Helzberg Diamonds — Local services in Bloomington

If you are looking for a custom piece of jewelry, I highly encourage you to shop elsewhere. I had previously written this review at the end of November: "Sherry and Ryan were so fabulous and extremely knowledgeable. We cannot recommend enough coming here."

On that day, I thought that we were going to have a price quote by the end of the week, and could move forward with ordering a custom wedding band for my fiance. We were told we would have a quote by end of week. We wanted a price quote for a sandwich band with alternating sapphires and diamonds and asked for the quote to include lab grown and natural sapphires. When we stopped back in the store, Ryan handed us a sticky note that had a single price written on it (approximately $2,800). We asked what the price included, and which sapphires it was for. Ryan did not have answers for us, so we asked this time for an itemized price quote and for BOTH lab grown and natural to be included. We even found a ring in the store in the setting we wanted, and the correct amount of stones, just not alternating. The store held this for us so they would have an example of what to quote us on. We waited another week or so and did not receive a call back so called the store to get an update and were told that the quote was ready for us.

We ended up going to the cities to go back to the store (we live an hour and a half away) to see the quote. Again, we were met with a sticky note and two unlabeled columns that were much more than what they had suggested on the previous sticky note (approximately $8,500). Ryan could not articulate why the pricing was so different from the previous quote. When we asked what the quote included, Ryan had quoted us for more stones than asked for, which also included more prongs than asked for. At this point we asked for a different sales associate because we still did not have a quote for a very simple ring.

Another two associates then became involved, which we thought were taking over our order. We are now two months into this process and still did not have a quote.

Two weeks later we still hadn't heard from Helzberg about the quote, so my fiance stopped by to check in. They finally had a quote for us (just under $2,500), so my fiance put 10% down that day for the ring to be ordered. We were given 8-10 weeks as timeline for ring to be made.

In early February we didn't hear from the store about any updates. When we called we were told that the new date for completion would be April 9th - another 10 weeks out. No one could explain to us why there was an issue. (Ironically enough, April 9th was another 8-10 weeks from when we received an accidental call from Helzberg asking us for more money for the ring, where we notified them that we still haven't seen the ring). Ryan happened to be working that night and did apologize for all the confusion, and acknowledged how horrible this process has been for us, which we greatly appreciated. He also sent a follow up email to the vendor, and promised to call that Friday so we could get this figured out. We did not get a call on Friday, we had to call.

Today we learned that the ring had not been ordered for weeks after the 10% payment because they didn't answer an email from the vendor to get the project started. We do appreciate the associate today taking accountability for the store consistently failing us during the process, but are so sad that this experience has been so infuriating. I could understand if this was an insane custom piece that had a lot of direction on it, but we have picked one of the easiest things a jeweler could make, and still no answers. We are giving the store to the end of the week for some answers, otherwise we will be going elsewhere. It's unfortunate because we had such an amazing experience at a WA Helzberg when we purchased our...

In the end we still didn't get what we thought we paid for.

Earlier in 2018, my significant other and i were ring shopping for that special ring. After months of searching and scrutinizing, learning about diamonds, the weight, the cut of the diamond, the clarity of it, the color, we thought we knew, but alas the diamond sales game is a cutthroat business, full of swindlers and fast hand johnny's. Looking for the biggest sale, for less quality. Trying to fool you into believing diamonds are a rare, or priceless, or a tradition. All waiting to tell you that any diamond is worth what you pay, or maybe so much more! So here it the story.

We decided to buy our engagement ring from here what we thought we were getting was a .82c diamond with decent ccc, not long had she been wearing it when she noticed a small s shape in the diamond. well that is strange, we thought we were getting a better quality, but then, when we were getting ready to get it insured, the number on the certificate didn't antch the ring number, with a little .7c on it. So she called the number on her certificate and what they said was we needed to bring the ring back to the store, like pronto. Surprise! Now we had a ring that wasn't what we though we paid for. Thats right, we go a .7c with bad clarity, when we were suppose to ge a .82 with good cut and clarity.

