[RING VENT] How rude! UPDATE in comments

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

As Stephanie from Full House says:

I know I posted in the Friday thread that BF and I had set up an appointment with a custom jeweler to look at diamonds today. We went there last weekend and I was sized, tried on some settings, and the woman took down all of our information. They treated us wonderfully and I was looking forward to working with them again today.

Well, we arrive to our appointment, and we are greeted by this (name, address, website blocked out for privacy):

Boyfriend checks his phone for missed calls and his email for anything from the store saying that they would be closed, and he has nothing. We call the phone number listed on the door, and get a voicemail. BF left a voicemail and still hasn't heard back, and now it's been over an hour. This is very unprofessional, especially for a jewelry store with a 5 star rating on Yelp.

I'm so upset right now. You would think that it would be common sense not to blow off customers ready to drop thousands of dollars on a piece of your work. I did leave a review on Yelp, and included this picture (with the name visible), so hopefully the store remedies the situation (the owner has responded to other bad reviews on there). Otherwise we are taking our business elsewhere, but I don't know where to go, as this was supposedly the best custom jeweler in the area.

WildMagelet · October 2014

That sucks that they'd leave you high and dry with no warning or explanation. Hopefully they can resolve it for you ASAP.

cu97tiger · October 2014

I mean, that sucks, but I probably would have waited until I got an explanation before leaving a bad review on yelp. Maybe the person that made the appointment just got their dates mixed up. It's really not the end of the world.

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

@cu97tiger I will update my review if the owners attempt to reach out to us and remedy the situation somehow, but I absolutely believe that it was unprofessional even if they did mix up the dates. There would have been no issues if they called us or emailed us to let us know; it's the fact that they didn't that upset us.

cu97tiger · October 2014

Right, but you didn't even give the owner's time to rectify it. I know you're annoyed, and it shouldn't have happened. I'm just saying i would have heard them out before going and posting a negative review. You really have absolutely no idea what might have happened.

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

I know that circumstances come up, but if that happens you should inform anyone who will be working with you/customers. I take the time to do that in unexpected circumstances; it's not that hard to send a quick "Something came up, I need to cancel, can we reschedule for so and so date/at a later time?"

My father had surgery last week unexpectedly and right after finding out, I was able to send a few quick emails to anyone that I worked with informing them that I was leaving due to a family emergency. Even if the circumstances are bad; they have multiple people who work there who could have quickly written up a few emails if the owners asked them to. I think that's why I am so annoyed by this; I had a family emergency last week and it didn't prevent me from reaching out to anyone that I work with, and if the shoe was on the other foot I would have figured out a way to reach out to my customers who had appointments.

FWIW, I did mention the great experience we had with them last weekend in my review.

WildMagelet · October 2014

I think what cu97tiger meant was that if the person who scheduled your appointment wrote your appointment date down wrong then they would have no reason to attempt to contact you about being closed because in their eyes they weren't breaking that commitment.

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

@WildMagelet, that's a good point. @cu79tiger, sorry about misunderstanding if that's what you meant.

However, I brought this up to BF again last night, because I remember him saying that he wanted to send them a few settings that I had liked online when we were in the store last weekend. I asked him if he had done that and maybe had a different email address he was in touch with (salesperson_name@gmail.com versus storename@gmail.com) and if he had checked if he had received anything about this from them.

He told me that he had asked the store to send him an email confirming the appointment first, and then he would respond by sending pictures of settings (he told the woman all of this; I was looking at settings in the store away from them at the time and only heard part of it). He was given a verbal agreement that they would do this, and they never did. So even if they had written down the date incorrectly, they still should have kept their agreement with BF and sent a confirmation email. That way, we would have known that things were written down wrong and would have gotten it sorted out with no problems.

We are both pretty easy going people if a mistake is made, as long as you own up to it and we get it figured out. It's the fact that there is a complete lack of communication that is upsetting.

