My Upsetting Brilliantly Engaged Experience

[tracylt]

Yikes! They clearly outlined their process step by step for you, then disregarded it. And now refuse to recognize how they went wrong, when it couldn't be more simple and obvious. I'm dumbfounded (although not surprised, I had a poor experience with ERD though not to the level of yours).

It's a testament to your character how you handled this straight through. I hope your new attempt is the opposite and you finally have the ring you set out to make for your partner, with a pleasant experience to go along with it!

You had a bad experience too! Oh now the list is up to "only" 4 lol

Lol. That's why we need this thread so anyone who's considering going with BE can consider if they want to be on their "ONLY up to 5" complaint list. I have the feeling the list is wayyyyy more than 4, but only 4 are specifically named here.

 

[Tourmaline]

Ok, 5. I have hesitated to comment here, but I think it's time. When I posted the thread and photos of my 7-AVC band (the ring was made by BE), I didn't post about the frustrating experience, which included MANY back and forths about the CAD, having to ship it back immediately THREE TIMES after horrible prongs (the ring had to be totally remade that time), very crooked, loose stones (twice on that), and lack of a quality mark or maker's mark (it still doesn't have a maker's mark), because I didn't want to bring negativity here. That said, the idea that yours was the first issue, is insulting to the rest of us. I became frustrated with Chris's canned politeness, because it didn't make up for the glaring issues. I did eventually get a ring I love, though.

Unlike the poster above, I had a very frustrating experience with Steven Kirsch, when he put pink sapphires in an eternity band instead of rubies, and then talked down to me and refused a refund, never admitting to any wrongdoing. Again, I ended up with a nice ring after he made another one, but my feelings about it were sort of ruined. Here's my thread about the process:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/disagreement-with-a-pricescope-vendor-about-stones.207422/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/disagreement-with-a-pricescope-vendor-about-stones.207422/[/URL]

I've also had great experiences with recommended vendors, such as Good Old Gold (they made a couple of mistakes, but handled them with the utmost grace, and I never once felt angry or mistreated), High Performance Diamonds (Wink is a pleasure), James Allen (ordering and returning were easy), and Brian Gavin (excellent recut). It's hard to post negative things about beloved vendors here for fear of backlash, and I think it was very courageous for you to post this thread. I hope the ring turns out wonderfully with your chosen jeweler.

 

[tracylt]

Ok, 5. I have hesitated to comment here, but I think it's time. When I posted the thread and photos of my 7-AVC band (the ring was made by BE), I didn't post about the frustrating experience, which included MANY back and forths about the CAD, having to ship it back immediately THREE TIMES after horrible prongs (the ring had to be totally remade that time), very crooked, loose stones (twice on that), and lack of a quality mark or maker's mark (it still doesn't have a maker's mark), because I didn't want to bring negativity here. That said, the idea that yours was the first issue, is insulting to the rest of us. I became frustrated with Chris's canned politeness, because it didn't make up for the glaring issues. I did eventually get a ring I love, though.

Unlike the poster above, I had a very frustrating experience with Steven Kirsch, when he put pink sapphires in an eternity band instead of rubies, and then talked down to me and refused a refund, never admitting to any wrongdoing. Again, I ended up with a nice ring after he made another one, but my feelings about it were sort of ruined. Here's my thread about the process:

[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/disagreement-with-a-pricescope-vendor-about-stones.207422/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/disagreement-with-a-pricescope-vendor-about-stones.207422/[/URL]

I've also had great experiences with recommended vendors, such as Good Old Gold (they made a couple of mistakes, but handled them with the utmost grace, and I never once felt angry or mistreated), High Performance Diamonds (Wink is a pleasure), James Allen (ordering and returning were easy), and Brian Gavin (excellent recut). It's hard to post negative things about beloved vendors here for fear of backlash, and I think it was very courageous for you to post this thread. I hope the ring turns out wonderfully with your chosen jeweler.

Thanks for coming out as the 5th "victim" of Brilliantly Engaged on PS. I read your original post and truly respect you not calling their name out from the first place, but it seems like they just won't learn their lesson. Apparently there's another member admitted on your thread about his/her bad experience with them:

" Post by noscrusir » 29 Oct 2014 13:43


Based on that box, I think I know which vendor you were working with. If I'm right, yes, their craftsmanship is superb, but their customer service and "return policy" are terrible. They were nice up until the point where I inquired about possibly returning (within their indicated return period too!). It turns out that my future fiance was fine with accepting what I ordered for her so I did not press for a return after that but their shoddy business practices, lack of clear return policy (even playing within their rules & timeframe), and clear lack of concern for customer piece-of-mind make me never want to do business with them again.

