Whitehall Jewelers 1

The only reason this company got a single star from me is because it doesn't allow you to give them zero! My husband purchased my engagement ring in December 2005. They didn't have my size in stock of course, so he knew he would have to wait until it came in, like most people do. They gave him what they called a "loaner" in the meantime. My husband is really weak when it comes to waiting, so he went ahead and proposed with the "loaner" ring. It was a size 7 and I wear a 4.5, so I had tons of string and tape wrapped around it just to keep it on my finger. We kept getting dates promised for my actual ring to come in and every time they would change the date and come up with tons of excuses. We wrote three letters to corporate and the manager at our local Whitehall (who was as helpful as she possibly could be) was on the phone with them taking notes on our situation at least once a week. We never got any kind of response from corporate after the letters. The ring didn't come in until March 2006...over three months after the purchase date! Our wedding date was in June, so it kind of cut it close, especially when there are so many other things to plan. They did give us a small discount, which was helpful, but I would've rather got a refund and purchased a ring from a store with much better customer service and etiquette. The only response the manager at our Whitehall store could get from corporate is that they were closed for Christmas...HELLO, I DONT THINK CHRISTMAS IS IN MARCH! Since then, I've had to have three of the smaller diamonds replaced in the ring and it's only been two years. The good thing is that repairs only take a week and I've never had a problem with that until now. We renewed our service contract on the ring for three more years in March 2008. We had no idea they had filed for bankruptcy until we went to the store in an attempt to get my ring refinished again and saw all the signs. This was extremely disturbing! We spoke with one of the employees and she gave us a number to call for our service plan (the company N.E.W.), saying that it would still be good until the date that it runs out but it will not be possible to get a renewal after that. Apparently, you're supposed to call the company, tell them your concerns, and they will send you a postage paid envelope to send your jewelry to them, then they repair it and send it back to you. So tonight, I called N.E.W., in hopes to get one of the postage paid envelopes to get my ring refinished. After a lot of confusion, the lady I spoke with said the system says that we purchased two different rings on the same day in March 2006, both different prices, but neither of them is the price we actually paid for the ring! The lady said that one of the rings has a service contract until March 2011 and the other ring's service contract ran out in March 2008. The only ring either of us has ever purchased from Whitehall is my engagement ring because we chose to get our bands from a much more reliable company (Helzberg--I definitely recommend them!). The lady at N.E.W. basically said there was nothing she could do for me because that's the only information she had, even though I had the receipts right in front of me to give her all the information. The only thing she suggested is that I go by the Whitehall store that we bought the ring from and try to get their records straight and then maybe they will be able to help me. If they can't do anything about it, I guess we're S.O.L. and the $128 we paid for the service plan renewal goes right down the drain! The only other plan I have is to hopefully find somewhere reliable that will reset the diamonds and allow me to insure everything after that has been done. We should have seen this coming a long time ago! This company is a disgrace and I am ashamed that we ever put faith in them!!