Barron Jewelers, Inc. — Local services in Grayslake

My engagement and engagement ring have been negatively impacted due to the horrible experience we had with Barron jewelers.

When picking up my ring that had been resized and the band had metal added to it, the ring was filthy. I immediately noticed black stuff surrounding the diamonds on the ring. Mindy admitted they had not cleaned it beforehand. Why wouldn’t you want it to look its best when a customer is picking up??? After cleaning it, we noticed the diamonds were placed crooked on the band and the lines that were cut into the band weren’t straight and had major imperfections.

When we pointed this out - Mindy kept saying she could not see what we saw, even with her magnified glass. I had to draw on a piece of paper the issues. Shouldn’t a jeweler see these things if the customer could with the naked eye??

We agreed to bring the ring back that following week.

The next day - a diamond had already fallen out. We called to ask for a refund because at this point, they butchered our ring that was perfect when we gave it to them.

Mindy was rude on the phone to my fiancé and hung up on him. The experience was so unprofessional that we felt the need to have an officer show up to the one on one meeting with Mindy and her husband to discuss the refund. We did not feel safe going in without someone to keep the peace. Mindy’s temperament on the phone did not give us confidence that it would be handled professionally.

During the discussion, I was accused of tampering with the ring (that I had only had for 17 hours) and she accused me of trying to take the ring the day prior without paying! Then proceeded to call me a liar. I was shocked that a jeweler would accuse me of such things when they completely ruined our property! How could they be trying to turn this on us? They had the ring in their possession longer than we had, at that point.

They did not listen to our concerns or try to find a resolution. They were rude and took no ownership of the fact that they had ruined our ring. They did not seem to understand how horrible this was and that we no longer trusted them with our property.

I took the ring down the street to another jeweler to have them inspect it. Come to find out, they shattered THREE diamonds, soldered the stone onto the band with different colors of metal, and scratched the band down the side. At this point we have mismatched metals on the ring, scratches all over the band, diamonds that are not straight, and 4 diamonds that were ruined.

We left with 50% of our money refunded to us. This was not an acceptable answer. Not only did they ruin one of the most exciting times of our lives, they stole money from us and left us with a ring that now needs more work than when we started.

Do not entertain this jeweler. Read the reviews on their page. Do not risk your items being damaged and more importantly, don’t risk running into an issue that they will not resolve as business owners. They are snakes.

I repeat DO NOT USE...

The business is likely to fabricate lies and deny all wrongdoing as this seems to be their attitude to any inconveniences they cause.

If you are reading this, you might as well take up the hobby of jewelry making because you could do a better job than Barron Jewelers. Actually, I've never seen a piece of jewelry in worse shape than the piece I received back from Barron Jewelers.

Jewelers are expected to pay attention to fine detail. They did not clean the ring they remade for us, did not make a ring that was uniform or aligned, and did not make a ring that the stones will stay inside. There was absolutely zero attention to detail on our ring.

Jewelers are expected to create quality work that they are proud of. Instead, we received a ring with smashed stones, crooked alignment, and smudges all over due to not cleaning. They made a dream ring a nightmare.

At very least, I expect a business to treat me fairly and respectfully. The second I started asking for a refund, the owners were yelling over me and ignoring me. Then hung up on me. Afterwards, I received a call stating that I hung up on them, this is not the case. In order to proceed with "looking at options" Barron Jewelers forced us to come in in-person so they can "see the ring". They had it two weeks when we only had it two days. They knew the ring better than we did at this point. They didn't need to see the ring, they just wanted to make excuses for every little issue that was identified.

I had to bring the police with me to proceed with a refund because the business refused to acknowledge their lack of quality and delivery. Even with the police there, it took about 2 hours to come to any resolution. Still I only received 50% back for the ring they ruined.

These are the most unprofessional people I have ever worked with and they are a disgrace to the community.

If you find an issue with your piece of jewelry that Barron Jewelers promised to fix, they will probably blame you for rushing them, or for having too many requirements, or for being unreasonable. In reality, they are the unreasonable ones.

You can find better service at a check-in counter at the airport or at the customer service counter at Walmart.

Please do...

I am not one to ever write poorly of local businesses as I know how hard it is for them to maintain sales.

However, I had to write this about Barron’s Jewelers. In the past I have taken small things to them to adjust (links in a watch bracelet) or polishing of some jewelry.

This last experience regarding the ring my Mother gave me over 20 years ago will be the last time I will patron Barron. I took the ring in to get a new stone set after it popped out. I had done this once before years ago in the City and had no problems. I was given a quote. And started waiting, and waiting and waiting. Barron is notoriously bad at communication. Not returning calls, voicemail, etc. The one time I called to check on the status and they answered it had been at the shop for over a week. Thank you for telling me. I went in… and was devastated. They had changed the design of the entire ring to accommodate the stone. It looked nothing like it did originally. I was shocked, appalled and angered that without consultation or approval that someone would have the audacity to change the design so dramatically. I basically told them to return it to normal and I would be back. Many weeks later I called to get status and was finally told it was done.

I go in… and it looked like a completely different ring again. If that actually WAS my original ring, it must have been melted down, and reforged into something that had a different width (it was a uniform band before), more rounded and hollowed out underneath, all to accommodate the stone depth again. Meanwhile, the point of the stone actually hurts because it is exposed to the skin underneath.

I was not charged. I didn’t even care. I would have paid DOUBLE to have the ring back that my Mother gave me. It has been ruined and now I’ll probably have to resort to having a custom one made to the tune of several hundred dollars. Every morning I have reached to take it off out of habit before I get ready for the day and it is no longer there.

Avoid this place. The communication is terrible and you’re much better off spending your money at some business that will care....