Brilliant Earth — Local services in Santa Monica

One of the Worst Experiences I’ve Ever Had – DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!!!

The entire process with Brilliant Earth has been a nightmare. What should have been a simple resizing turned into a months-long ordeal that has completely ruined special time in our lives and STILL end up with NO RING.

To summarize a very long and frustrating story: On May 12, my boyfriend dropped off my engagement ring at the Santa Monica store (originally purchased at the La Jolla location) to get it resized. We were told the process would take a couple of weeks, but the ring wasn't ready until June 13, more than two weeks later than promised.

When we went to pick it up, we were shocked to find that they had completely altered my ring, changing the metal from yellow gold to white gold. It was an entirely different ring. This wasn't a miscommunication, it was a major mistake caused by incorrect instructions submitted by Dimitri Nardini, the associate at the Santa Monica location who processed the ring. That error alone turned the entire experience into a disaster. We had to send the ring back and wait again.

Even worse, no one from Brilliant Earth reached out to notify us of the mistake. We had to chase updates ourselves, doing our own follow-up just to get any answers. Dimitri did not reply to follow-up emails from my boyfriend asking for clarification and support. There was zero communication or accountability from him. We had to follow up ourselves not only with employee of the store but with corporate just to get basic answers. The lack of professionalism and basic courtesy was astounding.

On July 3, we returned again hoping to finally pick up the corrected ring, but the craftsmanship was just awful. The side stones were asymmetrical, the prongs were all different sizes, and it looked sloppy and poorly made. See last three (3) attached photos, which I took in store. Once again, we had to escalate the issue ourselves because the sense of urgency in communication to us as paying customers was nonexistent.

Eventually, we got someone from corporate involved, Jillian J., Customer Experience Associate, Resolutions, hoping that corporate oversight would fix the problem. It didn’t. We were sent photos of the “corrected” ring, on July 28th, and the quality was still terrible. First two of the attached photos ("professional" photos at warehouse) show the ring after corporate stepped in, which is honestly a joke. If this is the standard Jillian and the corporate office signs off on, it says everything about how little this company actually cares. She might want to reconsider whether she's in the right role, because we saw no resolution and no urgency to fix what had become an exhausting, months-long issue, other than offering empty words of sympathy.

Brilliant Earth markets itself as a premium brand, but what we experienced was sloppy work, poor internal communication, and total disregard for the emotional importance of an engagement ring. I would rather go to Kay Jewelers.

This review could easily be three pages long if I outlined everything in detail but I’ve wasted too much time on this company.

I would NEVER RECOMMEND Brilliant Earth to anyone. They’ve wasted our time and energy. They have caused so much heartache. Lost memories. A complete disappointment from...

Highly inept organization incapable of responding to the most basic of issues I began engaging Brilliant Earth about substituting a non-diamond sidestone on December 20th. January 5th I was on a call to place the order as they are unable to do customized orders online. The call took 25 minutes where the rep had to re-enter all the information on my order, which was previously communicated via email. This included a previous undisclosed upsell of additional insurance. On January 9th, having not received any written communication I requested the order confirmation, which I received January 11th, 6 days after placing the order. I immediately responded, noting that the diamond on the final order was incorrect. Smaller than desired,but higher quality than needed. The following occurred over the course of the 19 days, 4 phone calls totalling at least 57 minutes and 18 emails. On Jan 18th, I was emailed, stating they attempted to call me (they did not) and to call back. This call back was to discuss a replacement diamond as the diamond I originally desired was not available. I agreed to the replacement. On January 21st, I was notified that my order was ready for pickup-with a confirmation that matched the original, incorrect diamond. On the 25th, I was emailed again requesting that I call them back due to an issue with my order-the order that was already at the pickup location. Due to the timeline with my pre-planned proposal, I picked up the ring while under the impression that I would be refunded the amount due ($430) due to the size difference between excessively high quality diamond that BE installed, and the cost of an equivalently sized diamond of the originally desired quality. The refunds were discussed pre-delivery, during a post proposal followup call initiated by BE and an email conversation that BE since stopped responding to. They’ve admitted to me they are understaffed, and it’s clear their front line reps are not empowered to do anything. After my terrible experience, I was able to find information buried in other reviews stating that they actively suppress their reviews by tying refunds to NDAs, resulting in better than realistic impressions. Do your research before buying and don’t trust them to accomplish anything other than a basic...

I really like Brilliant Earth (carbon capture lab-grown diamonds are so cool!), but the behind-the-scenes teams are a truly colossal mess. This location is just so short-staffed that they have a harder time dealing with those teams and their own issues, so major things fall through the cracks far more than those other showrooms.

The first time we went, they didn't have 2/3 of the rings we had asked to look at all (not even in different sizes or colors). They said if we gave them a chance and came back in a month, they'd get the rest. So we scheduled another meeting appointment a month later. A few days out, they send an automated email to reconfirm which rings. Then two days before we go in, they let us know they still don't have 1/2 of them. Turns out the last person we worked with got fired and no one ever picked up their old responsibilities. We were reassigned to Dimitri, who put in a heroic effort at the last minute, helped me choose a ring, and looked into whether I could get a slight modification (I could not). But when I tried to order it a couple days later, Brilliant Earth let's me know that the ring has been discontinued, they're not selling my size anymore (just "running out" the large sizes). The Operations Team never told Dimitri it was discontinued, so Dimitri promised to get the "customization" fee waived for me in time by the deadline we discussed.

Update #1: Dimitri & Olivia managed to get us the other two rings, waive the customization fee, and fight to extend a promo for us that expired while they were working on it. While the mess that was left behind for them to clean up was a headache for them and for us, they busted their asses to clean it up. They're rockstars, but I hope they get reinforcements soon.

Update #2: Corporate Brilliant Earth reached out, heard the whole story, and offered us a discount on the second ring. I'm grateful they listened to the whole story, especially that Dimitri & Olivia (and the showroom staff in general) are not to blame. This is a cool company that has so much potential if they get more showroom staff and better organized behind-the-scenes teams. At least this location really advocates for you against Brilliant Earth’s truly debilitating behind-the-scenes...