Custom Ring Nightmare - Dimend SCAASI

[Mike_S]

Hi, I just wanted to share the horrible experience I had with Dimend Scaasi this year. Nobody should have to go through what we did, and be treated as poorly as we were for the last few months.

Dimend Scaasi basically ruined 4 MONTHS of our engagement.

I ordered a platinum engagement ring from Dimend Scaasi this April, for a May proposal. It was a custom trellis-style ring for my 1.35ct Asscher, which I picked out on my first visit there. I recieved the ring a couple days late, the same day as the proposal I had planned. The proposal went perfectly, she said yes!! But when we got the ring outside into different lighting, we found that there was an area of the ring which had a different finish to it. I took the ring back in, and they said the ring had surface porosity, a manufacturing defect which could be "lasered" out and would take 2 weeks to fix. So after proposing, I needed to send the ring back immediately and leave my fiancee with nothing on her finger.

Two weeks later, their salesperson Shannon called to tell me that the ring was back in and looked perfect. When we picked it up, we found that nothing had been done to it! The porosity was still there, plus some additional dents that were not there before. They admitted that it hadn''t been fixed, and that it never should have been delivered to us in the first place. The ring needed to be remade, which they said would take another 3 weeks. They took the diamond back, and this time they were nice enough to let my fiancee borrow a cheap CZ ring to wear while hers was in the shop.
The resulting re-make looked significantly different from our original ring. The diamond sat much, much higher and the crossing prongs of the trellis had a very different appearance. The shape of our original ring was perfect, we just wanted it back without ugly surface defects! I would not accept the ring as it did not match the original ring or any of the pictures/diagrams they used to build the original. They took the ring back to re-make a third time, claiming that we would be able to go through the ring creation process with the jeweler to ensure that we were getting the product we wanted.

Unfortunately the jeweler (Danhov) was not very happy to be working directly with their customers, and became increasingly defensive of their work. They claimed that they could do what we wanted with no problem, but their subsequent attempts were further and further from the original. They would send pictures of the ring and Shannon at SCAASI could never relay our concerns back to the jeweler properly. We had to go to great lengths creating diagrams and marking up pictures to show what we wanted. Our concerns were ignored and we were told that the ring would look "fine" in person despite our concerns.

The communication was terrible throughout the entire process and we needed to go back and forth many times to explain and show very simple concepts to their salesperson Shannon, and the jewelers. They were consistently unresponsive and late on all promises, no matter how small or simple. We were told that we would receive a phone call or pictures "this afternoon" and then would not hear from them for days at a time. We would often receive emails very late in the day, when there was no time for them to do anything with our responses (which were always immediate). Every delivery was late. They were always too busy to talk on the phone and wouldn''t return calls. We were never a priority and every attempt took weeks at a time. They did not return phone calls and left us wondering what was happening to our diamond at all times.

When the ring was finally finished and mostly resembled the original, we received it and found that it still had some minor defects which needed to be touched up!! Scratches, dents and loose prongs. One prong was angled in a slightly different way than the others. We met with Isaac himself this time, who apologized again and took the ring back, claiming that it would be a very simple fix. That they could just "push" the one prong back into place and polish out the other defects.

Isaac told us that no matter what, he would do what was necessary to make us happy- that we could bring the ring in at any time and they woud fix whatver we didnt like. That we could bring it back in 30 years if we found something we weren''t happy with and they would fix it, no problem.

When Danhov recieved the ring, they attempted to tear off and completely replace part of the ring (which we never asked or authorized them to do)- they applied too much heat to the ring and RUINED it completely!!! They said the prongs had been weakened to the point that it would no longer hold our diamond.
When we asked them to replace the ring that they ruined again, Isaac decided that he were tired of spending time on us. He refused to have Danhov re-make the ring again and cut us loose instead. He said he would not authorize them to work on our ring any more. He had their secretary send us a check for the purchase price of the setting, plus a meager $100 "gift" for the 4 MONTHS of time that we spent waiting for them to deliver. In this time we had to take off work countless times to drive down to drop off or pick up failed attempts of our ring. The "gift" doesn''t even cover the amount we spent on parking, to pick up our own property from them!

