Definitely do not do business with billbarnes. On June 13, Billbarnes.com had a platinum wedding band in the design we wanted on sale, but the sale ended that weekend. So after verifying the platinum content with Alfred Kopecky via e-mail, we purchased the ring on-line that day. On the website it said the ring would ship within 2-5 business days. Then, after we put in the size we were ordering (8.5) all the confirmations still said it was available for shipping within 2-5 business days, and their on-line tracking system said it would ship by June 20. They charged my credit card for the full amount on June 14. Then on June 18, they sent an e-mail saying the ring would not ship until July 30. I asked for an explanation as to how they could have advertised it as being available within 2-5 business days and then suddenly it was going to be 40 days later than that. They didn't answer me for 2 weeks.in the meantime, I researched them and found all these other complaints about the company including many, many complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau. I threatened to file my own complaint and then they finally wrote me and said that they didn't know until after we made the purchase that this would be a special order. When I pointed out this was untrue, because Mr. Kopecky had said in his e-mail before we purchased the ring that it was a special order yet never mentioned it would take an additional 6-7 weeks to ship, then suddenly they said the ring was on its way. They indeed shipped a ring to me, which arrived on July 11. However, the invoice slip that came with it said it was white gold, not platinum. I immediately wrote to them and said they needed to send a correct document showing it was platinum so we would have that for insurance and warranty purposes. Later, Mr. Kopecky actually tried to claim we had ordered a white gold band and that we were lucky he sent platinum at all, even after we faxed him the information from his own website and confirmation e-mail showing we ordered platinum. My finance also felt that the dimensions of the ring didn't look right. The ring had been advertised as being 6mm wide, but when my finance took it to a local jeweler it turned out to only be 4 mm wide. Mr. Kopecky then tried to claim that it had not been advertised as 4 mm and/or we had selected a drop-down choice of 4mm, neither of which was true. There wasn't even a choice of band widths, only sizes, and the description was very clear that the 8.5 size came in a 6mm bandwidth. When we tried to deal with Mr. Kopecky via phone, he just kept changing his story with each sentence, saying things that no way could be true. He also tried to say he had no control or knowledge over what was on his own website, which is absurd. He wanted us to send him the ring back, meanwhile while he keeps my $1251, and only then would he allegedly send the correct ring to me, all the while claiming that we never ordered a 6mm platinum ring in the first place, so I told him there was no way that was acceptable. This company was deceptive in that they lied about the shipping date knowing that they would never be shipping that ring within 2-5 business days, and then they defrauded me by sending this lesser-value ring from what they advertised and I purchased. Then, to boot, they will only give documentation showing it's white gold, presumably to defraud us again when it comes to the warranty on the ring.
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