Pampillonia — Local services in Bethesda

My visit to Pampillonia was few years ago. Sacrificing one of my day-off, I made an effort to travel over an hour to reach their store, finding the address wasn't easy (following the GPS), parking was complicated and paid (I had to get parking pass from the store). But I was exited! I wanted to visit the store because of two reasons: I liked one pair of diamond earrings that I saw on-line and I wanted to see in private, before to purchase (I was ready to make the purchase). Second reason was that I had a genuine vintage diamond ring, that I wanted to sell. Well, Pampillonia store was a HUGE disappointment! First, I was not treated as a valued customer from the beginning. The earrings that I was interested in resulted being sold, however the sales person wasn't enthusiastic to show me something similar. But the biggest disappointment for me was the owner. Let me clarify, that I prior to go to the store I sent him an email with pictures of my vintage ring for sale, and he was very interested in it! However, when I was there physically in the store, the owner was sceptic, he took my ring and went somewhere inside, he didn't invited me to sit down or to come in the back office with him, I had to wait standing there and I didn't feel comfortable. He came back with an offer that was a joke! He also doubted the age of my ring! I know and I am absolutely certain about the provenance of my heirloom ring! There was no purchase and no deal, as you can assume. In the end, I was interested to see one pair of antique earrings from the window. The owned didn't even bother to show me these earrings! He just said that they are VERY expensive, may be assuming that I am VERY poor! In Pampilonia I met nothing else but ignorance, arrogance,...

My fiance and I went looking for an engagement ring and wedding bands at multiple jewelers in DC. Pampillonia was, by far, the most helpful and sympathetic.

We wanted something unique and of excellent quality, while still being on a low budget. Every other store we went to only offered the most generic and 'in style' rings for thousands over our price range, and there were limited and expensive options for personalization/custom design. When we walked into Pampillonia, Steve Pampillonia and his family welcomed us with genuine kindness and client-oriented service. Within 5 minutes, Steve brought out an unfinished ring setting that was exactly the design I had been looking for and nearly given up on finding.

Pampillonia worked with our tight deadline and somehow finished my BEAUTIFUL engagement ring with the exact stone I wanted (which Steve let me pick out of a number of color/quality options and had cut specially for the ring). In this short time span, Pampillonia also helped us find and size the perfect unique platinum wedding bands that both my fiance and I LOVE! And all this, Pampillonia did for us at the most conservative prices (even adding suggestions and military discount to make the rings cheaper for our young wallets)!

For anyone looking for high quality stones/stone setting, unique and timeless jewelry, beautiful estate rings, sizing platinum, honest and exemplary service...etc., I would recommend Pampillonia a...

I wanted to give my fiancee a family ring but the only thing I had was not a suitable engagement ring-it was a very strange, swirly 60's-era design. But it had a few diamonds that I thought could be used in the design of a new ring. So I brought my family ring to several Jewelers before coming to Pampillonia. Every jeweler I met with encouraged me to trade in my ring and get something new, which defeated the purpose all together of having a family heirloom. After half a dozen jewelers, I met Richard at Pampillonia who made me truly excited about remaking my family ring into a period piece. He told me all about the diamonds on the ring and told me he would use machinery from the same era as the diamonds were cut (circa 1890) to remake the ring. My (now) fiancée loves the ring and I was thrilled with how it turned out--it is hard to believe it's the same ring!

I went back to Pampillonia for our wedding rings, which we also love, and I would highly recommend to any of my friends that they go there for jewelry- especially custom pieces. The staff is very knowledgable and friendly. Wish I could give...