Complaint Review: Kay Jewelers

Former Manager of Kays? Wow. I would leave too if I was you! Crappy jewelery and very very crappy service. Proud of you for making the choice to leave....now, just if you could open your eyes to the fact that you actually use to sell crappy jewelery for a living! Wouldn't want that on my resume either.

As a former manager of Kay Jewelers, not only would we be fired for "yelling" at a customer, but you obviously didn't read the print on the warranties given to you. It is clearly indicated that the customer must bring in their item to be cleaned and inspected once ever six months and have the paperwork validated to ensure the warranty is valid. Secondly, if indeed a stone did keep falling out of the setting of course the piece will be deemed "defective" and a new piece will be switched out for the old. If you're bending 10 K gold with your fingers than you're Superwoman lady! That's nuts...only pliers or severe damage from abuse will cause it to bend with any type of ease. Did you consider the chemicals you may come in contact with? Hot tubs? House cleaning chemicals? All of those things can eat away at the nickel content which is what gives 10 k gold it's characterisic strength. Thus the 10 parts gold, 14 other alloys. So before you call merchandise from a very reputable jeweler, consider your lifestyle. Oh, and try shopping from avon...sounds like their pricing is more your speed.

i am a former employee of kay jewelers. everyone has had a bad experience somewhere. unfortunately the company itself is being targeted for things that poor managers have done. kay does have an excellent return policy, easy credit, and a competitive product. that is not to say, however, that they have the greatest quaulity product ever. you do get what you pay for. if you pay 99 dollars for a ring expect to get that much out of it. they do replace diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and tanzanites at no charge. they know that they fall out. it is a security to you as the customer. you have to see as a consumer though that seeing the same face over and over and over again with the same problem has to get old as quickly for them as for you. these employees are not the ones that manufactured the rings. they are the ones getting the sometimes measley pay checks to take abuse from customers who are jusitfiably upset. do i recomment buying a carat of diamonds for 300 dollars. let's just say if it sounds and looks too good to be true it usually is. i don't doubt that these are valid complaints but i urge you to buy the warranty and at the first sight of a problem return return return. once the integrity of the gold is altered with repair it will not be as strong as it once was. and anything that is mass produced, which these rings are, is bound to have a fault somewhere. all in all a great company but still utlimately a mall retailer with like quality. would you go to a mall food court to ask your wife to marry you? then why would you buy the ring she'll be sporting for the rest of her life from a mall. their are quality jewelers everywhere. do you research then invest your money.

My wife and I bought our wedding bands from Kay Jewelers back in 1982 in Maryland. We also bought them in 10K. This was only due to my being a LCPL in the Marines and saving $$ for marriage. We were young and dumb. The bands were cheap(although the engraving pattern was very attractive) but the diamond was exquisite. I had her pick out her own stone(I knew enough to know I would pick out the wrong one) and she picked out a beautiful 1/4K diamond. It looked absolutely stunning on her little hand. The stone did fall out once, and Kay put it back in while we waited and never had another problem. Here's the crazy part. We got behind on our payments for it and eventually Kay just charged it off. When I got back from Okinawa 2 years after stopping payment on it, and 1 year after they charged it off, my wife and I went to a Kay store and tried to pay it off in full, including any interest accrued. They couldn't take the money. They told us to go to the main office in Virginia and try there. We did. They had no idea how to take the money. They said nobody has ever tried to pay after it was written off. I sat there for nearly an hour while the big guys were hashing it out amongst themselves. Finally, the head honcho came up to me and my wife, shook my hand, thanked me for my service to the country and for having the integrity to try and pay off what I owed. Unfortunately, he said he had already written it off and it would have to be paid to the collection agency it was assigned to. I told him I didn't buy it from a collection agaency and owed them nothing. I wanted to pay my bill to the company that the money belonged to. He finally took my money and thanked me. I told him I wasn't worried about the hit on my credit report since I already had a house being built near the back gate of Camp LeJeune wher I was stationed again. The VA didn't care about it, I did. I know this has been a long story so here's the punchline. I will always appreciate everything Kay Jewelers did for me and my wife. I have bought her massive amounts of nice rings and things from numerous stores. Some were more helpful, some were not. But one thing is for certain, while I can buy her anything she wants, the 3 ring set we bought from Kay is still on our hands, 10K gold, and 1/4K diamond. And it still looks pretty on her little hand.

Women comes into my store with her husband's wedding ring. It has 5 diamonds in it. The same diamond has come out 4 times. Each time they found the diamond. Took it back to Kay's, where they bought it, left it for appox. 2 weeks each time, to have the stone put back in, under warranty. After 4 times, she's fed up and deceided to take it to a real jewelry store, bite the bullet, pay the price and get it done right. It's done overnight properly. Probably cost her $10-15. She probably spent that in time and gas each time she returned to Kay's. She comes in to pick up her ring and is SO happy at the time frame, cost, and workmanship. Now comes the interesting part. While she's at the store to drop off her ring, she picks out a gold chain for $90, that has to be ordered. When she comes in the next day to pick up her ring, she tells me, refund the $90 for the gold chain, I found it on the internet for $10 cheaper. Cheap b***h. She can take her business back to Kay's.

Kay Jewlers has serviced many Items for me, yes I have had some problems, but for all the problems their customer service and employee knowlege is second to none. I hear alot of people complain about the quality of a lower priced ring and how it was not made properly, come on now. Any respective company would not put merchandise on sale if it did not meet their standards.You get what you pay for, and if your too cheap as to purchase the E.S.P warranty for a one time charge, or bring your merchandise in every six months for inspection then complain to the employee or manager then I say its you who is ripping someone off.

