Diamonds and Gold International, David Dumas They melted down My 14k gold pendant -$800.00- was melted down for a new custom pendant. I paid for the service.I supplied all the diamonds and an opal to be set in a new setting. When I received the pendant I was shocked. It looked horrible! He botched the job! St. Louis Park Mn Minnesota

On this date, June 22, 2018, I sent this letter trying to resolve this matter.

Lori Anderson,

I am sorry you are dissatisfied with the pendant you asked us to design. We always try to go above and beyond in taking care of our customers.

I hope you remember how this pendant came to be created. You first asked us on February 1 2018 to take the large oval blue stone out of your existing pendant and somehow remake your ring with diamonds going down the sides in a “V” cut out of the center of the ring on both sides, with your large doublet opal stone set into the ring. I spent about three to four hours with you going over ideas, and then explained to you, it would not be what you expected when it was finished. The next day February 2 2018, you came and picked up your jewelry and said you were going to a different jeweler who was able to make the pendant and was more reasonable.

The following week you came back, talking about making a pendant and brought several pieces of jewelry you had bought at pawn shops and wanted to know what would work to make this pendant. The diamonds in the pieces were of lower quality and some were not even diamonds. We spent another 3 hours going over things with you, and you left.

Then you found a company in China that was going to make the pendant you wanted, but you wanted us to set the stone. The problem with the pendant from China, was it weighed about 1 ½ pennyweight(2.32grams). We explained we could set the stone, but did not think it would stay in the setting because of how light the pendant was in comparison the current pendant which weighs 6.4pennyweight(9.92grams). This meeting was about three hours long also.

Then on February 12 you decided to have us make the pendant. We had a drawing done to show you what the final piece would roughly look like.

The drawing did not come out exactly how you wanted it, so we redid the drawings until we came up with the way you wanted the pendant to be made. Since you are the customer, we always try to accommodate our customer’s wishes, because you are the end user and we want you to be happy. This was another 4 hours of going over every detail.

You, then on February 19, 2018, sent me a picture of a very colorful ring you found on Pinterest, the ring was about $40,000. You were hoping to get the pendant to look like the ring. I explained that you wished to spend around $800 to $900 dollars on this pendant and you were comparing it to a $40,000.00 ring. Plus we were already trying to cut corners by using the gold from the original pendant towards making the new pendant. At this time you requested the pendant be made heavier with thicker side walls and the colored diamonds. I explained because of the increase of the extra diamonds being set and the more gold you wanted added that the price would go up to $1198.00 plus taxes from the original $890.00. At this time you asked me to bring in some colored diamonds, which I explained would add another $100 per stone to the pendant price. You did not seem to think this was a problem and we ordered the colored diamonds in, at your request.

We did the layout of the colored diamonds on March 12, 2018. We came up with several ideas, and you liked the three stones on each end. This took about 4 hours, I explained previously that the colored diamonds would cost about $100 each, plus we paid to ship these diamonds in at your request. I thought you would be happy that the additional 6 diamonds only increased the price by $563. Lower than my estimate. You said this was too expensive and you could not afford the colored diamonds. So we went with the exact layout you wanted without the colored diamonds. You were very critical about exactly where each diamond was placed. Therefore to make sure we made the pendant exactly as you requested I measured every diamond. I then place the diamonds into bags corresponding to the exact location you requested.

On March 22 we showed you a wax of exactly how you had wanted the pendant to look, you had a few extra diamonds in several of the pieces of jewelry that you told us to use for the pendant and we replaced the colored diamonds with the other diamonds you had.

You said you wanted the upper most part of the pendant to have more of a gold tip, so we altered that, and you did not like the hole above the opal. At this time you had run out of diamonds to accommodate this spot, so I gave you a diamond to put in that spot, and you wanted the space around the opal in the center to be more open, so we remodeled the way the opal was set to open up the space around the opal.

On April 13 you saw the wax and asked that we move two of the stones from one side to the other and we did. We then added a little more gold on the bottom of the pendant and made more space below the opal.

On April 16th you sent me an email with a picture of the graduated pendant and asked to use these diamonds. You seemed excited to move ahead with the pendant, and asked about the time frame to be finished.

 When you stopped in, in May I explained that the diamonds in the pendant were not as good of quality as the diamonds you already had in the graduated part of the pendant. I explained that we could use these diamonds, but we would have to remake the wax, because these diamonds were a different size then the original stones that you had supplied. There of course would be a charge for remaking the wax.  I was willing to remake the wax, if you wished and asked you. You said go ahead and make the pendant. We cast and set the stones exactly as they were set up in the wax and delivered the pendant.  You did not like how it hung on your necklace and we looked into this and found it was the way the necklace was designed.

I then received a call from you asking for your money back, and explaining that your husband was a lawyer and you would take me to court if I did not.

 You just stopped in on June 22, 2018. At this time you stated that you had talked to Well’s Fargo bank and they had been talking to me about this situation. I am more than happy to talk to them about this matter, but at no time, up to this time have I been contacted or discussed anything with Well’s Fargo bank. You state that they had said that I was willing to give you a store credit for some part of your work. Once again to be very clear I have not talked to Well’s Fargo or anyone representing them on your behalf, and I have not talked about any type of agreement with them. I am explaining this so there is no miss communication between us.

Also at that time you stated that you had sent several texts to me, and I had not responded. This surprised me. I asked what phone number you sent the texts to? You told me you sent the text to the store phone number. I explained to you that our store phone system is a regular phone system and we do not receive texts, or are we aware of texts sent to the store phone number. I am sorry if you sent these texts and did not get a response. This is the first time you have informed me of sending the store texts. We always try to respond to our customers on a timely basis.

You then said I had two options, either I completely remake your pendant, or you take the pendant to someone else and they will remake the pendant and I pay for the pendant being remade. At the time I explained to you I would respond to you in writing so there is no miscommunication. This is my response to your letter.

At this time, I look at all the time and money we have invested in making this pendant for you. I feel we went over the design of the pendant, by showing you drawings and the wax with the stones set into it, so you could see exactly what the final piece would look like.

On custom work we have a no returns on altered or custom pieces. To try to make the best of this situation, on this instance only, we would be willing to return 50% of your money, give you the piece of jewelry with the gold and the extra diamond we added to the piece. We have not had problems in the past and we would like to resolve this situation with you. Also the 4mm Omega as stated on the receipt when it was dropped off, is silver stamped 925, not gold.

I hope we can come to a reasonable solution to this situation. If you agree to this compromise, Then this will be a full release of all claims against Diamonds and Gold International, Inc, you agree not to file any complaints now or in the future of any type. You agree to rescind any claims with Well’s Fargo, or any other credit card company involved in this matter.  You also agree not to mention us in any social media, or any other media now or in the future.

Sincerely

David Dumas