My fiancé and I had an absolutely terrible experience with Brilliant Earth. We chose BE because they sell conflict-free natural diamonds, have a beautiful store, and an easy-to-use website. Initially, the in-store customer service seemed great, but everything went downhill once payment went through-- and when they tried to set the diamond.
I wanted an oval diamond set in one of their most popular settings, the Freesia 2mm Solitaire. When we picked it up, we immediately noticed the band was made incorrectly. It's supposed to elegantly taper toward the diamond (see photos), which it absolutely did not. Our sales associate at the Walnut Creek store, Danica, strongly advised us not to return the ring, claiming we could lose the diamond if it went back into circulation and someone else bought it before us. This was pure fearmongering. In hindsight, it doesn't even make sense--we could have returned and re-purchased the diamond immediately in store. Unfortunately, we trusted her advice and opted for a repair instead, as she assured us the ring would be remade correctly.
That turned out to be a huge mistake. Brilliant Earth has a strict 30-day return policy (remember this), and they conveniently delayed the repair so it was completed after the return window closed. That would have been tolerable if the ring had been fixed--but it wasn't. The repaired ring looked almost exactly the same. How that's possible, I truly don't know. This is supposedly their most popular setting, yet it looked nothing like the photos on their website.
By then, we were outside the return window, so our only option was a third repair. Somehow, it came back wrong again. The third version finally had the correct band, but now the diamond was set extremely high. I specifically chose the Freesia because it was marketed as "low profile" since I'm very active, but this ring would snag on everything. At this point, over three months had passed since ordering.
We later learned Brilliant Earth uses outside jewelers for setting, which explains the total lack of quality control. They suggested resetting it a fourth time, but by then we understandably wanted a full refund. We spoke with the store manager, Rachel, who was extremely incompetent, then escalated to a regional manager, Jillian, who was the first genuinely kind person we dealt with. Despite her sympathy, she repeatedly stated we were "outside the 30-day return window," even though BE had possession of the ring the entire time. I spoke to someone above her - she robotically said the same thing. I ended the call by saying I was not satisfied and would fight it. Miraculously, the next day they called and approved a full refund--likely because the fourth attempt was also set incorrectly.
This experience completely ruined what should have been a joyful engagement process. My partner had to change proposal plans due to the three-month delay, and we were constantly stressed about the ring being wrong.
My advice: go with literally any other jeweler. We switched to a professional independent jeweler in San Francisco's diamond district and had a 1000x better experience--better diamond, perfect setting, and it was cheaper in the end. Avoid Brilliant Earth at all costs. read more