Complaint Review: Ultra Diamonds - Internet

To Whom this may concern:

First I would like to state that I am a DCA certified jeweler and have been in the business for 5+ years. I briefly worked for Ultra Diamonds for a 2 month period and during that time I purchased an 18k yellow gold 1.5 ctw certified diamond mystere ring. Original price was $9599.00 and I paid $2400.00. When the decision was made to purchase the ring, I attempted for 3 weeks to get the store manager at the time to actually come to work to ring the sale as only managers were allowed to key-in an employee sale. This manager took it upon herself to delay keying the sale until she was finally ready to show up at the store, and the price had increased by $300 during these 3 weeks. I should have passed on it due to that alone but I really liked it so I proceeded with the sale anyway. That should have been my warning. My mistake.

I've had several small diamonds fall out but with the diamond guarantee they're to be replaced at no charge. When the first one fell out they replaced it with a diamond so cloudy and white it looked like frozen spit. It stood out terribly against my other stones which are clean and certified. I had them re-do it and when it came back from being repaired I saw the gold holding the diamond was scooped up and over the stone covering half of the diamond leaving sharp edges and a gouged area instead of re-tipping the prong securing the diamond. The ring was starting to look as if it had years of wear after only 3 months and the first repair because they buffed off a lot of the detailing on the ring. Which I've since repeatedly asked them to not do.

Please understand that I have no ulterior business motives to try steering business from their stores to mine. My store is actually in another city. I simply want my ring repaired properly, which is fair considering I paid a lot of money for it. My issue is strictly personal and only revolves around the horrible work their goldsmiths have done on my ring and the fact that no one up to and including the owner cares at all about their actions and my loss. I have a quote from a neutral independent goldsmith to restore my less than 2 year old ring to as close to original condition as he can get it. His cost to me- $600. He also stated the pricing he quoted was doing me a favor. He has stated it will be a very time consuming job and recommended I forget about fixing it and remove all the diamonds, use my gold mounting as scrap/trade and start fresh with him making a completely new ring. He stated they've destroyed it...and it will never be right but he will do the best he can.

This ring has been destroyed by their jeweler after needing to have it repaired and re-done 9 times. On their own website this ring is clearly described as having pristine milligrain detail. Yet, each and every time this ring was in need of repair for diamonds falling out, it came back with more and more of the detailing miligrain removed- buffed off even though all repair work orders clearly stated to not disturb the detailing-

Six weeks ago, another small channel diamond had fallen out, and once again I trusted them to take care of it. I actually asked them this time to restore the detailing that has been removed over the past 7 visits. The ring came back a few weeks later with a large dent on the side of the disc that holds all the center stones. I told them I wanted them to RE-DO the job and I'd give them one last opportunity to make it right for me. The bezel should have been rhodium plated (it was not) and the milligrain detailing was completely removed and now resembles a bad diamond cut edging. I picked it up a few days ago after being gone for over a month and surprise!! Upon closer inspection, I could see one of the center diamonds was completely tilted and out of its prong, and the side diamond that was replaced was not secured. Both are ready to fall out. The worst part? The ring has been buffed and ground down to nothing around the edges and the rails where the channels are...and it is as bad as it's ever been. They did nothing to try fixing it and have only made it much much worse. How can they send back work to be re-done and it comes back in even worse shape is beyond my comprehension.

Perhaps if the prongs had been re-tipped each time a diamond fell out instead of trying to use the surrounding gold as a bead set these diamonds wouldn't continue falling out. I can only shake my head in disbelief at the thought of having a ring I waited 8 years to get from my boyfriend become a decoration on top of my dresser. If I took care of my customers like this we'd be out of business. You probably wonder why I kept taking it back to them? Well if I had to pay for the replacement diamonds and the work out of pocket the cost would have been over $200 each time. This is what the guarantee is suppose to cover. It's sad that I had to print an 8x10 color glossy photo of the ring and send it along with the RE-DO job the last time so their goldsmith could see what its actually suppose to look like....and still it comes back looking horrible.

My questions include: How many times does a person have to re-send a ring to a goldsmith to have it fixed properly? How can they be so utterly careless with a ring that they have a price tag on of almost $10,000? If this is how they take care of their fine jewelry just imagine how well they'll take care of pieces valued at much less than that. Why is it that every repair has to be a RE-DO? Why not get it right the first time? What kind of flunky goldsmiths are they using? They have had 4 different goldsmiths work on it over the past 21 months and not one of them came close to doing a good job. I am not being overly picky either. Why should my ring have to be forever pitted, gouged and dented (unless I pay someone else to fix it) because they have unqualified people working on it? Why will they not stand behind their repair work and either make it right or replace the ring they destroyed? Why would the company say you've had the ring a while now and I understand its dented, so we wont exchange it ...when the reason it's ruined is their fault?? They said they could have another jeweler work on it. What a joke! I suppose if I wasn't being paid my commissions since last April my attitude might be sour too. The employees just don't care at all. I under no circumstances would allow them to touch any of my jewelry ever again. I simply was hoping for an exchange to replace the ring they damaged beyond reasonable repair and would have my own goldsmith size and solder. They won't even do that- oh and did I mention they're great at trying to make me look like I was wrong, that this was somehow all my fault.

I would NOT recommend ever buying anything from Ultra Diamonds. I would not EVER recommend having ANY type of repair work done by them. I would not EVER believe anything you hear from the staff at any of the stores. The customer service is terrible. I have been hearing more and more complaints from other jewelers in that city regarding the quality of merchandise sold and quality of repair work. They're giving the industry a bad name in general. Unfortunately, I know first hand.

Jean