AJDiamonds Cheated My two Diamond Rings

[ROGER_DR]

AJDiamonds Cheated My two Diamond Rings

I''m Roger. I would like to share with you my painful experience with AJDiamonds. I bought faulty diamond rings from them but they failed to refund me
or provide diamond repair/replacement after more than half a year. Below are the full detail happenings:
May''08, I bought two diamond rings for my wife from Ajdiamonds on ebay (ebay item No: 360043780992 & 36004861524. I left two positive feedbacks
to him after I received the rings. My wife wore one of them and kept the other one in her drawer.
July''08, my wife observed a little "dirty thing" stuck on the face of the ring,but she didn''t pay much attention to it as she thought that it might only be some
dirty on the surface which is removable.

Sep''08, my wife found that the little "dirty thing" became bigger and bigger and she couldn''t remove it using a soft tissue paper.

Sep 21 08, I inspected the ring under a big power scope and found that in fact there was a very obvious crack on the surface of the diamond, therefore the internal crack line would reflect out a obvious black line on the surface of diamond ring. (see attached pictures.) I immediately feedback this issue to Ajdiamonds (contact person : Abe).

Sep 24 08, Abe replied : "It is from the enhancement, we will be happy to fix or replace."

Sep 26 08, the other ring was found to have a similar crack problem after I inspected it under a big power scope, so I had totally no confidence with the quality of the enhancement diamond rings. I requested to send the two rings back to Ajdiamonds for further investigation and refund me the money if the problem was confirmed.

Oct 04 08, the two rings were sent back to Ajdiamonds after discussed with Abe.

Oct 15 08, the two rings were received by Abe with his acknowledgement.

Oct 24 08, I asked Abe for the update of issue as I would go for two weeks'' trip and would be not able to access e-mail. Abe replied : "I am waiting on a phone call from gem lab. I wont let you down and will be fair. " -- It sounded good to me.

Nov 8 08, I came back from trip and checked with him for the updates again. Abe replied : "I prefer to send different stones." I told him that I have no problem to take the replacement rings but they should be similar / equally valued to the old ones and I requested him to close this case ASAP.

Nov 12,13 08, it had been about one month since he received the rings. I had to remind him to resolve this issue ASAP otherwise I might have to report it to ebay.

He replied on Nov 13 08 :
"No need to threaten us.
While we have had the diamonds for a few weeks, you had the diamonds in your possession for a few months.
We were nice enough to offer to help, and we will.
We ask for your patience, while we fix this."

Nov 15 08, I told him that as long as he had intention to solve this issue, I would be patience and would give him more time to fix the probelm, but he should provide me with a reasonable deadline.

Dec 1, 2 08, I wrote two e-mails to him asking for the deadline but no any reply from him after waiting for another two weeks. He didn''t even reply me!

Dec 11 08, another one month past. I had to ask him for the deadline again and told him that if he didn''t respond in one week, I would have to report it to ebay.

Dec 15 08, I finally received the reply from him. It was a good news to me : "We are fixing both diamonds and will send soon.Please confirm address."
I gave him my mailing address and said "Merry Christmas" to him.

Jan 03 09, After waiting for another 3 weeks with very good patience,I had to write to him again to remind him that if I didn''t receive the rings by Jan 15, I would have to report it to ebay.

Jan 04 09, Abe replied : "Will see if this is complete, and get you a tracking #", but no updates at all after that.

Jan 15 09, I still had not received the rings and had to report this issue to ebay finally. Ebay recommended me to continue communicate with buyer to solve the issue. I forwarded ebay''s reply to Abe and gave him a very reasonable deadline : if he still couldn''t get the problem fixed by Feb 15 09, then refund me the money.

Feb 15 09, no action from him again. I requested him to refund me money in 3 days.

Feb 18 09, neither he replied me nor gave me refund. I had to bid an item as a replacement of my rings. I won a bid and asked him to send this item to me as a replacement of my rings. I told him that I would raise a dispute in ebay if he didn''t send the replacement ring to me in two weeks.

Mar 01 09, I had to raise a dispute in ebay as he had done nothing. In the dispute,he said that he had already got my two rings repaired and would like to send them back to me to close this issue. I accepted his proposal provided that they were really repaired and fixed. I gave him 10 days to get this issue closed and he said " OK".

Mar 03 09, I asked him for the shipment tracking number, but he didn''t give. He replied "You have my word." So I had to wait again.

