Earth's Treasury Warning

[swany]

Get prepared for my lengthy ring saga...

I originally had my engagement ring done my Earth's Treasury in 2017. I originally had asked what the basket of a setting I liked on their site would look like because there was only a straight on picture (the Quintus, I was hoping i could have a straight wedding band). Jeff Hapeman responded with:

"It basically is connected to the band exactly like a classic “Tiffany style” ring. I’ve attached a generic photo so you get the idea." (the photo he attached is below)

I eventually get the ring and it definitely was not like the classic "Tiffany style" ring, it was a low basket setting. But I didn't hate it and I really liked the stone and the hammered texture.

Fast forward to making the wedding ring. I didn't know Earth's Treasury made custom bands so I went for a highly reputed jeweler I found here: David Klass. I sent him my mother-in-law's diamonds and a clear idea of what I wanted. I didn't feel comfortable shipping my engagement ring to him at the time but he still made a contoured band that sat perfectly flush with it. It was beautiful.

Fast forward again to this last November after getting married I thought it would be nice to get my rings soldered together. I didn't think it would be a big thing, I just wanted them to line up perfectly all the time. I went to a local jeweler and they said they would have no problem doing it with the hammered texture. I get my ring back and the rings have a deeply dented, "pinprick" like texture on them instead of the original soft hammered texture. The jeweler realizes they made a mistake, they don't know how to fix it so they contact the original maker, Earth's Treasury. Local jeweler says they are sorry and will pay for it to get fixed and ships it off to Earth's Treasury.

Earth's Treasury receives the rings and tells me both have to be remade and they seem totally willing to help. At this point I'm thinking this really sucks but I might as well fix a couple things if they are already remaking the rings. I tell Earth's Treasury I want delicate tapered/claw prongs instead of the ball prongs. Earth's Treasury asks me if I want the wedding band's thickness to better match up with the engagement ring. It never really bugged me as sitting flush was more important but I said sure, might as well fix that. I suggested Earth's Treasury remake the wedding band as it would be easier to make them match but they say it would be better if we went through David Klass again.

As time goes by I get notifications that a prototype of my engagement ring is sent to David Klass so he can better adjust the thickness of the wedding band. He modifies only the thickness of the CAD and shows through pictures how it still fits perfectly flush with the prototype he was sent. He remakes the ring, I give final approval and sends it back to Earth's Treasury. Earth's Treasury notifies me two days later saying that the hammered texture is applied to both rings and they are soldered together and ready to go. No pictures for approval but I assume all is fine.

I received the rings and I’m disappointed. The prongs look bulky (I understand some people may like it but I didn't and would have liked a picture approval beforehand). The rings were soldered in the back but were no longer flush in the front and there was an obvious gap. I don't want a contoured ring soldered if it doesn't fit flush. I emailed Earth's Treasury and they responded that was the closest they could do. That's fine...but why not tell me when you received the wedding band, before you soldered or before you shipped it back to me that they didn’t fit?

I'm very confused at this point. I just want my rings back that fit together. I ask Earth's Treasury if I can ship it back to them and they can take apart the rings and reduce the prong size. They say yep and instruct me on how to ship it the next day. I go to the post office and ship it. I also e-mail David Klass on what he thinks I can do and ask him why my rings aren't flush. He sends me an email explaining that the wedding band sat perfectly flush with the engagement ring prototype but he would be happy to see them both and figure out how to proceed because you obviously don't want a not flush contoured band. I send this information to Earth's Treasury to let them know that after they separate them to ship them to David Klass.

This is the response from Jeff Hapeman of Earth's Treasury:

"Please go to the post office and halt delivery on this package. We did a favor to the other jeweler by even taking on this job. We did it at cost, and wasted our precious time. We even sent David Klass a 3D printed prototype of the ring at our own cost. They fit together as designed by him—we did not design the matching band, and made it clear to you that if you wanted a perfect fit together they needed to be completely designed by one person in order for that to happen.

You have handled this poorly and taken advantage of the kindness and good will of several jewelers now, and I refuse to participate in this any further. If you are unable to recall the package, we will refuse delivery and the post office will return it to you.

Regards,
Jeff"

Yikes.."wasted precious time" on a customer. They had been cordial on all emails until this. I never knew they were doing it at cost, the original jeweler offered to pay for the replacement so as far as I'm concerned, I'm still a customer.

