James Allen review and warning: awful workmanship and terrible customer service

[autumngems]

I disagree. Mistakes happen. No company has a 0% defect rate. In my opinion what's more important is how they handle situations of a product defect and how high their defect rate is.

Having a no questions asked return policy is pretty much the best you can hope for in terms of how the company handles product defects so James Allen has that going for them. So in effect they do "guarantee" these common things by making sure you don't have to pay for any item you consider to be defective.

Whether their defect rate is higher or lower compared to other online jewelry retailers is something that I'm not sure anyone has any reliable data on. Perhaps frequent and long-time posters on this forum have a sense, anecdotally, based upon threads posted here which vendor seems to come up more often as it relates to defects but I have not been a participant long enough to develop a personal point of view on that.

I agree, mistakes happen. They happened the first time, but they can't guarantee if she sends it back that they will be done right? how many times does someone have to go through to get something right. Just my opinion.

 

[ClassicSAC]

I have discovered that James Allen is one of those hit-or-miss companies where the quality of the ring depends entirely on the skill of the jeweller assigned to your order. I thought I'd post this online to warn others.

I bought a ring from James Allen earlier this year with no issue, perfect setting and perfect inscription.

The second ring, however, had so many issues. As soon as I got it, I noticed the inscription was uneven and unclear (which by itself is disappointing, but not terrible), so I thought I'd send the ring back, get them to fix the inscription and at the same time maybe upgrade to a slightly better diamond I had found a few days ago. So they started a new order and added a note about the inscription.

Then a few days later, I started to notice the claw prongs were snagging on things and catching fibres. On closer inspection it seemed all the prongs were lifted, one very obviously. I researched this and found out this is a sign of poor workmanship and the diamond might be at risk if it keeps going. So I mentioned this to them and they added a note to the order to make sure the prongs are tight on the new ring.

Then a day later I noticed the diamond was tilted in the setting! I took a photo of this and sent it to them, my faith in them decreasing, to make sure the new ring would be sitting straight in the setting. Then I got a horrible customer service agent named Heather who made it sound like it was my fault I was noticing all this. She said "since there's so many notes, it's getting a little complicated so I'll pass it onto management and they'll get back to you. But there's a chance they can't guarantee everything you want." She said it's because every ring is custom so it's hard to guarantee, or something weird to that effect.

Just to clarify: what I want is for the prongs to be tight so the diamond is safe, for the diamond to sit upright in the setting and for the inscription to be even and clear, like in my first ring. And they said they might not be able to "guarantee" this. I was stunned.

My anxiety peaked after this phone call. We poured our money and hearts into this ring and its quality is severely lacking and we don't even know if this diamond or the new one will be safe. My friends suggested demanding a refund instead of asking them to fix the problems, which was definitely the right choice.

But I knew I couldn't handle the anxiety of sending my ring all the way back to the US (I live in Sydney) and wait weeks and weeks for another rude customer service agent to tell me they can't refund my ring. I have really really bad anxiety when it comes to things like this, and it's not even worth the money putting myself through it (and it is a LOT of money )

So I cancelled the repair/upgrade order. I went to a reputable local jeweller in Sydney (who confirmed they deal with at least 5 or 6 JA rings with multiple issues every week - wish I had known that earlier) and had them tighten the prongs. They don't want to fix the diamond tilt within the setting because they said that would require the prongs to be lifted and tightened which might be bad for the prongs (not sure if this sounds right? But I had no choice but to trust them) So the snagging has stopped but I've been left with a tilted diamond and a slightly botched inscription.

I think in a few years when I can afford it again, I might have these local guys set my ring properly in a good setting and with a straight inscription.

But in the meantime I'm just so stunned that JA could have sent me such a bad quality ring. I'm baffled that it passed quality control. It almost ruined an otherwise perfect engagement. I just wanted to let people know of my regrets in case it helps them make a more informed decision.

I am sorry your are going through this bad service with JA. I too have had a similar experience and I am awaiting my loose stone back without being reset into the setting. I am taking my business elsewhere and I am very hesitant to go with another online vendor for my setting.

