Marc Samuels Jewelers

My son purchased a diamond ring guard for his wife, from the Grapevine Mills Mall location, in January. The total price was $ 595.00. A week later, while they were on their honeymoon, one of the diamonds fell out. It happens. It’s happened to me. They called the store and spoke to the owner, Ali Zameer, who told them to return the ring to the store and the diamond would be replaced and returned to them. They paid to ship the ring, the diamond was replaced and the ring was returned to them.
Two weeks later TWO diamonds fell out. They again called Mr. Zameer, who told them he’d replace the ring this time. They again paid to ship the ring back and a week or so later, they received the ring back. It’s important to note that my son and his wife are Marines, stationed in Virginia, so obviously this was an inconvenience.
A week later, ANOTHER diamond fell out. By this time, my son and his wife had had enough of paying to return the ring, being without the ring more than they were with it, and were understandably skeptical about the workmanship of these particular rings. They told Mr. Zameer that they would like a refund — since this was the THIRD issue with this ring. Mr. Zameer initially insisted that he has a no refund policy — exchanges only. WHAT? This wasn’t exactly a pack of chewing gum we were talking about here. This was a $ 600 ring — a significant amount of money for a young couple who are supporting themselves on a military salary.
After some discussion, Mr. Zameer agreed to refund $ 475. Apparently, Mr. Zameer gives a military discount — to himself. It was agreed upon by all parties that I would return the ring for my son since I reside locally. Well, it was a darn good thing it was handled this way, because this is when things really got interesting.
When we arrived, after explaining the situation, we were told by one of Mr. Zameer’s associates that Mr. Zameer was scheduled to arrive at the store within a half hour. The associate took my cell phone number, as well as my husband’s number. He promised to call. We wandered around the mall for over a half hour — no phone call. We went back to the store and were told that Mr. Zameer was running late and would be another 15 minutes or so. He again promised to call. We waited another half hour — no call. We went back. This time we were told Mr. Zameer was in a meeting (this was a Sunday) and there was no telling when he’d be in. He wanted us to leave the ring and have them «take care of it». We declined his generous offer. We informed him we’d be back at closing time (7pm) and the associate agreed, but offered to have Mr. Zameer call us when he arrived. We thanked him. Mr. Zameer never called.
We went back at 5pm (we were worried that Mr. Zameer might have another meeting just before closing and wouldn’t be available). The elusive Mr. Zameer was there this time and we spoke directly to him. He never once apologized for any inconvenience, nor did he apologize for not calling us. Instead, he proceeded to make several excuses as to why the diamonds kept falling out — sizing the ring up compromised the integrity of the diamonds, the ring was banged around (neither of which were true, since the ring hadn’t been sized either up or down).
I let him know that I felt he was taking advantage of two hard-​working Marines by not giving them a full refund. His response? «I’m out about $ 400 into this ring.» Apparently, it didn’t matter that not only was a young couple out of a wedding band, but they were out more than $ 100. Then Mr. Zameer advised me that he would refund the $ 350, which had been agreed upon. I knew this wasn’t the correct amount, so I was forced to call my son and have Mr. Zameer confirm that the correct refund amount was $ 475.
I have never in my life experienced such poor customer service, nor have I ever had the owner of a business downright lie and connive his way out of giving a refund on a shoddy product. I would never purchase anything from this business. It’s absolutely disgraceful the way the owner treats his customers.
It’s interesting (and quite telling) that this business has several complaints with the BBB:
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