Helzberg Diamonds — Local services in Wichita

When a company or business owner is unable to provide a certain service for someone, what they can still do is treat the customer with respect and kindness. Unfortunately, that was not the experience which my husband and I had at the Towne East Helzberg Diamonds this afternoon, 7/23/20. We spoke with two representatives regarding my husband’s rose gold wedding ring, which broke in half yesterday while he was in a swimming pool. The first employee who spoke with us was a young woman, and she was kind and respectful. (Thank you!) She agreed that a gold ring should not break, especially in less than 3 years (it was purchased in Dec. 2017). After speaking with her manager, her sentiments changed to, “Jewelry does break sometimes, and I’ve seen this happen before.” This was an unfortunate turn of events, but she continued to be respectful and patient, which is the most important aspect of good business.

We then spoke with the manager, who approached us from the beginning with an aggressive and condescending tone and demeanor. She repeatedly asserted that we had damaged the ring in an “incident,” though we explained that my husband was literally under water when the ring broke. She informed us that it could not have been ‘normal wear and tear’ (and we agreed that it was certainly not normal!). Because we had only been able to retrieve half the ring from the bottom of the pool, the manager informed us that our Lifetime Warranty would not cover the damage.

My husband does not engage in any high-contact activities with his hands, and we all agreed that a gold ring should not break in 2.5 years. It was disappointing, no doubt, that the store was unwilling to stand behind their product and was unable to provide any recompense through the Lifetime Warranty. But the true failure -- professional and personal -- was the manner in which the manager spoke to us, effectively blaming us for the damage and showing absolutely no sympathy for the fact that we had lost our investment (as well as an important, meaningful object).

Had we only spoken with the first employee, our experience may have been positive; many thanks, again, to her. But if the manager with whom we spoke makes a habit of speaking to others the way she spoke to us, I feel terribly sorry for all those who work with or are served by her. I hope that she was simply having a bad day, or perhaps had other motives for being rude to us in particular. My husband and I are calm, easy-going people, but today my peace and patience were put to the test. I have always had positive experiences at Helzberg stores in both Kansas and California prior to today, but now my faith in both their products and their...

Last Saturday my boyfriend(Corey) and his nephew(Keegen) we’re walking into the mall and I said to Corey, “you want to look at some rings?” We were outside of the store, lingering, when Annie said, do you want to come check out some rings? I said I don’t know.... and looked at Corey. She said, all you have to do is step inside. He slowly stepped inside she said, yay he stepped in! This is how it all began. Corey and I go to places and as soon as we think we are going to be cheated, mistreated, or just don’t like the service we find a way to walk out. We didn’t plan on looking at rings this day, but we did. I picked out an engagement ring that I fell in love with. We were then educated on everything about the ring, what we should be looking for, and finance options. Now Keegen is seven years old and asks a lot of questions and asks for attention once he warms up to you. Annie, Sarrina and Kyle were very attentive to not only us, but to Keegen. I left for a while for an appointment and came back. Corey was somewhere else in the mall. He told me there were a few more rings to look at. I said there are other jewelry stores... we looked at them and they just weren’t the same atmosphere or the friendliness we were looking for. Usually when we buy something like this, we want it to be forever. We want the company to be someone we feel comfortable going back to. Annie, Sarrina and Kyle made this experience personal, listen to everything we had to say, gave advice, and made Keegen feel comfortable enough to start talking(he’s shy). Not only did I learn something about rings and diamonds, about the fact that my boyfriend felt this particular way about me, but I also learned that this was the place to go. This...

I purchased a ring from Helzberg, and had my own stone, and prongs added to it.

I paid it off on layaway within a month since I bought it, and had it sent to their jewelers to be resized, add the stone, and prongs. I paid for the lifetime warranty which covered sizing and prongs.

After receiving the ring back, getting the warranty card, and everything, we found out the ring size was incorrect by about 3 sizes. I went back to have it resized (which was supposed to be covered, and FREE with the warranty), to which they responded that they didn’t have a warranty on file, despite the fact that I had the warranty card, and that I still had a $100+ balance due on my layaway. All of this due to a “computer error”. ALL despite the fact that I had receipts showing I paid the full amounts, and paid additional for the prongs.

I sat in the store discussing the matter with the employees, one of which was extremely rude the entire time and treated me like I hadn’t just paid nearly $1000 for a ring.

I’m not one to get upset about minor errors, I’m in customer service and almost 100% of the time sympathetic to employees in customer service, but absolutely terrible service, and some of the worst I’d ever experienced. So in order for the ring to get resized I was essentially forced to pay the remaining balance I had on the layaway or I had to forfeit my warranty.

If it wasn’t for the fact that I now have a warranty, I would literally never go back to this...