Thursday, June 11, 2009
The ring, at long last!
I got the ring back from Edward Arthur very soon after placing an order with them, and when I saw it, I was absolutely floored. The ring is gorgeous! Even in my imagination the ring wasn't as beautiful as it is! The pictures don't do the ring justice, but you can get an idea of what it looks like. I've very happy with it and I hope others are successful as I was in getting their engagement rings!
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Starting over with a new jeweler
We went today to go pick up the diamond from J. Brown to find that they had really done absolutely nothing with the diamond. The diamond was still in the pendant that it was originally set in and it was still dirty, so in three weeks, they clearly hadn't gotten very far. We got a few evil eyes from people who had worked with us in the store when we came in and then got nasty with us on the phone. They glared, I glared right back at their big, incompetent faces.
We decided to go straight to Edward Arthur since everyone (including me, of course ;) ) seemed to secretly like the ring they showed us at Edward Arthur better than the one at J. Brown. It was definitely more impressive-looking than the one at J. Brown, so to Edward Arthur we went.
My fiance's mother wanted to get an amethyst in the pendant that housed the ring, since she obviously didn't want to just have an empty pendant. J. Brown had quoted $150 to place an amethyst in the pendant (which seems pretty damn high considering amethysts are very cheap), so we figured we'd go to Edward Arthur to see what they would quote for the work.
Back in Edward Arthur, we went straight back to that ring setting we had looked at and had fallen in love with before, placed an order for it immediately, and asked them for a price on the amethyst. The engagement ring, with all diamonds in 14k white gold was quoted at about $1460 including tax, though the price may change slightly by Tuesday, when the order for the setting will actually be placed. We also looked at wedding bands and asked for a price for the amethyst, only to feel like J. Brown was trying very hard to rip us off.
The wedding bands at J. Brown cost $350 (before tax) for mine (plain 14k white gold), and $750 (before tax) for my fiance's (also plain 14k white gold). For about the same price at Edward Arthur, we could get a nicer, more designed band in 14k white gold.
The amethyst at Edward Arthur was quoted for $30. $30! We aren't talking about a crappy stone here; we're talking AAA quality amethyst. My fiance's mother just stared at him, realizing that J. Brown had just tried to swindle her out of at least $120 and they hadn't even guaranteed her that they were going to give her a AAA quality amethyst (it very well might have been, but I didn't hear that come out of their mouths).
I was seriously relieved to get the diamond from J. Brown and get that order started with Edward Arthur; they are closer to us than J. Brown, and the ring looks nicer too. I told them about our issues with J. Brown and that we would like to get the ring as quickly as they can manage to do it due to the 3 week delay that J. Brown put us through, so hopefully things will work out. They told us 2-5 weeks for the ring, so I'm hoping it will be done on the earlier side of that! The setting is stunning just as I remember it, so hopefully it will look that much better with our diamond in it!
We decided to go straight to Edward Arthur since everyone (including me, of course ;) ) seemed to secretly like the ring they showed us at Edward Arthur better than the one at J. Brown. It was definitely more impressive-looking than the one at J. Brown, so to Edward Arthur we went.
My fiance's mother wanted to get an amethyst in the pendant that housed the ring, since she obviously didn't want to just have an empty pendant. J. Brown had quoted $150 to place an amethyst in the pendant (which seems pretty damn high considering amethysts are very cheap), so we figured we'd go to Edward Arthur to see what they would quote for the work.
Back in Edward Arthur, we went straight back to that ring setting we had looked at and had fallen in love with before, placed an order for it immediately, and asked them for a price on the amethyst. The engagement ring, with all diamonds in 14k white gold was quoted at about $1460 including tax, though the price may change slightly by Tuesday, when the order for the setting will actually be placed. We also looked at wedding bands and asked for a price for the amethyst, only to feel like J. Brown was trying very hard to rip us off.
The wedding bands at J. Brown cost $350 (before tax) for mine (plain 14k white gold), and $750 (before tax) for my fiance's (also plain 14k white gold). For about the same price at Edward Arthur, we could get a nicer, more designed band in 14k white gold.
