brushed silver band. No problem. I asked to have the head integrated into the band. No problem. They said we'll have it done before Christmas. I said don't rush because I know how busy jewelry stores are this time of year, and I didn't want them rushing this job through.
I picked up the ring today. The design was exactly as I envisioned it. The stone looks great in rose gold. I drove to the bank, and was standing in line, and noticed that the profile of the ring looked odd. The stone looked tipped in the setting. I looked at the profile from all sides, and on one side it looked like the prongs were much shorter than the other side. I couldn't believe I didn't notice this in the store, and at first I thought it was an optical illusion. So I asked the two women next to me in line if they thought my ring was crooked. They both said yes, and one of them pointed out the exact same thing that I was seeing. She said, if you just bought this, you should return it!
At this point, I decided to go back to my car and take a closer look. Not only were the prongs on one side of the ring shorter, one corner of the stone -- it's a cushion -- looked like it was pushed down so it was closer to the band. The band has a hole drilled in it so the bottom of the stone is visible. I looked to see if the stone was centered on the bottom. Nope. The stone was listing in the setting like the Titanic before she sunk. But only from the side. The ring looks perfect from the top.
At first I thought that the stone must be loose and it slid out of place. I shook it. No rattling. The prongs are clearly shorter on one side and the stone was set at an angle. I drove back to the store, and met with my sales rep. I asked for my money back. They want to fix it for me. I insisted that they not mess around with the head to fix it because I could see that at least one prong was significantly shorter than the others and that simply fixing the head would not work. They kept apologizing, and telling me that they'd make it right. I said how can I trust your bench to fix this when you let something like this get past final inspection? My sales rep had no explanation for how the stone could even end up set the way it was, without it willfully being set that way. He just kept saying we can fix it and I kept saying I think trying to fix it will make it worse. Finally, the owner came in and asked to see it. He took the ring back to the bench, and came back and said that he thought that the problem was that the standard head from whatever jewelry manufacturer they use was the wrong size for the stone. It was a princess head that they had tried to modify. The owner offered to redo the head in-house, custom, CAD, to fit my stone. By this time, I'd been at the store for almost an hour, and I said okay.
But now I'm having second thoughts. And I'm really sorry that I didn't ask them to remove the sapphire in front of me to make sure it wasn't damaged when it was set...crooked. What would you do? Would you give them a chance to fix it? Or just start over with a new jeweler? This jeweler has done lots of work for my friends, and the work I've seen in their showroom is of high quality. They work in platinum, gold, and silver. But I have to say, the way they botched this really simple design shocked me.
I picked up the ring today. The design was exactly as I envisioned it. The stone looks great in rose gold. I drove to the bank, and was standing in line, and noticed that the profile of the ring looked odd. The stone looked tipped in the setting. I looked at the profile from all sides, and on one side it looked like the prongs were much shorter than the other side. I couldn't believe I didn't notice this in the store, and at first I thought it was an optical illusion. So I asked the two women next to me in line if they thought my ring was crooked. They both said yes, and one of them pointed out the exact same thing that I was seeing. She said, if you just bought this, you should return it!
At this point, I decided to go back to my car and take a closer look. Not only were the prongs on one side of the ring shorter, one corner of the stone -- it's a cushion -- looked like it was pushed down so it was closer to the band. The band has a hole drilled in it so the bottom of the stone is visible. I looked to see if the stone was centered on the bottom. Nope. The stone was listing in the setting like the Titanic before she sunk. But only from the side. The ring looks perfect from the top.
At first I thought that the stone must be loose and it slid out of place. I shook it. No rattling. The prongs are clearly shorter on one side and the stone was set at an angle. I drove back to the store, and met with my sales rep. I asked for my money back. They want to fix it for me. I insisted that they not mess around with the head to fix it because I could see that at least one prong was significantly shorter than the others and that simply fixing the head would not work. They kept apologizing, and telling me that they'd make it right. I said how can I trust your bench to fix this when you let something like this get past final inspection? My sales rep had no explanation for how the stone could even end up set the way it was, without it willfully being set that way. He just kept saying we can fix it and I kept saying I think trying to fix it will make it worse. Finally, the owner came in and asked to see it. He took the ring back to the bench, and came back and said that he thought that the problem was that the standard head from whatever jewelry manufacturer they use was the wrong size for the stone. It was a princess head that they had tried to modify. The owner offered to redo the head in-house, custom, CAD, to fit my stone. By this time, I'd been at the store for almost an hour, and I said okay.
But now I'm having second thoughts. And I'm really sorry that I didn't ask them to remove the sapphire in front of me to make sure it wasn't damaged when it was set...crooked. What would you do? Would you give them a chance to fix it? Or just start over with a new jeweler? This jeweler has done lots of work for my friends, and the work I've seen in their showroom is of high quality. They work in platinum, gold, and silver. But I have to say, the way they botched this really simple design shocked me.
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