My husband & I were in Cozumel on a Carnival Cruise Jan. 29, 2009 and were looking for a ring for him. In over 23 years of marriage it is the first time he requested any jewelry. He wanted an unusual ring that wouldn't be seen on everyone. The salesman picked out a diamond men's ring which had a 0.28 ct diamond set to one side. My husband said it was ok but too much and not unusual enough. The salesman then picked out a tanzanite oval stone 0.87 ct. which was quite nice. He said that they could set the stone next to the diamond and quoted a price which was quite high for the ring. We hesitated and then the manager was called over and asked if the custom ring could be created and to possibly discount the price further. The manager then went to the work center at the store and came back with a price for setting the tanzanite plus dropped the price of the ring. We still hesitated and said that we weren't carrying that much cash and weren't even sure our credit card would accept the charge since we had forgotten to inform them we were traveling. The immediately ran the charge card for the cost of the ring and proceeded to tell us that it would be ready in a couple of hours. We were also informed that if we were unsatisfied at any time we could upgrade the ring since it was all registered with the company or get a total refund ... no mention was made of time limit. He then had me sign the receipt ... I should have thoroughly read what I was signing but am used to dealing with reputable jewelers here in the states. Even if I had read it and refused to sign it would have done me no good because it is clearly stated that refunds aren't issued due to buyer's remorse and they had already charged my card so I had effectively paid for the ring. We picked up the ring several hours later and really liked it even though I was still not happy with the $1280 I had paid. My husband loved the ring and wore it proudly until last week when after being out all day in New Smyrna he noticed that the tanzanite stone was missing by running his fingers over the ring and catching a burr. Upon looking at the ring we noticed that the opening they had cut for the stone was rough with many burrs and the ledge they had allowed for the stone to sit in was much too narrow to allow for the glue to hold the stone securely for any length of time ... the stone fell out 3 months to the day from purchase. I immediately went inside, pulled up the paperwork & warranty (that is a real laugh), called Diamonds International and established a claim ... I was told somebody would contact me with 24-48 hours which they did. Hugo M called (supposedly from Cozumel, listened to my story and told me to fax or email copies of the receipt, their appraisal, etc. and somebody would get in touch with me in a couple of days as they would be on labor day holiday starting the next day (I'm sure they were still open for business to rip off other cruise passangers.). After not hearing from him for several days I emailed him requesting to at least have him acknowledge receipt of the required email. I still didn't hear from him and emailed Diamonds International in NYC stating my disatisfaction of their handling of my claim to date. I received a call yesterday afternoon telling me that they denied my claim totally because it was more than 60 days from purchase ... 30 days which is their normal warranty and an additional 30 days because I was a Carnival customer. He then told me that the stones in the ring weren't covered at all because they were larger than 0.15ct and even though their workmanship was shoddy (I had send a picture of the ring minus the lost stone showing the narrow ledge they had expected to hold the stone) there was nothing they were willing to do. I told him that I wanted that put in writing and emailed to me. I received an email later that evening from Hugo with the offer of them fixing my ring at my expense and had 14 days to accept their offer. I emailed Hugo back with a copy going to Diamonds International in NYC stating that their offer was ludicrous ... who in their right mind would PAY to have a ring repaired (and of course would have to purchase a new stone sight unseen) by a jeweler that wouldn't even warranty the original ring. I also stated that we would be at every shopping talk on all future Carnival cruises with the ring and explain what happened and what a rip-off Diamonds International is plus we would visit every Diamonds (or Tanzanite) International store in the ports we visit and go over the problem with every manager. I received a telephone call this morning from "Jason" from their NYC store and said that he would make sure somebody will take care of me right away and it wasn't done with bad intentions ... he knows I am unhappy and will do whatever he can to help me. I'm not holding my breath because I just received another email from Hugo M in Cozumel stating: "Hello .Thank you for write me back, and I am sorry about all this situation . I already let my supervisor know about all this and He will speak with the sales person as well with the manager to avoid this happened again. If you need anything else don’t hesitate to contact me. Hugo ." I'm not going to take this lying down and will continue to fight for a solution to this problem ... either fix the ring at no cost to me or give me my money back ... store credit is not acceptable but a full store credit would be better than nothing if I could use it on the Diamonds International website.
Bonnie Gitto ... Orange City, FL