Custom stress - not having fun

[Enerchi]

That is exactly how I feel Enerchi - zigzag but we'll still get there - and you definitely learn a few things along the way.

I've been thinking about you Enerchi - I want you to get some kind of refund for that botcho job they did with your ring! (Still can't believe the glue!!) It's not right to be expected to just walk away from not getting what you paid for. I guess I don't take well to not getting what I paid for. I hope you can follow through on some of those suggestions to get some accountability from your jeweller.

Specially when you had such good taste in your ring design- it deserves to be finished properly!

Thanks so much - that is so sweet of you! ((hug)) I need to muster up some of Dreamer and Haven's 'girlpower' courage! I'm such a wimp when it comes to complaining (is that a woman thing or a Canadian thing?? )

You hit the nail on the head - it isn't right to pay for something and not receive it. I'm proud of you for continuing to dialogue with your jeweller... for me... i just worry it's been so long now that I don't have any fall back position. I mean, I've had it this long... wait... scrap that - during that time, its changed colour and we discovered glue... ok... back on the fiesty train!

Thanks for your support! And how are things with your ring going today??

 

[yssie]

vinjewels - thanks for the good wishes!

ame - I appreciate the encouragement to not settle. I do have a tendency to pressure myself to settle, but I agree I should not and it would bother me forever to have a ring I'm not happy with. Since I first posted this thread I am more determined than ever not to settle!

I must say though that he wasn't rude to me as such - I didn't mean to imply that. He just failed to look at it fairly and made me feel very uncomfortable even though it was his mistake and NOT me changing my mind...

Yssie - you are right it does seemed he is not well prepared for my level of pickiness. But I'm not that picky, I just want it to flow nicely and be elegant and no wonky bits. I find it hard to believe that other people don't want that. And he did say at the very start that MOST OF HIS CLIENTS ARE PICKY AND HE LIKES THAT!! So it's not like I didn't get that cleared up at the start.

The white gold ring I saw has not been confirmed any thing at all let alone nickel free yet because he said 'Leave it for a few days'. I don't necessarily think he should have yet more time but it has been good for me to have thinking time too...

Unfortunately, working with an acknowledged "master" doesn't guarantee fabulous results on *your* piece, unless perhaps it's of a very similar style to something that jeweller has already done. Been there done that, and I wound up doing a full reset with a different vendor (and I'm very happy with the results).

I truly don't think this jeweller can give you what you want, I just hate to say that after all this time and effort I don't, however, think that the level of perfection you're looking for is impossible to achieve or anything like that. I'd urge you to reach out to VC again, since he has done exactly what you want, and try to get to the bottom of why he doesn't want to use the larger halo stones if that's still an issue, it may be something other than aesthetic concerns. Or Mike R - he's much closer, though still intl of course!

Reading Enerchi's last post I realised I wasn't clear! My thinking:
1. You deserve a refund. At least a partial refund, for the 6month delay if nothing else!
2. Then take the project elsewhere My preference would be Mike R over VC, b/c of both proximity and eye for perfection on each piece produced.

 

[oohsparkly]

I need to muster up some of Dreamer and Haven's 'girlpower' courage! I'm such a wimp when it comes to complaining (is that a woman thing or a Canadian thing?? )

You hit the nail on the head - it isn't right to pay for something and not receive it. I'm proud of you for continuing to dialogue with your jeweller... for me... i just worry it's been so long now that I don't have any fall back position. I mean, I've had it this long... wait... scrap that - during that time, its changed colour and we discovered glue... ok... back on the fiesty train!

You made me laugh Enerchi! Which is a good thing because I spent all morning stressing about what to do... I wrote a letter and then an email... and didn't send them. But they did help me muster up some 'girlpower' courage.

I don't think the wimp factor is a Canadian thing because it is definitely going on over here in Australia. The heat obviously doesn't help, nor do the kangaroos

And Yssie, thanks as usual for your support and ideas. I never thought of Mike R and I have thought about that this morning. I didn't even know of him when this project got started.

However I have kept feeling it's not quite bad enough to ditch the whole thing - the time delay sucks but they are nice people and they are trying to get me what I want.

Also Yssie - you mention a refund.. is it usual that you would pay the whole bucks upfront? Because I have only paid about a fifth of the max cost. If I was to walk away it would matter to me a lot (who has hundreds to throw away?) but it's not the whole cost at stake.

Gotta go right now but next post will let you know about my next move...

 

[oohsparkly]

omg - here is a newsflash from another Australian poster who wanted to send her stone to VC for the same Emilya halo I want...

"Australian Customs has just sent me an email this morning to inform me that not only would I have to pay our 10%GST + 5%Duty on the value of the setting but on the value of the diamond again as well.
I'd also be up for processing, handling, port fees and clearing charges.

This would add at least an extra $4500ish to the cost of the setting and sadly puts it out of my budget. "

This is from nomissjane, from Sydney. She also said it worked the same with NZ. This means it is impossible for me to even consider going with VC or Mike R.

So those options are firmly OFF the table...

 

[Gypsy]

Call Gary, see who and what he recommends.

 

[CaprineSun]

OP, I'm beginning to feel your pain.
Having a ring custom made and my issues thus far have been re: timeline, response to inquiries/requests, and the most frustrating, ignoring/disregarding/forgetting requests I carefully, spell out and repeat over & over & over & over again with words AND pictures. And, it's only ONE simple request that keeps ending up 'missing'! I really don't get it. I have tried not to come on PS to vent about it, but saw this thread at the right time.


I wanted so badly to avoid custom because of this, yet I ended up there anyway. I REALLY hope I love my ring.

