Whiteflash custom E-Ring bending and denting easily.

[Kal-El]

Has anyone experienced their rings denting and going out of round easily? I bought a custom E-ring setting from Whiteflash last year in July. I kept the ring in the original box until January 1 2009. I proposed on the January 1 2009. Since then my Fiancé wore the ring less than 2 months before we realized that it was out of round and dented all over the bottom. We took it back to Whiteflash and they said that it was normal. They said they would repolish it and bend it back in shape. A week or so later after having it repolished and bent back in shape it went out of round again. We went back to show them that it went out of round so fast and easily. After talking with them they agreed to remake the setting.

Originally the ring was made from 950 plat. They said that production had made a serious flaw in the design of the ring and said that they would beef up the ring by adding more material at the bottom of the ring. Also they said that they would make it out of 900 plat to prevent this from happening again.

So we agreed to have the setting recasted. We got the ring back in May It has been only about a month since my Fiancé has been wearing the ring and just the other day we realized that it was dented again. However it has not gone out of round but the dents are pretty significant.

I have not called Whiteflash yet to discuss this again but it is quite frustrating because my Fiancé is scared to wear her ring. When we went up the first time they tried to push the blame on my fiancé. Saying that she was not careful wearing the ring.

My fiancé is a Pharmacist and does not do any heavy lifting with her hands. She takes off her ring every night before going to bed. It seems that she is pretty careful with her ring. We even asked our friends that have been married for over a few years now, and none of them have ever had problems with their rings denting or bending. All of their rings are made of 950 Plat.

I feel like I have wasted my money buying this ring because of all this trouble and she does not even wear it for fear of damaging it! What was the point of buying a ring then to begin with!

HELP!!!

 

[strmrdr]

Can you post pictures of the dents?

 

[Kal-El]

I can try but when I usually take a really close up picture of something it becomes really blurry. It is dented to the point where it looks like you took something and scratched it really hard and it has gash and dents all at the bottom. All this in less than a month of wearing the ring. She is now not wearing it anymore.

 

[strmrdr]

try backing off some. take the picture then crop out the ring part.

 

[oldminer]

Some people do dent and bend up their rings far more than most other people do. I often think the denters tap to the music on a hard shift knob in their car while they drive to wrok or grip tightly on some tool they use during the day to cause these problems. Most people who dent and bend their rings have no idea how it is happening. For sure, the majority of people do not have this problem, but it is a real issue for a few people and needs to be handled.

Making the ring out of less malleable metal such as 900 platinum sometimes is a cure. For you, this didn''t work. 18 karat white gold can be alloyed so it is incredibly stiff and hard compared to most platinum. However, we see tension rings of extremely hard metal made of platinum all the time, so platinum can be made highly stiff and durable, too.

Somewhere there is a solution for this problem which will fit both you and Whiteflash. I hope you''ll find the patience necessary to get to that stage soon. It has to be a combination of how the ring is being worn and metal which has not been alloyed durable enough for your fiance''.

 

[Kal-El]

From the response that we got after they had re-made the ring again. That if it was to happen again that it would not be their responsibility anymore. They did not say it in that many words but they implied it. Saying that the person wearing the ring would be responsible. However my fiancé is really careful with the ring. I doubt that she is rough with it because we have had this same issue once already and she makes a conscious effort to not allow the ring to hit anything. So I really don''t know what to do about it anymore. We are getting married in Oct and her wedding band was designed together with the E-ring at Whiteflash. I am hesitant on getting the ring made now because I fear that the quality would not be there.

 

[neatfreak]

Does she grip steering wheels or anything tightly? That can dent rings pretty easily...maybe she is better off with white gold?

And which ring is it?

 

[Kal-El]

She is a really tiny girl stands 5'' tall. Her finger size is super small too. 3.75. I cant imagine that she has that much power to damage it. She is on the computer all day and rarely does anything harsh with her hands. We have gotten in several arguments regarding how she cares for her ring but she always says that she is super careful with it! It has gotten so bad to where she is just not wearing the ring anymore.