Mar 10 09, He had actually done nothing although he promised he would do it. No choice for me, I had finally to raise the dispute to ebay. He wrote a message to me saying that : "I have your first 2 diamonds ready,dont ever call me a cheater!!! you want them or not?"

Mar 15 09, I suddenly found that he was no longer an ebay registered user -- which meant that I couldn''t get help from ebay anymore. Why did he escape from Ebay? How many buyers has he cheated?

Mar 16,17 09, I found that Ajdiamonds has his own web site which is also selling the enhancement diamond rings on this web site. I wrote an e-mail to its customer service and told them the story (I was not sure if Abe is the main boss of Ajdiamond or not, therefore I wrote to Ajdiamonds.), but they didn''t reply me at all.

Mar 18 09, I had to inform them that if they still didn''t send my two diamond rings back to me by Mar 25, I would publish my story on forums.

Mar 20 09, he replied : "STOP YOUR NONSENSE". I told him that if he send my rings back to me then I would stop, otherwise I would pursue my rings forever because I paid for my rings and he had no any reason to cheat my rings!

Mar 24 09, he replied me : "If you leave me alone for a few days, I will send them out. If not, I wont." I took this reply as a positive reply and told him that I would not disturb him again in the next 10 days, but Apr 5 would be the last day.

Apr 6 09, he had done nothing again. He cheated me one more time and I couldn''t call him a cheater? Anyway, I told him that I couldn''t trust him anymore. If he didn''t send the rings to me and let me know the tracking number in 24 Hrs, I would publish my story on forums -- I really have no other choice to do.

It took me more than 6 months to be engaged in this painful issue and my two diamonds rings have finally still been cheated by AJDiamonds!!!!!!!

"Abe,

I took the opportunity to look up your neutral/negs at toolhaus.org. You have a lot of complaints and most have more to do with those appraisals than either the merchandise or your service. If that''s not a reason to rethink your approach I don''t know what is.

Neil -- from diamond review forum"

If I had got this message from Neil early, I''m sure that I would not buy any diamond ring from AJDiamons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ROGER_DR]

Pictures are attched as follows.

 

[ROGER_DR]

Pictures are attched as follows.

 

[ROGER_DR]

Pictures are attched as follows.

 

[arjunajane]

I am sorry for your experience, but I sincerely cannot understand why you put up with this guy's crap
for so long, as he was clearly a liar and a cheat and frankly taking the p**s?!
BTW, if you paid through paypal, just because they left Ebay does not mean you can't use the Ebay normal remedies - you can. Let Ebay/paypal
track him down and get your money back, thats what they are there for. You may encounter an issue due to leaving it so long, but its still worth a go imho.

You should also report to the BBB, and tell them you are doing so.
Forget the email, why have you not tracked down a phone number for this company?? Or written a letter?? Here is the address from their site:
AJ Diamonds
22 West 48th St
Suite 1001
New York, NY 10036


This should also be a lesson not to bother with CE diamonds

 

[DiamondFlame]

OMG, what a complete nightmare! I do hope justice will see the light of day here. I wish you had come to PS while you were contemplating your purchase.. But I must say I admire your patience and persistence.

I'd pick a colored gemstone over filled/enhanced diamonds any day. And crack diamonds should only be used as toolcutters. Period.

 

[phoenixgirl]

They are pretty easy to find on the BBB:

You've got your phone numbers right here. I would have given up on email a long time ago. Abe is the president.

Business Contact Information
Name:AJ DIAMONDS
Address:22 West 48th Street, #1001
New York , NY 10036

Original Business Start Date:1/1/2003
Principal:Abe Butel, President
Phone Number: (212) 221-8216
Additional Phone Numbers: (646) 460-4959
Email Address:[email protected]
Website:www.ajdiamonds.com
Type of Businessiamonds, Jewelers-Retail

This is NOT a BBB Accredited business

 

[MMT]

I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am that you had to go through all of that

 

[btrflygrl23]

Oh dear I''m so sorry you are having to go through this nightmare.
I really hope you can find some way to get your money back.
Check to see if you can use paypal to get the money back.
Again so sorry and best of luck with getting a refund

 

[arjunajane]

I can''t believe this Abe schmuck is the president - just reading his blackmailing replies makes me feel dirty

 

[Skippy123]

Oh gosh, I am so sorry; I hope the BBB can help you.

 

[purrfectpear]

You had me until you bid on even MORE diamonds from him in Feb 09. Seriously, why would you bid on more enhanced diamonds?

BTW, pointless to publish here on Pricescope. We don''t buy enhanced diamonds

 

[motownmama]

Sorry

 

[denverappraiser]

Roger,

Bummer.

