Harry Ritchie's Jewelers Albany — Local services in Albany

I had a bad experience with this store and would not recommend them or their products. I bought my wife's wedding ring here and a few years later paid to upgrade it to a bigger set. Along with the upgraded ring, the saleslady also sold a "lifetime" service plan that promises to fix or replace the jewelry if there are any issues with it. A short while later the ring had a problem with the stone and mounting. I took it in and thinking they would just repair it, left it at the store. After a week or so, I called to inquire about the status and was surprised that they hadn't even started looking at it. Again I waited while it had to be sent out to their repair center to be worked on. Weeks passed, finally, after me calling repeatedly about it, I received a call back and was told that they would not be covering the repair. The reason given was that the ring wasn't brought in for regular inspection. After I provided proof that it in fact had been brought in for regular inspections at the Albany store, reluctantly they fixed it. This process took about two months, during which time the ring was unable to be worn. More recently a crack developed in the gemstone (mosenite, don't buy it) and I brought it back into the Albany store and asked for it to be sent in for repair under the warranty plan. The store personnel's attitude immediately turned sour and I was advised that the ring would not be eligible for warranty repair and that I had been advised of this at the time of the previous repair. Of course, knowing this to be totally untrue I asked to provide proof, she pretended to look it up but then basically told us she couldn't be of any more help. When I asked to speak with someone higher up, I was told that the owner, Sean would call to discuss. I soon found out how (un) important long time customers were to the of this company. He never called. A secretary called and basically repeated the same thing that the unfriendly lady told me in-store. When I asked why I wasn't speaking with the owner, she said that he was too busy "visiting" his stores to take 5 mins to call and listen to my concerns. Too busy to speak with a customer that spent several thousands of dollars at his store on a now worthless ring. Too busy to address quality concerns that seem to plague his products. This is the kind of atmosphere this jewelry chain has. They are too busy selling useless service plans, crappy quality, and horrible (nonexistent) customer service and support. I would advise anyone that is thinking of buying anything from this ripoff organization to go elsewhere. I will tell all my friends and family to stay far away from this unbelievably dysfunctional company. Trust me, there is truth in the saying "The customer is...

Worst business ever! I went in and talk to an employees and the manager about an acct that was showing on my credit report. Come to find out it was FRAUD they didn't even have my birthday correct. I was trying to buy a house so couldn't report it yet so decided to charge the acct to have it work in my favor and had them update info and add my hubby as a joint acct holder so they would report for him too. Manager verified that they DO report for joint owners so we were all good. Till came report time. They didn't report for my husband at all when I called corporate they said they never report for joint owners and there was no nothing they could do. The only reason I got something was so it would report for him too. So took lots of work for them to get back to me and I returned the necklace. Next report time came around they reported that my account was closed!!!! I never closed my account I did a return! So my numbers dropped and buying a home is out for a few months now. They sneak around they lie and they dont ever want to do anything to fix it unless your mean. The Albany location manager just doesnt know her job and corporate is almost useless for anything. They have lost any chance of me not now reporting the whole acct as fraud and getting the claim into the...

My fiance and I were having some real struggles finding a jeweler that could get us where we wanted to be on a ring design. After multiple discussions and quotes with multiple stores, my fiance decided, to try one more place, he had made a phone call and got a good feeling. We were headed to Harry Ritchie's in Albany, and were to ask for Chris. Best audible my fiance could have made. I walked in feeling pretty defeated and disenchanted with the engagement ring situation overall. Then we met Chris. We discussed what i wanted, showed some pictures of ideas and sent off for a custom design. We had a hiccup from the designer in an unexpected cost, and I can tell you I was ready to give up. Then Chris called with a solution to get our ring in process, with the specs I wanted. He had found the ring I originally set my heart on, and had the ability with his team to customize it exactly how I wanted. Chris more than met our hopes and expectations. He enabled us to put my dream engagement ring on my finger, for a reasonable price. I will be forever grateful. Thank you Chris and Harry Ritchie's team for putting and end to the hunt, and a smile...