Kay Jewelers - (Sterling Incorporated Sterling Jewelers Unbusinesslike, unprofessional, does not honor warranties South Bend, Indiana

My husband bought me a 1/2 carat engagement ring in 2003 from Kay Jewelers in Virginia Beach. It was the first diamond I had ever owned. My husband was serving in the Navy at the time. I would have settled for a 1/3 carat but he wanted to surprise me and bought the 1/2. He also bought the Lifetime Diamond and Color Gemstone Guarantee.I was faithful to take the ring in every 6 months and have it inspected and documented on a slip of paper they would give me.

Since that time, we have bought a beautiful amethyst ring for daughter, an emerald and diamond band for myself, a simulated ruby ring, a Valentine specially priced necklace and ring and a small charm for my daughter when she announced her pregnancy. All from Kay Jewelers. The most expensive any of these above pieces was not more than $350. When we bought my diamond engagement ring, we had traded a wedding set from my husband's 1st marriage and put the remaining $800 and some on a Kay's Credit Card. All our payments were always on time and all the above items were paid off as they should have been. The amethyst, emerald/diamond ring and the charm all had Lifetime Guarantees on them that covers a replacement if it is chipped, broken or lost from it's original setting. I faithfully wrote all the inspection dates on the calendar and all of them were inspected every 6 months.

My daughter's amethyst fell out shortly after she got it and was lost. This happened 4 to 5 times!! A couple times we found the stone. Once Kay's replaced the entire ring when she fell at work and completely smashed the ring and lost the stone. The charm I bought her also lost the white amethyst stone a month after she got it. Again, Kay's replaced it. I have not paperwork of all these incidents because Kay's has you sign the  slip to send the ring in and then sign the same slip when you pick it up and then keep the paperwork.

In December, I had gotten up early one morning and was sitting quietly when I looked down at my hand and my diamond was gone! I was really heartbroken but knew since I had that Lifetime Guarantee everything would be ok. WRONG!!

I looked at the setting and saw that one of the prongs was slightly out of alignment with the others that were straight. The last inspection had been in August 09. I was really puzzled as the 2 other rings I wear on the same finger were fine but obviously with the prong slightly askew, this is why it fell out. I had no idea when I could have lost it. I never take it off and always clean it with a soft brush if I use lotion on my hands. I knew it had been there the previous morning. I looked all over my bed and around it and kept an eye out for something sparkly to catch my eye. I'm still doing that.

Now to the heart of the problem. I took it to Kay's in South Bend with all confidence that it would be replaced. The manager, Stephanie, waited on me and when she checked my last inspection date on their computer, she said it showed I hadn't had the ring inspected since some time in 08. I produced the most recent inspection slip dated Aug 09 and she kept it to turn in with the ring in for replacement. She was vague about when it may be done.

I called  on January 7th. The asst. manager said the ring was still in Ohio and would call and check on it and call me back. When there was no call by the following Monday, I called back. Asst. Mgr. told me there was a note from the store manager that she would call me the next day. Mid afternoon the next day, I had to call her. She started asking me questions like, "did you ever have this stone replaced before?", "have you bumped your hand on the cupboard lately?", "have you left your ring anywhere else lately?" and "has anyone else worked on your ring?" I answered no to all. She said she would call them to see why they were asking those questions and it could be another week until the ring was done. She said she'd call me in a couple hours.

She called 2 hours later to tell me the ring just happened to come in! (Surprise!) But the stone wasn't replaced because....here it comes....are you ready? I quote, "It has obvious pry marks on it" Not just "pry marks" but "OBVIOUS PRY MARKS"! She proceed to tell me she didn't know why she hadn't noticed it when I brought it in. All she said she noticed was that the stone was missing but, "yes", she said, " I see them now!" (meaning the pry marks). I can't take up all this space to type the whole conversation. I tried not to flip out but did manage to ask her if she was calling me a jewel thief!

