About a year ago, I turned my engagement ring to get re-coated (white gold). When I went to pick it up, they pulled out a bag with my name on it and tried to give me someone else's ring. Trenita laughed and said "you should've kept it 'cause hers was a 2 carat ring." I didn't find that funny or professional. Once it was located, I had Joan (who apparently is the Mgr.) read the serial numbers to me to ensure it was my ring and stone (which when I mentioned this to her a year ago, she acted like it never happened and had no clue what I was talking about). 6-9 months ago, I was in the store for my inspection and mentioned resizing my rings to Joan since I'd lost a lot of weight. She talked me out of it, even though I'd told her my rings sometimes fall right off. I later went to another jeweler who confirmed my fingers had gone down almost 2 sizes and that I should have them resized.
I went back to Zales and requested my rings be resized. Trenita looked at the rings under a loupe, used a light to test the diamonds and ensured all stones were present, flawless and the rings were both in perfect condition. She put both rings in a bag together, with my information. When I went to pick them up, Rick handed my engagement ring and said "there you go." I said where is my wedding ring? He saw clearly on the bag it said 2 RINGS. He went through the inventory and couldn't find it, then found it randomly in a drawer by itself. He handed it to me and again was like "there you go." I looked at the ring and there was a stone missing right in the middle of the band. This was the beginning of a 3 month nightmare.
The ring was sent back twice to the original jeweler who scratched some of the stones (which Trenita later tried to blame on me after her boss Joan started harassing the staff, even when I have pictures to the contrary), added glue (this ring never needed glue as it was channel set so this guy was throwing stuff together, hoping it'd stick) and left gaps between the stones and the metal. I started calling corporate and District Manager Kim didn't call me like she was supposed to, never called for follow up when she said she would and wouldn't call me the 4 times I left messages about how pissed off I was with their service, attitudes and that they kept ruining my ring more. Only when I left a message threatening to call her boss did I finally call back. After the first jerk kept ruining my ring, they sent it to their "very best jeweler in their entire network." He messed with it several times and again, made the ring worse than the first guy. By the time all was said and done, there was almost $200 worth of damage to a ring I originally paid $600 to have custom made by different company. The stones had to be replaced due to the other jewelers either damaging what was there or putting lesser quality/non-matching stones in it when they screwed up the original stones (which were perfect prior to them).
I sent Zales documents showing how much it would cost to get the ring fixed by a professional jeweler (not ZALES) and they said they'd mail a check. I had to keep calling to remind them to mail it and it finally came.....without the $100 gift card District Mgr Kim had promised to send for all the hell I had to deal with. Oh yeah and her boss, VP/Director Sean never called me as Corporate said he would either. The staff was completely unprofessional, did not accept responsibility, lied constantly, never called when they said they would and then had attitudes when I asked for updates and answers. I was nice and pleasant throughout the ordeal even though most of them deserved a punch in the face.
Go on the Better Business Bureau site and you'll see thousands of complaints for Zale Corp, Kay's, Jared....all part of Signet Jewelers (tons of articles about them stealing stones are on the web too). STAY AWAY from their low quality products and "services."