I luckily ran back to the post office in time to get my rings (who knows how long they would have been in the mail if i hadn’t gotten there in time). I immediately shipped them to David Klass for him to literally save the day. He had no problem adjusting the rings to make them sit flush with each other and reduced the size of the prongs.

Lessons learned the hard way; easier to work on both rings with the same jeweler, be very wary of getting textured rings soldered and only work with Earth's Treasury when buying stones. I would not trust Earth’s Treasury with jewelry. Huge props to David Klass Jewelry. I know it can sometimes be hard to get a hold of him at the beginning of a project but they are 1000% worth it.

Attached are some pictures of the set after Earth’s Treasury soldered them together and after David Klass fixed them. Also attached is the picture Jeff had e-mailed me showing what the basket would look like, and then what the basket actually looked like.

 

[finerthings]

Wow, what a saga, and so glad that you finally got the rings fixed. They look perfect together now. Sometimes it takes several attempts to get it right, and so glad you persevered!

 

[Rfisher]

Oof.
anything I can say is total speculation and 20/20 hindsight.
im sorry for the ordeal - hopefully it’s over.
Sounds like you love your gorgeous set and can put it all behind you!

thank you for sharing your story. It may help someone else navigate their own.

 

[Alnitak]

So, this is Jeff Hapeman, I'm the owner of Earth's Treasury. I want to set the facts straight here. We have a sterling reputation for a good reason--we do the finest quality work we can and we always bend over to help make things right for our customers.

First of all, at no point did I ever send that photo to the client that she claims I sent. That ring is on our website with photos from all angles; she knew exactly what she was getting beforehand and any claim to the contrary is simply false. You can browse our website and see all of our products--I personally shoot the photos of every product, and we don't use CAD renderings like she is claiming I sent her. When we send a CAD rendering, it is the *exact* ring you get--we have our castings made directly from our CAD files. In addition, she never contacted us after receiving the ring to express any dissatisfaction; had she done so at that time we would have been happy to rectify it.

Second, the story around her rings is quite different than she has laid out. About two months ago, we were contacted by a jeweler--apparently local to her--who was in a panic. They had soldered together the engagement from us with the band she had made by David Klass. The jeweler was hoping we could help them out of a pinch, and against my better judgment, we agreed to see what we could do. We also asked to have the client re-involved at this point so we could make sure we knew what she wanted. BTW, at this point we still had no idea that a third party--David Klass--had made the band. We were under the impression it was the jeweler that contacted us.

After we had the rings in hand, we discovered there were multiple parties involved. While this gave some some concerns, I had committed to help so I decided to stick with it. What we found out is that the jeweler who had soldered the rings together had messed up the hammer finish--they did a different finish than the engagement ring originally had, and had redone both rings. The depth of the new hammer finish was such that the ring could not just be repolished and rehammered--it had to be completely recast, reset, etc. The jeweler agreed to pay for this, and because I was trying to be helpful, I did it at cost--with only a minimal fee to cover my bench jeweler's time. The ring was recast from the exact same CAD file as her original ring--so it was identical in every way.

During this time our on-staff jewelry designer was in communication with the customer. We let her know that the rings would not fit as tightly together as she envisioned--and made it clear why--the style of the low-profile ring she had ordered meant that without grinding down the prongs it would not be a tight fit. She claimed to not know that we made custom rings--odd given that she had originally ordered her ring from us, and clearly not 100% honest. Based on her request to tweak the prongs, we also offered to redesign the two rings as a unified piece--either as a single "double band" without soldering or to carefully redesign the wedding band to more closely match and fit. We also made it clear that this was not something we would be able to do for free, but that if she wanted it done, this would be the ideal time to do so, but that we would have to charge a fee for the CAD work, etc. She thought about it, but declined.

Because we were not designing both pieces in house, and ensure that the band would fit as best as possible, we printed out our CAD model on our 3D printer and sent that prototype to David Klass, since we were told he would be recreating the band. This was at our cost, again, trying to make this as smooth as possible for the customer. David remade his band and then sent it to us--to make sure the hammer finish was identical on both, it made sense for one of us to do it on both rings. I assume that the 3rd party jeweler also paid David to redo his work, based on what she told us.

