I have been lurking for a while and wanted to respond to some posts but it took a while for my registration attempts to get sorted out. But at long last, here I am and I wanted to say hello to everyone and thank you all for being so informative. I have learned a lot…maybe too much as I am beginning to think ignorant is bliss 
My boyfriend bought a round brilliant stone (GIA VVS2, excellent cut and polish, VG symmetry) from a jeweler my family has been going to for years. We were offered a free white gold solitaire setting or a big discount on a custom made one. My brother in law had warned me about getting their setting custom made there because he had a bad experience with them-said their craftsmanship is beyond poor and you will get a product that is crooked because they hand make their settings. Since the jeweler said that they use a machine to make it, I thought may be their technique has been updated and we would not run into the same problems as my brother in law did. So we attempted to have them make a custom ring for us. I won’t go into the details but it was an utter FAIL for so many reasons and my brother in law was right.
The jeweler said we did not have to purchase the setting if we were ever unhappy with it so we asked him to just go ahead and set the stone in the free simple white gold solitaire setting. We had already spent 2 months of back and forth and my boyfriend really needed a temporary ring. So the jeweler had his worker set the stone. He said it would take no more than 1 hr. My boyfriend actually waited for over 3 hours.
When he brought the ring home to me, I looked at it and noticed that the stone was set unevenly. The stone was tilted and the shank was not a perfect round circle. I was really upset. We thought about going back to the jeweler and having them fix it but at this point, I didn’t trust their skills and figured if they can’t set a stone in a simple setting, that they might damage it trying to reset it. Plus I figured since I was going to get another setting made, that to have it set and then reset would cause wear and tear on the stone. So we decided not to say anything.
While I did research into finding a person/place who can custom make my setting, the ring sat in its ring box. Of course I would occasionally sneak it out to admire it for a few seconds—how can you not?!?
Well, about a month after it was set, I noticed that the diamond was tilted more than ever. So, my question is, is it possible for a setting to shift or get bent out of shape on its own? I’m beginning to think that the person who set the stone intentionally did this because they were upset that we didn’t purchase the custom setting and so they made a setting that would quickly weaken so that we would lose our stone. Am I being crazy and paranoid? I also noticed that there are signs of wear on the ring even though it was never worn. It’s supposed to be 18k white gold, but it seems very fragile. All my jewelry are 18k, and it seems more durable than this one.
Recently, I acquired a loupe from my brother in law, and so I spent some time examining the stone. The stone is a VVS2 clarity with a “cloud” in the middle of the table per the GIA report. When I looked at it with a 20x loupe, I can see little specks of the “cloud” scattered around the table—maybe less than 15 specks. But it’s not concentrated in any one area. However, around the four prongs are “clouds” and little “hairline” scratches. The “cloud” around the prongs have I would say, at least 50 “specks” so it’s pretty concentrated. So, my next question is, is this normal, for some damage to occur around a prong when a diamond is set? I examined my other rings and don’t see that happening. Or did the jeweler who set the stone really damaged it? I also noticed that one of the prongs seem chipped and so it’s barely holding onto the diamond. And I’m crossing my fingers that my eye is playing tricks on me, but I THINK I might have seen a diamond chip under one of the prongs.
I am really worried because we did not get the stone appraised since we purchased it and we made the payment by wire transfer (though the jeweler is local to us—an hour away) and I doubt there is any return policy, especially since it’s been 3 months since it was purchased and paid for.
Help! What should we do? Thank you in advance.
My boyfriend bought a round brilliant stone (GIA VVS2, excellent cut and polish, VG symmetry) from a jeweler my family has been going to for years. We were offered a free white gold solitaire setting or a big discount on a custom made one. My brother in law had warned me about getting their setting custom made there because he had a bad experience with them-said their craftsmanship is beyond poor and you will get a product that is crooked because they hand make their settings. Since the jeweler said that they use a machine to make it, I thought may be their technique has been updated and we would not run into the same problems as my brother in law did. So we attempted to have them make a custom ring for us. I won’t go into the details but it was an utter FAIL for so many reasons and my brother in law was right.
The jeweler said we did not have to purchase the setting if we were ever unhappy with it so we asked him to just go ahead and set the stone in the free simple white gold solitaire setting. We had already spent 2 months of back and forth and my boyfriend really needed a temporary ring. So the jeweler had his worker set the stone. He said it would take no more than 1 hr. My boyfriend actually waited for over 3 hours.
When he brought the ring home to me, I looked at it and noticed that the stone was set unevenly. The stone was tilted and the shank was not a perfect round circle. I was really upset. We thought about going back to the jeweler and having them fix it but at this point, I didn’t trust their skills and figured if they can’t set a stone in a simple setting, that they might damage it trying to reset it. Plus I figured since I was going to get another setting made, that to have it set and then reset would cause wear and tear on the stone. So we decided not to say anything.
While I did research into finding a person/place who can custom make my setting, the ring sat in its ring box. Of course I would occasionally sneak it out to admire it for a few seconds—how can you not?!?
Well, about a month after it was set, I noticed that the diamond was tilted more than ever. So, my question is, is it possible for a setting to shift or get bent out of shape on its own? I’m beginning to think that the person who set the stone intentionally did this because they were upset that we didn’t purchase the custom setting and so they made a setting that would quickly weaken so that we would lose our stone. Am I being crazy and paranoid? I also noticed that there are signs of wear on the ring even though it was never worn. It’s supposed to be 18k white gold, but it seems very fragile. All my jewelry are 18k, and it seems more durable than this one. Recently, I acquired a loupe from my brother in law, and so I spent some time examining the stone. The stone is a VVS2 clarity with a “cloud” in the middle of the table per the GIA report. When I looked at it with a 20x loupe, I can see little specks of the “cloud” scattered around the table—maybe less than 15 specks. But it’s not concentrated in any one area. However, around the four prongs are “clouds” and little “hairline” scratches. The “cloud” around the prongs have I would say, at least 50 “specks” so it’s pretty concentrated. So, my next question is, is this normal, for some damage to occur around a prong when a diamond is set? I examined my other rings and don’t see that happening. Or did the jeweler who set the stone really damaged it? I also noticed that one of the prongs seem chipped and so it’s barely holding onto the diamond. And I’m crossing my fingers that my eye is playing tricks on me, but I THINK I might have seen a diamond chip under one of the prongs.
I am really worried because we did not get the stone appraised since we purchased it and we made the payment by wire transfer (though the jeweler is local to us—an hour away) and I doubt there is any return policy, especially since it’s been 3 months since it was purchased and paid for.
Help! What should we do? Thank you in advance.
! I just wanted to give an update because I always love and appreciate the threads with updates 
Now I can move on to creating my custom mounting.
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