Charleston Alexander Diamond Importers — Local services in Bailey's Crossroads

If you are browsing the reviews like I do, the following statement will sum it up: WONDERFUL PRODUCT AND EXPERIENCE!!! My review is about buying the ring and when the unimaginable happens to it how unexpectedly amazing you are treated and things are fixed. I am still crying HAPPY AND THANKFUL tears.

Skip the big business production lines of jewelry you’ll get at Kay’s, Reed’s, Zales, Jared, etc. and check this small business out. I have the most beautiful and awe inducing ring out of anyone I know (and we all know that secretly women compare their rings with other women...gentleman take note!).

My husband and I are both civil servants (I’m a teacher) so we don’t exactly make a lot of money; however, my husband is of a dying breed and he saved for this token of affection since he was 16. On the recommendation of his father he went to Charleston Alexander. I was able to design the ring by giving him an idea of what I wanted and they created it within 2 weeks. It was better and more beautiful than I had ever imagined.

We were married 8 days after getting engaged in Vegas (to save money by combining the honeymoon and the wedding). We went back after getting married to have a wedding band made to match the engagement ring. After receiving it I went back within the 4 month window to have the ring checked out. Not even a week later my nightmare occurred.

While closing the closet door the head of my ring bent into my finger and the ring itself created an oval. I must have trapped the ring between the closet door and the wall just right because it didn’t hurt my hand (until the blood flow was cut off). We live 40 minutes away from the Falls Church location, but my husband was able to get us there within 30.

They had to cut my gorgeous ring off of my finger (that was no fun, but they tried to keep me as comfortable as possible). Then the plan to repair the ring began. In the process of the destruction 4 diamonds had popped out. We were told it would cost about $1250 to repair. We just bought the ring. We just got married/went on our honeymoon and in the past month I have been in the hospital for 4 emergency room visits and more doctors appointments than I can count. The sound of that number made me burst into tears. I was not going to have a wedding ring (the one form of comfort while in immense pain). My husband tried to reassure me that we would figure out a way to afford it.

The gentleman that was helping us went into the back to talk to a man that I had never seen there before. Then the really cute blonde woman that always helps me (and absolutely loves my ring) got up and went into the back (I can not remember her name for the life of me [Jennifer?], but she’s the only blonde female there

Summary: This place is the best in town for rings AND customer service! Using two pictures I snipped from the internet, they were able to design and build the perfect engagement ring at a very reasonable rate.

Full story: I went to a few shops not knowing exactly what I wanted, except for knowing that I wanted to marry my girlfriend of 4.5 years and that she deserved a beautiful ring. All shops went over some styles with me and essentially told me to come back when I decide on what I want.

After consulting my GF's mother and researching styles I returned to one shop with a picture of my style and a family heirloom ring from my GF's mom who had said "take this ring and use it to create the new ring". (It was a beautiful multi-stoned art-deco looking ring with .47 center diamond and some other small stones.) The first shop looks over the ring and my picture and proceeds to spend literally the next 30-40min trying to show and convince me to get one of the styles they had in their catalog. I kept saying "can you just make one like in this picture" and he would say "well lets look at a ring I did like that last year" and spend 10min clicking on the computer just to show me a ring that didn't look like my picture. After almost an hour of continued poor sales experience I left.

Enter Charleston Alexander -- I Googled some places and gave Charleston Alexander a call. They were appointment only (excellent handling of COVID-19) and just so happen to have availability at that time. I rush down there and present my picture and heirloom. Upon looking it over the salesman says "we can make that exact ring in your picture". Boom, that was easy!

About the heirloom however, the setting style I had decided upon could only utilize the center stone as the other stones were not the right size and shape.(He could have tried to upsale me on incorporating the other stones into a different style but instead he actually recommended that I preserve the family ring as much as possible and only use the center stone as necessary for my setting choice). They had a technician on site that removed the family stone and I received a CAD design of my custom ring within two weeks. Upon my approval, the actual ring was ready within another two weeks. The CAD drawings looked amazing, and the real ring looked EVEN BETTER! Fast forward to the magical night of proposal on the Alexandria waterfront........

Charleston Alexander absolutely exceeds expectations. If, like me, you are neither a jeweler nor a gemologist, buying a diamond is all about trust.

There are a shocking number of ways to be ripped off, and dealing with a well- regarded specialty diamond jeweler is excellent protection. True, the showroom lacks the luxe atmosphere of a Tiffany or Cartier, but its salespeople are kind, knowledgeable and honorable, the value is incomparable, and you are not paying for a name.

After a major loss, I considered going to Tiffany to replace my ring. The lovely saleswoman sourced three very nice and one beautiful emerald cut ring from stores across the country. Alas, the one I fell in love with was way over budget and, more critically, I was shocked to learn that should I want to upgrade the stone or setting at some future date, I'd have to spend twice the original amount.

I'd dealt with Charleston Alexander before-- their saleswoman worked hard to find perfectly matched diamonds to replace studs that had been stolen, and an independent appraiser valued them significantly higher than the purchase price. But the ring I was replacing was so special-- still, it was worth the drive to see what they could do for me.

Salesman Rick Ramadan is charming, warm, kind and funny--like the uncle you wished you had. His boss, John Sabet, is consummately professional, low-key, incredibly knowledgeable and absolutely passionate about his work: sourcing stones and designing diamond jewelry.

After a shaky start ( I didn't love the first stone found, which was well within my stated budget) and permission to reach a bit higher, a gorgeous stone was found in Israel. Problem was, we had to buy it sight unseen. I demurred. Rick disappeared to negotiate. We still had to buy the stone, but if it was not as fabulous as the GIA report and the video indicated, I could refuse it and they would keep searching for me.

I didn't sleep for two weeks, but the fact that Sabet was prepared to put himself in jeopardy was comforting-- he clearly trusted his sources.

Stone arrived and, gentle readers, took my breath away. Larger by half a carat than Tiffany's . Higher Grade color and clarity. Excellent cut, polish, symmetry. In short, a better stone by all objective criteria. And significantly less expensive.

Upgrades? 100% of purchase price applied. But good luck getting this one off my finger....