I went to Holtzmann's on two separate occasions while I was shopping for an engagement ring. The first time I came in I spoke to the one brother and his wife and they gave me some information about rings. It was an informal, casual conversation, I knew nothing at the time and was relatively helpful.
The second time I visited the store is when I was completely turned off by the place. This time, I spoke to the other brother. I told him my range was from $5000 to $7000, which I get is a wide range. He kind of snickered at me and said "oh, well that's a really big range". Then he said "well, obviously I'm going to try to sell you on the high end and a $7000 ring". That comment alone made me realize I wanted to go elsewhere. An answer I would liked to have heard would have been "i know you have a rather large range of 5-7K, so what I can do is show you rings within that range, and you can kind of see the difference in ring quality/size within the range".
In addition, I really didn't know a whole lot about the 4 C's, cut, clarity, etc... never once did they say "hey, would you like to set up an appointment so we can educate you on the different qualities of center stones/rings". The place I ultimately went with actually sat down with me for 45 minutes and really helped me understand the different qualities of rings, etc.
They also kept pushing really hard, platinum over white gold, which platinum is more expensive. Maybe they are right that platinum is better than white gold (which is debatable according to many other places and appraisers I went to after), but it just always seemed like they kept pushing the top of your budget and the most expensive thing.
I'm giving them two stars because it wasn't one star bad, the wife and husband appeared to be nice people, and the store was clean and professional looking... I just didn't like their sales approach (particularly the brother). If you're someone like me that knows nothing at all about rings going into it, I would highly recommend not going to this place. Do yourself a big favor and go somewhere in which they will take time to educate you on what you're buying, instead of immediately trying to sell you on your highest price point. If you know everything there is to know coming in, and know exactly what you're looking for, maybe it's an okay place to go.
For me, it's about having a comfort level with the people selling the ring - in which they are willing to educate me and not give me the feeling that they are trying to sell me the most expensive item - and I just didn't get that from them. read more