After 4 months I had no setting at all!!!

I took my diamond to another Jeweler in Chicago and was treated with simple respect, a concept that was completely lacking at Dimend Scaasi.

If you are in any way a knowledgeable customer, Dimend Scaasi won''t appreciate you. If you''re impressed by shiny things and don''t care about quality or customer service, you''re their ideal customer. They are only interested in pushing as many customers as possible through their doors and won''t bother fixing their own mistakes. Their salesperson Shannon is completely clueless, unresponsive and unreliable. The owner Isaac only stepped in to let us know that we had been around for too long, and weren''t important enough to work with anymore.

STAY AWAY from Dimend Scaasi. There are plenty of other reputable jewelers in Chicago that will work with you to give you what you''re looking for, and actually take pride in their work.

 

[lovinsparkles]

Sorry to hear about your experiences, Mike. I have visited DS before, but ultimately didn''t go with them because they make you buy the ring and setting together, and I wasn''t sure they''d be able to do the setting exactly as I wanted it (I''m picky). Sounds like maybe that was a good choice. Glad you guys finally got what you wanted, even if you had to go elsewhere.

 

[strmrdr]

Ouch
Sorry to hear about your bad experience! :{
Glad that the other jeweler is working out for you and best wishes for the future together!

 

[librarychickie]

Wow! Mike, I'm really sorry that you had such a horrible experience.

I have purchased twice from dimend SCAASI, and I have been totally thrilled with the service and the products that I have received.

I guess it just wasn't meant to be with you and them. Bummer.

I'm glad that you found someone else who could work to your liking. The ring you posted is beautiful!

~LC

 

[lovinsparkles]

Also, what did you think of Goldin's collection of settings/wedding bands? (I think I read in your other thread that that's who you wound up with?). I was thinking of checking them out for wedding band ideas.

 

[kcoursolle]

i''m so sorry you had to deal with all of this, but I am happy to hear that you got your money back and are starting with a fresh setting and a new vendor!

 

[MMT]

I just wanted to say sorry you had such a bad experience. Hopefully this time it will go well.

 

[Mike_S]

I haven''t gone through the band selection very much at Goldin yet. My fiancee and I both know exactly what we want to get, so I didnt have much reason to start digging through the catalogs yet. They have many designers available and they also do custom work, most of it on-site. In a few months we''ll go back and look through their designer catalogs to see if anything is close to what we''re looking for. Otherwise we''ll have them create something new.

She is going to get an eternity band with little asschers all the way around, and I''m going to get a platinum band with a few small asschers set in flush with the band. I guess they would just be called "step cuts" instead of asschers, since theyre so small. I think we''re both a little apprehensive about custom work after our experience at Scaasi, but the bands are fairly simple so I don''t expect much difficulty in getting what we want.

 

[Mike_S]

I also just wanted to add a little bit to this-

I cant begin to explain how stressful this whole experience was. And whatever stress I felt, my fiancee felt about 100 times as much. She was constantly worried about what was happening to her diamond. My fiancee had no ring on her finger for the first 4 months of the engagement and they had no apologies or sense of urgency at any time. She attended an a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, and stood up in two weddings without her ring on her finger. We''ve met with wedding vendors who asked why she wasn''t wearing a ring. To this day my parents have still not seen the diamond because Scaasi always had it. We have had to explain to everyone "no, we still don''t have it" so many times that it reflected poorly on us. I felt responsible for picking a bad vendor and wanted to apologize over and over again. These things are EMBARRASSING.

We were never completely sure that they were ever going to get us something that we wanted. When they overheated the ring and destroyed it, we were an emotional wreck and we thought there was a good chance the diamond had been damaged. None of our concern was ever an issue for Scaasi. The only good will or apology we ever received was when we spoke to Isaac in person- he gave us an offer for a discount on our wedding bands if we decided to purchase from them, along with a refund of a few hundred dollars. We felt like this was a gesture of good will on their part, until he decided to ditch us as customers via EMAIL and give us a mere $100 for our troubles.

