In the summer of 2001 my daughter purchased what we were told was a 10K white gold, 3 stone mother's ring.
We upgraded to include real stone and in actuality the 10K was an up grade too. All said and done the ring was now going to cost $199.00 (if I recall correctly).
Well the ring order was sent off and it was made and returned to the store. About 2 days after I recieved the ring one of the stones fell out so I returned it to the store for repair.
It ended up being remade again for whatever reason (I believe it had something to do with time, I am not a patient person). I picked this one up and went very happily one my way.
Recently we have helped out a "friend" and things had started coming up missing, so my fiance' tells me to have all the jewelery appraised and added to the insurance.
At the appraisal I find out that this ring is gold PLATED not the 10K that we were told it was and allowed to buy. I was very upset by this news so I took it to my friend who owns a pawn shop and she tested it and it is plated.
My fiance works away from home and when he came in he took some rings that his father gave him and again my ring to another jeweler, and was told once again it is plated.
I was been going back and forth with Walmart over this and Tiffany the regional manager for the Illinois stores and I spoke on Friday the 5th and at the end of the conversation it was decided that she would send out a gift card for the amount of $199 plus tax. She also said she would put it in the mail that very afternoon. Okay I was satified, not happy just satisfied.
At 7:45A.M. Monday the 8th I got a call from Tiffany and she was at the store where this ring was purchased and wanted me to go over to the local store. Could I be there in 30 minutes cause the manager I needed to speak to had to go elsewhere and would need to have the ring for and independant appraisal. I gulped the coffee, got dressed and off I went.
When I got to the store they paged this manager Brent, and he help his hand out for my ring. I took it off and he said he would be taking it to a local jeweler for this appraisal. I told him fine but I would like a receipt for my ring if he was going to keep it for this. His reponse was "I am the manager of this Walmart". I never did get a receipt and I waited and waited for a call. Finally at about 4:30 P.M., I called Tiffany at the Joliet store and she "I was just going to call you".
She proceeded to tell me that they took the ring to Salas' and that the appraiser said the ring was 10K gold. I said that it was strage that 3 people had already appraised it and now this one particular says it is real. Okay no sense arguing any longer outside of telling Ms.tiffany that I was going to report this to the BBB and contact my attorney, and last but not least, I was going online and telling anyone who would listen. I have started this.
When I relayed to the fiance what had happened he told me to go into his insurance file and look at the appraisal for his dad's rings. I did and guess who did it? Salas'.in all honesty, I feel that Salas' is an outstanding jeweler. I do believe one of two things happened here though. These being:
1) Walmart paid Salas' dearly to falsify the report (I don;t really believe this)
OR
2) Mr. Brent NEVER took the ring there and just used that name because of their reputation here in Slidell.
I will never know for sure since I did not get a copy of the report, they refused me one. I did call corporate Walmart again today and said I wanted a copy of the report. I am still waiting for someone to call me back.
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