I purchased a 3.0 carat diamond ring in a claw prong, four prong setting in November, 2020. After wearing it for six months, I decided to upgrade the setting to a three stone however, customer service gave me incorrect information about the new setting as well as the timeframe for completing the new ring. I was told 3 to 4 weeks max and then it was changed to 4 to 6 weeks and that is when I decided to cancel the order. I have called and chatted in multiple times; most recently yesterday where I had the CS rep type in the incorrect order number! She was talking about a totally different ring and I realized she had the wrong customer. Good grief!!! I am totally frustrated with them. I cancelled the order three weeks ago, have not received the credit back yet and now they want to charge me $300 to reset the stone back in my original setting. The rep could not give me an estimate as to when I would even get the ring back! Very poor customer service!!! I would not recommend his company to anyone at this point. I told her I wanted the loose stone sent back and the original setting and that I was going elsewhere locally. My original setting was a placeholder until my anniversary when I was going to select a multi stone setting.

I hope you are able to take your beautiful diamond to a local jeweler to have it reset one day soon. I too have a lot of anxiety about my ring and am hoping I will get my stone back quickly.

 

[adlgel]

I agree, mistakes happen. They happened the first time, but they can't guarantee if she sends it back that they will be done right? how many times does someone have to go through to get something right. Just my opinion.

We don't really know what the intent was behind any statement about not being able to "guarantee" all of the OPs concerns could be rectified and whether or not there was something lost in translation in how the customer service rep relayed that message. The OP had multiple "changes" in flight - a new diamond, fixing inscription, fixing prongs, fixing tilt. I wouldn't be surprised if JA just wanted to get the ring in hand to evaluate what they were dealing with before making any promises they couldn't keep.

But yes, on the surface I agree that those requests all sound like requests a jeweler should be able to reasonably accommodate.

Were it me, I probably would have reached out to a different CSR to ascertain whether there was really any uncertainly in JA's ability to execute all of those changes. And if there was legitimately some uncertainty on their part what was causing that uncertainty?

The OP was willing to ship her ring back to JA to have those fixes made. It seems like it wasn't until the CSR introduced some doubt as to whether all of these changes could be accommodated that the OP started questioning sending the ring back. And then for reasons unknown to us anticipated having to fight for her refund in contradiction to their no questions asked refund policy.

 

[ClassicSAC]

We don't really know what the intent was behind any statement about not being able to "guarantee" all of the OPs concerns could be rectified and whether or not there was something lost in translation in how the customer service rep relayed that message. The OP had multiple "changes" in flight - a new diamond, fixing inscription, fixing prongs, fixing tilt. I wouldn't be surprised if JA just wanted to get the ring in hand to evaluate what they were dealing with before making any promises they couldn't keep.

But yes, on the surface I agree that those requests all sound like requests a jeweler should be able to reasonably accommodate.

Were it me, I probably would have reached out to a different CSR to ascertain whether there was really any uncertainly in JA's ability to execute all of those changes. And if there was legitimately some uncertainty on their part what was causing that uncertainty?

The OP was willing to ship her ring back to JA to have those fixes made. It seems like it wasn't until the CSR introduced some doubt as to whether all of these changes could be accommodated that the OP started questioning sending the ring back. And then for reasons unknown to us anticipated having to fight for her refund in contradiction to their no questions asked refund policy.

FYI, I had issues with my claws on my setting as well which I attribute to poor workmanship.

 

[La2020]

I have purchased from JA x2 - 1st was a flawless experience and 2nd was really bad workmanship - but order was made during xmas peak season - so I returned the ring. And the CS at the tail end (regarding the amazon vochuer) was not very good (there were misunderstandings) but JA made good everything.

My friend although happy with her diamond but not the ring workmanship, in summary the experience from the CS wasn't good. But kuddos to JA who attempted to offer various options for her to make good her ring.

All in all, JA gave me the impression that they do try as much as possible to deliver as much as possible.