Karadema Jewelers — Local services in Orlando

I needed to resize my wedding ring after some significant weight loss.

My mother recommended Karadema as the only jeweler she trusted. After all, my wedding ring used to belong to my father. There was an inscription inside the shank that we wanted to be preserved, and my mother felt confident that Karadema would handle it.

I mentioned this inscription when I dropped off the ring, and it was noted on the work order. After she inspected it, the person who helped me assured me this wouldn't be a problem for the jeweler.

Two issues bothered me.

The first was the length of time it took to do the job -- one week. It turns out the jeweler who did the work was out during that time. It drove me crazy to be without my wedding ring for a week. They could have told me this and I would have brought the ring back when the jeweler returned.

The second was that the inscription wasn't preserved at all. It's stretched, illegible, and completely ruined.

This inscription was on less than half of the interior shank. The manufacturer's mark was one the opposite side.

The jeweler preserved the manufacturer's mark and destroyed the inscription. There's a part of family history and an heirloom destroyed.

The ring resize was going down from 13 to 10.5.

If this was enough of a change that they could not promise to preserve the inscription, I don't know why they told me it was no problem.

When I picked up my ring a week later, they made no mention at all regarding the destruction of the inscription.

I'll say that the ring now fits perfectly, and they did a good job polishing it.

What bothered me was that they covered up the issue with the inscription or didn't call me before doing the work to say that it wouldn't be possible to resize the ring without damaging the inscription.

That shows a lack of integrity or attention to detail, something that ought to be important to a jeweler.

It broke my heart to call my mother to let her know that Karadema Jewelers ruined the inscription without any warning or notice. As I said, that was a family heirloom and a piece of our history.

I won't return to Karadema again because they didn't keep their word to protect the inscription and never notified me or apologized to me for screwing up the inscription.

Added after owner's response

I'm fascinated that the reply from Karadema uses libel and character assasination to respond to my review. Mohamed is being dishonest when he says that I didn't respond. When I posted this review, they contacted me to disagree and wanted me to edit or remove the review.

I have NO reason to lie. If I lied, I wouldn't have spoken about the things they did well. After all, I want the inscription. It simply isn't there. My wife and I spent a lot of time inspecting the ring.

As for the last line about true, honest, and loyal customers, this is another case of libel. I was quoted a price and I paid it without question or haggling. I am a customer. I also posted my honest review. However, I'm certainly not loyal to a business that tries to bully and lie about anyone who posts a review they don't like.

My review of Karadema stands as it is and will not change, despite the emotional and insulting reply from the store. I don't want to do business with people who treat paying customers like this just so they can polish...

Onsite repairs, bench jeweler and great people you can trust.

Great experience. Needed family heirloom fixed. Had been to a few places and still didn't feel comfortable with the shop or sending the ring for repair.

I have my mothers engagement ring. It was cut off her finger from an accident. The diamond is from my late father's side of the family. An heirloom.

I have been trying to find a place where they do onsite repairs and quite honestly someone who I felt comfortable talking to about the ring.

After reading a few reviews I went to meet with Mohamed, the owner. I explained my concerns. He actually validated my concerns and took an interest in the meaning of this ring to me. His onsite bench jeweler Pablo came out to look at the ring. He was awesome. Told me he could fix it. Still reluctantly handing over the ring for repair, I did.

It was fixed and done a few hours later. When I picked it up, Pablo (the bench jeweler) said he could see my hands were shaking and I wasn't comfortable leaving it there. He wanted me to have it back as quickly as possible.

It looks awesome!!! My mother is so happy!

If it's important to find a jeweler you can trust, with onsite repair and knowledgeable jewelers, you will definitely find this in Karadema's! ...

Unfortunately this will be my last transaction with karadema, my own grandmother and mother have been going to karadema since I was in diapers. My grandmother bought me a snake chain for Christmas 2 years ago and the necklace caught everything, my hair, my shirts, scarves. I constantly brought it back in for breaking which is understandable due to the chain being thin, but every time there would be thread and hair stuck in the whole chain, all through out it. And they saw that, every time and cleaned it for me. Well, this last time I brought it in, broken and explained the situation how I had been having problems since I got it and wanted to know if I could exchange it. He told me since it was broke that I couldn’t exchange it, understandably so. He said they would offer me what it’s worth in gold, and proceeded to offer me $40 for a necklace we bought with them for over $200. The lack of care for the situation and not trying to do anything to help me solve my problem just didn’t sit right with me, especially since I’m trying to be understanding of the whole situation. In turn, I got the necklace fixed with karadema for $27. Then, I took my business to a pawn shop and it worked out better for me. Sad we won’t be going back, but can’t risk something happening...