By the end it was obvious that they were dragging their feet and ignoring us because they wanted us to get tired and give up. I guess we should have, long before that. My reason for writing all of this is really to help someone else avoid such a horrible experience. This ring was the center of our lives for months and was one of the most awful, stressful experiences ever. This is NOT the way to start your wedding planning and celebrate such an important and loving time in your life. You''d think that Scaasi would understand that, but clearly they DO NOT.

 

[bee*]

Sorry to hear that. It must be really disappointing, especially after the initial engagement rush. Hope that you get the ring that you''re hoping for soon.

 

[Fancy_yellow_gal]

So sorry for your terrible experience with DS. I had a girl friend who went through the same ordeal with them.

 

[Tacori E-ring]

sorry you had such a stressful start. Hopefully in the end this ordeal will only be a memory. Hope you find the setting of your dreams soon!

 

[AprilBaby]

So sorry you had to start this way! Best wishes for the future to be MUCH better!

 

[Diamond*Dana]

I am sorry that you had such an awful experience with DS...hopefully your new ring will be perfect for years to come!

 

[marcy]

Sorry to hear you had such an ordeal with them. I hope your current jeweler will turn out to be a great experience.

 

[somehowcollide]

I''m sorry about your negative experience. I couldn''t imagine what it would be like to be engaged but without my ring on my finger!

At least your bad experience will serve as a warning to others.

Thank you for sharing...

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I am very sorry, too, but it sounds like Danhov deserves a significant amount the blame for not making the ring correctly multiple times. I can understand being upset with DS, but they were not really the ones who produced or worked on the ring. I think more of a point needs to be made about Danhov, because many jewelers sell that brand, not just DS.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/12/2008 8:07:01 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006
I am very sorry, too, but it sounds like Danhov deserves a significant amount the blame for not making the ring correctly multiple times. I can understand being upset with DS, but they were not really the ones who produced or worked on the ring. I think more of a point needs to be made about Danhov, because many jewelers sell that brand, not just DS.

I agree.

 

[scaasi]

Dear Forum Members,

My attention was brought to this posting today and I wanted to give the courtesy of a firsthand reply. Mike_S has given a synopsis of the events that took place. I value the opportunity Pricescope provides to respond with our comments.

As Mike_S reported, there were discoloration issues which led to mutual agreement that the ring should be remade. Upon its return we presented it to the client. We mistakenly assumed it would be exact (based on past history with the maker) and we discovered the differences at the same time the client did. We felt terrible about this and gave Mike_S one of our settings with an asscher CZ, so she would at least have something to wear during the wait while we corrected things. As an added courtesy, Shannon recommended that we send production photos for approval each step of the way. Her intentions were good but did not proceed as hoped. Shannon might call Danhov five times a day to ask when new pictures would arrive. Sometimes they came as promised, other times they did not. This caused understandable frustration for Mike_S. I believe we were also unsuccessful in communicating how “minor” adjustments might not be so minor. For example, adjusting one prong in such a design may require all four prongs to be reapplied. This takes days rather than hours. Such delays can seem illogical and become maddening for a client but hand-crafting platinum (even adjustments) is often complex and time-consuming, particularly when being managed remotely.

The disaster of disasters occurred after we brought the ring in a second time for the client’s inspection. They requested Danhov to make a final, slight adjustment to a prong. It was sent back but the setting was compromised during the adjustment and had to be started again from scratch. When we reported this to the clients they said if they knew that would happen they would have accepted it without adjustment. I can’t express how strongly we wish we could rewind to that day (this would still not reflect our standards for a seamless process), but no one could predict this would happen. It was a terrible day for all of us. Meanwhile, the clients had events to attend. We volunteered to have their diamond set into one of our four-prong solitaires, as a temporary measure, so she could wear it in public.

