Birmingham Jewelry — Local services in Sterling Heights

We love Birmingham, so much so that I want to break this up into two reviews: a short one which hits the high points of why we love them (and why you will, too), and a longer one showing just how great they are (in case you have a bit more time, or want some more reasons to stop in).

In short: an old-school family owned business that clearly cares about what they do. They take their time to work with you and help you find what you want and like. They're friendly, and always go above and beyond. We've had the pleasure to work with Gregory and his wife Reba (apologies if I have misspelled), and it's a consistent experience across the board.

In detail: about a year and a half ago my wife and I were looking for engagement rings. My wife really wasn't sure what she wanted or might like. We needed ideas and decided visit some places. At that time, I lived near Birmingham. We saw they had great reviews and decided to go in. That first visit we met Gregory. He walked us through their selection. He was affable and made the whole experience a delight. This was the "first stop" on our ring shopping tour, and I think he sensed that. We left without making a purchase. A couple things stuck in my my from that day: his kindness in helping us get ideas, and just how low-pressure the situation actually was (more on this in a bit).

We visited another local jewelry store. It was nice enough, but it felt like there was pressure to make the sale. When we asked if they could do something custom they said "Absolutely! We can do anything you want. So, what do you want?" and then proceeded to rifle through rings. They also kept mentioning other things to sweeten the deal which, just felt like a bit much. We left the store that day and were simply exhausted. We couldn't have been in there more than 30 minutes. Maybe it was a bad day for them, or for us. Who knows? But as we left I said "We can try another place to get more ideas. But we both really liked Birmingham..." Remember how I said Birmingham was low-pressure? I didn't realize how low-pressure until this place. Also, I didn't realize just how confident Birmingham was in their business. They didn't push or prod. They honored where we were at, but also invested in us as customers by helping and spending time with us - and that's no small thing, especially when its their livelihood.

We never went to another place. We came back to Birmingham. Gregory and Reba were there that day. I think he enjoyed that we came back. Reba walked through various options with my wife and helped her zero in on her style. Reba was so discerning and helpful. It wasn't just about making a sale, but really finding something my wife would like and that would look nice on her.

I purchased a ring Gregory designed. Later, I briefly mentioned that I would be asking for my wife's parents' blessing the following week and that, if at all possible (though certainly not expected given everything we had put them through), it would be great to have the ring with me to show her parents. Reba nonchalantly noted it, but then made it happen! I figured it was a long shot, but was over-the-moon when it did. I know my in-laws loved it, too!

Fast forward to the present. I wanted to get a matching wedding band as a surprise for my wife. I contacted Birmingham through their website and got a response via text rather quickly. Reba didn't bat an eyelash about the surprise nature when I spoke with her on the phone. She told me the easiest way to make that happen and worked with me on the details. Again, zero pressure. Just over-and-above customer service.

If you've read this far, you should really just go find out for yourself. You won't be...

!!!BEWARE!!!

ILLEGAL, POORLY MADE JEWELRY WITH POOR COSTUMER SERVICE

The owner designed my engagement ring and was less than accommodating and extremely rude when I wanted to make a few tweaks to the design. He was extremely difficult to communicate with as he was taking my tweaks as an insult. He was so difficult to communicate with, his daughter and wife had to step in assisting in explaining the small changes I wanted and “calm” him down. We made it known, we were willing to pay for the changes as well, and were not asking for anything for free. He was so difficult, we just dropped the topic of any modifications entirely.

At the same time and giving him the benefit of the doubt, we had him make my wedding band. The end product was extremely poor quality. The prongs were never buffed and finished and were left in rough form. He cut corners and it looked awful. We had to have another jeweler fix it, even thought we paid for a finished product.

On top of being extremely difficult to work with, Birmingham Jewelry completely ripped us off.

After visiting a few reputable certified jewelers to have my rings fix, I found out that my rings are illegal because the owner did not to put a quality stamp and manufacturer stamp on the inside of either of my rings. The quality stamp is supposed to show the quality of the metal (14k, 12k, etc.) and the manufacturer stamp is which jeweler made it. Each jeweler is assigned their own stamp. There is a law in place that pieces of jewelry sold in the United States, must have both stamps. This law is in place to protect consumers and prevent jewelers from misrepresenting what they’re selling by saying a piece of jewelry is one thing and it be another (smaller caret weight etc). A receipt holds no weight when it comes to jewelry.

After receiving another appraisal from a certified appraiser, we learned the stones in my engagement ring were much, much smaller and worth much less than what was in Birmingham Jewelry’s appraisal, receipt and what we were told we were purchasing.

Birmingham Jewelry completely and intentionally misrepresented what we were paying good money for.

To top it all off, my husband’s tungsten carbine ring has completely tarnished, which is a sign of very cheap grade material and not jewelry quality.

I strongly suggest, if you have previously purchased jewelry from here, you check and see if there is both quality stamp and manufacturer stamp on the inside of your jewelry. If not, you may have been sold something completely different than what you were told you were purchasing and have most likely been ripped off.

If you have a special occasion in your life coming up, don’t let these fakes ruin it by giving them your hard earned money...

This business is really not honest. My wife got her wedding ring cut off when she was pregnant and they charged her $50 without telling us they were going to charge us. They said we could use it to resize the ring after her pregnancy. Upon returning they said it was $150 to get the ring connected back together and that they would have to add in a bunch of gold. Are you kidding me! We will be going elsewhere and likely be charged way less for better service.

Update: Thank you for tying to make it right and explain your pricing afterwards but we decided to take the ring to a different jeweler and they were appalled that anybody would cut a ring and bend it open like Birmingham jewelers had done. Just a heads up, sawing a ring off is a note gentle way to remove a ring without doing damage. By cutting and bending it loosened a few diamonds and fractured the metal and they said nobody does that in the business. The $50 deposit that was spring on us after the ring was cut seemed like a trap and felt like we were conned into it. I would have hoped they would have offered the money back to us. Thankfully a different jeweler was able to clean the ring, reconnect the ring flawlessly, re-coat it and reset all of the diamonds for $70. I would have loved to have given Birmingham our business because they are so local but the pricing was just too high and I felt like I was being taken...