 

[oohsparkly]

OP, I'm beginning to feel your pain.
Having a ring custom made and my issues thus far have been re: timeline, response to inquiries/requests, and the most frustrating, ignoring/disregarding/forgetting requests I carefully, spell out and repeat over & over & over & over again with words AND pictures. And, it's only ONE simple request that keeps ending up 'missing'! I really don't get it. I have tried not to come on PS to vent about it, but saw this thread at the right time.


I wanted so badly to avoid custom because of this, yet I ended up there anyway. I REALLY hope I love my ring.

Wow! You are having a terrible time. Being so careful and clear about your requests and still not being heard - that is truly not right I'm feeling your pain.

I really hope you love your ring too.

It seems like custom is like childbirth - you can stand it as long as you get your beautiful precious in the end.

 

[CaprineSun]

OP, I'm beginning to feel your pain.
Having a ring custom made and my issues thus far have been re: timeline, response to inquiries/requests, and the most frustrating, ignoring/disregarding/forgetting requests I carefully, spell out and repeat over & over & over & over again with words AND pictures. And, it's only ONE simple request that keeps ending up 'missing'! I really don't get it. I have tried not to come on PS to vent about it, but saw this thread at the right time.


I wanted so badly to avoid custom because of this, yet I ended up there anyway. I REALLY hope I love my ring.

Wow! You are having a terrible time. Being so careful and clear about your requests and still not being heard - that is truly not right I'm feeling your pain.

I really hope you love your ring too.

It seems like custom is like childbirth - you can stand it as long as you get your beautiful precious in the end.

Boy, are you right!!! Only thing stopping me from giving up is thinking of the end-result-- my dream ring. sigh.

And, wow, so sorry about the Australian customs issue! I agree with Gypsy on asking Garry. Surely, something can be done?

 

[oohsparkly]

Ok so this is what I did:

This thread really helped me get over feeling uncomfortable and bad about this situation and to see the whole thing clearer.

Although I have considered every option I didn't think it was quite bad enough to ditch this process altogether (I know many did! and that did help me 'muster the girlpower' as Enerchi put it!). I want to be fair to the jewellers - they have put a lot of effort into this so far and I feel I should give them a chance to get it across the line if they are going to address my issues now. I'm prepared to let the delays be water under the bridge - that time's gone anyway. And I have always felt they are honest people - that's worth something in this industry.

After writing my unsent letter and email I realised that most of it was trying to explain that I didn't change my mind and I haven't been 'difficult'. A little bit of it was the practical stuff I want addressed - the need to avoid further delays, and the things wrong with the last ring that I want fixed.

I then thought, well he is a man, and they don't really care about the emotional stuff, so I should just address the practical things in a polite but firm way and see how things go. After all, even if a little grumpy he had already agreed to re-do in wg for no extra cost to me. If things went badly, I would either try to explain using my letter or leave it for my husband tomorrow.

So I call not knowing what to expect, and his wife answers, just as nice and pleasant as she always is. I thought that is a good sign..

Then he came to the phone and he also was totally nice and friendly again! He said something about wanting to get on with my ring and I told him the practical things - he was good with that. I started to mention about the timeline from now on and he said he is going away in 2 weeks and wants to get the ring on my finger before then!

So I am feeling really like wow this is better than I was hoping for... I then said that all the changes from now on I would write myself clearly in an email rather than telling them verbally and letting them make notes. He was happy with that, me too.

He is also going to check about the nickel content of the wg ring that started all this.

What I didn't think to say but will also say is that I would like him to do the struts not his assistant. After all, his awards (not his assistant's) swayed me in the first place. The halo and shank were fine (by fine I mean perfect).

So that's it. This is the fourth time they will have done this ring and there are only a few specific changes that need to be made now, and wg is easier to work with than palladium, so I do have high hopes that I will have a successful outcome. Apparently he has a great diamond setter - he says the best in the country who is a personal friend. That is a big issue for me too - I don't want any old hacker on my cut-down pave!

Thanks to everyone who replied to this thread - your thoughts, time and support were greatly appreciated.

 

[Enerchi]

You go my "GIRLPOWER" buddy - oohsparkly!! YIPPEE! I'm so glad your situation worked out for you - we both had VERY successful 'issue resolution' days, didn't we???

That's wonderful that it's resolving for you and you'll have a ring in 2 weeks - post it INSTANTLY when you come home - heck, don't even come home - post from your cell!

 

[oohsparkly]

You go my "GIRLPOWER" buddy - oohsparkly!! YIPPEE! I'm so glad your situation worked out for you - we both had VERY successful 'issue resolution' days, didn't we???

That's wonderful that it's resolving for you and you'll have a ring in 2 weeks - post it INSTANTLY when you come home - heck, don't even come home - post from your cell!

Thanks Enerchi! It has been an amazing coincidence that we both had this stress, got it dealt with and got great resolutions and both at the same time!!

It is a lot more fun to go through this process with someone else! (Even if we are on completely different time zones/hemispheres etc!)

( And I'm a little embarrassed to say I've never posted a photo in my life so 'instant' may have to be 'when I figure it out'! but I will try!)

 

[Gypsy]

Fingers crossed for MUCH JOY in 2 weeks!

 

[luvsdmb]

Hi,
Do you have a picture of the finished ring? What metal did you end up with, are you happy with how it looks and how it wears?

 

[Enerchi]

Hi,
Do you have a picture of the finished ring? What metal did you end up with, are you happy with how it looks and how it wears?

YES!!! Do tell, what happened in the end?? How does your ring look? are you happy with it - is it just as you'd dreamed it would be??? And please please please, tell us you figured out how to post a picture or twenty!!