After everything was done--she contacted us to tell us that she was disappointed that the rings didn't fit more closely together. They fit together exactly as designed and as best as could be done when you have two different parties building two rings that are supposed to be a set. We did offer to file down the prongs and make the band fit more snugly against the ring. However, at the last minute we got an email thread that the OP here had been sharing with David Klass. In that email it was clear she was trying to blame us for somehow not doing something right--even though we communicated everything with her with multiple phone calls and emails, and had shared everything possible with David to make this all work, even under less than ideal conditions. In that email she said she thought maybe she just wanted David Klass to fix it, she would let us know after we got it.

When I read that, I realized that I was in a no win situation where no matter we did, it was going to be hard to impossible to please her. I told her that if that was the case, then she should put a stop on the delivery and just send it to David. Her response was to threaten me with sharing all of this on the Internet. I decided to not even answer her last email, as it was simply not productive at that point. Now, she's made good on her threat.

I rarely visit these forums as I don't want to be a vendor that weighs in on public forums when I know many of my customers find us here and want to get unbiased third-party opinions. Someone anonymously emailed me this post, and I felt it was only fair for me to provide our side of the story. We sell literally hundreds of rings and gemstones every year to customers all over the world. Our customers are nearly universally ecstatic with the quality of what we do. I take pride in my honesty, integrity and the quality of the work we do. I can't make every client happy, but we go to great lengths to try and do so, and when we can't we refund them.

 

[swany]

"First of all, at no point did I ever send that photo to the client that she claims I sent. That ring is on our website with photos from all angles; she knew exactly what she was getting beforehand and any claim to the contrary is simply false. "

Below is the exact e-mail I received from Jeff. I never claimed I received a CAD.


"We let her know that the rings would not fit as tightly together as she envisioned--and made it clear why--the style of the low-profile ring she had ordered meant that without grinding down the prongs it would not be a tight fit. "

I was never told this.

"We also made it clear that this was not something we would be able to do for free, but that if she wanted it done, this would be the ideal time to do so, but that we would have to charge a fee for the CAD work, etc. She thought about it, but declined. "

I brought it up and they said they could make it but it would cost more and it would be easier having David Klass make it since he already had the CAD.

"She claimed to not know that we made custom rings--odd given that she had originally ordered her ring from us, and clearly not 100% honest."

I chose a ring that was already on the website. It was not a completely new, custom designed ring. I am not a jeweler, so our definitions of "custom" are probably different.

I am not a dishonest person. This was a terrible experience to go through and I was never going to share this with others until your last e-mail that accused me of taking advantage of others. I am not a jeweler, I do not know everything that goes into it, but I would never take advantage of others. My original wedding set was ruined and with that comes a lot of emotion of losing out on that original set and meaning and wanting to be happy with my rings when I will be wearing them for years. Not to mention this was a huge purchase for my husband and I. It does not take much for me to be happy, I simply wanted them to be a fitted set like how they were before they were remade. Saying that remaking my rings that hold such immense value, "wasted precious time', hurt.

I may not know everything from Earth's Treasury's side and they handled communication well in the beginning and setting up how to fix it. I still don't know what exactly went wrong and I don't really care what did. I never wanted this to happen, I still wish I had my original set. I apologize if anything is inaccurate but i am not dishonest.

 

[Alnitak]

I stand by everything I say. What the OP is sharing is a question she had about designing an entirely different ring and not the ring she ended up ordering. That photo was not shared with her to indicate anything about the ring she was ordering or even a ring we would make. As I noted it was a generic image to show a *possible* prong/setting style she was inquiring about. She herself indicates this in her further reply, and this is quite different from she claimed in her first post in this thread.

I'm sorry she went through a terrible experience, and I'm sure it was both frustrating and devastating to her. That said, it was through no fault of ours, and we went the extra mile to help her out when we were under no obligation to do so. We had not made the band that was supposed to match our ring nor had we soldered the band and engagement ring together. All of that occurred long after we had any involvement, and was entirely out of our hands.

I understand that in the frustration of this whole experience--and the fact that it is 2.5 years after she got her engagement ring from us--she may have confused some facts. I realize that this experience--one that once again we did not create--was frustrating to her. However, in no way does that justify what she has done: She threatened me via an email that she would disparage me and my hard-working employees online, and she has done so. I stand by my people and my personal honesty and integrity. We went above and beyond, our responsibility in this matter and its sad that the reward we get is this effort to harm our reputation. You can search online and not find a single other negative commentary like this on me or my business; indeed, I have many satisfied customers on this forum, and I have enjoyed working the folks here.