The amethyst at Edward Arthur was quoted for $30. $30! We aren't talking about a crappy stone here; we're talking AAA quality amethyst. My fiance's mother just stared at him, realizing that J. Brown had just tried to swindle her out of at least $120 and they hadn't even guaranteed her that they were going to give her a AAA quality amethyst (it very well might have been, but I didn't hear that come out of their mouths).
I was seriously relieved to get the diamond from J. Brown and get that order started with Edward Arthur; they are closer to us than J. Brown, and the ring looks nicer too. I told them about our issues with J. Brown and that we would like to get the ring as quickly as they can manage to do it due to the 3 week delay that J. Brown put us through, so hopefully things will work out. They told us 2-5 weeks for the ring, so I'm hoping it will be done on the earlier side of that! The setting is stunning just as I remember it, so hopefully it will look that much better with our diamond in it!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Switching Jewelers
Today was the absolute last straw. When we called J. Brown, hoping to hear that they were finished with the ring (you know, since they apparently will not bother to actually call us with any sort of update), we were told that they needed an additional one or two weeks to finish the ring. They gave us more bullshit excuses. Last time, they were held up by the estimate that took them a day to give us, this time they were held up because they had to ship the diamond off to the manufacturer to put the materials together. This makes it the second week in a row that they have completely flaked out on their proposed time-line. I just about went through the roof.
The woman on the phone got really nasty and even said "well, these things usually take 4 to 6 weeks." As I told her, that's fine and good, so just tell us that upfront. If you commit to supplying us with a ring in 10-14 days, then I expect a ring in 10-14 days. Period. End of discussion. I was tolerant of their excuse, albeit irritated, when they told us they needed another week due to their delay with the estimate (though that made no sense, as I had mentioned in the previous post). Fine, whatever, as long as we get the ring, then fine. But they haven't even started working on the ring by the end of this week. We were told that the emeralds they had shipped in were no good and that they were waiting on another shipment of emeralds. Absolute bullshit! If you know that you promised your customers this very slim deadline for the ring, you'd, at the very least, have a few different pairs of emeralds shipped in to choose from, as other jewelers frequently do.
On top of that, when I expressed my irritation that I was told 10-14 days and they were now pushing it to at least double that time period, the woman became very nasty on the phone. The least they could have done was offer a discount, or at the very least, apologize for being incompetent and promising something they couldn't deliver. That, to me, is just amazing. Absolutely amazing.
We told them to cancel our order and that someone else will be doing the engagement ring now. Sure it will take longer, but a company that promises something they can't deliver, then refuses to ever call us to keep us updated about what's going on, should not get our busines. If there are complications with the ring, then the very least you can do is call your client to let them know that the ring will not be done by the promised time-line and then they should ask if the couple is still interested in doing the ring with this jeweler. I don't know, this has been my experience at other jewelers, why would J. Brown be any different?
We will be going to Edward Arthur, and hopefully they will be more competent than J. Brown, you know, by giving us a time-line they can stick to, not feeding us lame excuses, one after another, and letting us know what the hell is going on with our diamond.
I'm really just shocked... They seemed so perfect, and this whole thing made them out to be incredibly incompetent, quick to make excuses, and nasty when questioned. Needless to say, we will definitely not be getting the wedding bands through them in addition to us no longer getting the engagement ring through them.
The woman on the phone got really nasty and even said "well, these things usually take 4 to 6 weeks." As I told her, that's fine and good, so just tell us that upfront. If you commit to supplying us with a ring in 10-14 days, then I expect a ring in 10-14 days. Period. End of discussion. I was tolerant of their excuse, albeit irritated, when they told us they needed another week due to their delay with the estimate (though that made no sense, as I had mentioned in the previous post). Fine, whatever, as long as we get the ring, then fine. But they haven't even started working on the ring by the end of this week. We were told that the emeralds they had shipped in were no good and that they were waiting on another shipment of emeralds. Absolute bullshit! If you know that you promised your customers this very slim deadline for the ring, you'd, at the very least, have a few different pairs of emeralds shipped in to choose from, as other jewelers frequently do.