A new round of pictures and emails began and continued, with Shannon again functioning as intermediary. She did her best to comply with all client modification requests but we experienced friction between client and workshop. The clients strongly felt they were not being listened to and expressed that the situation was unacceptable. I had witnessed their distress in my office previously and by now Shannon was losing sleep and becoming physically ill over the situation. This is when I decided to step in. I want to be clear that I do not fault the client for his wishes, but in my opinion the volume and magnified detail of the emailed requests I reviewed had become untenable, particularly in this long-distance situation. My decision to halt the process was based on professional experience, and a wish to avoid even more distress and disappointment. It was not an easy decision nor, as reported, was it my first choice. I care deeply about our clientele and personally select the highest quality workshops by traveling around the world. We have a wonderful relationship with Danhov and nothing like this has happened before. Ultimately it was not a quality issue so much as a precision duplication-of-design issue. At the magnifications being used, exact duplication of a hand-crafted platinum ring can be near to impossible, especially when attempting numerous adjustments.

I fully recognize this explanation doesn’t remedy the stress and hurt Mike_S and his lady have felt. Still, we wanted to take the opportunity this forum provides to give our perspective. Despite the impression received, this case was a constant priority and demanded significant attention as negotiator between client and factory. We accept full responsibility for our collective inability to satisfy the client’s requirements. Though it may not be significant to some, I wish to note that we did gift Mike_S with the solitaire in which we mounted their diamond valued at $180. This was in addition to the refund and my apology gift of $100. It is our sincere hope that they have now located someone who was able to deliver precisely what they wanted.

There are two sides to a story and while we respect Mike_S’s right to convey his perceptions and emotions I feel obliged to contend with one area of his post. Shannon is a steadfast employee of nine years, five of them spent as a jewelry production manager of great capability. To call her "clueless, unreliable and unresponsive" on a public jewelry forum is contrary to her consummate professionalism, which consistently earns the respect and admiration of both peers and clients. She worked far beyond the normal call of duty on this ring. It was she who managed the friction between client and factory while maintaining decorum. It was she who insisted we mount the client’s diamond in our own 4-prong solitaire so they could wear it to events and show their families and friends. It was she who suggested we gift them with that solitaire when I stepped in. Shannon is selflessly dedicated and her diligence has earned hundreds of clients for life. With respect to Mike_S, his reactions here are not representative of her professionalism or generous spirit.

We understand that a company needs to be as close to perfect as possible. We work to treat every client with the same degree of respect and the highest possible caliber of products and service. This is little solace to someone who feels mistreated, and we do feel their pain. The most wonderful companies may commit human errors and we believe the mark of a diligent company is the attempt to work toward a solution. We worked for four months to resolve these issues. Two times prior, when irregular obstacles surfaced, we offered refunds as a business courtesy but Shannon stayed with the client because they wished to continue. With a near-perfect customer satisfaction ratio we take any irregular case personally. My decision to intercede came only when it was clear to me that our inability to manage this remotely could not be overcome. The refund, the $100 and the gifted solitaire are still not as important to me as expressing our sincere regret. To that end we humbly express further apologies here and in other areas where Mike_S is publishing his story. We hope to use this experience to improve our skills in the future.

Thank you, Pricescope, for allowing us the opportunity to respond.

Sincerely,

 

[Mike_S]

It''s pretty sad and disappointing that Isaac could only be bothered to explain himself AFTER his company has been called out in a public forum. His response is 5 times longer and more detailed than any explanation or apology I ever received directly. Isaac''s only "intervention" in the process came at our request. First, earlier in the process, we asked Shannon to include Isaac at an in-person meeting. This is where he fooled us into believing that he backed his company, his manufacturer, and their work and promised us that they would work with us to recreate our ring until we were satisfied. Then, later in the process when we were still without our ring and were finally fed up with Shannon''s dodging of our emails and phone calls, we decided to copy Isaac on an email to let him know what was going on. Keeping the company image intact is a cause deserving of his attention, I guess.

If Dimend SCAASI''s salespeople felt "ill" over this, then imagine how I felt. Imagine how my fiancee felt. This affected us more than anyone at Scaasi, and that was painfully obvious throughout the entire process.

And one last note- I saw 5 different D''Vatche settings in person before finally ordering mine. And each one was just as perfect as the last. It seems that re-creating your past work isn''t so difficult for some.

 

[Sharon101]

Mike, I speak from personal and business esperience. Sometimes shit happens!!! It can happen with your dentist and you live with the damage forever.

