Mervis Diamond Importers — Local services in Washington

This review is long overdue but I couldn't not do it. Men's engagement rings are hard to find, especially if you want a larger stone but not a solitaire. My (then-soon-to-be) fiancé and I went into Mervis, planning mostly just to look around and see the kind of band thickness and diamond cut that he might want for his ring. Then we met Mika.

Mika sat us down, asked us plenty of questions about what we liked and didn't like, brought out stone after stone from their vault, and talked to us about pros and cons. Most importantly, she took the time to get to know us personally. Whenever one of us would say "I like the way this thing looks here," she would immediately tell us the name of the cut, setting, or feature we'd identified and explain more about it. Both my fiancé and I have very strong opinions, and about halfway into our roughly forty-minute conversation, Mika had our tastes down cold. She started to suggest things we hadn't considered, all of which were perfect, and then said, "Have you considered having it custom-made?"

I had already decided to have his ring custom designed, because nowhere I had seen had anything off-the-shelf he or I would like (both strongly opinionated, remember). Mika didn't press but measured his ring size and told me to reach out if I wanted to discuss more. Obviously, I did. When I went back in (not telling the fiancé), Mika sat down for another forty-five-minute conversation, where we decided everything from carat weight to cut to settings. We drew pictures, I told her exactly what I wanted, she re-drew everything and took my innumerable tiny modifications perfectly in stride to make sure she exactly captured what I was seeing in my head. I've never walked away from an interaction so perfectly convinced the other person knew exactly what I was talking about.

Mika took it from there. She talked to the designer constantly, checking back with me every week or so to update me on the progress and talk to me about the design choices they were making. She sent 3D images of the ring, and when I expressed concerns about some elements, she talked me through the structural needs of the ring design and told me they could achieve the effect I wanted without the things that concerned me. And she brought it all in at exactly the price point I told her I wanted to pay. (It was also about 75% of the appraised value, so--let's just say calling it a bargain would be an understatement.)

The result was beyond words. When Mika brought the finished ring to me for the first time, I could not stop staring. It had every detail perfect, everything I wanted precisely executed. I cannot say enough wonderful things about Mika and the entire process. She got to know us as individuals and as a couple, took all our idiosyncratic tastes, and brought us the most brilliant engagement ring possible. I cannot recommend her enough. Thank you so much, Mika, for giving us such a wonderful gift to start our marriage. You are a treasure.

(He said "of course," by the way. And still hasn't stopped saying "But have you seen my ring?" to pretty much...

This location has taken a terrible turn for the worse. When we went here to purchase an engagement ring, Kris, Dion and Angell made us comfortable with the idea of spending thousands. They were friendly, helpful and had impeccable attention to detail. Absolutely cannot say anything negative about them. They were around in 2016 when the purchase was made. We worked with Angell in 2017 when we went to a Verragio trunk show and were beginning to look at wedding bands.

More recently however, we have had the displeasure of working with Dodi and Maria. If we had not already known what we wanted and known this was one of the only places in the DMV, we would have walked right back out. The stone in my engagement ring was loose, which we pointed out to Maria when we walked in. She said "Oh! Don't worry about it, it's insured." Completely dismissing my concern for it and request to have it tightened. She tried to tell me that I should get a straight wedding band even though I had decided I wanted one that went around the setting of my engagement ring. I said I didn't like that they didn't match and left an uneven gap between the two items. She still dismissed me and said I didn't need to worry about it. She took my engagement ring back to get cleaned, it wasn't, because Dodi brought it out and asked us what we wanted. We referred to the conversation we had with Angell and she was so unhelpful there aren't even words. We had to pull and pry to get her to do anything and sit there and point out what we wanted to see and try on. She acted like a car salesman, barely listening to anything we said and acting like we held absolutely no value to her. Both women were dismissive and very disinterested in establishing any sort of customer relationship. When we called to check on the ring order since they also had my engagement ring, because of course she didn't follow up, Dodi didn't even know what we were talking about and again acted like it was of an inconvenience to her to inform us where our several thousand dollar items were after 5 weeks of hearing nothing. To make it worse, we ordered the rings saying we wanted a simple phrase engraved on them. She told us, once they finally were in, we needed to come try them on and then they would engrave them. When we took them in to get engraved we were told it would be an additional $100 EACH ring to do it. We were ever told about such a thing and the pricing was absolutely outrageous. I would NEVER recommend coming here if those two women are the ones you are working with. Horrible customer service and they do not leave you feeling confident at all about...

I heard about Tacori many years ago from a childhood friend who received a Tacori ring. I looked into the design and fell in love. I decided that when that time came for me, my request would be for a Tacori ring. My fiancee' is very sweet and aims to please and make me happy. I am so blessed :). When the time came, I googled where Tacori rings were sold. I did a lot of research regarding shopping for engagement rings and my fiancee' and I both listened to Ronnie Mervis' education regarding the 4C's on the Tacori website and I must say we both learned a lot. It was very helpful. Great job Sir & we hope to meet you someday :). In our continued research, we identified the D.C. location on our 3rd shopping attempt. Glad we ventured out, as they had the biggest selection. I must say, it's helpful when you can see the product first hand vice on-line, as the rings look much different most certainly when you try them on. Ladies, keep in mind, that the ring should truly match your hand structure. A petite ring/smaller band wouldn't work for me. At the Mervis in D.C. we were introduced to Maria K., and I must say she is most certainly all about customer service. It comes naturally for her. Maria genuinely cares about her customers and offers great feedback. She was also very conscious in working w/in our budget. Maria also provided a comfortable method financially for obtaining the ring. My fiancee' and I both had a lot of questions, as generally an engagement ring is not a small purchase. Maria was very patient and addressed all of our questions putting us at ease esp me. My ring is on it's way and I can't wait to see the final outcome put together just for me by Tacori and thankfully made in the U.S.A. which we are most supportive of. Thank you also to the Mervis family for bringing in customer friendly staff, as it's truly about establishing comfort and trust w/ the customer. Sales are great, but the customer needs to feel valued and appreciated and Maria did this for us! Repeat business is then repeated and most times through word of mouth. Thank you Maria!...