I am happy she seems to now have resolution, but saddened and disappointed that she felt compelled to try and smear us in this whole process.

 

[swany]

I asked about the Quintus setting which is exactly what we ordered.



"nor had we soldered the band and engagement ring together. "
You soldered them together with the gap.

People around me who saw how shook I was by Jeff's response and read the e-mail encouraged me to write a review. You're walking a fine line when you say any negative comments equate to me threatening and smearing your employees. I will not be shamed to write about a negative experience I had with a company. It does not mean other people don't have positive ones, but people should be able to read about both sides.

 

[Alnitak]

You are trying to alter the past with cuts and pastes from things that are not true. You ordered the Quintus, which had photos from all angles online, and you got what you ordered. You never once before this message implied that in any way you were somehow unhappy.

One last time: We made it clear that if we did not design the band to perfectly fit, we could not guarantee the fit you wanted. You rejected our offer to do this as you didn't want to pay for that. We sent a 3D resin print of your exact ring to David Klass so he could attempt to make it as close a fit as possible without having both in hand. We were paid by the jeweler that apparently messed up your rings to do this, and nothing more, and yet we still made sure to convey to you what the results would be like. That you did not like them is not our problem; we were tasked with recreating the original engagement ring and putting the correct matching hammer finish on both rings and soldering them together. We did this. The fact that further alteration was required to make them work perfectly was not within the scope of what we were paid to do, and you had refused to pay for the additional work when we indicated to you what would be required. Given that David was the one that made the band, it was within the scope of his work to make the two fit the way you wanted--which is why I left you to work that out with him, and ceased our involvement.

Your anger is misplaced--we did not create your situation. Apparently it was our mistake to try and help fix it.

 

[strawrose]

I think a more helpful review is of the local jeweler that messed up in the first place. That is the person I would like to avoid.

 

[lovedogs]

I think a more helpful review is of the local jeweler that messed up in the first place. That is the person I would like to avoid.

I have to agree. I think this is the issue with involving 3 different vendors. Especially local jewelers who often arent as knowledgeable as our trusted PS vendors

 

[fenestrate]

I can't see where you mislead, OP, and it seems the vendor's dug themselves deeper by calling you a liar on your thread here, which you've refuted with screenshots. Coupled with the personal attacks - 'wasted our precious time' and 'taken advantage of the kindness and goodwill [...]' shows this individual's character. Whether or not they regret getting involved with the third party jeweler, and you not being privy to the financial agreement between them - that is nothing to do with you, and their unpleasant communication is misplaced, ugly and there is something of a bullying overtone. I very much doubt the OP would have ever considered creating this thread but for the tone of that last message to her, and the vendor's subsequent posts bear out this nature... That alone is enough for many to decide whether to consider to do business with someone. Thank you for posting.

 

[Garnetgirl]

we did not create your situation. Apparently it was our mistake to try and help fix it.

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Alnitak]

I can't see where you mislead, OP, and it seems the vendor's dug themselves deeper by calling you a liar on your thread here, which you've refuted with screenshots. Coupled with the personal attacks - 'wasted our precious time' and 'taken advantage of the kindness and goodwill [...]' shows this individual's character. Whether or not they regret getting involved with the third party jeweler, and you not being privy to the financial agreement between them - that is nothing to do with you, and their unpleasant communication is misplaced, ugly and there is something of a bullying overtone. I very much doubt the OP would have ever considered creating this thread but for the tone of that last message to her, and the vendor's subsequent posts bear out this nature... That alone is enough for many to decide whether to consider to do business with someone. Thank you for posting.

Let's be clear, the OP has made statements here that are not true and has been very careful in what she shares in an effort to spin her tale. She did the same in interacting with my staff, who came to me expressing extreme frustration in dealing with her. I have refrained from pasting her emails over this thread as I don't find it productive, but suffice it to say that there was a lot of finger pointing by her at the other vendor, and no effort to take responsibility for any aspect of the situation--or make the difficult decisions to rectify the problem.

What you call bullying I prefer to see as standing up to being bullied and having my staff bullied. It's all easy to call out me and my company online. What about a bad customer? As I've indicated, you can search here and online and find nothing remotely like her tale.

