Saturday, March 5, 2011

Swedish Jewellers=Jerks

I have to write about this because my blood boils when I think about it. When Jamie was hunting for my engagement ring, he found a specific designer that he thought I would like. Only a few jewelry stores carried this designer, one of them being Swedish Jewellers. He ended up buying the ring and matching band there but not the diamond. Although he knew my left ring finger fit smaller than my right, he didn't realize just how much smaller. Despite buying the ring in a 1/4 size smaller, it was still slipping off. I ended up bringing it into Independent Jewellers to get it resized down to a 5. It cost $35 and took a few days. Now after wearing it for a couple months, I realized that it is still too big. I called up Swedish Jewellers and asked if they do free resizing since Jamie bought the ring and band there. The person I spoke with said, "Sure, bring them in and we'll work something out." Since it was Christmas time and they said it'd take a week or so to resize, I opted to wait until after the holidays. 


So come January and I bring the rings in to Swedish Jewellers. I dealt with Kim and David. I told them I had called asking about free resizing since both rings were purchased there. David took a look and had me try them on. Sure enough, he agreed they were both too big. He asked why the rings were ordered so big and I explained how my left fingers were smaller than my right. He still didn't understand why they didn't fit because "we order to size". After a few attempts he goes, "Oh, so we've never had you in the store to measure you!" Hmmm, does every man bring his future wife in to get her ring size measured? Has David ever heard of surprise engagements? Anyways, I drop off both rings. 


After 2 1/2 weeks of not hearing from them, I called. The sales associate on the phone wasn't friendly. I said I had dropped off rings for resizing and was wondering if they were ready. "There's nothing in the ready box." So I asked if she could give me an idea of when they would be ready. She tells me she will look and call me back. Does she call me back? Of course not. I call back the next day and they say the rings should be ready by the end of the day or the next day. I get a call at the end of the day telling me the rings can be picked up tomorrow. So I go in the next morning to pick them up. 


It's Thursday and Kim is working. He hands me my ring. I tell him there were two rings so he digs in the envelope a bit more and finds it. After putting them both on, I'm satisfied enough and am ready to leave since I parked in the loading zone. Kim then says, "That'll be $200". What. The. F&*#. I calmly tell him I was under the impression they were going to get resized for free. He asks who I was dealing with and I tell him "You were here the night I dropped them off." So he goes to the back to find David because he does the pricing. David comes out and asks what the problem with the price is. I tell him the same thing I told Kim. David tells me that he spoke with the "Al" and because they ordered the ring in the size Jamie wanted, it wasn't the store's fault the rings don't fit so resizing wouldn't be free. I tell him I don't understand why the cost is $200 and he raises his voice at me saying, "Do you have any idea how much work it is to resize rings like those?" I tell him I've had them resized before for $35. So then David brings up that the rings were re-plated with rhodium and that future re-plating is complimentary with ring purchases. So I ask again, how much would it cost to resize without the plating. $50. So now I'm upset and confused. Why $200? Because of the plating. But I thought re-plating was complimentary? It's because I got the ring resized. So I tell him I'm upset because it was supposed to be done free of charge, to which he yells back at me, "You can't go through life expecting everything for free." He storms off into the back leaving myself, Kim and the 2 other employees in shock. David comes back out and says that even though he doesn't have authority to change prices, that he'll take off $50. What else can I say at this point? I pay the stupid $150 and leave the store crying. 


I cry for an hour straight. Why so long? Because I was livid. I was so mad I felt like turning my car around and driving it through their store front. So I tell Jamie what happened and Jamie's mad. He plans on going into the store the next day to talk to Al, the store owner. Is he in the store that day though? No. So we spend the whole weekend calling to see when Al will be in and we get nowhere. Finally Monday comes and Jamie goes in to the store to talk to Al. Jamie has given them a lot of business and he dealt with Al for the ring purchase. Jamie is calm and collected. He tries to get Al to see where we are coming from. Al's argument: He agrees that the store should have called us to confirm that we still wanted the work done with the estimated cost, "...but most of the clients we deal with just want the work done." So he recognizes they are wrong but "...I can't refund your money because she still agreed to pay it." How does this make any sense? So after 45 minutes of trying to get Al to see all the things the store did wrong, he agrees to only give us a store credit. Is that what I want? No! They still have the $150 that I wasn't wanting to spend there in the first place. Had I known it was going to cost, I would have brought it anywhere else and it would have been done better, faster and cheaper. I feel taken advantage of, belittled, bullied, scammed. 


So that night, Jamie comes home to tell me that's all he was able to do. He also asked me if I had checked to see if my diamond was secure because making a ring smaller will cause the claws on the diamond to pull away. Makes perfect sense. So we check and we find a loose diamond. Are you freaking kidding me?!? It takes them 2 1/2 weeks and they do a crappy job??? Unbelievable! So Jamie takes it in the next day for them to fix their crappy work and they assure us it will be done free of charge. "We'll put a rush order on it." 8 days later, it's finally ready. 8 days to tighten the claws!!! 


Now what happens yesterday while I'm at work? I am in the washroom and I look down at my ring and what do I see?
A MISSING DIAMOND!!! How ridiculous is this? I never ever EVER want to deal with Swedish Jewellers again. I will not recommend them to anybody and I will do everything I humanly can to share my awful experience with them. They are shady, have terrible customer service and take a long time to do crappy work. So now we're stuck replacing a lost diamond when I've only had this ring for 5 months. I. Hate. Swedish. Jewellers. 

3 comments:

Julie said...

Jerks!!!

Anonymous said...

Go to their FB page and post your comment there. Sorry u went through that.. But they are known for being shady. I feel for u

Anonymous said...

FYI, they are currently having a sale. The downtown location is closing.