Or it can happen with a ring.

I understand that you had an awful hard time with this ring. But think about it......you got a full refund and some other sweeteners that the vendor gave completely of their own discretion. In my experience, if you even get your money back in some bad transactions you are very lucky in this day and age.

Do you see that a vendor here also spent considerable time and resourses on your case. They obviously lost money dealing with you, a cost that they rightfully ate. But the point still remains that in these bad times it is awful for anyone to make a loss on things that may have been out of their control. ie bad luck.

They werent trying to scam you or hold your money to ransom. Im sure infact that you gave them what for in this case and that they were aware of your pain at every moment.

I think the vendor has explained the situation as being totally his responsibility even though it was a 3rd party making the ring. You dont need to bash the vendor any more imo. In some ways I feel sorry for the vendor who tried to make it up to you.

I feel you are out for revenge at any cost and this is overkill for the situation imo.

 

[arjunajane]

Mike, seriously dude - what Mr Gottesman wrote in his post is one of the most sincere and detailed apologies I have ever heard from any company. Does it really matter if he gave it on PS or in person, or both? As Sharon bought up, many people here have been burnt over jewellery without ever seeing a penny of their money again - I know you had distress and your time was wasted, but it honestly sounds like DS did the best they could in an unfortunate situation.
And I don't think it is suspect or anything that Mr Gottesman has taken the time to address your post at length here - this is an example of what PS is for, and he has a responsibility to manage his Co's image.
I do feel your pain in this debacle, but perhaps it is time to accept your refund, gifts and apology and move on - your continued ill will over this will only cause your r'ship more stress.

I sincerely hope you and your girl end up with the ring of your dreams, and of course the marriage to go with it

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/14/2008 6:29:13 AM
Author: arjunajane
Mike, seriously dude - what Mr Gottesman wrote in his post is one of the most sincere and detailed apologies I have ever heard from any company. Does it really matter if he gave it on PS or in person, or both? As Sharon bought up, many people here have been burnt over jewellery without ever seeing a penny of their money again - I know you had distress and your time was wasted, but it honestly sounds like DS did the best they could in an unfortunate situation.
And I don't think it is suspect or anything that Mr Gottesman has taken the time to address your post at length here - this is an example of what PS is for, and he has a responsibility to manage his Co's image.
I do feel your pain in this debacle, but perhaps it is time to accept your refund, gifts and apology and move on - your continued ill will over this will only cause your r'ship more stress.

I sincerely hope you and your girl end up with the ring of your dreams, and of course the marriage to go with it

Ditto AJ.

I am a bit confused over one part of your post Mike where you said "They took the diamond back, and this time they were nice enough to let my fiancee borrow a cheap CZ ring to wear while hers was in the shop." Mr Gottesman said that they actually set your diamond into a simple solitaite setting so your fiance could wear it at events, did that ring have a simulated stone in it?

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Mike Isaac is a genuine guy (we would call him a ''decent bloke'' downunder). I am glad he has visited to reply. Clearly they did not come to work one day and say - lets pick on the next client and make their life Hell. They are running a business and doing their best.

There is always another side - had they broken your diamond and told you to go away, or stolen from you etc - then.........

After more than 30 years running a business based on custom designed jewellery, with half a dozen in house jewellers - I know that after a piece has gone wrong that the most reasonable client begins to examine mark II or mark III with higher and higher powered lenses. We call ''design award'' our highest standard - to be judged by peers - and it becomes a requirement in cases like yours.

Yet almost any one piece of jewellery that is loved and treasured that you have ever seen can be examined an a fault of some tiny nature found. Almost every day I see a ring that on close inspection has a setting out of alignment by 1 degree. In your case, it seems that you got to that point and in the quest for perfection the bad Karma that had been building up erupted. I think it is fair that you comprehend that your own role contributed however slightly to this unhappy outcome.

If there is a lesson - it is talk more and email less - between client, retailer, and in this case - manufacturer.

