(Closed) Dark Center Stones – Advice!

• renmich88
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: July 2014

Hey Girls,

I’m a little disappointed in my engagement ring and I need your advice as to what to do. First of all, I LOVE my ring, I adore it! I saw it one day before we got engaged and sent a picture, and my fiance bought it without me knowing! It’s the ring of my dreams, but…

Within the first month of owning it, the same diamond fell out THREE times. I would bring it down and they’d replace it, i’d take it home and before the night was over it was gone again. On the third time (in a matter of a week), I walked into the store bawling my eyes out. Without saying anything they knew exactly what was wrong as I had only picked it up again that afternoon. With this they said, Don’t worry we’ll have the ring in the display case sized for you and you’ll have it in the morning. I was happy with this because everytime my diamond fell out my heart broke.

I got the new ring, and immediately I noticed it wasn’t as shiney as my first one had been. Still beautiful, but the center stones on each side looked dull and dark. I thought maybe I was just being paranoid, and at the same time I was just happy to have a ring with secure diamonds. However almost every day I remark on how the center diamonds are dark, and it really disappoints me. I wasn’t going to say anything to them, after all the trouble I had, but when I went for my 6 month inspection and cleaning, and saw the same ring in the display case insanely shiney and no dark spots, I couldn’t help but say something to the sales lady. She said we’d look at it when it came back upstairs. Sure enough, when it came upstairs, before we could say anything, the lady who does the cleaning and inspection came up and made a comment about how my center stones were quite dark. I immediately was relieved that it wasn’t just me saying it, and that she had noticed without me bringing it to her attention. Well, here’s where it gets upsetting. All 4 sales ladies in the store decided to completely deny there was any dark stones. I said let’s compare the two rings, and what a huge difference! They still decided to say there was no difference. One of the ladies said watch, i’ll mix them up behind my back and you’ll nver be able to guess which is which. When she did that, me and the inspection lady, immediately and at the same time, pointed to my ring as the ring with the dark spots. They started ganging up on me and the inspection lady, which started freaking me out. They said “different rings have different clarities, you get what yuu paid for.” I said that I totally understood that, but the point is the ring my finace origininaly paid for was NOT like this. We paid for the pretty sparkly one. They called up the owner who didn’t say much, told the girl to go clean it again because it looked like there was dirt in there. She steamed it a few times and cleaned it with the brush and nothing helped. I gave up and walked out of the store, upset with how they handled it and even more upset with my ring.

And this brings me to today. I still love my ring and hate to complain about it because I love that my finance gave it to me and asked me to marry him. And it hurts him when I mention it being different because he feels like he’s responsibile for some reason. I know that lighting and stuff has a lot to do with the darkness, and I really wouldn’t mind much had my other ring been like this and NOT insanely more sparkly. It seems like the center diamonds are down further that the rest of the diamonds, which could most likely be what’s causing the light to not hit it properly.

I will attach a picture of my before ring, and my now ring. To be equal, neither pictures used flash.

Maybe I really am being paranoid and there is no difference. But if there is, what would you ladies do… leave it as is, or go back and complain? I know i’ll end up getting upset if I go back there, and my finance said he would do it, but we live in a small town and it’s a local business and I don’t want to cause any awkwardness. But I don’t want to look at it every day and wonder why it’s dark either.

Please help! 🙁 Thanks in advance!

Before pic ^

Now pic ^

• renmich88
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: July 2014

@cmbr:  Here is as close up as I could get, but it came out a little blurry. I agree that I think it’s a setting problem, the center stones are down further which you may be able to pick out in the photo. When they looked in the magnifying glass they said it was a good diamond. 

@akitten:  You’re right, the first ring is much sparklier. That’s the ring I traded in for the second one.

@bkrocks13:  Yeah the pictures don’t do it justice. But no prongs in the center on either pic. They are both the exact same ring.

• renmich88
• 7 years ago

• Wedding: July 2014

You guys are so amazing and make me feel much better about how I felt in the first place!! I am definitely going to let him take the ring down like he offered. Thank you all so much.

And unforunately, we don’t have any appraisal papers for the first ring 🙁 This started happening 2 weeks after I got the ring, so there was too much excitement going on to get the appraisal. But they know that I am right and they are wrong, and the fact that the inspection lady said it without even knowing i’ll felt it is definitely on my side. I sensed that the sales ladies and the inspection lady do not get along and feel they they simply didn’t want to agree with her for some reason.

Anyways, I certainly won’t be buying my wedding band there if this doesn’t get fixed. I liked what you said akitten:  that them being a small local business should worry them more than me 🙂

And ps. the cloudiness in the very close up picture is the blurriness of my cell phone camera. Although it does not have a sparkle, its not as bad as it looks there. The pictures are hard to tell and actually don’t do justice, but if you can see what im talking about on the pictures you’d DEFINITELY see it in person.

Thanks again girls!

• renmich88
• 6 years ago

• Wedding: July 2014

In case anyone wanted a follow up, a 4th and then a 5th diamond fell out. I went back (with my fiance this time!) and they ordered me a THIRD new ring (no questions asked). I was so relieved because I wanted to get rid of those dark stones. They told me it would be there in 7-10 business days…

TWO MONTHS LATER I get a call saying my ring was in! I was soo happy (because at this point I was walking around with a ring with dark stones AND two diamonds missing). So we show up with a big smile on my face… walk in… WRONG RING! I waited two months for a ring that was similar but completely different than my ring!! I cried and cried and cried. It was a Friday so we said we would go home and think about what we were going to do. We decided that at this point the ring was so contaminated that we didn’t want it anymore. We decided to get our money back. I went that weekend and found a new ring ELSEWHERE that I am completely in love with! We went back on Monday to get our money back. To try to lighten the mood I laughed and said to the sales associate, “What did [the owner] say when he saw it was the wrong ring?” To which I get the response, “Nothing, we all liked the new ring better than yours.” GASP. I was floored!!!!!!! Needless to say, I will never ever buy from there again!!!

But the story ended well, because I am way more in love with my new ring than my old one. I have to post of pic of the final days of my old ring for shames sake… and a new photo of my new beautiful ring!!!

…to which I hate to admit that a diamond has fallen out of after 3 weeks. I’m CURSED. But i’m staying calm as it is the tiniest diamond in the ring and it is down at the very bottom of the side that my other fingers cover up. I know it happens and I will get it fixed soon and I’m sure the new store will deal with it much better. But that’s not what this post is about!!
Enjoy my new ring! 🙂