The fact that we were willing to step in two years after she bought her ring, after someone else messed it up, and try and help out shows how much we care about trying to make our customers happy. This wasn't a mess we created and yet we were willing to try and fix it. And this is our reward?

I got out when it was clear that she was causing my staff distress and anxiety. In hindsight I am beginning to wonder what really happened with the local jeweler. They seemed desperate to have this problem taken off of their hands and paid immediately to have the ring completely remade. I suspect they were desperate to get out of this situation and that should have been a red flag for me. Was I short with her when I finally cut it off? Yes, but only because I had reached my limits and my staff had as well. Am I defensive here? You bet, I make my living doing this. I have three employees that I feel very personally responsible for who work hard every day, and make their living at this. I can't let someone threaten that without at least responding with facts.

 

[Eclectic]

What a saga, I wonder what the local jeweler did that messed up the metal so much it had to be recast. This is a no win for anyone involved and supports that no good deed goes unpunished.

 

[Alnitak]

What a saga, I wonder what the local jeweler did that messed up the metal so much it had to be recast. This is a no win for anyone involved and supports that no good deed goes unpunished.

The hammer texture was very tiny indentations, and very deep. Weirdest hammer texture I'd ever seen. To get rid of it would have taken away about 1/3 the thickness of the bands. Much faster and better to just recast from the CAD file.

 

[fenestrate]

Let's be clear, the OP has made statements here that are not true and has been very careful in what she shares in an effort to spin her tale. She did the same in interacting with my staff, who came to me expressing extreme frustration in dealing with her. I have refrained from pasting her emails over this thread as I don't find it productive, but suffice it to say that there was a lot of finger pointing by her at the other vendor, and no effort to take responsibility for any aspect of the situation--or make the difficult decisions to rectify the problem.

What you call bullying I prefer to see as standing up to being bullied and having my staff bullied. It's all easy to call out me and my company online. What about a bad customer? As I've indicated, you can search here and online and find nothing remotely like her tale.

The fact that we were willing to step in two years after she bought her ring, after someone else messed it up, and try and help out shows how much we care about trying to make our customers happy. This wasn't a mess we created and yet we were willing to try and fix it. And this is our reward?

I got out when it was clear that she was causing my staff distress and anxiety. In hindsight I am beginning to wonder what really happened with the local jeweler. They seemed desperate to have this problem taken off of their hands and paid immediately to have the ring completely remade. I suspect they were desperate to get out of this situation and that should have been a red flag for me. Was I short with her when I finally cut it off? Yes, but only because I had reached my limits and my staff had as well. Am I defensive here? You bet, I make my living doing this. I have three employees that I feel very personally responsible for who work hard every day, and make their living at this. I can't let someone threaten that without at least responding with facts.

Your reply further reaffirms my take on the situation, as an outsider. I don't see why the OP should not finger point at the other vendor, nor why she should take responsibility for any aspect of the situation.

Your decision, alone, was to work with the third party jeweler.

You didn't make a deal with the OP where she would compromise what she wanted and the speed of the process and attention to detail because in your head you were doing the other jeweler a favor.

For the reasons you both describe, you didn't/couldn't flush-fit the two rings, and at this point you and the OP would have parted ways, after she had sent the soldered set to you to have you simply separate the rings and refine the prongs, and then send them on to David Klass.

Instead, at this point you lost your temper and took out misplaced anger on the OP that was a personal character stain and deeply unprofessional. That is the only reason she created this thread. That is the ring she will wear every day, and you can probably imagine how she feels about it after that message.

A consumer considering whether they wish you to handle such a transaction can now decide whether they wish to consider encountering such a response.

I do not see how she is threatening your three employees' living - nothing was sufficiently awry about the transaction to risk this, until your message to her.

As an aside - if the other jeweler were indeed 'desperate to have the problem taken off of their hands and paid immediately to have the ring completely remade' I am unsure why you charged them at cost -particularly if you were then to take that decision out on the OP.
That you are now interpreting that info as that the OP was difficult for the jeweler to work with - to be honest, it sounds like you are smearing her. I do not see a spun tale and statements that are not true from her words.

In any case, consumers can read the full thread and all the responses, and reach their own decisions.

 

[Alnitak]

Your reply further reaffirms my take on the situation, as an outsider. I don't see why the OP should not finger point at the other vendor, nor why she should take responsibility for any aspect of the situation.