The ring was a custom designed ring that was inspired from the Cartier 1895

 

[strmrdr]

The thing is the ring is not damaging itself, which is why I wanted to see the marks and maybe we can figure out what caused them.
For example a client of mine owned an icecream shop and was always having dents and gashes on her ring.
She could not figure it out, turns out she was left handed and the icecream scoop was damaging her ring.
She knew I was into jewelery and mentioned it and I watched her work for a few min.
When she moved into a quiet area you could hear the scoop click against the ring.
In the cooler she never heard it because of the background noise.
She got a plastic handled scoop and the problem went away.

 

[Kal-El]

The denting I can understand, but what about getting out of round? It went completely oval the first time we had issues. How does something like that happen? I am not sure if it will happen again because she is not wearing the ring. It happened more than once and happened so fast.

 

[strmrdr]

Date: 6/5/2009 3:20:05 PM
Author: Kal-El
The denting I can understand, but what about getting out of round? It went completely oval the first time we had issues. How does something like that happen? I am not sure if it will happen again because she is not wearing the ring. It happened more than once and happened so fast.

same cause impact on the bottom of the ring.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 6/5/2009 3:20:05 PM
Author: Kal-El
The denting I can understand, but what about getting out of round? It went completely oval the first time we had issues. How does something like that happen? I am not sure if it will happen again because she is not wearing the ring. It happened more than once and happened so fast.

Same things-holding a steering wheel too tight, tapping it against a desk, gripping a tennis racquet...all things that can make it go out of round easily.

Something to remember is that platinum is a relatively malleable and soft so it isn''t hard to dent or bend if there is something she is doing repeatedly...

 

[D&T]

just wondering is she holding something in her hand like a tray or something on a regular basis?

 

[Kal-El]

No. Not that I am aware of. Recently she has been really careful. Since we got the ring back in May she looks at the ring every time she wears it in the evening to see if there is any damage to it. She stopped wearing it to work now and only wears it on the weekend. It gets really frustrating that I spent so much time and money and it is not even worn.

Again we have not contacted Whiteflash regarding this yet but I am afraid that they will just say it is not their fault and that it is the person wearing it that caused the damage. And since they have already attempted to fix the problem once they will be reluctant to do anything the next time.

 

[Kal-El]

Here is the picture of the Ring after they re made it. I will try to post pictures of the dents later.

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 6/5/2009 3:33:25 PM
Author: Kal-El
Here is the picture of the Ring after they re made it. I will try to post pictures of the dents later.

I hate to say this but that ring looks pretty sturdy to me...and if it''s been rebuilt once for you that was pretty nice of them considering it probably is something your fiance is doing. You should really sit down together and go through everything she does to see if it''s something she is doing because unfortunately it likely is...

The appraisers here have a very good eye and with good pictures might be able to help solve the mystery. I hope someone can help.

 

[Maisie]

Date: 6/5/2009 3:52:54 PM
Author: neatfreak

Date: 6/5/2009 3:33:25 PM
Author: Kal-El
Here is the picture of the Ring after they re made it. I will try to post pictures of the dents later.

I hate to say this but that ring looks pretty sturdy to me...and if it''s been rebuilt once for you that was pretty nice of them considering it probably is something your fiance is doing. You should really sit down together and go through everything she does to see if it''s something she is doing because unfortunately it likely is...

The appraisers here have a very good eye and with good pictures might be able to help solve the mystery. I hope someone can help.

I was thinking the same thing. The band isn''t slim or flimsy. In fact its quite thick really.

 

[bgray]

i have a custome platinum e-ring from whiteflash as does my best friend. i wear my ring everyday and-i wash dishes in it and play with my son..........it has very minor "scratches" like the rest of my platinum and gold jewelry. my friends ring is a custom micropave and she is crazy hard on jewelry and hers is also in great shape--our rings were actually completed within weeks of eachother and that was over two years ago............

i say this not to dispute your experience but to provide some relevant information. further now that i see your pix i must comment that the band of my ring is knife edge and you would think that it would be very inclined to dent and ding and it has nothing of note

 

[Dreamer_D]

Remember, no one is suggesting that she is abusing the ring... rather, they are suggesting that rings are not as damage-proof as some might think. I''m not sure if you examined your friends rings when you talked to them about damage, but I would wager that they are very scratched too, the damage is probably just more consistent and spead out and so harder to see.