 

[denverappraiser]

Mike_S,

To summarize; you ordered a ring which it turned out they couldn’t deliver to your satisfaction. After several attempts they gave you back your diamond and refunded your money in full along with a few sweeteners to cushion the blow. To be sure this isn’t the happiest resolution for either side but I wouldn’t call it a disaster either and allowing such a thing go “ruin 4 months of your engagement” or to be the ‘center of your lives’ is nuts.

Obviously there’s no way for us to tell if the staff (or you) were rude during the whole process and perhaps they would have been wise to throw in the towel sooner than they did but, all in all, this seems like a more or less satisfactory resolution. We regularly advise consumers here that if it’s not working out with their jeweler to take their business elsewhere but rarely does it get pointed out that the jeweler gets to make the same decision. Sometimes they need to cut and run too. It wasn’t working out between them, you and the chosen manufacturer, it was getting worse with time, and you were getting more and more aggravated with each attempt to fix it so Isaac decided to bail out, absorbing 100% of the costs so that you can find your perfect ring somewhere else. Again, not what you would call a perfect outcome by any means but for cases where the deal doesn’t work out, this is a pretty good end.

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

 

[canuk-gal]

HI::

Having been on this forum a few years I have read many stories about customer dissatisfaction and it is always a emotional time for both parties. For what it is worth, the vendor''s apology was one of the more sincere (professional) I''ve encountered.

I hope you are able to enjoy your ring.

cheers--Sharon

 

[neatfreak]

Neil, well written post as always.

Mike, I am really sorry that you had a crappy experience. It sucks. But at the same time it appears that you could have pulled out at any time as well, so while I agree that it would have been great for this not to happen in the first place, it doesn't sound like anyone was holding your money ransom. In some situations it's best to cut your losses and run-whether you are the vendor and the consumer. If you don't like the way you are being treated, don't wait 4 months, take your $ and run!

My one major question is where is Danhov in this whole equation??? They usually are impeccable craftsmen from what I understand. And if I understand the situation correctly, Scassi was acting as the middleman between the client and the designer, they were not making the ring themselves directly, correct? So it appears that at least some of the blame for the poor craftsmanship should go to them...

I sincerely wish you the best with your engagement and marriage!!!

 

[Mike_S]

I am a bit confused over one part of your post Mike where you said "They took the diamond back, and this time they were nice enough to let my fiancee borrow a cheap CZ ring to wear while hers was in the shop." Mr Gottesman said that they actually set your diamond into a simple solitaite setting so your fiance could wear it at events, did that ring have a simulated stone in it?

Just to clarify some details- when they took our ring back for the second re-make, they let us borrow a CZ ring while the diamond was gone. This remake took approximately 1 week, start to finish. After the second ring was done, we met Isaac in person when it was ready. The ring still had a few places that we weren''t satisfied with, but the problems were very minor. Specifically, there were some small dents and one of the prongs was at a slightly different angle than the others- we felt like it was nitpicking but he told us that it could simply be "pushed" over into place. Isaac told us that the fixes would be very simple and that we would have the ring back right away. He also told us that our expectations WERE reasonable and that we could come back as many times as necessary to get it right. He literally said "you can come back in 30 years and if there is something you don''t like about the setting, we''ll change it for you."

My fiancee was going to be a bridesmaid in another wedding about a week and a half later so we told them that we would need the ring back by then, otherwise the repairs could wait. They said it would be no problem, and if it looked like it would take too long the ring could be shipped back with some repairs still outstanding. When we sent back the ring and it was ruined by overheating, Shannon had the shop put our diamond in a simple solitaire setting so that we could have our diamond for the wedding. This was no problem because the shop was starting a new setting and wouldn''t need to mount our diamond for another couple weeks.

It wasn''t until this point that Shannon gave the first offer for a refund (over 3 months into the process). We declined the refund and continued with a third re-make because both Isaac and Danhov said it could be done (according to Shannon). We trusted Isaac because of what he told us in person. We believed he was committed to giving us what we were looking for. When pictures of the semi-finished third ring came in, we compared them to the original pictures and suggested changes. The responses to our suggestions were very delayed and defensive this time around. After a month I complained that we weren''t being listened to or seeing any progress. Isaac responded with a short email to say that the ring could not be made to our expectations, and that they were issuing a refund. When Isaac told the shop to stop working on the new setting and issued our refund plus $100, they let us keep the simple solitaire that our diamond was already mounted in. We have no use for it and it only serves as a reminder of the entire ruined process. It has practically no re-sale or scrap value.