On top of that, when I expressed my irritation that I was told 10-14 days and they were now pushing it to at least double that time period, the woman became very nasty on the phone. The least they could have done was offer a discount, or at the very least, apologize for being incompetent and promising something they couldn't deliver. That, to me, is just amazing. Absolutely amazing.
We told them to cancel our order and that someone else will be doing the engagement ring now. Sure it will take longer, but a company that promises something they can't deliver, then refuses to ever call us to keep us updated about what's going on, should not get our busines. If there are complications with the ring, then the very least you can do is call your client to let them know that the ring will not be done by the promised time-line and then they should ask if the couple is still interested in doing the ring with this jeweler. I don't know, this has been my experience at other jewelers, why would J. Brown be any different?
We will be going to Edward Arthur, and hopefully they will be more competent than J. Brown, you know, by giving us a time-line they can stick to, not feeding us lame excuses, one after another, and letting us know what the hell is going on with our diamond.
I'm really just shocked... They seemed so perfect, and this whole thing made them out to be incredibly incompetent, quick to make excuses, and nasty when questioned. Needless to say, we will definitely not be getting the wedding bands through them in addition to us no longer getting the engagement ring through them.
Friday, May 15, 2009
So, they lied
J. Brown Jewelers told us that they would have the ring ready in 10-14 days. So much for that happening! They didn't even call us to update us on the situation with the ring; we had to call them to ask what in the world was going on. Today was Day 15 and we hadn't received a call about the ring. They gave us the dumbest excuse in the world: They put off doing the engagement ring because they were giving us an estimate for the wedding bands that we are ordering separately from the engagement ring. The weird thing is that they gave us an estimate for the wedding bands the day after we placed an order for the engagement ring, so even if that were the excuse, it would have had absolutely no impact on the timing of the engagement ring.
The real reason for the delay is that they hadn't bothered to put in an order for the materials until a few days ago. This is very annoying.
So now, we have to wait at least another 7 days, meaning the time-line is now looking more like 21+ days. I am considering not doing the wedding bands through this jeweler because of this annoyance. The wedding bands aren't exactly dazzling or special (the ones without diamonds or gems), so this particular area does not really set J. Brown apart from the competition.
We shall see very soon.
The real reason for the delay is that they hadn't bothered to put in an order for the materials until a few days ago. This is very annoying.
So now, we have to wait at least another 7 days, meaning the time-line is now looking more like 21+ days. I am considering not doing the wedding bands through this jeweler because of this annoyance. The wedding bands aren't exactly dazzling or special (the ones without diamonds or gems), so this particular area does not really set J. Brown apart from the competition.
We shall see very soon.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Jeweler 11: J. Brown Jewelers
Eleventh time's a charm? Though we had to drive quite a bit out of our way to get to this jeweler, we were definitely not let down. Their motto is "unusual jewelery of fine quality" and I think this suits them very well. They have a huge variety of jewelery of many different styles. You can find jewelery ranging from the most elegant to the most ridiculous, whatever tickles your fancy. The employees too are very friendly and we had fun looking at and trying on some of their more gaudy jewelery. What was also very nice about this place was that they are located in a Jewish area, and so, have many Jewish customers as well as those of other religions. It was definitely very comforting to be in a store that actually knew what kinds of rings we would be interested in for our wedding bands. Not only that, but this particular store also does Hebrew engraving, which definitely makes them very appealing at least for our wedding bands.
The other thing about this store was that the employees, apparently, are not paid on commission, so they do not put on any pressure to buy things, but rather, will recommend ways to save some money (like going for 14k gold instead of 18k gold since 18k gold is more expensive and is much softer, thus gems and diamonds are more likely to fall out later on). The woman we were working with actually recommended that we don't make up our minds on any rings right then and there, but come back after we had thought about it for a while. I really appreciated that, even though, at that point, we had been to so many jewelers, that we were pretty sure of what we were going to stick with at that point.
It was really neat while we were looking at the ring settings (which were right there in the store) since we were told that whatever we wanted to change about the setting could be done without any problems. So, if we really liked one ring but wanted to add, remove, or change something about it, we could have that done. That really expanded our options out, and I think it made the decision making much more unique than at all of the previous places.