Remember, plat is a delicate metal in some respects. Just tapping your hand on the steering wheel can damage it! Is she left handed and using a mouse all day? Some sort of instument?

If it were me I would just wear the darn thing and polish it regularly.

 

[decodelighted]

Pretty ring! Frustrating story! Yikes. Um, did she wear many rings before you got engaged ... that you both could look at & see what kind of wear those got? Or maybe she could wear a platinum band around for a week or so and see what wear patterns emerge?

Photos would help -- platinum does scratch & get less shiny etc ... is there a sizing bar on the back of the ring that is solid metal & that is the place getting scratched up?? Or is it all over the ring?

The bending was probably an issue of design & use of 950 platinum. Hopefully that part has been fixed with the 900. My own e-ring is 900 and its great. My wedding band is, like your fiance's e-ring -- in that its bead set diamonds but much thinner. I've been wearing it 24 hrs a day for three years and it has not gone out of round. It is 950 pt. And I'm HARD on my hands -- gardening, dishwashing, sports, you name it. Weird! (Neither is Whiteflash though so not an apples to apples comparison).

GOOD LUCK!!! It's a gorgeous ring, really!


ETA: When you're wearing a platinum wedding ring around everyday you'll understand more what inadvertent damage they sustain -- that doesn't have anything to do with "taking care" of the ring. Be easy on her! Don't have "fights" about this until you know what she goes through with it *yourself*

 

[geckodani]

Hmm. Ditto what others have said. Definitely post pics when you get a chance and maybe we can figure out what is causing it! I baby my rings (or would like to think I do), but have still managed to take a good chunk out of my palladium ring, simply by hitting it on the side of my desk in a klutzy moment. It sucks, but these are pieces that we wear on our hands - they will, unfortunately, be damaged. I don''t think anyone can say that their ring still looks absolutely pristine.

My tendency to knock rings out of round is one of the reasons I avoid platinum, as it is more malleable.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 6/5/2009 4:08:10 PM
Author: decodelighted
Pretty ring! Frustrating story! Yikes. Um, did she wear many rings before you got engaged ... that you both could look at & see what kind of wear those got? Or maybe she could wear a platinum band around for a week or so and see what wear patterns emerge?

Photos would help -- platinum does scratch & get less shiny etc ... is there a sizing bar on the back of the ring that is solid metal & that is the place getting scratched up?? Or is it all over the ring?

The bending was probably an issue of design & use of 950 platinum. Hopefully that part has been fixed with the 900. My own e-ring is 900 and its great. My wedding band is, like your fiance''s e-ring -- in that its bead set diamonds but much thinner. I''ve been wearing it 24 hrs a day for three years and it has not gone out of round. It is 950 pt. And I''m HARD on my hands -- gardening, dishwashing, sports, you name it. Weird! (Neither is Whiteflash though so not an apples to apples comparison).

GOOD LUCK!!! It''s a gorgeous ring, really!

This is a really good idea to help you get to the bottom of this!

 

[wishinpink]

Oh my goodness =( that''s so awful =( I didn''t realize platinum was so malleable!!!

I hope you get the situation sorted out soon!

 

[bowral1]

Again ditto to what everyone else is saying. I am no expert but everyone has told me not to platinum as it dents and scratches easily . . . . .

 

[Kal-El]

Date: 6/5/2009 3:52:54 PM
Author: neatfreak

Date: 6/5/2009 3:33:25 PM
Author: Kal-El
Here is the picture of the Ring after they re made it. I will try to post pictures of the dents later.

I hate to say this but that ring looks pretty sturdy to me...and if it''s been rebuilt once for you that was pretty nice of them considering it probably is something your fiance is doing. You should really sit down together and go through everything she does to see if it''s something she is doing because unfortunately it likely is...

The appraisers here have a very good eye and with good pictures might be able to help solve the mystery. I hope someone can help.