To Garry H - we did try to speak with Dimend Scaasi as much as possible. Whenever they needed to speak with me, I made myself available immediately. I took many trips down to their shop (at their convenience) and tried to work over the phone as much as possible. My phone calls were rarely returned. We only worked with Shannon through the entire process. I had no direct interaction or "friction" with Danhov, I could only infer what they were doing by what Shannon described. What I do know is that many times we were falsely told we would be contacted "this morning" or "this afternoon" or "tomorrow". If this was due to repeated delays from Danhov, then perhaps Dimend Scaasi shouldn''t have continued to promise pictures or news that they couldn''t deliver.

I can''t stress enough that our expectations were defined by what Dimend Scaasi told us was possible. They told us that it wouldn''t be easy to duplicate the original ring, but they said that it could be done if we were patient and worked with the shop.

I guess I''ve made my point, beaten this to death, and perhaps worn out my welcome. I''m not seeking revenge, I''m just very frustrated by what I percieve as a continued lack of respect. I understand that Isaac has a responsibility to defend his company''s image, and he appears to be very dedicated to doing so. But to answer another comment, YES it does make a difference that his explanation and apology could only be brought forth after his company''s reputation was questioned publicly. The explanation I recieved from Isaac was that the ring could not be made to our expectations, and their shop had reached their limits in the amount of time that could be dedicated to us. That was it. Completely counter to the statements of quality and commitment that he made to us in person, and that he advertises here. I appreciate that we recieved our money back plus a little extra, but if Isaac had been honest about his intentions and the capabilities of their shop, it wouldn''t have ever come to that point.

Finally- yes, were were able to take our money and get the perfect ring we were looking for. We stayed with the same general style as what we had requested from Scaasi, but upgraded and kept the shape slightly different so it wouldn''t be a constant reminder of the failed attempts. I posted some pictures here if anyone is interested.

Thanks for reading.

 

[strmrdr]

With 20/20 hindsight Isaac and or Mike should have pulled the plug on this deal sooner.
It seems that Danhov for whatever reasons was not capable of producing this ring in an acceptable manner.
We here have seen this happen many times when a third party doesn''t deliver and both the vendor and the client get so much emotion and energy invested in it that a happy resolution is not possible and it gets drug out beyond all reason.
The free setting, the loaner ring and the $100 and the apology were very nice and show that Isaac and Shannon cared.
This was an impossible situation and the primary fault is with Danhov but as the vendor Isaac is ultimately responsible and other than pulling the plug sooner or having another supplier make the ring I don''t see what else he could have done.
A secondary concern is why Isaac didn''t catch the problem with the first ring before it went to the client. He may want to look at his qc procedure with outside suppliers.

Mike I wish you and your Lady the best and may you have a happy and wonderful future together.

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/14/2008 12:02:10 PM
Author: strmrdr
With 20/20 hindsight Isaac and or Mike should have pulled the plug on this deal sooner.
It seems that Danhov for whatever reasons was not capable of producing this ring in an acceptable manner.
We here have seen this happen many times when a third party doesn't deliver and both the vendor and the client get so much emotion and energy invested in it that a happy resolution is not possible and it gets drug out beyond all reason.
The free setting, the loaner ring and the $100 and the apology were very nice and show that Isaac and Shannon cared.
This was an impossible situation and the primary fault is with Danhov but as the vendor Isaac is ultimately responsible and other than pulling the plug sooner or having another supplier make the ring I don't see what else he could have done.
A secondary concern is why Isaac didn't catch the problem with the first ring before it went to the client. He may want to look at his qc procedure with outside suppliers.

Mike I wish you and your Lady the best and may you have a happy and wonderful future together.

Thanks for the clarification Mike. I totally agree with Storm's words above.

Your new ring is gorgeous by the way and I also wish you and your fiancee all the best for the future.