KAY Jewelers — Attraction in Lynchburg

This store has very, very bad customer service and it seems to stem from the district manager and down.

My rings were initially bought in Florida from a Jared. I am new to the Lynchburg area and moved here so my husband could attend Liberty’s med school. When I knew that I would be moving I consulted the local Jared about what I would do when I moved since there is not a Jared in Lynchburg. They told me that I could get them inspected at their sister store, Kay, but any repairs would have to be done through Jared. Fair enough, I’ve had my rings inspected at a Kay before when the Jared computers were down.

When my inspection month came around I went to this Kay. They told me that they cannot inspect my rings and that I would have to go to the Jared in Charlottesville – a 1.25 hour drive from my house. I work two jobs and cannot spare driving this so I called Jared customer service about my options. When I told the customer service rep what the Kay employee told me, she laughed. She assured me that Kay absolutely can inspect my rings and log them in the computer since they are sister companies. Jared also told me they would call the store to tell them that they need to inspect my rings.

Two weeks later, I find the time to go back. I get there right as they open and the store manager is there. Good! She was all nice and willing to help me, until I pull out my packet filled with all the information about my rings from Jared. She told me she could not inspect them – a rule made by their district manager and that I would have to drive to Charlottesville. “It’s a beautiful 45 min drive,” she kept insisting (it’s not 45 min). I told her that I was going to leave and call customer service, which I did. Again, this Jared rep just laughed on and on about how they were telling me they can’t inspect them – cause they can.

The Jared rep called the store and talked to the manager and finally convinced them to inspect my rings while I was there. Then, the Jared rep was going to call the district manager and notify them that they can’t refuse to inspect rings.

So, on instruction of the Jared rep, I returned to the store. The manager was nowhere to be found. The employee saw me and told me he was instructed to just do a handwritten receipt of inspection. He took my rings, cleaned them took a piece of receipt paper and wrote down the day, type of rings and that they were “inspected.” He never even took out a magnifying glass to check my diamond.

This sounded strange to me. I leave and call back Jared. Told her all I have is a piece of receipt paper with handwriting on it that it was inspected. This time, she was flustered, and rightfully so. She called back the Kay store and asked why my inspection was not logged into the computer system. The Jared rep remained on the phone with the store manager until my inspection was correctly logged into the system. The Jared rep made sure she could see it from her end, then printed my inspection papers and mailed them to me. Five stars to the Jared rep for dealing with this matter.

This then opened a case that has apparently been used as a training opportunity and should not happen again. At least that is the voicemail I received from a Kay customer service representative. We will see how this fairs at my next inspection.

One last thing to note: This is one of the few jewelry stores in Lynchburg where there are thousands of Liberty students with the “ring by spring” mindset. This means your customer service should be much better. I honestly believe these inspections are set up to get people in the store a couple times a year to show them the sparkly new things and entice them to buy something. Wouldn’t you like if these sales went to your store instead of your sister store? I would! So, offer the inspection – don’t make people drive and provide excellent service so when they want to buy some new bling, they drive 20 minutes to your store instead of the store...

It pains me to attribute even one star to Kay Jewelers in Lynchburg, VA. A star denotes something positive and our experience with this store has been excruciating. This was our first and will be our last purchase with this company.

To expound on the details of the past 7 weeks would be to write a novella, so I will try to restrain myself to six reasons of why you should avoid this store at all cost.

At least two (I will not name them) of the Lynchburg Kay Jeweler employees blatantly lied, not once, but multiple times and with multiple versions of the lie.

The manager was rude and borderline belligerent without provocation: her tone, words, and body language were hostile from the moment we began speaking to her about our concerns.

The manager was unprofessional: she promised to call us in 24 hours, and it was one week and multiple phone calls from me later before she finally contacted us as promised. She speaks belligerently of customers to her employees while in front of other customers on the sales floor.

The customer care agents do not follow through with their promises and do not keep accurate records of what they promise. They also don't call you back after multiple messages asking them to do so. I'm still waiting...

Dealing with this company has sucked all the joy out of what should have been a really joyous occasion...purchasing a wedding band.

Unfortunately our experience is not over yet. After 7 weeks I was so tired and upset about this experience I asked to receive a refund in order to avoid dealing with this company any longer. Unfortunately they were unwilling to give me a refund. We are crossing our fingers and hoping that the ring will finally be returned to us, so that my husband will be able to wear his wedding ring before we hit our first year anniversary. Meanwhile we will be reporting this store to the Better Business Bureau in hopes that others can avoid...

I wish I could give ZERO stars. I had a one or two good experiences here, but lately they have been HORRIBLE!! I had an issue with a bracelet they refused to help with, had to call corporate to get it taken care of (which they then accused corporate of doing the wrong thing). Then the next week, my ring had a crack at the bottom of it and I went to get it worked on. When turning it in, they asked me questions about what I do with it (how i work, what i do, do i sleep in it?) The lady then looked at me and told me- "i would hate to have to void your warranty because you wear your ring to sleep every night. None of our customer do that and we as employees always take our rings off every single night. " Are you kidding me?? Most women I know never take their rings off! And why are you trying to threaten your customer like that?? I was FURIOUS! I got my ring back and called corporate again. They said they could not void my warranty for something like that. So why are they telling their customers this? They said a district manager would reach out to me to discuss my experiences in the store. Well it took a few weeks and no one called back. I called to follow up . When the district manager did call me back. IT WAS THE STORE MANAGER FROM THE STORE I HAD FILED A COMPLAINT ABOUT--SHE HAD GOTTEN PROMOTED!! Are you kidding me?? You have the women who was a part of the complaint call me back and try to fix it? That is fine she was promoted, but Kays should have had someone else call me back. It would have been a biased conversation. We started the conversation before I knew who I was takling to. The conversation was already going in a sour direction as she told me I corporate was wrong going against her decision in store. I am so over this store!!! I will NEVER shop at Kays. My fiancee paid off his account. closed it. Went to Zales. Spent a couple thousand on rings, and never...