It was the antithesis of a "no questions asked" return policy and if I would've known that, I never would have done business with them to begin with. Keep in mind that the product I ordered was stellar quality - I simply wanted to return to save money for something more affordable and was deeply disappointed that they would not comply. I will withhold releasing a name unless I can confirm that this is the same vendor.

Best of luck with your return. From searching other threads, it sounds like if you keep pressing them with this issue, they will eventually give you a reasonable resolution (I hope). "

 

[MollyMalone]

tracylt, the post of noscrusir's you quoted was posted in Tourmaline's thread about the problems with having her red ruby eternity ring made (by Steven Kirsch).

Neither Brilliantly Engaged nor Steven Kirsch fabricated the e-ring noscrusir purchased; he had Brian Gavin Diamonds create one of their Novela rings, using an "outside" diamond:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-diamond-choices-and-bgd-vs-canera-for-same-setting.208552/#post-3794044#p3794044']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-diamond-choices-and-bgd-vs-canera-for-same-setting.208552/#post-3794044#p3794044[/URL]
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-legera-pave-hand-shots.211037/#post-3839450#p3839450']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-legera-pave-hand-shots.211037/#post-3839450#p3839450[/URL]

 

[caf]

just wanted to say after learning my lesson, even with big, well known vendors, I did something different when I had my first piece by CVB made and maybe I can help someone. I first had it cast in sterling silver before platinum. Having a resin done does not help me enough! After my sterling silver cast was on my hand, I had CVB do the platinum. Best decision I made and to this day, I LOVE every detail!

Great idea.

 

[Chris_BE]

... listed below is where I believe it happened;

1- ...

2- after the deposit and receiving the sapphire center..... Mailin's follow up email and ring design change from a single shank to a split shank along with various examples he provided with micro pave style images and claw prongs etc. ...

3- ...

--- 1. Not responding to.
2. To the best of my knowledge, the design has never changed. From the day I went onto your website and filled out the request email, to the day I (copy and pasted) the same design request via our email conversations following. I do not want to go down this road again though, because it didn't work the first time.
3. Not responding to, because I do not want to be fired from work. (typing this while at work)

This is to NOT imply that even if the design changed BEFORE any of the CAD renderings, plastic molds were created... That it would have been the cause of my actions of why the ring was not created not as requested.

Disregarding everything else you said, to avoid me "defending" myself and or getting upset... I will say, nice photos. Glad to see them for the first time.

The following quote request was made on April 1st provided by Mailin with no mention of SPLIT SHank:




The following sales invoice is dated April 7th and again no mention of split shank in the description and the image of the MEGHAN is also attached:



On April 19th your correspondence now introduces the split shank at which point in my mind the design change did occur and my 1st mistake of not relaying the proper information to you and at the same time kept the quote the same regardless of the extra cost involved and I'm certainly at fault within my duties that I always provide, my reasoning still remains to design and fabricate what I thought was appropriate due to this change and my intentions are always on the side of the customer regardless of cost, we produce a high quality item and a very reasonable price point this has always been our belief.....In the midst of everything else that was internally occurring with phone lines etc at this period in time we never not apologized and did not try to use your words against you and after the ring was created and the iPhone video was sent I believed I was making what I thought we're the important features that you had expressed, once I received your email stating your unhappiness I asked you to call me at your convenience and offered my apologies immediately and a full refund that you did not accept ... Upon your correspondence with Mark he welcomed your thoughts on how to proceed and rectify what transpired..... In our attempt to provide a refund we finally realized that the Credit Card used to provide the deposit we finally figured out that it was under your girl friends name so again we apologize that it has taken so long.....

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Well, in fairness, Chris has some points, too. This definitely explains the issue about the deposit not being found. And I am confused myself on the shank issue. Full refund apparently was offered when client was unhappy.

 

[Niel]

Well, in fairness, Chris has some points, too. This definitely explains the issue about the deposit not being found. And I am confused myself on the shank issue. Full refund apparently was offered when client was unhappy.

In my mind, you should know what credit card is associated to which ring you're making. That's not difficult bookkeeping

 

[Chris_BE]

Well, in fairness, Chris has some points, too. This definitely explains the issue about the deposit not being found. And I am confused myself on the shank issue. Full refund apparently was offered when client was unhappy.

The quote was originally provided based on the Meghan which is a single shank as both the inquiry and the sales invoice indicates upon further communication the split shank came into play, again my fault 100% for not clarifying to Mailin that the design was in my mind changed and I did not communicated this....entirely my fault.

 

[Chris_BE]

Well, in fairness, Chris has some points, too. This definitely explains the issue about the deposit not being found. And I am confused myself on the shank issue. Full refund apparently was offered when client was unhappy.