Your decision, alone, was to work with the third party jeweler.

You didn't make a deal with the OP where she would compromise what she wanted and the speed of the process and attention to detail because in your head you were doing the other jeweler a favor.

For the reasons you both describe, you didn't/couldn't flush-fit the two rings, and at this point you and the OP would have parted ways, after she had sent the soldered set to you to have you simply separate the rings and refine the prongs, and then send them on to David Klass.

Instead, at this point you lost your temper and took out misplaced anger on the OP that was a personal character stain and deeply unprofessional. That is the only reason she created this thread. That is the ring she will wear every day, and you can probably imagine how she feels about it after that extremely disproportionate message.

A consumer considering whether they wish you to handle such a transaction can now decide whether they wish to consider encountering such a response.

I do not see how she is threatening your three employees' living - nothing was sufficiently awry about the transaction to risk this, until your message to her.

As an aside - if the other jeweler were indeed 'desperate to have the problem taken off of their hands and paid immediately to have the ring completely remade' I am unsure why you charged them at cost -particularly if you were then to take that decision out on the OP.
That you are now interpreting that info as that the OP was difficult for the jeweler to work with - to be honest, it sounds like you are smearing her. I do not see a spun tale and statements that are not true from her words.

In any case, consumers can read the full thread and all the responses, regarding both content and tone, and reach their own decisions.

We also didn't make the second ring and therefore could not guarantee the fit--we went to great lengths to communicate that to her and offer her solutions that would have resolved the issue (just not for free). You were not privy to all of the communications so you're not in a position to judge my final response to the situation but suffice it to say that I am a very patient and understanding person and always willing to help out. Why on earth would I even get involved in fixing a situation we did not create with a ring we sold two years ago if that was not the case? We did so because I wanted to help out. To be clear not once in those two years did she ever contact us to express any dissatisfaction with her ring. That she only did so here speaks to the motivations involved in this post.

In the end, we decided to not be involved any further and I don't have to defend my reasons for doing so to you. The customer paid us nothing to have her ring recreated and was unwilling to pay a relatively small amount to create a CAD for the band that would ensure a perfect snug fit of both. It goes without saying that having two people create two different rings that are intended to closely mate together is not an ideal situation and is fraught with risk.

There was no reason for her to post this here except for vindication after I decided I was no longer going to keep bending over backwards to fix a problem we didn't create. She could have simply accepted that and moved on; there was nothing in our original creation of her ring that was unsatisfactory, at least until suddenly when she posted this, two years later. Her email response to my "firing" of her as a customer made an implied threat that she would share this if we didn't make her happy. That to me was all I needed to know about the unfortunate situation I had let myself get involved in, and confirmed that I had made the right decision.

I'm happy to have people read this and reach their own conclusions. I'm happy that after thousands of satisfied customers over the last few years, this is the only one who has resorted to attempt to publicly defame us. I'm not happy she did so, and I don't feel like I need to apologize for defending myself or my staff and the work we do. I do not feel that it is unprofessional in any way to respond to her allegations; indeed, leaving no response would imply that I agree with her characterization of the situation which I most certainly do not.

 

[PieAreSquared]

to be honest, it sounds like you are smearing her.

Except for one HUGE difference: she named names, he didn't.

We are all quite safe posting and reviewing online, hiding behind our fake names.

For sure there are 2 sides to every story...

 

[ShinyPink]

I was wondering how someone could ever think that solitaire photo was the basket from Quintus.

This is a disagreement between two people, and we are getting dragged into it. I never like it when we slam businesses like this. People have skewered me here because of that, but this is not going to end well, and we have someone's livelihood at stake. Post a Yelp review, give us a heads-up, but don't let this get nasty and cause harm.

 

[swany]

I agree, three vendors most definitely complicated things. The first vendor messed up but owned it, apologized and paid for the replacement. I won't go back but I thank them for that.

I don't want to go back and forth to refute claims, that would go on forever. We will never come to a consensus here. I am happy with my rings, just not happy with how I was treated and that is why I shared.

I wanted to post here just as a review. Probably naively being new to this site I didn't think it would spin out of control. I'm hoping we can end this here and leave this thread be.