I finally got her to refer me to a customer relations number and called it immediately and spoke to someone named Laura or Laurie. During the course of the conversation, she put me on hold for a total of 25 minutes while she supposedly was making phone calls to investigate. She told me when she came back on the phone that there were "obvious pry marks on the ring"....are you ready?..."made by tools!".

By this time I am fit to be tied. At one point she told me to stop yelling at her because she was trying to help me! I wanted to do one of those "this is not yelling, THIS IS YELLING!" kind of things but restrained myself. After another heated conversation she told me she would look into it some more and call me back.

Remember, I have still not seen the ring. The store is an hour's drive for me and the weather had been bad.

Later in the evening she calls me to tell me she spoke again to the South Bend manager and tells me the manager said she discussed the pry marks with me when I dropped the ring off!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel I'm in the twilight zone. She also mentions at that time that the Master Jeweler at the home office said the "pry marks" made the ring "not damaged under normal wear and tear". She also tells me the prongs are not straight and some of the prongs are severely bent. Steam is coming out of my ears by now and I am put on hold for another 20 minutes. I hang up, call back and someone named Megan answers. She tells me her desk is right next to Laura's and that Laura is talking to someone about my ring and she'll call me tomorrow.

Next day Laura (probably not her real name) calls to inform me there's nothing else she can do. She says the ring was not damaged by normal wear and tear. She is very firm and emphatic about it and loud. I asked her if I can get that in writing to include all the remarks about "pry marks" and "obvious pry marks'. She tell me no...NO????????...it is not company policy to do that and the explanation in my (generic) pamphlet about "normal wear and tear" is all the explanation I need. I tried to get more info from her. She told me the ring was received in Ohio on Dec. 11 and evaluated on Ded. 11 (remember this is Jan 13.) I kept trying to keep her on the phone as I rapidly scanned all my notes and questions desperately trying to some how make sense of all this . I did ask to speak to her supervisor and she informed me the CEO of the company gave them full responsibility to make all decisions and that her supervisor had approved it and so had the supervisor of the supervisor! Then out of desperation since the call wasn't going well anyway, I said I'd gotten some legal advice and I needed to ask her a few more questions. (The only legal advice I'd gotten was from friends who gave me advice about what I might do!) She immediately shouted, "This conversation is over!". I said, "what?" and she shouted again, "this conversation is over!" I hung up first.

The next day I went to see the ring. I took my daughter with me. The manager greeted us with a smile and I asked to see the ring....and guess what...the ring looked quite different from when I brought it in. I can't absolutely say it's my ring. The setting is really plain and it could be any ring. There were NO prongs that were slightly out of alignment...ALL the prongs were damaged, one was even twisted. It looked kinda of smashed. And, yes, there were 2 marks on the prongs that looked liked slashes. I was stunned. I told the manager this was not the condition of the ring when I brought it in. I asked her if she had documented the condition of the ring before she sent it out and she said no (what????????????????) and said she put down just that the stone was missing. She then informed me she could not answer any more questions!!!!!!!!!!! My daughter spoke up at that point as she could see I was in tears from the frustration of all this and asked a few more general questions about repairs and warranties. Then she and I both looked at each other and discussed aloud what we should do now. My daughter told the manager we didn't know what to do since we'd never been in such a situation before. The manager was no help. We asked if we could take a picture of the ring and she told us no, not inside the store. We asked if we could take it right to the edge of the store in the mall but in her sight and photograph it and she said we'd have to sign the release to do that.

I took a few moments to think. I signed the release. I took the ring. I just couldn't stand being in that store one more minute and knew they were liars and could not trust leaving the ring there for them to alter it anymore

This is quite lengthy I know. I am totally shook up over this and at this point don't know what all I'm going to do. Of course my husband and I immediately canceled our accounts with Kay's and will never step foot in there again or any of Sterling Jewelers others owned stores. I will post this on as many online complaint sites that I can. I will notify the Better Business Bureau. I know I am up against an multi million dollar company with infinite legal resources. I know I have been cheated, lied to and duped.