Furious Brides Are Accusing Kay Jewelers of Swapping Out the Diamonds on Their Engagement Rings
Kay Jewelers stores are ubiquitous. They’re in malls everywhere, accompanied by their sister brands Zales and Jared, and countless engagement rings have been purchased there over the years. But a new report from BuzzFeed found that some brides were furious about how their diamonds were treated there.
Multiple women told BuzzFeed that when they took their rings for repairs, they were sent out to get fixed and sent back with a different stone. Many of these women got their rings back and simply noticed something was off, that their diamonds looked different. One went for an outside inspection and found that the stone was now moissanite, a stone that looks like a diamond but is worth less money, though Kay and Zales both still insisted it was a diamond.
Others reported that their diamonds were swapped for diamonds of a lesser quality than was initially listed on their certification documents. “I could instantly tell just from looking at it … It was so obvious that it was not my diamond,” customer Heidi Stier-Rivera told BuzzFeed, adding that after failing to get her stone back, she stopped wearing her engagement ring. “It’s not the diamond my husband got for me - it has no sentimental value for me anymore.”
This is the second set of complaints about Kay reported by BuzzFeed; they have also reported on a group of women who say the company lost or damaged their rings during repairs. Staffers at Kay say that there is a strict policy to keep diamonds from being swapped out, and a rep for Kay said that they’re working with each individual woman on their specific issues. A rep for Signet, its parent company, said that any complaints are “minimal” compared to their huge number of satisfied customers.
Follow Megan on Twitter.
