Complaint Review: Zales

Zales Diamond Jewelry Review Its a Scam & Ripoff. They will ruin your credit score

Make sure to read this before you decide to purchase any item requiring financing at Zales or Zales.com

Just to let you know that before I decided to write this I tried to resolve my unfortunate issue with Zales and Citi (Zaless financing bank) directly.  It is apparent to me now that neither Zales nor Citi are willing to help abiding by some of the worst customer service rules and regulations youll ever come across.

Here is what happened:
In 2007 I purchased a diamond wedding band for myself (ITEM #: 17762659) which I decided to finance through Zales financing company (Citi group).  They asked for 10% deposit and I was on my way with a brand new diamond wedding band that I thought would last me a lifetime.  Not so fast!  When I came home my wife noticed a small damage in the setting where diamonds are set in the ring.  No problem I thought, Zales should help me with this by exchange this ring for another.  I went to 3 other Zales locations and I noticed that every single one of these rings had the same problem with the setting and they were all damaged just the same.  I decided to return my purchase back to Zales Diamond Jewelry store for a refund as I had the ring for less than two weeks in my possession.  I did not go back to the original store I purchased the ring from, because I live in Los Angeles and I purchased my ring in San Diego, but that shouldnt have matter I thought.  So within about 2 weeks of my original purchase I returned the ring and was refunded back my 10% down payment at the Los Angeles Zales Diamond Jewelry store location where I returned the ring and was told by the Zales store manager that I owe nothing to Zales and I can comeback anytime if I decide to buy something else (something I am not planning to do ever again and would not recommend to any of you reading this post).

The problem:
I received a statement from Zales about 2 months later stating that I owed them around $90.00 in interest for the time the ring was in my possession which was completely ridiculous since I returned the ring within 30 days of my purchase and should not owe Zales anything.  So I called Zales customer service and after speaking with a few imbeciles who had no idea how to address the issue I was able to find an actual person who understood exactly what happened and who told me on the phone that the problem is now fixed and I should not worry about anything from here on out.  Obviously if that was the case, this particular post would never have taken place. 

Its 2009 and the problem is getting worse:
I tried to get a loan recently and I was informed by credit bureau that Zales reported that I was over my limit on my loan and that I was past due 30 days on my payment. WHAT?!?!  Are they serious I yelled?!  How is that possible that I owed money on something that I did not own?  How is that possible that after being told by Zales Diamond Jewelry store manager that I owed nothing at the time of returning my wedding band and after being told by a customer service rep the same thing that I owed nothing to Zales I am to find out that Zales reported to credit bureau that I owed them money and was late on a loan?  This is preposterous! This is ridiculous! This is madness! Zales and Citi are out of their minds to report such inaccurate information to the credit bureaus.  Guess what, they blamed me for this mess.

Resolution or lack thereof:
I decided to use social media channels to address this issue.  I twittered about my unfortunate problem and got connected with Zaless Twitter rep.  This person directed me to the credit bureau that should have helped me with my problem I thought.  So I spoke with Citi and they told me that theyll review my problem and will let me know of their findings.  When I spoke with the rep, I specifically told him, that before any final decision is made Id like to make sure that I am contacted of the findings and allowed to provide additional information to help address and fix this issue should the finding be inaccurate or insufficient.  Well nothing of such sort happened to no surprise.  I received a letter recently stating that the report could not be corrected due to no errors on the banks part.  REALLY?!?! NO ERROR ON BANKS PART?!?! WHOSE ERROR WAS IT THEN?!?!  As I was told by the supervisor of the customer service supervisor (thats 3 levels up from regular customer service rep.) the error was mine.  They informed me that I should have made a payment on the bill I received even thought I no longer had the ring in my possession and then wait until it gets posted and then request a credit back because I returned the ring and if the credit wasnt issued then I would have needed to call back and ask for it again.  Is this a normal way of doing business?  Is this how returns are handled as a normal practice? Is it customers responsibility to make sure that Zales and Citi work out their issues with billing? Now that I talked with Citi again I am being told that I have to go back to the store where I returned my ring at and ask them for a record of when my ring was actually returned.  REALLY?!?!  I dont remember which store I went to, but Zales does not have that information either.  Nor do they want to research themselves when the ring was actually returned, but they definitely know that it wasnt a banks error.

In closing:
I will make sure that the people I work with, friends with or talk to are all aware of the horrific business practices of Zales and Citi who ruin peoples credit scores and credit bureau information should they decide to return their purchases back to Zales Diamond Jewelry store.  However to avoid similar problem that I ran into, I could simply advise them (and all of you) not to do business with Zales Diamond Jewelry or Zales.com so that they would not be disappointed by the conveyer manufacturing of their Diamond Jewelry that has more quite a lot of defects.  If that wedding band was actually manufactured from the beginning with no defects all this frustration could have actually been avoided.  DO NOT DO BUISNESS WITH ZALES.COM OR ZALES DIMAOND JEWERLY AS THEY WILL RUIN YOUR CREDIT SHOULD YOU DECIDE TO RETURN ANY OF THE ITEMS YOU BUY!!!