On Dec. 20th I went to the Bridal Jewelry Center to purchase diamond stud earrings for my wife for Christmas. It was about 10:30 Monday morning and three sales clerk were in the store. One young female asked if she could help and showed me a set of earrings costing about $2,000 (about 1/2 a carat per stud). She asked if I understood the difference in clarity and I said other than buying anengagement ring for my wife some 17 years ago I was unfamiliar. She then begain explained the clarity and the quality of the earrings and why they were set at this price.
I let her know that these were out of my budget range. She then showed me another section of earrings of lesser quality, which had some imperfections, but still had the brilliant color. We agreed that this quality would be acceptable and she went in the back to find a set of earrings with similar color and clarity.
She returned with a 1.5 carat set. She again showed me the imperfections through her magnifying glass which were similar to the lesser quality in the show case counter. I agreed that these would be acceptable and she then gave me a price of $1100 for the earrings, which I agreed on.
The sales clerk then asked me what kind of setting my wife preferred, white or yellow gold. I asked for a white gold setting.
At this point another sales person showed up and looked at the earrings and agreed that they were very nice. The first sales clerk then excused herself to have the earrings put into the settings. After approximately 10 to 15 minutes she came back with the "diamonds" in the "white gold setting", in a nice black box and gift bag. She opened the box so we could all see
how the setting looked, at which point we all agreed they looked very nice. As a result, I paid for the earrings, thank them for there help and left the store.
The diamond stud earrings were my wife's Christmas present. Therefore, I gave them to her on Christmas day. A few days later she asked if I had the certificate of authenticity.
I told I did not, I was not given one at the time of the purchase but I would go back to the store and get one.
It took a few weeks to get back to the store. This was due in part because of the Holidays, apparently now after Christmas the store was now only open Friday and weekends, and in January my wife was needed back east to take of her sick mother.
Therefore, Friday February 4th I was able to call the store and find out what I needed to get the certificate of authenticity. They told me to come in with the receipt and the earrings and they would do an appraisal. I got to the store and meet a sales clerk who took the earrings to the back counter. Eventually, after about 10 minutes the store manager, told me the earrings where cubic zirconium and that they did not sell them to me.
He said did you possible bring the wrong earrings from home. I said no, but was not sure so I left and
when home to check. But of course, I did have the same earrings that were originally sold to me Dec. 20th. I now realized they had switch them when the sales clerk went to the back room to but the earrings in the settings.
My wife and I went back to the store Saturday again to speak to the store manager, who referred us to the owner. The owner simply said they did not sell cubic zirconium
earrings and asked if we lost the originals earrings.insinuating, now we were tying to steal from him.
We tried to explain that the earrings he was looking were the same that were sold to me Dec. 20. Unfortunately, to no resolution.
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