Ring Anxiety

I have to vent some frustration about the wonderful jewelry company of Zales and their amazing ability to screw up my wedding ring. When Deric and I went looking for rings, I thought I wanted one style and ended up designing a ring that is completely different than I ever thought I would get-actually the completely opposite of what I wanted. I guess I can't really say I designed it, but I did what no one had done at their store before. Anyway, I have a 3 stone ring with little ribbing on the sides of the stones. I added a plain band to the top and bottom of the ring to make it as a whole a wider banded ring. I LOVE my ring. The only reason we bought it from Zales was because they were the only store that had the ring with the ribbing on the sides and it totally makes a difference to me. This picture of a ring, isn't my ring and it doesn't do my ring justice, but it's the closest I could find. :) So here's where my frustration lies. Deric bought this ring with a pretty penny (aren't all rings that way?) I expected it to have it my entire life. We got the lifetime warranty to secure that and all was good. Well more like 8 months out of the last year, I have been without my wedding ring.


One day we were turning into the mall parking lot and I was looking at it, thinking my center diamond looked cracked. I asked Deric what he thought and he said the same thing, so we took it into Zales (which we had just gone 8 weeks without it for the yearly re-dipping and had just gotten it back). They informed us that it's a crack under the surface but that we need to send it in to get the diamond replaced. They said it would take about 8 weeks and that they would call us when it gets in. 9 weeks later, I call... no freakin answer. I call about a dozen times and FINALLY around 12 weeks, they answer, informing me that it's been in for 3 weeks and have been waiting for us to come pick it up. I ask why they never called like they said they would and get really no answer. So someone in our family goes and picks it up (not me or Deric) and when I get it back to Roosevelt, I look and low and behold-my diamond is STILL cracked. I immediately call Zales, asking for an explanation. They said they don't know, according to the paperwork, the diamond WAS replaced. They are going to look into it and call me back. Low and behold-guess who never called back? That's right-Zales. So I keep pestering and pestering and never got any response, then life got busy and I forgot.

Well guess what happened last month when we went to get it cleaned for it's regular checkup? That's right, the saleslady said the ring was cracked and the diamond would need to be replaced. So we did this whole thing ALL over again. Then... when Deric went to pick it up on Friday, the diamond is still cracked. The saleslady said he would have to come back the next day and speak to the manager after he explained all this. well.. guess what lady? We live freakin 2 1/2 hours away! It's not like it doesn't cost us anything to go out there! So... to finish a long story on a short note-Deric is calling the manger today-insisting SOMETHING be done. This is pretty ridiculous to me! I'm pretty sure if they'll give us our money back, we're getting a different ring elsewhere. Who knows-we will see what happens.