At Kay Jewelers, a popular mall chain and part of global mediocre jewelry corporate Voltron Signet Jewelers, owners of expensive diamond or gemstone jewelry can get a lifetime diamond or color gemstone guarantee, as long as they bring their jewelry for inspection every six months. Yet some brides who have tried to invoke the guarantee say that their stones were switched out during repairs, when they were in Kay’s possession.

The six-month inspections let employees check to make sure that the diamond still has the same engraved serial number, and also inspect it for problems with the setting that can be repaired before the ring is further damaged or the stone falls out. What some customers allege, though, is that their original stones disappeared during repairs, replaced with inferior diamonds or even fake diamonds.

The Kay Jewelers Facebook page has become an informal gathering place for these customers, and Buzzfeed News has picked up their cause. Since the first story a month ago, even more brides have come forward with complaints against Kay, and their stories are all remarkably similar to each other.

One customer discovered that after five years of owning her ring and diligently bringing it in for inspection every six months, it wasn’t even the ring she thought it was. The original one-carat diamond, which had an inscription, wasn’t there. She confirmed this at other jewelry stores. “It was discovered that it was moissanite and not a diamond, and set [in] platinum, not white gold,” she told Buzzfeed. “I felt sick to my stomach.”

The company’s response: they have millions of happy customers whose rings haven’t been swapped out for stones worth thousands of dollars less. Even when Kay does believe a customer’s story and replaces stones with one of similar value, that ignores something really important about how people in our culture value jewelry: it’s not just about money. A ring with a different diamond in it isn’t the same ring they received during the proposal.

“Every year we’ve got millions of transactions and millions of repairs we are processing in our stores,” Signet’s VP for corporate affairs explained to Buzzfeed. He also said that even one dissatisfied customer is too many, and we’d add that even one stone swapped out without the owner’s permission is too many.

These Women Say Kay Jewelers Swapped Their Diamonds For A Fake Or Worse-Quality Stone [Buzzfeed News]

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