LabLove86 · October 2014

I totally understand why you're upset - especially since I was just shopping for rings myself last month - I really wanted to be able to go look and compare and see moissanite vs diamond ect. *****However I would say - my initial response to the notice on that door was "Oh shit I hope nothing horrible happened" as in a death or family emergency that would have warranted a quick closing without contact to appointments. Now of course hopefully this ISN'T the case. But - I think this is another point that @cu97tiger was trying to make. ******I also think its possible from the last post that possibly they got the email address wrong - they have a high rating for a reason so for them to drop the ball completely on you guys as customers sounds fairly unlikely. I feel like there may be more going on here. ******I'm just gonna echo PP and say reserve judgment until you hear from them (which I know you said you would do) - and if its a shitty reason - then fine, stick with your review. But if its an understandable excuse - update it for sure. ****Ate my paragraphs . . . . .

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

@LabLove86 I did think that initially too. But then upon realizing that no attempt had been made to contact us, I became upset, especially after dealing with a family emergency myself recently and taking a few minutes out of my day to send an email to everyone that I work with that I needed to leave and who to contact in my absence. Things tend to upset me more if I would have done something courteous for them, but that same courtesy isn't extended to me. And while it is a small store, there are more employees than just the two owners who work there.

The other thing is that they wrote down all of our information in front of us, and had us check over the form to confirm everything was correct. While typos do happen, it seems odd that they never reached out as BF's phone number was also on the form.

LabLove86 · October 2014

yeah I totally get where you're coming from. And that is weird that they haven't contacted you if you double checked the contact info. Hopefully they get back to you shortly - keep us updated!

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

I will! BF left a voicemail yesterday and we still have not received a phone call or email. We will see.

In the meantime I found another highly rated jeweler nearby (though not quite as close, which is why I didn't see it in my original search), and BF called and made an appointment for next Saturday at this new jeweler. The woman on the phone sounded excited for us and I have a good feeling about it (that I realize I didn't get with this other jeweler), so I'm hoping things work out with this one instead.

AlPacina · October 2014

That is such a bummer! I was so excited to hear if you found something!

Once a professional doesn't make me aware that they will be late or not coming, I don't go back. I've changed hair stylists multiple times because of this.

I really hope the next place has something extra perfect for you!

speakeasy14 · October 2014

My bf's family owns a jewelry store, so if this is a private store, I can guarantee it is family owned and all employees are family. His family closes the shop all the time, but will contact any appointments to reschedule, as well as leave a sign on the door. For these people to not contact or respond to phone calls, is really suspicious.

Now if there was no sign and no call, then I'd say something bad happened. But since they had time to put a sign up, they had time to cancel any appointments.

I still would have waited to post a review, only because a business can sue for defamation if a review ruins their business. I've read too many cases about people writing bad reviews and being sued by that business, so am very cautious when it comes to writing a bad review. If your review just states that you had an appointment, showed up to a locked door and notice that business was closed with no contact or response to calls -- then you should be fine. But if you bashed their professionalism or anything like that, I would edit just to save yourself.

*edit -- I'm glad you were able to find a backup store.

eilis1228 · October 2014

I'm really sorry to hear this! I would definitely wait to see what happened-- even though it was handled very unprofessionally, the reason for the sudden closing may be legitimate.

Additionally, sometimes popular, highly-rated jewelers can get overwhelmed with new customers. For example, FI and I used the highest-rated jeweler on Yelp for my ring. The owners were very friendly, knowledgeable, and excited for us, but it took them about a month longer to make my ring than planned. I constantly had to call and email for updates because they'd get so busy that they'd forget to contact me (yes, I actually heard them say that they forgot to look into my setting). I was not super pleased with the customer service initially, but the quality of the ring and the knowledge/friendliness of the jeweler was second to none. He gave us price breaks where he could, was up front about potential issues with sizing, jewels, etc., and he even encouraged us to wait and buy the bands later on to give the price of gold a chance to drop. So, even though you're having a bad experience with this particular jeweler, it may be worth sticking out the initial crappy customer service for the final result. Like @speakeasy14 said, a lot of these places are family owned, so they get overwhelmed and aren't always as on top of customer service as a larger company would be.

