Helzberg Diamonds — Local services in Novi

My boyfriend and I decided to go to Twelve Oaks to look at engagement rings. The first store we came across was Helzberg. We walked in and a lovely woman showed us a few rings. We found one we liked, but as it was the first one we came across, we wanted to shop around for a bit. However, we did REALLY love the ring, and although we wanted to walk around a bit, we have every intention of coming back to buy the ring if we didn't fall in love with anything else. We wanted to customize a bit, so about 10 min into looking at around 5 or so rings, the sales woman referred us to the Gemologist (I believe thats what they said he was). She told him we found our ring (um...possibly?) and he took us into the office to go over some info about diamonds and look at the quality under the microscope. The ring was around $4k. They asked if we planned to buy today and we said it was very likely. OF COURSE, we expected sales tactics as you would anywhere. This gentleman was informative and went over our options for the customization. We at this point, had been in the store ~20 minutes.

We told him we were planning to walk around and maybe have some lunch and talk it over. He got another lady to go over the price of the stones we wanted to customize. She came into the room to pull up that info. She asked if we were buying today, we again said likely yes but that we wanted to get lunch. She then completely stopped discussing the stones she came in to look up. She asked us what was preventing us from going for this ring right now. We said we had just got there and started looking and wanted to discuss before making our decision. Again, I want to stress that we've been in the store around 25 min max. I said we were just going to walk to the food court and grab some lunch and discuss (and pop by a few other stores just to look).

She said "Okay, you want to put 10% down now?"

I told her No thanks, we'd like to discuss first. She sort of seemed annoyed (not completely rude but more like whatever) and pulled out a slip of paper with all these highlights on what to fill out. She told us to fill it out. She didn't really explain what it was for, just told us to fill it out. I'm assuming it was to hold the ring while we shopped? It asked for your name, phone, address, email, etc and some other things I didn't bother to read. I put just my name and told her we'd be back.

I've done sales before, and I get it. Its her job, they're supposed to try and close the deal. But to have 3 different people come at you within 20 minutes and then act like we just weren't serious enough to bother with us? We were feeling really great about it until that last woman. We left and were like "WOW, that got really pushy really fast!" We still liked the ring, as I said, we get how Sales can be, but we definitely left feeling a bit pressured.

We ended up at a different jewelry store, found a similar ring, and when they sat down to discuss our options they were so nice. All the employees stopped by to see what we were doing and were commenting on how beautiful it was and asking about our relationship. It was such a nice experience and it made us feel like the center of attention and like everyone there was genuinely happy for us and were happy they could help us find the perfect ring for us. It was a much better experience.

I won't give too few stars, because they were alright for the most part, but I wanted to share this experience so that maybe they'll check their practices and see if maybe we aren't the only customers ran off by aggressive sales tactics. Otherwise the first woman and the gemologist were sweet and...

I came here with my girl friend to look for engagement rings, and I ended up buying one there which was a huge mistake. The main reason I purchased a ring here was because Helzberg was offering 12 months interest free with $50 off every $500 dollars. The sales woman calculated how much the monthly payments would be. I was happy to what she said, so I bought the ring along with the warranty. A week later I got the bill in the mail, and pretty much everything that I was told in the store was a LIE. The monthly payment was double what I was told, the $50 off every $500 dollars was not applied and there was only 6 months interest free. When I went into the store and asked about everything, the store manager could only apologize and said it was wrong for her saleswoman to do that to me. The manager said that the 12 months interest free applied to a different line of credit that I was not approved for, and there was nothing she could do about. I returned the ring my girlfriend fell in-love with, because we did not want a ring knowing that we were SCAMMED. However, it was not just this single saleswoman that LIED to us, the 2 other salespeople were also in on the SCAM. We were the only ones in the store and the other salespeople were also helping us.

Furthermore, the extra warranty on the I purchased to protect the ring was very misleading. In the store, the saleswoman said you can bring the ring in every 6 months for cleaning, and if there's something wrong with the ring, Helzberg will replace it for free. However, when I got home and was reading the pamphlet I was given with the ring after I purchased it, the pamphlet stated that the ring has to be brought in every 6 months or the warranty would be voided. I wouldn't have bought the extra warranty if I had known this, because I know that we would forget to bring the ring into the store after a few years. (Just some more information the saleswoman misled me about)

In-store experience: The sales person was very pushy trying to get me to see how much money Helzberg would allow me to borrow after I told her I was just looking at rings. Also, when I asked her questions about the ring, she seemed irritated, and it seemed like she was only trying to please my girlfriend. I felt uneasy about my whole experience at Helzberg, but I put that feeling aside. My girlfriend loved the ring, and I was very excited too. The salespeople definitely TOOK ADVANTAGE of us. DO NOT BUY FROM...

Dealing with Helzberg Diamonds retail store and customer service has been a nightmare. The service people in the store were rude to me on multiple occasions. In order to have your ring (or other jewelry) inspected-which is a condition of the lifetime protection plan- you must bring your ring into the store every six months accompanied by a small piece of card stock paper that was provided to you. If for some reason you have misplaced this small document - it is a huge hassle for them - which they made me well aware of. I'm not sure why they don't have this information in a computer system. This isn't 1980 anymore. I had unusual circumstances that caused me to enter their store without my cards - having a baby, house fire/moving- which they were very unsympathetic to.

I also had purchased an engagement ring in 2007 which apparently is before they offered the lifetime protection plan- only a 3 year plan was available at that time. After my 3 year plan had expired, I inquired about getting the lifetime protection plan on my engagement ring. The twelve oaks mall store located in novi Michigan was unable to help me get a protection plan. They directed me to call their customer service 800 number. I called this number several times a week for 2 months trying to get a solution to my inquiry. Multiple associates promised they would return my callls- one individual did return my call, but could not offer a solution. Apparently only 1 person was able to help me- who seemed to never be at her desk. I grew tired of everyone passing the buck so I finally decided to speak with a supervisor. He was friendly enough, but unfortunalty was unable to fulfill my request. The ring is no longer for sale in the store so they are unable to connect a protection plan to it. Even though I purchased it there and have been taking it in for inspections for several years, they can not override their system. I was willing to pay the appropriate cost of the plan but they didn't want my money I guess.

They lost a customer in me. I will never shop there again and I would advise anyone reading this to do the same. Learn...