Vail Creek Jewelry Designs — Local services in Turlock

I had the pleasure of entering this wonderful establishment with a gentleman who was interested in purchasing my Diamond ring. He had some trouble finding the GIA inscription since it was pear-shaped. To assure him, we chose this location to verify since it had incredible reviews and were sure we would not be disappointed.

When we first arrived we were welcomed and greeted kindly by the beautiful Alexandra Elizalde. She was warm and professional and very helpful with great respect. After some time, she still couldn’t find the inscription and apologized and asked for someone to assist us. John Clark then stepped in and was kind enough to give it a try. After his few attempts, he made it clear that GIA doesn’t ever make mistakes and advised the gentleman interested in purchasing the ring to be very careful. He went further on to speak about me and the ring possibly being untrustworthy to the man when I was the one taking care of and conversing on behalf of the gentleman, instead of speaking to me or perhaps to Us. He didn’t take any further attempts and advised the gentleman to pass on the ring—imposing his opinion heavily and doing so in a demeaning manner directly in front of me and my toddler. Being the original owner of the ring and having worked with the jeweler to have it created made me sure that there was a reason that this establishment here at Vail Creek Jewelry Designs was missing.

After driving from San Francisco, I headed back to meet with the jeweler in San Francisco who designed this ring for me immediately, as he welcomed me and accommodated me in finding what the reason was that John Clark failed to know. He explained to me, pear shapes are very tricky since they aren’t shaped in a symmetrical manner. An experienced jeweler with great knowledge would first understand this and thus, take further action to perhaps remove the Diamond from the setting to be absolutely sure. In this case it was necessary before concluding that a ring doesn’t have an inscription if the GIA certificate states that it does. As a result, we were able to clearly see the GIA inscription and match it directly to the certificate having followed these necessary steps prior to absolutely saying otherwise.

I was immensely disappointed to learn that such a great establishment as Vail Creek would have an apprentice jeweler as John Clark claiming to have over 30 years of experience represent and make such statements regarding a GIA certified Diamond on behalf of their company without taking more time to know or have the experience and knowledge to claim that a ring simply does not and cannot match the GIA certificate because he didn’t happen to see it. I am disappointed he wasn’t willing to have us work with someone more knowledgeable than him, to attempt to assist us rather than speak the way he did and conclude with great certainty and send us out on that note.

It’s sad that this is my only experience here and how I will always remember a great place turning out to be a horrible place because of one individual who left an imprint that was due to lack of knowledge, experience, and most of all, respect for...

I recently took my wedding rings in for repair. The prongs had worn down and the diamond had came out. This was the third time this had happened. About 18 years ago I had to have them resized, which was not a very good job.

When I took my rings in all I wanted was for them to be repaired and to fix where they had been resized. No where in my conversation with the jeweler did I say I wanted to redesign my rings.

He suggested I replace the main diamond with a larger man-made one, take my diamond and match it with a diamond he had in his inventory. He wanted to take mine and the one he had and place them on either side of the man made diamond.

The diamond on my ring is not a big diamond, but that’s okay with me. My rings have sentimental value to me. My husband and I will be married 49 years next month, my wedding rings are not what has made this marriage.

If I had gone the way he suggested it would have been about $7,000. What I wanted only cost $445.

He also stated that I could apply for credit. I am a banker and my husband and I are financially stable and do not need to apply for credit. I feel he assumed that was what was holding me back from not going the way he suggested.

I am very pleased with the way my rings turned out. The day we picked them up, I told my husband they looked as beautiful as the day he proposed to me.

However I was disappointed after driving just shy of an hour from my home in Dos Palos to Turlock when we went to pick my rings up. I tried to tell the jeweler how pleased I was with how my rings looked, he just brushed me off. I know they where busy that day, all he had to do was give me a minute of his time, not just 15 seconds. I guess he had bigger clients to take care of.

In 2021 we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary and had talked about going and having something designed for me. I may have to rethink...

Our (My boyfriend and I) experience was wonderful! Vail Creek was our first stop to look for my engagement ring. We looked online and Vail Creek had great reviews. And not only that, they are not a chain store. My boyfriend is big on helping support communities by choosing a family owned or privately owned business over a chain business. Ring shopping was completely new to us...so we had the mind set of looking around getting a feel for prices and styles (kind of like car shopping). We walked in to Vail Creek and were presented with great customer service by John. He was very patient and very helpful in listening to our interests and trying to find something in our price range. Little did we know, Our first stop would be our last stop! John helped us piece together the perfect engagement ring for me. Very quaint, very simple, yet very pretty. It is so me. And we were able to get our wedding bands as well. My future fiancé was very pleased with his ring and appreciated the one of a kind customer service. Exciting news.. Our rings will be ready for pick up tomorrow. John thank you for making our experience a memorable one! It was very pleasant and we were very happy with it! I would definitely recommend Vail Creek to anyone looking for fine jewelry and good old fashioned customer service. A very welcoming...