I purchased a ring from Oxford Diamond Co on EBAY on 11/18/08 and I was happy when the ring first arrived and mistakenly left positive feedback for this company.
After 32 days of owning the ring I noticed that two of the smaller diamonds had fallen out. So I contacted "Steve" and asked if he would pay to have it repaired or if I could return the ring for a refund. He offered me a $25 credit.By this point I had lost my trust with this company and was afraid to send the ring back to them for repair not knowing if I'd get it back from them and/or when. I told him that I was sure it would cost more than $25 to have the ring repaired locally, but he said that was all he could offer me. I was going to wait to respond to his offer until I got an estimate for the repair from a local jeweler.
Then about another month later I noticed a prong had broken off of the main center diamond. I contacted Steve again and he again only offered me a $25 credit. Now I was scared to even wear the ring fearing the main diamond would fall out. My husband and I picked this ring out for our 20th wedding anniversary and this was very upsetting to me.
I took the ring to my local jeweler and the cost to fix it was $86. I sent a copy of this estimate/bill to Steve and he said all he could offer me was a $25 credit or I could send the ring back to have them repair it. I asked if he was willing to pay for half of the repair and he did give me a credit of $35, which I appreciate, but I certainly don't feel 100% satisfied with this company, as they state on their EBAY store.
A new ring should not be falling apart within one month of receiving it!
I decided to have my jeweler appraise the ring as well, just to see how it would compare with their appraisal. For one, Oxford Diamond's appraisal is $900 more than what my jeweler appraised the ring for.
The center stone was appraised and advertised on EBAY with a clarity of VS1. The jeweler I took it to appraisal it as SI-1, a difference of 2 grades below theirs.
The center stone's color was advertised on EBAY (and on their appraisal) as E-F. The jeweler I took it to appraisal it at I, about 3 to 4 grades below theirs! To me that is quite a difference. To my eye the center diamond looks cloudy, not what I would call "colorless" according to the grading scale.
The small diamonds on the ring were appraised by my jeweler with a clarity of SI and color J. Oxford on EBAY listed them as VS2-SI1 for clarity and G-H in color.
Oxford also said the center diamond is. 35 carat, my appraiser said it is. 22 carat.
I have to say the price I paid for the ring was less than either appraisal. I think the ring is very pretty, but I feel the truth about the quality of the diamonds was stretched a bit, and don't feel I got what they advertised this ring to be. Let alone it falling apart within two months of owning it!
Here is a direct quote from their EBAY site - "100% Money Back Guarantee if our merchandise has been misrepresented". I feel the ring I got was certainly not what was advertised as far as clarity and color of the diamonds, and nobody offered me my money back, just a $25 credit. Of course the site also says "No Returns on Altered items", well maybe their items are made low quality so the customer can't return them because they have to have them repaired. I wouldn't have had to have the ring repaired if it was of good quality in my opinion. And even if it was a fluke thing that two diamonds fell out and a prong broke (and no I did not bang the ring on anything as Steve suggested I might have) I still wasn't offered a "100% money back guarantee", even when I asked to return the ring for a refund.
All in all I really don't want a refund, I want what they advertised on their site, for the price I paid, the price they advertised the ring at.
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