10/14/03 wedding ring went in to have prong straighened. these prongs held a 1ct marquise diamond. reseaved a call that prong s needed to be replacedThey were just replaced 1 year ago.

This ring sits in a jewlery box most of the time. I requested putting the prongs on with guards on each end of marquies stone(whitch I thought they would have done by now because I lost the diamond once and the entire prong setting which holds the stone.)

I was notified I would receive a call when wedding ring returned around 10/24/03. No phone call from Kay jewlers by 10/26/03. 10/27/03 went to inquire about ring and they had it. The ring looked different. The prongs were still catching and scratching my hand and clothing. I figured out that they removed my 1 caret Marquies and placed a different one in it( the original one was wider) The one in the ring was thinner.

10/28/03 Went to Kay jewlers to complain about this. They took the ring again and kept it for another day. I received a phone call and was told it was the setting. I asked them for my other jewlery bacl. 10/28/03 went and picked up the ring that THEY SUPPOSEDLY SERVICED) and took it to a reputablejewlery store in Traverse City. I was shown a blue print of the Diamond and also, the LOOSE CHANNEL SET DIAMONDS AND BAGETTE DIAMONDS on both sidees of this ring. I had this repaired and now the ring is tight and NO CATCHING ON ANYTHING. Now I am stuck with a warrentee on this ring and other jewlery I purchased from them .

I asked for the money back for all my warentees but the DISTRIC MANAGGER REFUSED BECAUSE HE SAID IT WAS OVER 90 DAYS. This is n9ot the only incident. They have a very bad jewlery repair service. I see that more now than in the past. I have had similar sercumstances with Kay Jewlers repair services. I send a ring in,drop it off,goes for repair,comes back,pick it up and on the way home or at least less than 30mdays stones fall out. BUYER BEWARE

I got a opal and tanzanite ring for my birthday, bought at the Hagerstown store. The employee told my boyfriend the stone was covered under the lifetime waranty. If fact, Kay considers opals too soft, and they aren't covered. The tanzanites were. I wore the ring for a month, and the opal fell out. I took it to my local Frederick store, where the manager posted a vigorous defense, claiming I had mistreated the ring, and showed my a bent prong. I was very insulted by her demeanor and what she said.
The ring had been out of my sight for a period of time while at Kay. And, I hadn't noticed the prong being bent prior to her showing it to me. I can't honestly say it wasn't though. Even so, I believe if a ring bends that easily, it is poorly designed (and said so). She gave me a new ring because (she said) it was so new. Less than a month later, it happened again. Again, I was given a new ring with the warning that I must continually inspect it. As a result, I stop by Kay's everytime I go to the mall. So far, this one has held up for 3 1/2 months. But, this is a pathetic answer and very inconvenient!

I am a three year employee of Kay Jewelers in Bloomington, IN. I have seen many instances just like this one. The customer will come in and demand service in accordance with their service warranty when they have not kept up their end of the bargain.

Each customer who walks out of the store with a precious gemstone or diamond is given a copy of the FREE Lifetime Gemstone Garuntee. This paperwork clearly states that the company will replace FOR FREE, any covered stone that chips, cracks, breaks, or falls out of the mounting under normal wear, AS LONG AS the customer brings it in for cleaning and inspection, with the paperwork to be stamped, every 6 months.

This is not a paid service. The garuntee is free, the cleaning is free, and the inspection is free. It is also good for a LIFETIME. It is the customers responsibility to get into any one of our many stores to have the jewelery serviced.

Jewelery is like a car. After a while, with wear, prongs will bend, shanks will thin, and stones will fall out. Just like a car will need new tires, an oil change, or a dent fixed. What would happen if you went to a dealership and told them that you ran over a nail when you were driving down your road, and demanded that they replace the flat tire for free. The service rep would tell you that sorry, that instance is not covered under your service warranty and you would have to pay for the repairs.

That said, Kay Jewelers offers the best return/replacement policy. If within 90 days there is a problem with the merchandise that is due to a manufacturing defect and not consumer abuse, we will either replace it, or give you your money back. That's a whole three months. Take that and compare.

I don't know if your problem should be considered a "rip off" more than bad luck. You should really consider getting jewelry insurance on any valuable piece of jewelry you own. Usually these policies will allow for repair or replacement if the piece is broken, lost or stolen. As a practical matter, you do need to have your jewelry inspected every so often to make sure the prongs are not broken or defective. By the way, jewelry insurance is reasonably priced, about one dollar per every hundred dollars per year. Better safe than sorry.

Just as a reminder, when you buy a piece of jewelery with a warranty, it is your part as the consumer to have that piece of jewelery inspected every 6 months to keep the warranty valid. It is not the jewelers fault that you did not follow through on your end.

I worked several years ago for a competitor (Gordon's Jewelers) of Kay. I was always impressed by two main things: the quality of their products and their people. As a former store manager I know that managers do not "yell" at customers. Customers often view an emphatic defense by store personnel as yelling, abusive, etc. I have seen this many times. A 10K gold ring is, by definition, cheap. In Europe, 10K is not even considered "gold." Only 14K or above. Most is 18K to really be considered gold. A 10K ring has a variety of alloy metals included in the ring. Of course, some metals are stronger than others. This will affect the ring, or any item. To say that the sapphire just fell out (twice) is so unusual as to beg suspicion of abuse. It does not matter if the ring is worn once, or 100 times. It takes perhaps once to bend a prong and the loose stone may fall out with continued wear. I just feel that this report is "sniping," and not a real rip-off. The jewelry industry (name brand store chains) has too much to lose.