Definitely pursue the other jeweler, but I would wait to pass final judgment until you have an explanation. Now, if they don't call you within a day or two of re-opening, then I'd definitely write them off. But you should at least give them a chance to explain, you know?

bethsmiles · October 2014

Boo. That is really annoying. Of course there are a million different excuses they could have for not notifying you but that doesn't make it any less annoying. I hope you have a better experience with the next jeweler!

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

Thanks everyone!

@speakeasy14, I'm glad that you agree that this was unprofessional, despite the circumstances. I did mention in my review that we had a wonderful initial experience, and that we showed up to a locked door and made sure to double check that we had no correspondence from the jeweler. And I included the same photo in my review (with the name of the store visible). But I did not bash them apart from saying this was a disappointing circumstance.

speakeasy14 · October 2014

You should be fine then! Hopefully you hear back soon and it was all some misunderstanding!

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

UPDATE:

So, BF and I went to the new jeweler today.

On our way there, BF mentioned that he received a phone call from the other jeweler on Thursday who left the sign on their door (he had a crazy past couple of days and had forgotten about it). They did apologize for the mishap, and told him that they thought that they had contacted all of the customers who had made appointments, but must have lost our information. So that didn't make either one of us feel comfortable to spend a lot of money if they are that unorganized. We decided to keep them in the back of our minds in case we found no one else who we liked, but see how today went with the new one.

Well, they were WONDERFUL. They made us feel super comfortable (the woman even hugged me because I was nervous and offered to open a bottle of champagne to calm my nerves!), gave us delicious coffee that the guy roasts himself, answered all of our questions extremely professionally, and found us a perfect setting and a perfect center stone within our budget. BF paid for half of it today! YAY!

They also understood that BF wanted to keep the proposal itself a surprise, so I am now completely out of the loop until I am actually engaged. They took down BF's info and are going to keep in touch with him about it. Overall today went really well!

bethsmiles · October 2014

How exciting! I'm glad you found someone you feel comfortable working with!

lavenderfields13 · October 2014

Very exciting!

LabLove86 · October 2014

Oh good I'm so glad that everything ended up working out for you!!! I can't wait to see the final product! And ON your finger!!!

AuroraRose41 · October 2014

Thanks everyone! @LabLove86 I know! Me too! The jeweler today even joked (but was semi serious) that the next time he sees me I will have it on. Now I just really need to take my mind off of it, but it's very hard. Especially because it is SO. FREAKING. GORGEOUS. And I can't wait to say that I get to marry my best friend!

I think it will be done in a week or two based on hints that the jeweler dropped without wanting to actually tell me (he said he would call BF early next week), and I think BF wants to propose before or when we go home (~3000 miles away) for Thanksgiving so we can celebrate with our families, but I am trying not to think about it so that if it doesn't happen at that time, I am not disappointed.

I apologize in advance if I start really going BSC. I am going to try to focus on working out more and studying for the LSAT so that I can take my mind off of this.

BreMR · October 2014

ohmygosh@aurorarose41 it's all happening!! I can't wait to see the ring porn

WildMagelet · October 2014

I'm glad it worked out for you

Can't wait to see it!

Try not to focus too hard on the timeline or you really will drive yourself crazy!

[Deleted User] · October 2014

Yaaaaaaay...the promise of ring porn!!

Working out will definitely help with the BSC-ness. Although I think perhaps a little BSC could be forgiven under these circumstances. :-)

AlPacina · October 2014

Yay! How freaking fabulous! I can't wait to see the final product.

eilis1228 · October 2014

I'M SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!!!

[RING VENT] How rude! UPDATE in comments

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