 

[LightBright]

This sounds like an incredibly complicated saga and I honestly think Earth’s Treasury should be commended for trying to help OP multiple times. None of this was their fault. They tried to help and they did so without a profit. When they realized that helping a second (or was that a third time, more than two years after they sold the ring) would just lead to more problems, they asked OP politely to stop shipment.

I don’t understand why a consumer who has been helped by multiple vendors, and who now has an absolutely gorgeous ring set, would try to slander the first vendor. The gemstone engagement ring is gorgeous as is the wedding ring. They look perfect together! ENJOY your set OP. It’s utterly unique and beautiful, I love the hammered texture, the warm color of the metal combined with the color of the stones and I LOVE that blue center gemstone! (Is it a sapphire?)

Is this the Earth’s Treasury crafted ring that you would not recommend anyone consider having made by the vendor? They did a great job! Any jewelry vendor can make an aesthetic decision on prongs that doesn’t please all customers and then fix those prongs to be less bulky. To me, your criticism, OP, seems misplaced, uncalled for and vindictive.

I appreciate that Earth’s Treasury tried to help and that the final outcome is more than stellar. ENJOY your ring OP and put this behind you. Shout out to Earth’s Treasury for trying to help but getting burned in the process, and to the ever patient and helpful DKJ, too.

 

[qubitasaurus]

You know without reading any of the in fighting going on here. It struck me immediately that your stone has been set low, and this is why the band and ering dont sit flush (because there will be a doughnut of metal at the bottom of the basket).

This is a good thing, while it wasnt what you envisioned it is super important for keeping that lovely sapphire from getting knocked about and chipping. Sapphire is not as hard as daimond so precautionary steps like this are often taken to make the ring much more durable for every day wear.

I also have to say cads, especially wax or plastic cast ones tend to be a bit bulkier than the real deal. Often the real setting is filed down and polished after it is cast, so it gets further refined losing some bulk. It is unfortunately not surprising me at all that the cad and band sat flush but the real setting and the band did not. No one is at fault here. Rather it is just an expensive learning lesson that if you wanted the two parts to perfect meld, then they needed to be in the same place as each other during some phase of the construction process.

I think it might just be a case of mismatched expectations -- I am sorry there is no crystal ball to anticipate all of this but it is very likely everyone was trying hard to help and doing their best job of it while still not having the exact outcome you envisioned.

If you keep going like this you'll taint your own enjoyment of the outcome though and that will become the real killing blow for the saga.

 

[Garnetgirl]

I’m sorry to hear that you had such a frustrating experience with your rings, @swany. Your e-ring and wedding ring are beautiful and look great on your hand. I hope you can put all this behind you and enjoy them.

Experiences and expectations may vary. For my part, and for what it’s worth, my purchase from @Alnitak in the fall of 2015 was wonderful. He was prompt with answering all my emails, unfailingly courteous and patient with my many questions.

While cutting my stone, he ended up in hospital. Of course I expected a delay and was more than willing to wait. However, he emailed me as soon as he was home, and immediately finished it and sent it off, before ending up at the hospital a second time.

He really went beyond the ‘call of duty’. Talk about great service!!

 

[partgypsy]

Honestly I'm not surprised at all that involving 3 different vendors in crafting 2 pieces and then soldering them together did not happen seamlessly. You are asking for problems. In the same way having someone else create a ring to fit your engagement ring versus having the original vendor do both. If you had asked about this on Pricescope, I'm sure most would say, pick a jeweler who is experienced, to work on both rings together.
Hindsight is 20/20. Your set is beautiful.

 

[hwtgt]

Get prepared for my lengthy ring saga...

I originally had my engagement ring done my Earth's Treasury in 2017. I originally had asked what the basket of a setting I liked on their site would look like because there was only a straight on picture (the Quintus, I was hoping i could have a straight wedding band). Jeff Hapeman responded with:

"It basically is connected to the band exactly like a classic “Tiffany style” ring. I’ve attached a generic photo so you get the idea." (the photo he attached is below)

I eventually get the ring and it definitely was not like the classic "Tiffany style" ring, it was a low basket setting. But I didn't hate it and I really liked the stone and the hammered texture.

Fast forward to making the wedding ring. I didn't know Earth's Treasury made custom bands so I went for a highly reputed jeweler I found here: David Klass. I sent him my mother-in-law's diamonds and a clear idea of what I wanted. I didn't feel comfortable shipping my engagement ring to him at the time but he still made a contoured band that sat perfectly flush with it. It was beautiful.