I see two separate and very different issues here. First, you are unhappy with the quality of your purchase. Since we don’t know anything at all about how it was represented, there’s no way for us to have a feel if it was misrepresented. Since it took you 5 months to decide that you were unhappy, I think they were actually being pretty reasonable in offering to exchange it for another. With most companies this is well beyond their return/exchange period although I don’t know AJ’s policies and don’t want to take the time to look. Surely it’s on their website. They could have simply told you to bugger off after all (and probably should have).

The second issue is that it’s taken them another 4 months since you sent them back and they still haven’t returned the pieces. They have both the money and the merchandise and presumably the matter would be settled if they would just send you back the goods (or a refund but don’t hold your breath for that). Certified mail is sometimes helpful in making demands like this but do be sure you’re clear about what you want. Despite the photos and description, this doesn’t seem to be fundamentally a product quality complaint. You just want your rings back. BBB is pretty good at adjudicating this sort of complaint as is the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (www.jvclegal.org)

It sounds to me like the ebay dispute is still active. The fact that he’s no longer registered does not eliminate their buyer protection program. I don’t remember the rules and I’m a tad surprised that a May purchase could still be protested in March but if it was still in force Mar 1 ’09 I would expect it to still be in force now. Paypal is tough to get even a response out of and I wouldn’t expect much help from them but it’s worth filing the claim anyway and if you funded the paypal purchase with a credit card you may be able to get some assistance from your credit card company although I would expect some resistance because you’ve waited so long. Waiting more will just make it worse. By the way, always fund Paypal purchases with a credit card for this reason.

In the end it sounds like you’ve got a pretty good legal case. You sent him some stuff for ‘repair’, which he agreed to do and he didn’t give it back. You’ve got written acknowledgment from him that he received them and agreed to do the work and quite a bit of evidence that he hasn’t returned them. He’s got nothing as far as you''ve reported. This may or may not help much because I presume you aren’t in New York and filing even a small claims case there from out of state is a serious pain in the neck but it’ll be useful for the BBB/JVC types and as has been pointed out above, the TV folks seem to like this sort of story. Keep all of your paperwork.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver

 

[kcoursolle]

I just wanted to chime in and say that I''m so sorry for what you are going through. I''m sure your post will warn many others and I''ll cross my fingers for a resolution for you.

 

[phoenixgirl]

I just wanted to add that when I was in college I purchased diamond stud earrings off of eBay (which I wouldn''t do today!) and they were supposed to be H-I color but were really noticeably orange. I got them appraised (well, estimated since the jeweler was nice enough to write a description without doing the whole appraisal and charging me) as N-O.

Getting a refund took a lot of complaining. The owner called me "sweetheart" over the phone, told me that the price I was paid was "awfully cheap" for H-I color (um, I didn''t set the reserve price!), and claimed that the "internet people" were on vacation for a whole month. In my feedback he called me a "crybaby with buyer''s remorse." Um, there was no crying on my end; that''s why I was so hard to get rid of . . . I don''t take crap lying down!

I made a stink and I did get my refund, but only after filing with the BBB and sending a certified letter and basically annoying the heck out of them, all for my $240 or whatever it was. And I learned my lesson. You usually get what you pay for, and if there are deals to be had out there, they''re probably the people selling their own jewelry at a loss to raise cash, not whole outfits running through eBay. My guy disappeared from eBay shortly thereafter. I had managed to direct people in my one sentence feedback to a site where I posted the whole sordid story, kind of like you did here. That gave me some consolation because just writing, "Scam! Diamonds misrepresented!" doesn''t have the same effect.

Still, it sounds to me like you''ve given up. You have the guy''s name, business address, business phone . . . this should be resolvable.

 

[soycoffee]

Thank you for sharing your experience with this vendor. Buyer reviews are extremely important to the online consumer (and all other consumers). It isn''t always easy to put yourself out there and share it all!

Keep hacking away at this person/company, and you will get your refund. It''s easy to get sick of all of this, and to throw in the towel, I know, I have been there. So, don''t give up, and good luck!

 

[LD]

I''m so sorry you''re in this horrible position.

I had a similar experience with the same seller. I bought a pink irradiated diamond ring. I specifically asked whether it had been treated other than by irradiation and was told "no" prior to the sale.

When I received the ring, I could see what I thought were laser lines. This was confirmed by my appraiser. Luckily it was only a matter of days after receipt that I found this out. I contacted Abe and with some pressure, I managed to negotiated a fairly large partial refund.

