Philadelphia Diamond Company — Local services in Philadelphia

This was such a disappointing experience. My fiance and I sought out this specific jeweler in March to create a custom engagement ring. We walked away from negotiations in August with nothing to show for it.

*Attitude/Lack of Customer Service: Mr. Black was, at all times, condescending, hard to pin down, and arrogant. With the exception of the deposit, he never provided any written/official estimates on the cost or the time it would take him to complete a design. He had a check-in offer listed on his Yelp page, but hesitated for a while when asked to use it. No reasoning provided. He didn’t make us feel welcome or comfortable during our appointments, and regularly talked over us, or down to us. He never even offered water or refreshments on hot days, even tho he has a mini fridge with these items near his desk.

*Won’t Provide Basic Services: During our first appointment, he showed us emeralds he had on-hand. They weren’t what I was hoping for, so I asked if he could get more stones to choose from. He essentially refused to find us other pieces because “they don’t sell well”, then went on to tell us that he’d these for several years already. We were left to find our own stone. When we did find one, he took every opportunity to disparage it (as you can see in his reply), pointing out the flaws and talking about how it would crack, although I had already noted the issues. This happened again when I said I wanted to include black diamonds in the piece, so we were forced to come up with our own options again.

*Lack of Preparedness: Mr. Black did not prepare for our first meeting at all. He was unable to recall the things we had already talked about and didn’t even have a copy of my scanned design ideas on-hand. He spent some of the meeting searching for them in his email, only to say he didn’t receive them.

*No Collaboration: Mr. Black claimed he loved artistry/custom pieces, but only had a superficial understanding of the symbolism we wanted to imbue in our ring, as if it was just a silly trend. He also had no idea how to collaborate. I brought in designs with the preface that I was open-minded, to see how he could improve on my ideas. I repeated this often, but he always used his slippery ways to corner me into moving forward with the design as drafted, rather than doing any actual work on it. The rendering that we received was so generic that it negated the point of a custom piece. Despite the fact that it was supposed to have been a final product, it was unfinished and did not include any of the feedback I provided. At that point it became so obvious that he didn’t care at all about what we hoped to create. When I mentioned this on the phone, he again tried to corner me by saying that the finished rendering would have everything that was missing…which completely misses the point of a rendering in the first place.

*Communication: The biggest issue of all—throughout the whole 5 months we worked together, he barely maintained contact with us, and ignored my phone calls altogether (but answered my fiance's sometimes). Few updates on the progress of the designs. One total call to check on our progress acquiring stones. Never transparent about the jewelry making process in general, so we had no idea what our next steps were from appointment to appointment. I often begged him to make an effort to contact us. He frequently ignored/never returned my phone calls. One glaring example of his lack of communication was near the end of our interaction—after receiving an (incomplete) rendering, I told him I’d send an email that evening with feedback. I believe a week went by without any response, so I called to check on things.

When he answered, he said he hadn’t received my email, so I asked why he hadn’t called or text to let me know he didn’t receive it. His response? “I have other clients that I’m working with.” And he had the nerve to sound upset, as if I was in the wrong for asking. That was the final straw. But honestly, I wasn’t surprised—he didn’t even have our numbers saved at this point, and barely...

I scheduled an appointment with Ken online for a Saturday morning, and I got a voicemail a few days later that he needed to cancel because he wasn't going to be open. I was like whatever it happens and rescheduled online for a Saturday morning two weeks later. Got a voicemail two days before the appointment saying Ken unfortunately needed to cancel because he was going to be out of town. At this point I'm upset because I've been cancelled on twice and my wedding is in a couple months. I called back and left a voicemail saying it was unacceptable to cancel on us twice and we wouldn't be rescheduling. He called back two times in a row, which I didn't answer because I was at work; it's very unprofessional to call a customer twice in a minute--obviously I didn't answer because I wasn't free. He left me a BS voicemail giving ME an attitude saying he didn't remember cancelling me before, but he was just calling because he needed details for our meeting or would need to cancel. This was a complete lie because I have a voicemail of him saying he needs to reschedule because he is going out of town--not to mention I filled in two pages of details when I scheduled online, both times. If he had apologized and admitted his mistake, I would not be writing this review. Lying to your customers is not good business practice and neither is cancelling twice--then forgetting you even cancelled in the...

Looking for the perfect jeweler, look no further. Mr. Kenyatta Black, of the Philadelphia Diamond Co. is your guy. We went to Mr. Black in search of a wedding ring, instead we got the most pleasurable experience that ended with the perfect ring. First of all, his establishment was nicely furnished and tastefully decorated. The atmosphere was most pleasurable, with soft music, plentiful jewelry displays, beverage options, and very comfortable. Mr. Black did not start with what he had to offer, but started our session with me and what my desires were. He took the time to get to know me by asking the right questions, and patiently listening to help me choose the perfect ring that was right for me. The right design, the perfect stone, along with Mr. Black’s professional ability and attention to detail, produced something truly amazing. The finished product definitely exceeded our expectations. Mr. Black never forgot our original conversation, and remained mindful to keep us within our budget. Mr. black guaranteed his product, along with advice for proper care. We came in for a ring, but left with so much more, along with a...