Sterling Jewelers

On Friday Dec 31, 2010 I went to Shaws Jewelry located at Lake forest Mall (701 Russell Avenue #H117 Gaithersburg M.D 20877) to purchase a pair of diamond earrings. Sales representative Ms. Nyein was assisting me in buying a new pair of diamond earrings. Due to the fact that the store did not have 1 karat diamond earrings in their store, I requested a discount on a new 1 ½ karat round diamond earrings that were going for about 2, 999, which was out of my budget. Ms. Nyein tried to talk to her manager Mr. Sang Park who refused to give me a discount and then offered to get one karat ear rings from Kay Jewelry which was going to be a little cheaper than 2, 999. Mr. Sang check his computer to see if they could order the ear rings from Kay Jewelry and that it was going to take between 5 to 10 minutes to make the order, to which I agreed. Mr. Sang sent Ms. Nyein to Kay jewelry and about 30 minutes later she returned with two sets of one karat earrings. One set looked like as if the round diamond was sitting on a little basket and the second pair looked like the round diamond was sitting on a white gold crown. I told the store manager Mr. Sang that I did not like the basket earring but I did like the set that appeared to be a round diamond on a crown. I purchased the earrings that looked like the round diamond was sitting on a crown for the amount of 1, 499.99 and in addition I purchased the lifetime warranty insurance for 129.99 with the total of 1719.99. I tried to put the ear rings on in the store but could not do it because my ear holes were closed. Ms. Nyein offered to re-pierce my ear holes by using the earrings that I just had purchased from that store. As I was leaving the store I noticed that I did not get a box for my new earrings so I ran back to the store to get the little case for the earrings.

On Thursday January 13, 2011 at approximately 11:00 a.m. I tried to return the earrings to the Montgomery Mall location (7101 Democracy Boulevard Bethesda M.D 20817) and one of the sales representative tried to persuade me to keep the ear rings because according to her they were good quality and I was not going to get that quality type of diamond ear rings anywhere else. I told her that I already had made up my mind and that I had no use for the ear rings so I wanted to return them. She called the Lake forest Mall location to let them know about how I wanted to return the earrings and if I could get a discount in order to entice me to keep the earrings. Whoever she spoke to give her instructed her to give me a 200 dollars discount but I still told her that I just wanted to return the diamond earrings. After failing to convince me to keep the earrings she stated that the earrings looked rusty/ bloody and that she could not take the diamond ear rings back and suggested that I should go back to Shaws at Lake Forest mall.
On Friday January 14, 2011 approximately 11:30 a.m. I went back to the store at Lake forest Mall. I tried to return the diamond earrings to store manager Mr. Sang and he checked out the earrings than he told me that he spoke to his boss and that he was willing to offer me 200 dollars off my purchase. Mr. Sang explained to me that even if I was to get 1 karat earrings on E-bay they would still not be as good quality as the one I purchased from his store, he also stated that what makes Shaw’s the best diamonds is not just the quality of diamond but also the insurance plan that I purchase from them. I told Mr. Sang that I would consider keeping the earrings because it sounded like a great deal. After about 15 minutes I changed my mind and he told me to wait a little bit. He came back and told me that he couldn’t accept the earrings back because they did not come from his store, I was shocked and confused. Mr. Sang explained that the number on my receipt did not match my earrings and that they don’t even sell that type of earrings at his store. He even pointed out that the diamond earrings that I purchased from them and intended to return look a little smaller than 1 Karat. I told Mr. Sang that I had no clue what he was talking about and that I was returning the same earrings that they sold me with my receipt. I was very upset and also pointed out that Ms. Nyein went to the Kay jewelry store at Lake forest mall to get the diamond earrings that I purchased from Shaw’s store at Lake forest mall because according to both Mr. Sang and Ms. Nyein they did not have any 1 karat diamond earrings at their store. As soon as I noticed that Mr. Sang was lying to my face I asked him if I could record his statement with my cell phone and he agreed. Mr. Sang stated that “the earrings that I purchased at his store did not match the earrings that I was trying to return and that they actually looked smaller than 1 karat diamond”. He also stated that Shaw’s did not carry that type of earring. I told him that I was bringing back the diamond earrings that they gave me and that I was sure they made some type of mistake, I also pointed out how Ms. Nyein went to Kay jewelry to get the diamond earrings that I purchased. Mr. Sang replied that he did sent Ms. Nyein to Kay jewelry to get the 1 Karat earrings for me but when she came back she found out that they did coincidentally had one pair of diamond earring in the back, so they did not use the diamond earrings they brought back from Kay Jewelry. I caught him in a lie and I was contradicting everything he said because he was lying about how the diamond earrings that I intended to return were not the ones they gave me or how they had a set of diamond earrings in the back but it took them 30 minutes to figure out that they had a set in the back. I demanded to go to Kay’s jewelry at Lake Forest mall to look at their diamond earrings to see if they actually had something that matches to the diamond earrings that Shaw’s sold me as 1 karat. We spoke to a Kay’s sales representative and she stated that they did not carry that type of diamond earrings. I was very upset and confused and wondered where they got the diamond earrings that they sold me. Mr. Sang and myself went back to Shaw’s I demanded to speak to their corporate office. They gave me a number to their Corporate Office [protected] I called that number to file a complaint and spoke to Ms. Shana extension 2652 from Shaw’s corporate and I asked her to review the cameras and she told me that her supervisor was out for lunch and that they were going to call me back between 1430 to 1630 but they never did.