Fast forward again to this last November after getting married I thought it would be nice to get my rings soldered together. I didn't think it would be a big thing, I just wanted them to line up perfectly all the time. I went to a local jeweler and they said they would have no problem doing it with the hammered texture. I get my ring back and the rings have a deeply dented, "pinprick" like texture on them instead of the original soft hammered texture. The jeweler realizes they made a mistake, they don't know how to fix it so they contact the original maker, Earth's Treasury. Local jeweler says they are sorry and will pay for it to get fixed and ships it off to Earth's Treasury.

Earth's Treasury receives the rings and tells me both have to be remade and they seem totally willing to help. At this point I'm thinking this really sucks but I might as well fix a couple things if they are already remaking the rings. I tell Earth's Treasury I want delicate tapered/claw prongs instead of the ball prongs. Earth's Treasury asks me if I want the wedding band's thickness to better match up with the engagement ring. It never really bugged me as sitting flush was more important but I said sure, might as well fix that. I suggested Earth's Treasury remake the wedding band as it would be easier to make them match but they say it would be better if we went through David Klass again.

As time goes by I get notifications that a prototype of my engagement ring is sent to David Klass so he can better adjust the thickness of the wedding band. He modifies only the thickness of the CAD and shows through pictures how it still fits perfectly flush with the prototype he was sent. He remakes the ring, I give final approval and sends it back to Earth's Treasury. Earth's Treasury notifies me two days later saying that the hammered texture is applied to both rings and they are soldered together and ready to go. No pictures for approval but I assume all is fine.

I received the rings and I’m disappointed. The prongs look bulky (I understand some people may like it but I didn't and would have liked a picture approval beforehand). The rings were soldered in the back but were no longer flush in the front and there was an obvious gap. I don't want a contoured ring soldered if it doesn't fit flush. I emailed Earth's Treasury and they responded that was the closest they could do. That's fine...but why not tell me when you received the wedding band, before you soldered or before you shipped it back to me that they didn’t fit?

I'm very confused at this point. I just want my rings back that fit together. I ask Earth's Treasury if I can ship it back to them and they can take apart the rings and reduce the prong size. They say yep and instruct me on how to ship it the next day. I go to the post office and ship it. I also e-mail David Klass on what he thinks I can do and ask him why my rings aren't flush. He sends me an email explaining that the wedding band sat perfectly flush with the engagement ring prototype but he would be happy to see them both and figure out how to proceed because you obviously don't want a not flush contoured band. I send this information to Earth's Treasury to let them know that after they separate them to ship them to David Klass.

This is the response from Jeff Hapeman of Earth's Treasury:

"Please go to the post office and halt delivery on this package. We did a favor to the other jeweler by even taking on this job. We did it at cost, and wasted our precious time. We even sent David Klass a 3D printed prototype of the ring at our own cost. They fit together as designed by him—we did not design the matching band, and made it clear to you that if you wanted a perfect fit together they needed to be completely designed by one person in order for that to happen.

You have handled this poorly and taken advantage of the kindness and good will of several jewelers now, and I refuse to participate in this any further. If you are unable to recall the package, we will refuse delivery and the post office will return it to you.

Regards,
Jeff"

Yikes.."wasted precious time" on a customer. They had been cordial on all emails until this. I never knew they were doing it at cost, the original jeweler offered to pay for the replacement so as far as I'm concerned, I'm still a customer.

I luckily ran back to the post office in time to get my rings (who knows how long they would have been in the mail if i hadn’t gotten there in time). I immediately shipped them to David Klass for him to literally save the day. He had no problem adjusting the rings to make them sit flush with each other and reduced the size of the prongs.

Lessons learned the hard way; easier to work on both rings with the same jeweler, be very wary of getting textured rings soldered and only work with Earth's Treasury when buying stones. I would not trust Earth’s Treasury with jewelry. Huge props to David Klass Jewelry. I know it can sometimes be hard to get a hold of him at the beginning of a project but they are 1000% worth it.

Attached are some pictures of the set after Earth’s Treasury soldered them together and after David Klass fixed them. Also attached is the picture Jeff had e-mailed me showing what the basket would look like, and then what the basket actually looked like.

Kudos to Earths Treasury. They went above and beyond in this story.