The service I received from Gerald Nelson was extremely off putting. I had already done my research and my husband and I were ready to purchase a new engagement ring for our 10 year anniversary that day. However, we were not able to acquire an appt for the day we were both available so we walked into the Miami location without an appt.
The initial greeting was more of an interrogation and the whole experience felt extremely condescending. I was blasted with a series of terse questions in a tone that made us feel like he was annoyed with us from the start. I explained that I was looking for a whole new engagement ring setting upgrade. When he asked me: "Do you know what you want?" I told him I was interested in the Aimee setting and he attempts to correct me and says, "You mean Amelie?" in a tone implying what I wanted didn't exist or I had the name wrong. I reiterated that the setting I wanted WAS Aimee. Why would you correct a customer in that manner especially if you haven't confirmed that setting that the customer mentioned existed? The tone was so condescending that even my husband thought I got the name wrong. We were finally shown a few examples and ended up placing an order for a stone and setting with the standard 50% deposit.
When the ring was ready, I made a 45 minute appt bc I was looking to purchase a wedding band to go with my new engagement ring. My husband and I were standing next to each other when an anther associate called for Gerald to attend to us. Gerald came out and walked directly towards us and greeted my husband with a hand shake and continued to address him only. It was obvious that he didn't remember us, which is fine, but not once did he acknowledge me, let alone shake my hand. My husband told him we were there to pick up an order since that was on the top of his mind. Gerald corrects him stating that "this was an appt for a wedding band." That's when I interjected and said I was looking to purchase a wedding band too.
He brought out my engagement ring and it was not even cleaned. I asked if he could clean it before I try it on and when he went to go clean it, he said out loud to his coworker, "I'm going to the back. Watch this. They haven't paid yet." By that point the only thing of value on the counter was a free gift valued at $1000 that came with the ring purchase. We had already paid $4000+ deposit for the engagement ring he was taking to the back to clean. Did he think we were going to run off with the free gift and forfeit the deposit AND the ring? We understand the general security concern but there are more polite ways of signaling your coworker to watch the items that don't make your customers look like they're going to snatch-and-run.
In contrast to our previous visits, we picked up my wedding band today and the service provided by Gabriel was kind, friendly, and personable. He and his colleague greeted us with a smile and with none of the condescending tone we experienced previously. During our short appointment Gabriel even noticed my husband's camera and they struck up a conversation about photography. When I asked if he could clean the ring I picked up previously, he never told his colleague to watch anything "because we hadn't paid." He just mentioned to her that he was going to the back. While we were waiting, we even noticed the other associate greet a group of customers that walked in without an appointment in a much more warm and welcoming tone than we experienced with Gerald. Instead of the terse questioning, she welcomed them and asked: "May I ask if you had an appointment?" When they said no, she simply asked if the group was all together and proceeded to help them, offer them water, etc.
If I ever have to deal with Gerald again, I would never want to purchase anything from Brilliant Earth as customer service is the most important part of any purchase. Otherwise, I would highly recommend Brilliant Earth for ethical diamond purchase and would have given them 5 stars. read more