shape
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WF ACA vs HPD CBI In-Person Viewing: .Going from 9F to 1.2J!

@beigenarwhal do you have a timeframe on when you'll receive the ring? Would love to see it! :love:
 
Pretty cool story.

I went through the same color process you did when I started looking... except I was convinced I needed a G and eventually worked my way down to an I after looking at a ton of diamonds. I probably could have lived with J but it's a bit of a slippery slope after I so I played it safe.

Glad you got the bigger rock and paid less!
 
I know I’m over a month behind, but just s
Ha! I am a 46 year old woman and love buying tires. They’re so key to the comfort and handling of a car! I do so much research before buying tires and think it’s such fun (but I’m also a car enthusiast).

Back on track - OP, I love your story!

Just saw this and got excited to realize that I’m not alone for my passion for cars and tires. @eapj, we could be twins separated by a decade.
 
@beigenarwhal do you have a timeframe on when you'll receive the ring? Would love to see it! :love:

So adding more to the saga (of course, because this ring has been full of surprises), I received the ring a few weeks ago but there was a slight issue with the setting so it's now back at HPD to get resolved! The "bars" connecting the petal prongs seemed EVER SO SLIGHTLY tilted to me - no one else I showed the ring to saw it though so I wasn't sure if it was just the reflection off the very shiny platinum that I was seeing. I brought the concern up to Layla who sent me a prepaid Fedex label to ship it back for Wink to check the ring in person, and she agreed there was a slight issue and that their craftspeople would fix it, no problem! Honestly, totally painfree process even though it added some more wait time.

Layla just contacted me earlier this week and said it should be ready Friday! :dance: Can't wait to have it back in my hands! It was so hard sending it off after having it in the house....
 
Sorry to hear that you had to send it back to get fixed but that's encouraging that it was such a painless process to do it. So excited to see pictures!
 
Congrats on your new stone, ring and engagement! I recently purchased a 1.25 CBI J VS for a pendant and it is just ever so slightly warmer than my CBI F VVS ER/WB set. Working with HPD is the best!!
 
Hi all,

It's been a while since I last posted but the bottom line is that I still don't have the ring and no expected completion date yet :((

At the time of the last post, the ring was back with HPD to fix the tilted swoopy bar issue and I was expecting to have it back in a few days. Unfortunately, Layla emailed me the next day (9/12) to let me know that while the ring was repaired, it failed their inspection because the shoulders were wonky and she'd let me know whether the ring would need to be recast.

I emailed the next week (9/17) to ask about making a change to the ring prongs - the photos I saw of the Blossom had different prongs from the prongs on the ring I received. When I received the ring originally, it wasn't a big deal but if it's going to be recast anyway, I thought I might as well take advantage of the situation and make it perfect! A couple days went by but I got an email back on 9/20 that the ring was already in casting, so they couldn't make any changes at this time.

To be honest, I'm disappointed that I wasn't kept in the loop about the ring's progress. HPD is usually very good with their communication, and it didn't feel great to find out the status in this roundabout way. Adding to that disappointment was my dissatisfaction with the ring prongs - the more I thought about it, the more bothered I was that the ring did not look like the Blossom photos that I saw (and expected my ring to look like). It was explained that the prongs were different because of stone size differences/ring scaling (which makes TOTAL sense), but I wish I knew before the ring was made so I could have had the CADs adjusted to account for it.

Last week (10/4), Layla emailed me that she's working to see what can be done about the prong issue. I had already accepted the prong situation was over and done with, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear she was still thinking about it a week later! Today (10/9) Layla let me know that they'll be able to modify the prongs as requested, BUT that it's going to need to be recast to do so. As such, they'll have a revised ETA for me next week. So that's where I am now!

Whew! This ring's journey rivals the Odyssey but at least I'll have a shiny (hopefully perfect) diamond ring at the end of it, and I don't even (*SPOILER ALERT*) have to fight off a houseful of suitors to do so! Fingers crossed that this is the last hiccup in this ring's story!
 
Hi @beigenarwhal!

Thank you for sharing your journey. I’m sorry it wasn’t smoother for you. I know that HPD will make it more than right for you!

I can’t wait to see your finished ring and hear that you are just thrilled with it. I’ve completed several larger projects with them and have been so pleased with the results. But I want to see that you are pleased too in the end!
 
Wow!! What a journey! Loved reading this Ering story. So excited to see pics!!
 
Whiteflash and High Peformance Diamonds are both outstanding companies. As you can see, there is no such thing as perfect products and perfect customer service 100% of the time. Sometimes things take longer than expected, but as long as it doesn't delay your proposal date, that's less time you have to hide the ring! We will look forward to seeing it soon!
 
Hello,

I must accept the blame for dropping an important communication ball here. @beigenarwhal a phone call to you was on my to-do list last Thursday. I wanted to thank you for permitting us the time we’ve needed to ensure the standard of quality we all expect. Your pleasant surprise regarding your prong update was due to my personal decision to re-cast the head again. I decided to make that happen for you, given the irregular ride you’ve had. I intended to explain this in-person, but somehow failed to make the call as scheduled. To that end I must also apologize to your diamond professional, who thought I had connected with you before now. I still plan to connect with you to answer questions or, at minimum, permit you to hear the sincerity and assurance in my voice. I so appreciate your understanding.

Sincerely,

Wink
 
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