33 Jewels at El Paseo — Local services in Santa Barbara

We had an heirloom ring from my wife's family. 33 Jewels removed the stones and used them for my wife's engagement ring/wedding band.

The problems began when I went to pick up the ring and Diane botched the billing. Originally I put down a deposit of $400 for a ring estimated around $700. When I picked up the ring, the price of had risen to over $900, and I was only credited with a $160 deposit. I paid another $700+ out the door. At the time, this wasn't a huge issue because we planned on getting our wedding bands from 33 Jewels. We thought could recover the discrepancy when we paid for the bands, so I called 33 Jewels to inform them. They agreed the billing was wrong, and credited our account. Unfortunately, this was just the first warning sign.

We went back to 33 Jewels to design the wedding bands. I picked out my band, but my wife couldn't make a decision. When paying for my band, I reminded Diane about the billing discrepancy and showed her the two receipts. She agreed that a mistake had been made, but she was unable to access the credit on my account due to "computer problems." We were naive and believed that the credit would just go towards paying for my wife's wedding band, so again I payed full price out the door for my band. My wife went back a couple weeks later to finish the design of her ring, and we were told the rings would both by ready by the end of May.

We called a couple times in May, asking when to expect the rings to be ready for pickup. We were constantly told "soon." Again, this was no issue, as our wedding wasn't until the end of July, so we had plenty of time. As June came to a close, Diane stopped returning our phone calls. My wife called her 3-5 times with no calls returned. As July began, we started to get worried. I contacted 33 Jewels as well, leaving messages both on the machine and with her associates. I never received a return phone call.

We live a couple hours outside of Santa Barbara, so it's difficult to stop by the store in person. As 33 Jewels was not returning any of our calls, I was forced to make a special trip to SB to figure out what was going on. This was the second week in July, and our wedding was about two weeks away. I showed up at the store and Diane still did not have any answers for me. I told her she needed to have the rings ready by the following Monday or we were going to have to look elsewhere for wedding bands. Diane called my wife later that week, and told her the rings would be ready the following Wednesday.

My wife went to pick up the rings. When paying for the ring, she was only credited with the $140 deposit difference, with no explanation as to why the ring price increased over $200 from the original quote. It was too late to make other arrangements at that point, so we decided to leave it alone.

Less than 4 months later, my wife discovered that 2 stones from her wedding band had fallen out. 2 stones that are essentially irreplaceable, as they were handed down through 3 generations in her family. She was devastated, especially because she is extremely careful with her rings (taking them off to cook, clean, etc). We called Diane to inform her of the situation and left a message on their machine when they didn't pick up. Again, no response.

After over a week with no returned calls, we took the rings into a local jeweler for inspection. They confirmed that there was no damage to the rings, meaning my wife had not caused the stones to fall out. If we had purchased the ring from them, they would have replaced the stones at no cost.

I finally got Diane on the phone after another week of un-returned calls. She blamed the phone company for not returning our calls, and blamed the "old stones" for cracking and falling out of the ring on their own. At no point did she offer to repair the ring or replace the stones, only making excuses. So we are done with Diane and 33 Jewels.

Diane, if you see this, I hope this helps you understand why we are so...

We visited a few jewelers in town and were greeted with the obligatory, "Let me know what you like?" Well, we had some idea. But after seeing some pieces we liked, sticker shock left us a bit defeated. Could I afford something we like or will we just settle for something we kinda like? Ugh!

Upon leaving a neighboring jeweler, we saw necklaces in the 33Jewels window and walked in. We were warmly welcomed in with beverages by Diane, the owner. From the moment she invited us to sit, she genuinely wanted to know us, our story, how we met, how we got to this point. We felt so at home. We weren't simply a sale to her. She recognized the weight of this decision and how much of a grind it can be.

Like I said we didn't quite know exactly what we liked. As she listened and scribbled notes attentively, she picked out a number of rings, eager to see what aspects we loved. My fiance found that what she thought she wanted changed after our meeting with Diane. She also gave us some homework to find some inspiration on Pinterest.

After we found something we absolutely loved, Diane invited me to come back alone, this time. We discussed budget. I felt that this big decision should cost me something but should not put me into debt. She wanted to make this possible for us and was so creative in how she made it happen.

The ring fell within budget even as a custom piece. I wanted a ring that was unique and really had the essence of my fiance, fun, classic but also adventurously untraditional. While my fiance knew vaguely how the ring might look, the ring was completely unique, fresh, while looking incredibly vintage. Wish I could post a photo of the ring here.

I felt so cared for in the way Diane took us through the process. She really is more...

I had an appointment with Diane in May 2024. I left 3 gems with them to make proposals on the designs we talked about. On the deposit sheet the date for an initial design was 5/17. I had some travel for work, but followed up (via email and phone) in June, July and August. The one time I got them on the phone I was assured Diane would call me the next day. She did not. Finally in September I came by the store front and asked for my gems back, Diane said she had my designs and was going to email me that day, latest the following. And she did not, no email no phone call. I came by the day following and asked for them back again, only to be told that they’re in a separate safe, that they cannot access on Sundays. Diane promised to call me the next day (today) and make arrangements to get me back my gems but again no call, no email. And after all this no designs either have been shared.

At this point they’ve held my valuables for over four months with no communication until I chase them down and weren’t able to even give me back my possessions when asked. I will have to keep messaging until I do, which is very frustrating. I am sure this is probably an except and not normal business but I would be remiss for not reporting it as I read these reviews before selecting 33 jewels to work with on...