Really disappointed/upset - Sally lotus arrived

[StonieGrl]

ladyciel, I would buy you the next dose of ice cream you require, you''ve been through a lot with this already and you still don''t have a wearable piece of jewelry. Just sucks.

These are just my 2 cents.
1. I understand that there are times when the product is lacking in some way. But.
2. That is what quality assurance/quality control is for. NO ITEM SHOULD BE SENT TO A CLIENT if it has not been verified to be perfect and functional and what was promised and paid for.

No excuses. Period. You think ''excuses'' cut the mustard at time of payment?

What made me change my plan to send several stones to Sally is the fact that it went out the door in that condition.

Once I''ve paid for the completed item, I don''t want/need a bunch of domino effect problems to think my way through and that is what this situation has created for you.

 

[StonieGrl]

Well shoot. I hope this was an isolated incident. I know PSers who had lotus ring plans with Sally waiting to go forward.

Maybe Sally will post about this.

ladyciel, please keep us posted as to what solution you go with here. I hope you get a gorgeous ring out of all of this, I have a feeling that Sally will make it so if given the chance.

I was thinking that if you sent to to Sally''s hotel FedEx, you will have a tight control over when it is delivered, and you can sign up for FedEx to email you every time the box is touched or moves and you will know WHO at the hotel signs for it. When you got the email that the box was signed for, you could contact Sally to tell her that it is there and who signed for it so she could get it picked up immediately. Could also alert the hotel that your "medical records" are arriving via FedEx (lots of records on disk now, etc.) for Sally and would they kindly keep an eye open on X date.

 

[ladyciel]

Thank you, again, for all of your input. I would never in a million years attempt to fix this myself, as it is obvious to my eye that just moving the one prong would not give a satisfactory result anyway. Also, being a garnet, I think the risk of damaging the stone (which IS held fixed by 2 prongs) with that approach is too high. A jeweler I spoke with today agreed with me and said her approach would be to unseat the stone, readjust the prongs, and then reset it. More on that later....

So, here is the update. I would just cut and paste my conversations back and forth with Sally, but that doesn''t feel quite right - almost like recording a phone call without someone''s knowledge. So, I will do my best to fully recount what has been said by each party to try and make this as fair a representation as possible on the parts of both sides.

I replied to Sally expressing my discomfort with the idea of shipping the stone to her at her hotel, given the inherent risks involved with that plan. For one, if the package somehow missed her at the hotel it would be a nightmare to track it down and get it back. No delivery service is guaranteed - my engagement ring was overnighted with FedEx and got stuck in transit for several days due to severe weather and grounded flights. For two, there are just too many ways that it could go missing, either in shipping, at the hotel, or on her way back to Thailand. I expressed the impression I''ve gotten that this is a unique case, not the usual for her work, and that I appreciate her desire to make it right.

In the same message I proposed the idea of me getting it repaired here and inquired if she would consider reimbursing me for the costs involved. I told her I would take it to some jewelers today to get some estimates, since I wasn''t sure what it would cost. I pointed out, however, that getting it done here would avoid the shipping/insurance costs to and from as well as the risk involved in shipping. It would also save time.

The nature of her reply was that she agreed about the risks and that it would be a good idea to have it fixed here. She compared it to sending it back to her in Thailand (vs the hotel), costing me about $20, where she could fix it for free and then pay for the shipping back. She said her margins do not allow her to afford bench time in the US, but that in truth she also had no idea what to expect for the quotes. She said if I chose to fix it here she could paypal me $20 or so towards it. So, to summarize, I could pay 15-20 to send it back to her and risk the shipping each way, or she will give me 20 towards whatever it costs to do it here. She did invite me to communicate back to her what I found out re: local costs, which makes me think there might be some flexibility there depending on what I found out. She said that this is the first time they have had this situation, and both she and Pomme are very sorry to have missed it. She alluded to their age as perhaps having something to do with it (aging eyes, I guess), but said that she wishes she had seen my post-payment note before sending the ring - if she had louped it she definitely would have seen it and been able to fix it. This is the part that really bugs me - IF she had louped it....shouldn''t that be a standard step before sending a piece of gemstone jewelry out the door? Wouldn''t a stone setter normally check and/or work on the piece under magnification?

I went to two jewelers this afternoon, both shops with on-site goldsmiths/bench-persons who were present to inspect the ring, and asked for quotes to properly reset the stone. The answers from each were comparable, in the ballpark of 45-55 dollars. At this point I have not yet written back to Sally with this information, but I will be doing so in the next few minutes. I need to be more direct with her regarding my expectations/feelings of what is fair - up to this point I have tried to leave the door open for her to offer a solution. However, I paid to ship the stone to her once already, on her recommendation (vs her shipping an empty setting), because that was supposed to get me the best ring/outcome. I think it''s unfair to expect me to swallow this cost a second time because she failed to properly inspect the piece for quality before shipping.

I''ll be back with another update when I have more to add...

 

[ladyciel]

Update part 2: Good news!!

I wrote Sally last night with the quotes I got from the local jewelers, asking if she would please reimburse me for the whole thing if I provided her with a copy of the invoice. I explained my case - mostly things that all of you have pointed out re: her normal quality of work, the poor job of setting the stone, the piece going out the door in that condition, and my lack of a wearable ring at this point - and basically said that while I didn''t want this to be a big deal, I did have to ask for what I felt was fair given the situation.

I woke up to a reply from Sally, and she has agreed to reimburse me up to what I was quoted ($45-55). I think she would still prefer that I send the ring back to her, but she understands my desire to have this fixed quickly so that I can put it behind me and enjoy my much-anticipated lotus. I really think she''s as shocked as we are at it getting out the door that way, and she''s made it clear to me that having happy customers is, at the end of the day, what she wants the most.

Hopefully I''ll get some time today to drop the ring off at the jewelers.

I''ll be sure to post new photos (with hand shots) once it''s back to me!

 

[chrono]

I’m so happy to hear that Sally has continued to show excellent customer support; a good vendor isn’t necessarily one that does excellent work 100% of the time (since no one is perfect all the time) but one that admits their mistakes and makes sure the issue is resolved to the customer’s satisfaction quickly and promptly.

 

[T L]

Awesome, and honestly, I think that price pretty much covers the S&H costs she would have to provide to and from locations, so it's not a huge loss on her part. You're happier as a result to get the job done quickly. It's a win-win situation.

 

[Laila619]

Yay! So happy you''ve come to an agreement!