Now i am not a fancy fella, I work hard at a job I don't always like so I can bring home the cream to take care of my family. We work hard for what we have, and are always fighting to do a little better than the day before. Helzberd does not hold to the same value, they argued, if she was happy before she noticed it was a lesser diamond than whats the big deal? she liked it anyways! Now here is where i disagree with that logic, yes she did like it, but in the diamonds game the sellers push hard on the numbers, this one is so much better than that one, and all diamonds are so beautiful. What we got was not what it was promised to be. We told them that wasn't good enough, this changed the feel of the experience, suddenly the ring became a cheat, a lie. We tried to make our feelings apparent to the store manager, the store manager tells us he'll get ti straightened out.

Days we waited while hearing nothing. I called back later that week, "the store manager just got back from vacation, he'll call you back right away." said the friendly sales person on the other end of the phone. I called the next day, "he just stepped out to lunch can he call you back?" I hung up the phone frustrated and hurt. We thought we were going to get stuck with this ring, we thought we had been had, but then the store manager called us back. He said he has a good replacement ring for us to come and take a look at. Side note: i feel inclined to point out that where we live the MOA isn't just around the corner, its not a place where we can pop in, we live well over an hour away. We agree that we would meet him that evening. We look at the ring and its nice i guess, so we decide to take it, it is an .8c with good color and clarity. At this part we were emotionally wore out, we take it thinking we'd be getting reimbursed a small amount since we are getting less of a diamond, but nope, the new ring is all we're getting. It feels good for it to be over...

But that is not how it goes. Here we are months later still feeling burned. Insult to injury, a catalog shows up for the holiday season, displaying the ring we got for cheaper than we paid. We are hoping to try and recapture some of the magic when we shop for our wedding rings, and maybe then it might take away the sting of this engagement ring. When we decide to buy, I know that we wont be shopping at Helzberg, a place that would do so little to...

Loved Ryan Salo and Sherry Charpentier! They are amazing!!!! 10/10 recommend!

UPDATE: Unfortunately I have to change my review due to extended customer service issues. We have been working with a total of 4 sales associates since November to get a custom ring made per their advice. On November 22nd, 2022, we came up with the design (with a skew number) for the ring that I wanted and the alternating every other diamond and blue sapphire stones. I put my 10% down for the order and was told they would be submitting my order that day to get it in an 8-10 week turnaround which would land around Valentine's Day. At that time I would be able to see the ring to make sure it was what I wanted and purchase it.

The week of Valentine's Day I got a call from a different associate wanting money for my 'lay-away' order. After informing him I had a custom order and not a lay-away order he was unable to provide an update. I called back later that week to find out my ring would not be available for another 8-10 weeks due to an 'unknown issue'. I inquired more and after visiting and calling on two other occasions, as we had not heard back as promised, we find out that they had issue with the order and it was not submitted until several weeks after the original date because all 4 associates on the message did not respond back to an inquiry from the manufacture.

At this point I'm still waiting to hear if my order can be expedited. They apparently only communicate with their vendors via email so hopefully I'll have an update soon. I'm hoping by some miracle they can get it expediated and hopefully it is what I ordered as I have lost confidence in the associates at this location.

I highly DO NOT recommend using this store unless you already know what you want and they have it in stock in their case. They have proven time and time again they are incapable of communicating with their clients and if you need/want to find out any information you have to continuously pester them to get any answers. They said we should have an update by Friday to know the status of our order and if we do not, or they are unable to get it in a timely manner, we are pulling our money and going elsewhere.

This has been such a horrible experience and it's frustrating as we had such a different and great experience previously. The reason we were trying to get our wedding bands from Helzberg Diamonds was because of our wonderful experience buying our engagement rings from Jennifer at the Tacoma Mall location in Washington State. I wish we still lived there so it was easier for us to go back there and get our rings from a true...