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Extraordinary Experience with Chris at ERD..

chhuntran

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Messages
1
I just wanted to share my experience with you guys...(long post)

Buying any jewelry is tough since there is already so much to choose from and with the introduction of the internet, there are also dozens upon dozens of vendors to choose from. I must have searched through a dozen random online jewelers and looked through thousands of ring designs that were so-so until I stumbled upon Pricescope.com and read through referrals from you members.

Everything you guys said about ERD and their staff is absolutely true. For those who read this and were like me, totally unsure of which direction to go, ERD is a company that truly lives up to their reputation on this site. They were every bit as professional as I could ask from a company.

I found a ring on their website that was absolutely stunning and decided to call in. I had the pleasure of speaking to Chris and I bombarded him with a slew of questions about the ring I selected. "Can you guys still make it if I already have the center stone." "Can I switch out the side stones to pears" "How big is the ring cad on the website" "How long will custom crafting a ring take." These were only a few of the many questions I asked. After Chris took his time to answer all of my questions, I said I was gonna think about it and let him know.

A few weeks passed..I was still debating. What I thought was fantastic was absolutely zero sales pressure. Chris didn't try to get my number to follow up or try to get my email to send me marketing information. Ultimately I still had a few more questions so I decided to email Mark who was the designer of the ring in order to ask a few more extremely detailed questions about the ring.

The very next day I got a response back from Chris who was actually extremely knowledgeable about the ring setting I chose. After speaking with Chris again and getting more in depth about creating the ring, I decided to go for it and trust the opinions here on pricescope, and a trust company that is over 3000 miles away. I hadn't even mailed out the deposit check yet, and Chris said "I'll have the design guys start working on it."

I feel that the design phase is where ERD's service really shines. We fully customed a ring and made quite a few changes and I feel that Chris really tried his best to create what I wanted to get done instead of telling me that things aren't feasible or I shouldn't do it one way or another. I requested pictures of CAD after CAD, and even CADs of different designs just so I could get a visual and Chris sent me every single CAD I asked for. At one point he even measured out the ring to the exact millimeter for me.

When the ring was almost finished, I discovered that the sidestones were not certified and me having a picky personality, I asked if Chris could put a pair of GIA certified pears instead. I had no idea how difficult of a request that was until I personally tried to locate a pair of pears about .35 carats each, both F color and no lower than VS1. To make matters worse, it was a Tuesday, and I absolutely needed the ring completed by next Thursday. I went to a nearby jewelery plaza and spoke to 5 vendors with no luck. Even Chris was having difficulty.
Come Friday, I was getting pretty anxious because I really wanted the rings to have the main 3 stones with GIA certification. Luckily for me Chris came through on Friday locating an excellent set of pear stones and even had them shipped over to his company.

Now came the scary part. Shipping my 2.03 carat center stone over to New York. Luckily for me, Chris made that process super simple by sending me a prepaid label with complete instructions. Even saved me a small fortune on shipping costs. The plan was to ship it overnight Monday, so ERD will have all of Tuesday and most of Wednesday to set the stones and polish the ring.

I dropped off the ring to Fedex around noon on Monday taking a huge breath knowing that everything was good to go. Boy was I wrong. I checked my tracking Monday night and noticed that at 10pm, my stone was still sitting at my local Fedex distribution facility. I called into fedex and the employee told me six times that it was only a computer mistake and my package is guaranteed to arrive Tuesday morning. Guess what? That Fedex guy totally lied to me. I called in Tuesday morning to Fedex and a different Fedex rep told me that the person was was responsible for picking up my package from the retail location to get to the Fedex plane was late so I won't be able to get my ring to New York until Wednesday. I was super pissed.

I called into ERD to let them know about Fedex's blunder and spoke to Steven. I was noticeably upset at that time since I had planned to get the ring by Thursday and Chris mentioned that they needed at least a day to make sure the ring is set properly. Steven was great, he called into Fedex on my behalf and hashed out every possible way of getting my stone over to them as soon as possible. Unfortunately, same day service with Fedex is highly unsecure so I had no choice but to wait for them to ship it over night on Tuesday.

Chris heard about what happened after he got back from his lunch break and called me right away. At that point I pretty much thought that there was no way I'd be able to get the ring in hand by Thursday. Chris told me that at that point, even he can't guarantee that it'll be done by then. He did however assure me that they would absolutely do their best.

Chris went ahead and phoned into their setters to tell them of my situation and to see if they could clear their schedule to make my ring a priority. I called in Wednesday to see if my stone arrived safely, and Mark told me that Chris went out to personally deliver it to the setters. That was one very anxious day for me. At close to 7pm New York time, I got an email from Chris saying that he just personally dropped it off at the Fedex distribution facility so that it would absolutely ship out on time.

At this point, we were so tight on time that I had no idea what the finished ring looks like. Chris' expertise and eye for detail was pretty much the only thing I could rely on. When I received the ring Thursday morning...it was beyond perfection.

My entire experience with ERD fell between Jan to late Feb, and even though I'm sure they had a ton of other customers at that time, I always felt that I got immediate service. If anyone reading this is considering a piece from ERD, you won't regret it. Talk to Chris, he'll make the process as smooth as possible and answer all your questions, even if the path was as rocky as mine. Chris, Mark, Steven, you guys are awesome. Wish you all the best.

Regards,
Chhun

Pictures attached. Mark Turnowski's "Anna" inspired 3 stone ring. 2.03 F VVS1 Round brilliant with a pair of 0.35 F VVS1 Pear Sides.

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o0obers

Rough_Rock
Joined
Feb 7, 2016
Messages
4
This ring is gorgeous!!
 
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