The man who ran the store was very eccentric, but very nice as well. He offered a very fair price on the ring that we wanted. My fiance was thrilled with this place ( it might be because they offer Hebrew engraving, so he automatically fell in love) and wanted to buy the engagement ring from this place. I was too tired to make a quick decision since I also loved the ring at Edward Arthur, so after dinner and discussion, we decided to go along with Brown. The upside to this jeweler was definitely that we could order the engagement ring, the wedding bands, and the engraving, so it was much more convenient than bouncing around for the rings and engraving.
I really don't have anything to criticize about this place. As hard as I try to think of something they could have done better, I truly can't think of anything. It was the best experience I have had at a jeweler, and their ability to customize any of the rings they have in the store really takes away the ability to criticize their selection of rings (does that make me sound like a walking commercial, or what?!). Well, great experience, and I can't wait to get my ring! **
Knowledge: A+
Demeanor: A+
Selection of rings: A+
Willingness to find information: A
Estimated Price: $1200 (larger diamond accents)
Overall Grade: A+ **
** Read updated posts pertaining to J. Brown.
The other thing about this store was that the employees, apparently, are not paid on commission, so they do not put on any pressure to buy things, but rather, will recommend ways to save some money (like going for 14k gold instead of 18k gold since 18k gold is more expensive and is much softer, thus gems and diamonds are more likely to fall out later on). The woman we were working with actually recommended that we don't make up our minds on any rings right then and there, but come back after we had thought about it for a while. I really appreciated that, even though, at that point, we had been to so many jewelers, that we were pretty sure of what we were going to stick with at that point.
It was really neat while we were looking at the ring settings (which were right there in the store) since we were told that whatever we wanted to change about the setting could be done without any problems. So, if we really liked one ring but wanted to add, remove, or change something about it, we could have that done. That really expanded our options out, and I think it made the decision making much more unique than at all of the previous places.
The man who ran the store was very eccentric, but very nice as well. He offered a very fair price on the ring that we wanted. My fiance was thrilled with this place ( it might be because they offer Hebrew engraving, so he automatically fell in love) and wanted to buy the engagement ring from this place. I was too tired to make a quick decision since I also loved the ring at Edward Arthur, so after dinner and discussion, we decided to go along with Brown. The upside to this jeweler was definitely that we could order the engagement ring, the wedding bands, and the engraving, so it was much more convenient than bouncing around for the rings and engraving.
I really don't have anything to criticize about this place. As hard as I try to think of something they could have done better, I truly can't think of anything. It was the best experience I have had at a jeweler, and their ability to customize any of the rings they have in the store really takes away the ability to criticize their selection of rings (does that make me sound like a walking commercial, or what?!). Well, great experience, and I can't wait to get my ring! **
Knowledge: A+
Demeanor: A+
Selection of rings: A+
Willingness to find information: A
Estimated Price: $1200 (larger diamond accents)
Overall Grade: A+ **
** Read updated posts pertaining to J. Brown.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Jeweler 10: Gordon's Jewelers
I wasn't particularly sold by this store. They seemed much more interested in getting me to sign up for useless programs or to come to unnecessary events rather than actually answering any questions. The employees were very friendly. Overly friendly, in fact. I was kind of irritated when they pushed their financing plan on me when I hadn't even looked at any of their products. The employees seem to totally dodge my question about customizing a ring and wouldn't even attempt to talk to me about anything to do with what I wanted or anything. This visit was definitely a waste of time and I left the store very dissatisfied.
I'm going to assume that question dodge was motivated by a lack of real knowledge in the area of diamonds and rings, because every other jeweler we talked to (even Reeds and Zales) at least attempted to give us some kind of ballpark price on getting a ring setting.
Knowledge: C
Demeanor: C
Selection of rings: ???
Willingness to find information: F
Estimated Price: Not able to get an estimate
Overall Grade: D+
I'm going to assume that question dodge was motivated by a lack of real knowledge in the area of diamonds and rings, because every other jeweler we talked to (even Reeds and Zales) at least attempted to give us some kind of ballpark price on getting a ring setting.
Knowledge: C
Demeanor: C
Selection of rings: ???