In my mind, you should know what credit card is associated to which ring you're making. That's not difficult bookkeeping

Niel,

You are entirely correct and this is not a usual occurrence and simply does not happen, during the time our phone lines we're not working and therefore we called in each transaction and keep the authorization number for reference but when calling the transactions in to merchant services and confirming authorization of transactions they we're never settled and upon reviewing our bank statements there we're 27 transaction during this period and we had to notify each client and get this sorted out..... our apologies again but we contacted Mailin and expressed that he should file a dispute to speed up the process as we did not have the information readily available and under the excruciating circumstances and there we're a number of packages that we're delivered which payment was never settled so there was extreme pressure and there was never any intent to not reimburse Mailin....

 

[BeekeeperBetty]

Despite the original order, you didn't listen when the customer asked for changes to the CAD and never sent the model. You never had the customer's approval to go ahead and cast the ring, which you did anyway.

 

[lulualulu0811]

Just want to chime in my recent UPSET experience with BE as well:

I was interested in a Fancy colored diamond, the price I saw and questioned with Chris was X, and the very next day, the price changed to Y about 3000 more, then I had asked Chris, If I decide to purchase the stone, can he honor the price at X (which is the time I questioned about the stone), then he responded "YES", but he said there will be no return on this stone - I then said let me think about it and will let him know. Then Mark came back and told me - I cannot sell you the stone at that price, I will be at a loss, and I can not do business this way But Really -that was what Chris promised... for a company that can't keep their own words and does not admit to their mistakes.... there will be no customers coming back.

 

[Chris_BE]

Despite the original order, you didn't listen when the customer asked for changes to the CAD and never sent the model. You never had the customer's approval to go ahead and cast the ring, which you did anyway.

You are absolutely correct and this did occur and I apologized immediately,,,, this is definitely not our usual process and we will do everything in our power to correct this unfortunate occurrence in the future....

 

[Niel]

Despite the original order, you didn't listen when the customer asked for changes to the CAD and never sent the model. You never had the customer's approval to go ahead and cast the ring, which you did anyway.

You are absolutely correct and this did occur and I apologized immediately,,,, this is definitely not our usual process and we will do everything in our power to correct this unfortunate occurrence in the future....

I guess I missed where you immediately apologized

 

[susief]

Chris, you've said several times that you asked Mailin to file a dispute to "speed up the process".

This is NOT a situation in which a dispute should be filed. Filing a dispute is a serious process that will involve an investigation, will stay on record, and can have consequences for the cc holder, particularly if they have to claim twice within a period of time (varies between different providers). No way would I do it in a case where a refund had been agreed but the vendor just couldn't find the records.

 

[Chris_BE]

Chris, you've said several times that you asked Mailin to file a dispute to "speed up the process".

This is NOT a situation in which a dispute should be filed. Filing a dispute is a serious process that will involve an investigation, will stay on record, and can have consequences for the cc holder, particularly if they have to claim twice within a period of time (varies between different providers). No way would I do it in a case where a refund had been agreed but the vendor just couldn't find the records.

Thank you as I was not aware of this, Mark was on vacation at the time and I was unable to locate Mailin's transaction and informed him of this fact and he suggested that if the refund was not provided by week's end he would file a dispute so I suggested that he do so immediately to speed up the process and his refund.... Upon Mark's return we immediately called Merchant Services and explained that it was entirely our fault and that the funds are to be returned immediately to the card bearer.

 

[tina sparkle]

Too many excuses, too much defensiveness. Make it right, apologize and move on.

 

[royalstarrynight]

I wonder if BE is getting overwhelmed because so many people from PS have been directing business to them.

OP, I'm so sorry you had this experience.

I had a weird experience with BE. They gave me a quote on stones and when I asked whether I could find alternative stones elsewhere the stones dropped 0.02ct in weight to figure out the price. I chalked it up to sloppiness. We'll see how it goes.

 

[ame]

What a witch hunt this became.

Too many excuses, too much defensiveness. Make it right, apologize and move on.

Looks like that's what they've been offering all along, at least with the OP, and it was refused, even when the OP made design changes. Precisely what other suggestions do you have to offer in this instance?

 

[tracylt]

What a witch hunt this became.

Too many excuses, too much defensiveness. Make it right, apologize and move on.

Looks like that's what they've been offering all along, at least with the OP, and it was refused, even when the OP made design changes. Precisely what other suggestions do you have to offer in this instance?

Very simple - instead of all the lengthy emails from Mark (including "Chris has worked with me to my great satisfaction for over 6 years and not once have I ever received an email indicating the lack of customer service or neglect in communicating with a customer. I believe to date the company as a whole has not received any negative comments from the consumer community..." ) and all the posts Chris went on in here to explain all the CAD and providing pictures, we expect ONLY one short response from them "We're sorry we didn't meet your expectation. Please accept our refund as an apology ". Not too hard, is it.

