Complaint Review: Kay Jeweler's

I bought a ring from Kay in November 2004.  14K white gold with a natural blue sapphire center stone and six smaller white diamonds on each side.  I got the extended service plan (ESP), which requires a six-month check on the ring.

In November 2012, two of the twelve diamonds were loose in their setting, and they asked if I had the ESP, which I did not remember.  They looked up in their system for me, and said I did not have it.  However, I had my original receipt from eight years ago, so when I brought that in they honored it.  They sent the ring off with a promise date of 8 December 2012, and would call me as soon as it arrived.

I got an email on 7 December 2012 saying it arrived (no call).  I went to the store to pick up the ring, and the diamonds were tightened - however, there was a crack within the sapphire that was clearly visible to the naked eye.  Our associate said it wasn't a crack, and offered to have us look at it under the microscope to be sure.  We pressed the issue, and the store manager came out and verified that it was a crack and would need to be replaced.  She would contact the service center and call me "that week" to let me know the next steps.

I never heard from them that week, so I called next week and was told that they would replace the stone.  If I brought it in before 16 December 2012, they would have it ready by Christmas.  We sent it out on 13 December 2012.  I was told we would be called as soon as it arrived.

Again, I received an email (no call) on 20 December 2012.  However, in Madison WI, this was the day of a 17" snow storm, so everything was closed down.  The next day I called, and they said it hadn't arrived yet due to UPS being behind due to the snow storm, but they would call me as soon as it arrived (either that day or the next).

Around 4PM, I called to see if they had gotten the shipment in (so I would know whether to wait for today or tomorrow).  I was told that they had the ring.  This surprised me since they never called.

I went to get the ring.  This part is not Kay's fault but the traffic was awful due to the snow, Christmas season, Friday at 4:30 PM, and being at the mall.  But it all could have been avoided if they wouldn't have cracked a sapphire that was not related to the original service, so I'm putting that here too.  The ring was finally repaired to my satisfaction this time.

My main problems:
- If I didn't have my receipt from eight years ago, I would have had to pay for the repair even though I had purchased the ESP.
- Three times, I was told I would get a phone call as soon as something was ready, and that never happened any of the times.
- Cracking a sapphire is hard to do.  You don't just drop it on the ground and it shatters.  I am really uncertain how this could have happened without it being a malicious switcharoo that we hopefully would not notice.
- The "Promise Date" seems to be worthless.  Although mine were all met, I did ask what would happen if they were not met, and was told "we would call you to let you know it wasn't in yet".  Well, their record of calling me was pretty bad, and also that's not much of a consolation to a broken promise.

In the future, I may go to other jewelry stores and pay for needed repairs in-house instead of working with Kay again.  And I won't ever buy a piece from there in the future, now that I know much more about the kinds of deals I can get online.