Willingness to find information: F
Estimated Price: Not able to get an estimate
Overall Grade: D+
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Jeweler 9: Shaw's Jewelers
This is hands-down the worst experience we have had so far with a jeweler. This is the first jeweler that we just walked out of without a card because of their absolutely terrible performance.
When we first walked into this shop, we were not greeted by the two, obviously bored and goofing off employees. No customers were in the store at this time. The young man working there was standing and vacantly staring at the wall while playing with his tie. My fiance and I walked right up to him and he did not look at us, he did not say hello, nor did he even seem to know we were standing there. At this point, my fiance was done with this jeweler and wanted to leave. I was ticked off too, but decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves. I asked him if he was capable of giving me an estimate on a custom engagement ring (since I knew he was not, thus he would get his coworker, who was hopefully more competent). He stared blankly at me and said "I dunno" then wandered off to go get his coworker.
His coworker was not one bit better. She asked me what I wanted (just like that "what do you want") Knowing that I was not going to buy anything at that point, I decided to see how clueless these two were. I showed them the diamond (but I didn't give it to them, hell no) and described what I wanted and asked if they could give me an estimate.
She looked at the diamond with a vacant expression on her face, obviously not knowing what kind of cut it was. I told her that it was a Miner's cut. She disagreed (um, why?!) and said that it was Round. I said "Miner's cut" one more time with a smile. She said "It's a Cushion cut". I smiled wider and shook my head, "Miner's cut". She scowled, rolled her eyes, and grabbed one of the catalogs. She seemed very irritated at the exchange, and didn't make any efforts to hide this, thus lessening my already lessened opinion of her and of the store.
After they stared at the pages of the catalog that we had seen only a dozen times before, the woman gave up and told us "Here, you look at it and see if you find something you want." Lovely. Meanwhile, they both tried very hard to figure out what the heck they were supposed to do (though neither thought of perhaps calling a manager or consulting whatever source they were hopefully trained to consult?).
My fiance and I got tired of working with the clueless duo, said "Thanks anyway" and walked out.
Knowledge: F
Demeanor: F-
Selection of rings: C
Willingness to find information: F
Estimated Price: Not able to get a price
Overall Grade: F
When we first walked into this shop, we were not greeted by the two, obviously bored and goofing off employees. No customers were in the store at this time. The young man working there was standing and vacantly staring at the wall while playing with his tie. My fiance and I walked right up to him and he did not look at us, he did not say hello, nor did he even seem to know we were standing there. At this point, my fiance was done with this jeweler and wanted to leave. I was ticked off too, but decided to give them a chance to redeem themselves. I asked him if he was capable of giving me an estimate on a custom engagement ring (since I knew he was not, thus he would get his coworker, who was hopefully more competent). He stared blankly at me and said "I dunno" then wandered off to go get his coworker.
His coworker was not one bit better. She asked me what I wanted (just like that "what do you want") Knowing that I was not going to buy anything at that point, I decided to see how clueless these two were. I showed them the diamond (but I didn't give it to them, hell no) and described what I wanted and asked if they could give me an estimate.
She looked at the diamond with a vacant expression on her face, obviously not knowing what kind of cut it was. I told her that it was a Miner's cut. She disagreed (um, why?!) and said that it was Round. I said "Miner's cut" one more time with a smile. She said "It's a Cushion cut". I smiled wider and shook my head, "Miner's cut". She scowled, rolled her eyes, and grabbed one of the catalogs. She seemed very irritated at the exchange, and didn't make any efforts to hide this, thus lessening my already lessened opinion of her and of the store.
After they stared at the pages of the catalog that we had seen only a dozen times before, the woman gave up and told us "Here, you look at it and see if you find something you want." Lovely. Meanwhile, they both tried very hard to figure out what the heck they were supposed to do (though neither thought of perhaps calling a manager or consulting whatever source they were hopefully trained to consult?).
My fiance and I got tired of working with the clueless duo, said "Thanks anyway" and walked out.
Knowledge: F
Demeanor: F-
Selection of rings: C
Willingness to find information: F
Estimated Price: Not able to get a price
Overall Grade: F
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