I do hope you get some satisfaction - unfortunately they are not 100% honest in their advertisements.

 

[2Artists]

Thank you so much for sharing. I am so sorry your experience sounds like the pits.

Mrs.2Artists

 

[peaches]

So sorry you've experienced this. Stories like this make me SO angry!!!

I had an issue with a blatantly fraudulent eBay seller that took months to resolve. In the end, neither eBay nor PayPal came to my aid; I had to get compensation through my credit card company.

Did you pay for the items through PayPal via a credit card? If so then I would see about asking your card company to refund the charges. Definitely provide them with all the photos and documentation you've posted here to back up your claim.

Best of luck in getting this resolved!

 

[ROGER_DR]

Thank you so much for your support, inputs and info.

I know that it would be quite difficult for me to get back the rings,therefore I would like to share with as many as possible people my experience so that I can try my best to stop this scum from cheating other people.

I''m from Singapore. It''s not easy for me to sue him from here. Anybody has good ideas?

I would take your comment to feedback this issue to BBB, while I know nothing about BBB. Could anybody teach me how to contact BBB and submit my issue?

Thanks again and appreciate your helps.

 

[ROGER_DR]

"You had me until you bid on even MORE diamonds from him in Feb 09. Seriously, why would you bid on more enhanced diamonds?"


Sir, I really had no other choice.

I feedback the issue to Ebay, but Ebay told me that the case had been more than 90 days since I bought them, they couldn''t do anything as well as Paypal.

I gave seller one more month (from Jan 15 to feb15) to settle it for me,but seller didin''t even reply me at all! So I knew that it was very hard to get refund from him.

The only thing I could do is to bid his item and take it as a replacement. I bidded it NOT becasu I had changed my mind and trusted the enhanced diamonds, but I had no other choice! At least, it gave me a new chance and I could use it to raise a dispute on Ebay as the old case had been time out already and I couldn''t use the old case to raise a dispute at all.

 

[CravingDiamonds]

It really stinks that you have to deal with supposed professional businesses like this. It gives others who sell on eBay a bad name. My advice would be to stick to reputable jewelers that you can get personal recommendations from.

If you bought two rings at the same time, they had to be rather cheap in price, right? That is the first sign that something is not right. I have seen supoossed real sapphire rings in 14k gold sell for $6.99 on eBay. Now, you can''t tell me that first you would sell a real sapphire for that price or even a real 14k gold band for that price.

 

[AmberGretchen]

So sorry you are going through this. I really hope you are able to get a resolution of some kind.

Thank you for sharing your experience with us here.

 

[ROGER_DR]

"It really stinks that you have to deal with supposed professional businesses like this. It gives others who sell on eBay a bad name. My advice would be to stick to reputable jewelers that you can get personal recommendations from.

If you bought two rings at the same time, they had to be rather cheap in price, right? That is the first sign that something is not right. I have seen supoossed real sapphire rings in 14k gold sell for $6.99 on eBay. Now, you can't tell me that first you would sell a real sapphire for that price or even a real 14k gold band for that price."



They were not a cheap diamond ring but more affordable for me. They cost me US$1431 in total.

I trusted the seller because he had few thousands of positive feedback and I myself even gave him two positive feedbacks after I received the rings.

The problem was that the crack would come out 2-3 months later. I don't think most of buyers could wait for 2-3 months then leave the feedback right? Also, if a buyer found the problem and leave a negative feedback to him, he will consider it as a final deal and don't do anything for you! That's why those buyers didn't leave al negative feedback for him although they were not satisfied.

 

[ROGER_DR]

This is the copy of dispute raised on Mar 1 09 (Feb 28 US). It is an evidence for what I have published on this forum.

 

[BlueSki231]

how on earth did/could he "repair" a cracked diamond?!?

so sorry you have to deal with this

 

[Imdanny]

Date: 4/7/2009 1:06:25 PM
Author: denverappraiser
Roger,


Bummer.


I see two separate and very different issues here. First, you are unhappy with the quality of your purchase. Since we don’t know anything at all about how it was represented, there’s no way for us to have a feel if it was misrepresented.

Yep. I thought of that point too.

 

[Imdanny]

Date: 4/7/2009 5:50:28 AM
Author: arjunajane

This should also be a lesson not to bother with CE diamonds

Yes, don''t bother. Good point as well.

 

[Kaleigh]

So sorry. I am guessing you have learned a good lesson here. I know that doesn''t help. but I DO feel your pain. We would love more than anything to help you find a beautiful diamond not CE in your budget, once you are ready...