Diamonds are forever...ish? A number of women have recently taken to Facebook and news outlets to complain about Kay Jewelers' repair practices. Rings taken back to the jeweler to be fixed or resized have come back with further damage — or have not even come back at all.
Nicole Largent took her engagement ring in to have a loose diamond fixed by Kay, since it was under her extended service plan. She called before picking it up three weeks later: "When we called, we were informed that my beautiful, custom made ring, with a 1.46-carat Leo diamond that was handpicked by Josh, had 'disappeared' from the Jared in Annapolis, MD, where it was sent to be fixed. Three days later, the police had not yet been called, and we had to call the police OURSELVES," she wrote on Facebook, where she recounted her exchanges with various people from the company.
After her post went viral and was picked up by a local CBS affiliate, Kay reps eventually offered a replacement of the ring, which her husband Josh had custom-designed for her. The diamonds they offered as replacements, however, were not the premium Leo diamond of the original. Largent still appears to be in conversation with the company.
While there's no evidence that someone within Kay or Jared stole the ring, Largent's story brought attention to many, many more complaints on Kay's Facebook page.
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Buzzfeed News investigated some of the posts from women who said their rings were returned after repair with lower-quality diamonds or with further damage that resulted in loose diamonds falling out and getting lost.
Mackenzie Balderson told the site about the ring she'd brought in to be fixed because one of the diamonds was crooked. They had to replace the entire ring and a smaller diamond fell out of the new one. When she took that one in to be soldered to her wedding band, it came back with another diamond missing and the center diamond crooked. She eventually gave up, returned both rings for a partial refund and bought new rings elsewhere.
“I had already had to give up something so sentimental — the ring I was proposed with — and then I had to give up the ring that I wore on the most important day of my life, and that ring is the one in all my wedding pictures,” she told Buzzfeed.
A spokesperson for Kay told Buzzfeed they are working with Largent to resolve the matter of her missing ring.