International Diamond Jewelers — Local services in Vandalia

I brought in some pieces that were left to me in my uncle's estate to be appraised and potentially sold today, an antique rope necklace, a 3 stone men's diamond ring, 2 Tag Hauyer watches and two other watches.

After initially being greeted and stating my interest, they took the pieces and proceeded to "appraise" them. They first dismissed the watches, claiming "they weren't worth much, but we really don't know much about watches..." then they moved to the antique necklace. He first asked how much we were looking to get out of it, and having done some research prior on gold prices currently for yellow 14k, (currently around $1100/oz, the necklace weighs 52g/1.824oz ), I said I'd like to get no less than $2500, as the necklace is in perfect shape and would only require a short cleaning in the ultrasonic cleaner before being put out for display. Now bear in mind, that it had been appraised in the past at a replacement cost of at least $10,000 and the appraiser at the time stated that as a one of a kind piece, it'd (the replacement) be unlikely to be of similar quality. The jeweler at IDJ, however said I wouldn't get anything close to what I was asking for it, more like $750... then he moved on to the ring.

Just under 1 carat total diamond weight in 18k gold. He claimed that the real value of the ring was in the gold alone, effectively dismissing the value of the stones. This ring was made in 1972, from a matched set of earrings and a pendant... all very good quality stones. The carat weight alone (combined), by my research- in the neighborhood of $2500 to $3500, depending on the exact individual stone qualities combined. He told us "maybe $200 at most" for just the gold in the ring. I don't know if he was hoping that by dismissing the value of the diamonds, that I'd just let them keep them if we had sold the ring (and presumably the necklace) with it, but I wasn't going to let that happen. My son and I packed up the items and left. I will never do business with them in the future, and I will not encourage anyone else to...

I use to like this place and would come here for all our families jewelry. Unfortunately i will not be back. My wife lost a stone in her wedding band and since we got the set there i called to get it fixed. The person on the phone said yeah we can repair it no problem and quoted me a price over the phone. I told the guy i would be back this weekend to drop it off and he said he would be there. So i get there and he WASNT there and i was informed that there is no way he should have quoted me a price because it has to be sent out for an estimate. So i was a little angry about that but hey everyone makes mistakes ill let this one go. So i decided to have them sent out for the estimate. They were given to the store on June 26th and was told they would be back by the 7th of july. This i thought was a pretty lengthy turn around time just for an estimate but was like well the 4th of july is coming up so maybe because of the holiday it will take longer. So fast forward until july 7th and still no rings and still no phone call. So i call up there and i get the excuse because of the 4th it might be delayed but they assured me they would be in by tuesday the 11th. Tues rolls around, no rings, no phone call. So i wait until friday and i contact the manager because at this point i dont want an estimate i just want them back and he says well they must be taking awhile because of the holiday! Ok that excuse is all used up..youve used it numerous times. Just give me my rings back. So he said he would call them and have them by july 19. Today is july 19th, they finally do have the rings but i recieved no phone call, i had to call them and i literally had to ask the guy if i could talk to explain the situation because he kept interrupting me and giving me THE SAME 4th of july run around and guess what still no estimate. So all that time im back at square one. I will DEF take my jewelry somewhere else to get fixed and will DEF NOT be buying any more jewelry from them. I hope this review helps someone else make a good choice for their...

I purchased a wedding ring here but unfortunately the marriage didn’t happen. I tried taking it back to see if I could get some of my money back, it was a $4,600 ring and was given a price of $400 for the ring. I said NO! After several trips to the back room with my ring to call the so called owner, I got a deal of half price of the ring in store credit because I said I wouldn’t take less than half price. When I found out it was in store credit I decided to hold off. I went back a year later and explained to them what happened previously and I wanted to get a ring for myself. It was the same thing, back in forth but now the in store credit was half off what I decided to buy but, it had to be at least $4k with a $2k taken off of that. The woman was very rude and said the ring had a lot of wear on it, actually, 3 days worth of wear. I asked her if she knew anything about jewelry and she said “ that’s what I do for a living “. Well how long does it take to clean a ring that was wore 3 days?? Apparently, she doesn’t know about jewelry. The ring is in brand new condition. I’ll continue to keep the ring seeing how I’m not hurting for money. I wouldn’t advise buying a gumball from this establishment. Be sure that, if you buy a ring from this place, it’s truly what you want because you’ll be stuck with it. I’d definitely check with a pawn shop before I’d ever go to this place. I see now why they’ve got four pages in the ads you get in the mail, they’re hard up. I’ll take the ring to a pawn shop for $200 before I’d spend a nickel at this place. Your life,...