 

[WillyDiamond]

Just want to chime in my recent UPSET experience with BE as well:

I was interested in a Fancy colored diamond, the price I saw and questioned with Chris was X, and the very next day, the price changed to Y about 3000 more, then I had asked Chris, If I decide to purchase the stone, can he honor the price at X (which is the time I questioned about the stone), then he responded "YES", but he said there will be no return on this stone - I then said let me think about it and will let him know. Then Mark came back and told me - I cannot sell you the stone at that price, I will be at a loss, and I can not do business this way But Really -that was what Chris promised... for a company that can't keep their own words and does not admit to their mistakes.... there will be no customers coming back.

If you were in business would you sell for a $3k loss? This is not the first time on this forum a vendor made a pricing mistake. It was an error, a mistake, they have a right to correct, if you don't like the new price, you are not obligated to buy.

 

[Mailin]

just wanted to say after learning my lesson, even with big, well known vendors, I did something different when I had my first piece by CVB made and maybe I can help someone. I first had it cast in sterling silver before platinum. Having a resin done does not help me enough! After my sterling silver cast was on my hand, I had CVB do the platinum. Best decision I made and to this day, I LOVE every detail!

--- Very good idea. There is a 99% chance I will have this done now with my current vendor! Thanks!

--- Shortly after making this thread, I received an email from Chris stating Mark was back in town and that the deposit was now refunded. That was, I think a week ago but no deposit has been actually posted on my credit card as of yet. At this point though, it is not worth communicating anymore than I have to with them. I will let me credit card company handle it.

Holy cow...this is worth noting. Please let us know if/when the deposit is refunded. This has become a debacle of epic proportions; inconvenience is one thing, but money is money, and they really need to give you back yours.

--- Shortly after making this thread, I received an email from Chris stating Mark was back in town and that the deposit was now refunded. That was, I think a week ago but no deposit has been actually posted on my credit card as of yet. At this point though, it is not worth communicating anymore than I have to with them. I will let me credit card company handle it.

I HOPE for your sake that's true. It can technically take as long as 7-10 business days for a refund to fully post to your account, but I'm not feeling incredibly optimistic for you. I hope I'm wrong though!

--- To clarify, I just re read the email he sent me regarding the deposit when Mark came back from vacation because as of now, no return has posted. In previous emails he said he was going to have the refund done when Mark came back, so when I read the email saying he was back and they found my credit card charge from their merchant services. I assumed that meant they actually had refunded the money. Now that I re read it, I believe he never did this (I am assuming because I said I was going through credit card company). Which while my CC credited the deposit back to me, is still "under investigation" by the company. Think it takes like 90~ days to resolve. No worries either way, as long as it resolves in my favor. I think if they were to just refund though, it would cancel out my credit claim against them and be instantaneous.

Despite the original order, you didn't listen when the customer asked for changes to the CAD and never sent the model. You never had the customer's approval to go ahead and cast the ring, which you did anyway.

--- I am still pretty sure that my original request stated split shank in the comments section. Maybe it got lost in a copy and paste, or its just not shown in the comments section, and or poor website coding. Not too sure as of now, but like you said. Doesn't change the fact that it was specified again later and so on and so forth still happened.

Despite the original order, you didn't listen when the customer asked for changes to the CAD and never sent the model. You never had the customer's approval to go ahead and cast the ring, which you did anyway.

You are absolutely correct and this did occur and I apologized immediately,,,, this is definitely not our usual process and we will do everything in our power to correct this unfortunate occurrence in the future....

I guess I missed where you immediately apologized

--- When he refers to apologizing immediately, I think he is speaking to our phone conversation (not emails). Which in his tone of voice, was nowhere near the apologetic tone but more towards the "I am annoyed at the customer but still maintaining somewhat professional manners" tone. The only time I remember him actually saying sorry was, "sorry we just can not remake the ring." This was after he told me he was just going to remove my center stone and ship it back to me and after I expressed how much my lady was looking forward to BE creating the ring for her, and a few other praising's towards them about their work.

If he was 100% being apologetic, I didn't perceive it that way.

If he is not referring to our phone conversation, then I am not too sure where he said sorry in the emails shown on page two.

 

[appl3]

i didn't get to read the post either.... but I had such an abysmal experience with them myself I have a pretty good idea of what happened. I hope the OP comes back and shares.

Hi, can you share your experience with Brilliantly Engaged? Thanks!

 

[lovedogs]

Hi, can you share your experience with Brilliantly Engaged? Thanks!

This thread is 3 years old. If you have questions about BE I'd recommend starting a new thread.