Tiffany & Co. — Local services in Walnut Creek

TL;DR: DO NOT BUY A TIFFANY ENGAGEMENT RING.

My engagement ring was three years old. Two of the prongs on the ring broke causing the center fancy diamond to fall out. There was no dramatic incident that happened that would have caused them to break.

Here's where I'll pick up the story.

I enter the store with my fiance seeking assistance. We're not offered water, a seat or ask if we need assistance, just a suspicious eye. After about 5-7 minutes of lingering around, we ask someone if they can help us with my ring missing the diamond.

Nicole, the associate, is probably the most reliable character in this story. She is apologetic, responsive and helpful throughout the ordeal. However, the company is not. The Walnut Creek store is not. While I think someone might look at the ring and tell me about my options for repair, she tells me it needs to go to New York for about a week.

Two months later, no ring. No communication. Many follow ups and only responses from Nicole. Without getting into the frustrating details, here's some things you should know:

You need to keep your CLEANING +INSPECTION RECEIPTS. I came to the Walnut Creek Tiffany's for YEARS. I don't even remember getting paperwork. Getting my ring inspected and cleaned pretty regularly - anytime I was downtown for more than a couple of hours, I'd go to the back room or counter, show my ID, drop off and pick up my ring after an hour or so. However, they claimed there was no receipts. No evidence I had ever been there at all-- I even had photos of a couple of my ring post-clean. This was nuts. Instead, I got a bunch of patronizing emails telling me I needed to care for my ring better- when those instructions had been followed all along. I don't know if this would have resulted responsibility on their end, or maybe just kinder emails- but the bottom line is- they don't keep records, and they will definitely hold it against you. Hence, why my review still reflects the Walnut Creek store.

NOT ALLOWED TO PICK A REPLACEMENT STONE. So. My biggest gripe with this whole process was that my fiance spent so much time picking a stone- picking its place of origin, its color, etc. Responsibility for the defect aside, I intended on getting it repaired. And, while I get there are constraints with settings, etc... this is not what I would expect from the brand.We were paying for the stone, but we couldn't pick out the stone we were paying for. Instead we were told we would get a diamond of "comprable value."

ESTIMATED VALUE - when asking for an estimate for the value of the remaining band and mele diamonds, they even refused to provide that information. I could ballpark and deduce, but they would not provide an estimate which was frustrating.

VERY POOR COMMUNICATION. Credit to Nicole - she was very responsive, but often didn't have answers that corporate needed to resolve. And they hardly communicated. I had to be extremely proactive, otherwise would likely have had little information about what happened to this ring, even while it was being appraised over weeks and months.

UNDER FIANCE NAME ONLY - I was gifted this ring. I took the ring for cleanings. I also took it in for repair. However, at various points, including pickup, and despite being instructed otherwise, I was only always listed as "c/o" This made it really difficult to track the ring at times and always took multiple looks ups to actually find the ring - and sadly, was not the reason for the poor communication (my fiance received no communication on status either).

So all, in all- I didn't really see an advantage in owning a Tiffany ring. While I understand what their warranties promise in writing, I still don't understand what their 'lifetime warranty' or 'lifetime of service' is actually supposed to DELIVER in actuality.

In reality there were, only big disadvantages - including poor prong quality, bad communication, did not meet timelines, extremely cold impersonal communication about an extremely personal and sentimental item, and just very...

If you are planning to buy an engagement ring for your beautiful fiance to be, do yourself a favor by avoiding this store and Tiffany brand. Read my story and pick anyone but them. My husband bought me an engagement ring not even three years ago. This summer I went to a restaurant and noticed that the diamond is not on my ring. I cried and was really distraught but we got lucky and located it. I took the diamond and the setting to the store where I was informed that the service warranty is only for one MONTH and that I have to pay for them to put the diamond back on. The prongs were not even crooked and the lady who works there confirmed it with me but service people said that my prongs were bent and that I had to pay. They took no responsibility whatsoever for their sub par quality engagement ring that fell apart after a couple of years of light wear. Also, I was faced with condescending staff that was competely not empathetic and wanted to get me off the phone quickly. Now, I have to pay $500 to put the diamond back on the ring, instead of them taking responsibility and doing it complimentary. After this happened to me, I googled about this problem and there are many more cases of the same thing happening where diamonds were lost never to be found. I was lucky that I was able to find it. I also read that Tiffany was bought by a much larger company and that is when their quality and customer service declined dramatically. My husband had a plan of upgrading the diamond for our 20th anniversary but this will not be...

My husband and I have been going to this Tiffany's store for a few years now, to get charms for my bracelet on special occasions, which was also purchased here. We have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars there, over that period of time. On November 5th, we made a trip there for my birthday, and when we walked up to the door, the door attendant was extremely rude, and it took us both aback, to the point that I was speechless for a moment. The first words out of his mouth weren't a greeting, like you would expect from an upscale store like this, he actually said, very loudly, without a bit of couth, "what are you here for?" And then when I couldn't find an answer because I was stunned, he got agitated, and said in a very condescending tone, "to shop or what??" I was floored! I did not get his name, but he was African- American. We drove close to two hours to go to this location for my birthday, when we could have gone to a store in Sacramento that's only an hour away, because we like this store, but he dampened our mood for sure. I gave the two stars for the salesman that helped us once we were actually in the store because he was very friendly and helpful. To sum this up, the door attendant needs a brush up on courtesy and professionalism when dealing with customers, because his behavior was...