The orginal ring had a production flaw in it. They made the bottom of the ring too thin. I dont know why they did that but they thought that that was the reason that the ring went out of round. I guess they realized their mistake and wanted to correct it. They took the ring back and made it thicker at the bottom and all around. Also they suggested that because of the unusual denting and scratching. They would make the ring from 950 PT to 900PT making the ring harder and less easily to be scratched. I got the ring back on May 9th. My fiance wore the ring only 3 days and the ring was dented. She said she made sure that she was very careful when she wore it. Since then she has only been wearing the ring on the weekends. Again I dont know how much more careful you need to be to wear the ring. It seems that everyone else does not have this problem but she does. Other people seem so much more rough with their rings and dont even take it off while doing other activities. My fiance does. She takes it off all the time to make sure she does not hit anything.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Without pictures we can''t really tell you if the dents are normal wear and tear or not! Rings dent and scratch, it is normal sometimes. So you *could* have unrealistic expectations. But we can''t tell you if this is the case or not without pics.

 

[beach]

Need pictures of the actual ring. Have you ever owned anything platinum before? It scratches and displaces metal all the time. A patina develops and is considered typical for platinum.

 

[makemepretty]

I believe the ring design is just faulty. We have three pharmacists in my family and none of them have bent their rings. There is NO way your fiance is doing anything that damaging to the ring, it HAS to be the ring itself. It''s not like she''d want to harm her ring, that''s just ridiculous. I think you should pick out a new setting(same price range) and Whiteflash should do an even exchange for you. If you read through the past threads quite a few people have had less than pleasant results lately it seems with the quality of work. Just my opinion.

 

[bgray]

Date: 6/5/2009 5:01:28 PM
Author: makemepretty
I believe the ring design is just faulty. We have three pharmacists in my family and none of them have bent their rings. There is NO way your fiance is doing anything that damaging to the ring, it HAS to be the ring itself. It's not like she'd want to harm her ring, that's just ridiculous. I think you should pick out a new setting(same price range) and Whiteflash should do an even exchange for you. If you read through the past threads quite a few people have had less than pleasant results lately it seems with the quality of work. Just my opinion.

this may be the case but the ring design he has posted is pretty standard. it is a little aggressive to say that there is NO way his fiance is doing anything. i have whacked my rings and jewelry plenty of times fearing that i had chipped a stone or otherwise damaged something.......what has happened to her ring is not normal. it is not a normally described problem from any vendor--quality control, design and other imperfections are posted but this is out of the norm.........

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 6/5/2009 5:13:15 PM
Author: bgray

Date: 6/5/2009 5:01:28 PM

Author: makemepretty

I believe the ring design is just faulty. We have three pharmacists in my family and none of them have bent their rings. There is NO way your fiance is doing anything that damaging to the ring, it HAS to be the ring itself. It''s not like she''d want to harm her ring, that''s just ridiculous. I think you should pick out a new setting(same price range) and Whiteflash should do an even exchange for you. If you read through the past threads quite a few people have had less than pleasant results lately it seems with the quality of work. Just my opinion.

this may be the case but the ring design he has posted is pretty standard. it is a little aggressive to say that there is NO way his fiance is doing anything. i have whacked my rings and jewelry plenty of times fearing that i had chipped a stone or otherwise damaged something.......what has happened to her ring is not normal. it is not a normally described problem from any vendor--quality control, design and other imperfections are posted but this is out of the norm.........

The other piece of this puzzle too is that this is the **second** ring that has damage to it AFTER it was completely remade. I do think that it was smart of WF to remake it once if it was a design flaw-that was a good business decision for them since they might have mucked it up. But this time that ring looks SUBSTANTIAL and I find it hard to believe WF would make the same mistake twice making such a simple ring...and more than once we have heard this same story and it turns out that the wearer is doing something repetitive to the ring and they are the one damaging it without realizing it.

If it was just one ring I would think it might be the ring. But this is a DIFFERENT ring but the same wearer. Sounds like possibly the wearer and not the ring.

I also think another plat. ring would be an interesting experiment...