Robert Haack Diamonds Brookfield — Local services in Brookfield

WARNING: avoid this store at all costs.

Here's my story ... Online buying has given customers more power than ever before. Retailers need to not only earn business, but earn REPEAT business by providing outstanding customer service and transparent transactions. Shame on me for not looking at previous Yelp reviews before wasting money at Robert Haack.

My husband went to Robert Haack to buy me an anniversary band. He made sure to verbally ask the salesperson if the ring was returnable since it was a surprise gift. The answer was YES, within 30 days. He spent $650 on a ring. When he gave it to me, I decided I wanted something a bit different, so after looking around at the Layton store and not finding anything I loved, I headed up to their sister store on Port Washington Road. There, I found a $400 ring that I liked a lot, and asked the salesperson if I could buy it, take it home, look at it side by side with the original one my husband bought, then return the one I didn't want. She said YES.

After a day or two looking at both, I decided that I just didn't love either of them, so we went to the Layton store to return them. We were told that the rings could not be returned for a refund, only for a store credit. To be fair, at the bottom of the sales receipt in fine print it does say in store credit only. But having verbally heard from the first and second sales people that we could return the rings ... WITH NO MENTION OF IN STORE CREDIT ONLY ... this came as a surprise to us. What stores don't offer full refunds when you have a receipt and it's literally weeks later? The sales person went into the owner's office (like he was Oz or something) and had some behind-closed-doors discussions with him. He came back out and said the best he could do was refund us $500 and give the rest in store credit. At this point, I'm very certain I will never work with this dodgy store again, so we insisted on talking with Gary the owner.

Gary comes out and the conversation became very contentious very quickly. He tried to talk us around in circles, saying how he was being really generous by giving us half our money back, that he would be happy to help us design a piece of jewelry (yeah, right!), that it was our own fault for not reading the fine print. REALLY? I guess stores like this still exist, but my guess is not for long. In the end, he took back one ring, but insisted that we either keep the other one or take store credit. I kept the ring because there's no way in hell I'd ever walk into that...

Hi Leslie, Eric, Aly, and the lovely man from the country of India, I have had experiences with all of you in the more recent past, but I am old enough to remember Mr. Haack himself at the top of the Marine Plaza Building down town, where he began… The year would’ve been 1967. All of you have lived up to his expectations which have helped build Thee Best Jewelry Stores in Wisconsin!! I purchased a loose stone from Mr.Haack with an agreement that if I wanted to purchase another diamond he would honor the price I paid for this ring no matter when. At that time I could not ever envision wanting another diamond as it was so beautiful, as his stones always are so perfectly white! Twelve years later I came back and he honored that agreement also augmenting the price because his beautiful stones had gone up in value! That is how my long story with Mr. Haack began and with all of you who take his place with the same expertise, service, patience and care! I love the displays, the wide variety of choices, the ability to design your own or if you find an estate piece to alter it by adding a different colored stone or diamond .....absolutely anything you wish they can and will make it come true....usually better than you expected. So do I come back here again and again and again… Oh yes!! Even if I just come to look and try everything on and just dream… You will too!!! Please go and have the experience of a lifetime....you’ll never go...

I heard on the radio that this store would do repairs at 30% off the original cost of repair. So on February 4, 2016, I went to the Glendale location to have my ring repaired. The estimate was $75.00 with a 30% discount. I told the store personell that Theit Jewlerers (Whitefish Bay) originally estimated the ring repair to be $45.00, their regular cost, no discount. I suggested that Haack's initial cost of repair was unreasonably higher than Theit, and wondered if the store personnel wanted to present a more reasonable initial cost of repair to start at $45.00 and then add the 30% discount. She did not want to adjust the original price. It seemed in comparison, doing business with Theit was overall more reasonable, their store was more orderly, personnell were more professional, and overall the store had a more solid reputation. Since the original cost of repair was much higher than Theit's in Whitefish Bay, I determined to not do business with Haacks for any reason...present or future. It seemed like Robert Haack Diamond hacks up the original cost and then advertizes a sale on repair, when actually their competitors everyday cost of repair is equal to thier advertized...