My fiance got my engagement ring from here and although I LOVE the ring, I wish he hadn't. Dealing with the people that work here has made my engagement less of an enjoyable one.
Firstly, unbeknownst to me, the people working at Samuels asked for my (now) husband's credit information in order to get bigger diamonds into the store. They said that they didn't carry the size diamond that he was looking for because not very many people in the area purchase them. So, in order for them to bring in the bigger diamonds from another store, they had to collect his credit information to ensure he wasn't wasting their time. Well, they ended up creating a credit account, in his name, without his permission, and charging those diamonds to it. My husband started to get credit card statements in the mail for thousands of dollars worth of diamonds that he hadn't even purchased! They even misspelled his name on the credit card!
Secondly, we discovered a disparity on the surface of the ring, which was only found because it had collected dirt. It's just a small surface scratch but dirt and dust does settle into it and if you look closely, you can see it. Samuels hadn't even given us the specs on the diamond but when we showed up asking questions about the scratch, the specs magically appeared, saying the scratch had been there the whole time. Convenient. Not only that, but the sales staff was EXTREMELY rude about it.
Thirdly, and most importantly, we had the ring appraised by a third-party gemologist in order to get insurance on the ring. The appraisal came back RIDICULOUSLY LOW. We took it to Samuels to show them that the ring wasn't appraised to what they sold it for and they said that they didn't trust the third-party appraiser. They wanted to send the ring to one of their appraisers and the manager promised my husband that if it still didn't appraise at the sale value they would replace the diamond to the value at which he had paid. She also said that it generally took two weeks for the rings to come back (they had to send it out-of-town), but she could get it down to one week. Well, one week came and went, then two, then three! The manager that made all these promises had gone on vacation FOR THREE WEEKS! She hadn't told anyone about the ring and when we called, no one knew where it was! After calling multiple times, and showing up in person, he was able to get the ring back. Conveniently, the ring appraised at the sale value this time. What a coincidence. We still don't have the original paperwork for the appraisal, just a photocopy. I am not looking forward to dealing with their TERRIBLE, AWFUL sales staff to try and get the original. read more