FRED MEYER JEWELERS DIAMONDS RIP-OFF...

I had never before bought diamonds from Fred Meyer Jewelers until  November of 2010; on the day of November13th I had been at my regular jeweler looking at a set of diamond studs, but did not buy them. Then, later on the same day, I stopped by Fred Meyer to do some grocery shopping, and on my way out just out of curiosity decided to stop by their jewelery store to see what they had for diamond studs -to this date, I still don't really know WHY I did this- The Sales Associate showed me this pretty, sparkly set of earrings which she said were 1 ct Diamond Princess Cut Earrings set on white gold, at some point during the process, I felt she was a little bit too pushy by insisting me to take advantage of the 10% off promotion that was going to expire the very same day (11/13/2010), also by offering to help me to apply for store credit. 

I was not fully convinced if I wanted them, but after her persistence I decided to buy them on store credit because she told me I would have 90 days to return them if I changed my mind.

Since I thought I had bought diamonds, I put them in my personal safe just like I treat all my jewelry pieces. Then when I finally made up my mind about returning them, I took them back to the store on December 04 of 2010 where to my huge surprise I found out I had received on the day of the purchase Cubic Zirconium instead, but paid the price of  diamonds, nevertheless.

Here is a copy of one of the consumer complaints I have posted on various websites.

Cubic Zirconium for Diamonds?? This is what Fred Meyer Jewelers sold to me at the price of diamonds...

"On November of 2010, in good faith I purchased at Fred Meyer/Littman Jewelers store (Meridian, ID), a pair of 14k white gold 1ctw Princess cut diamond earrings, which I kept in the original box they came in, then as a proactive security measure, I stored them in my personal safe, until when for personal reasons I changed my mind about keeping them. I went back to the store on December 4th, with the intention to return them, where the store manager, Josh Wittchow, performed an inspection on the diamonds (test I wasn't aware of since I'd never returned any piece of jewelry before), to my great astonishment he told me that they weren't diamonds but CUBIC ZIRCONIUM! I was so appalled just to think that they even came with a Gemological Science International report and that I had paid over $2, 000 for them as well!

Nevertheless, He did not take them back or gave me a refund for the fake diamonds but offered to communicate with their Loss Prevention Department and with the supplier of the diamonds to find out where the real ones were at, but to this date he never got back to me with any information.

What is really appalling to me, is the fact that if it wasn't for the fact that I decided to return them, I'd never had found out their Sales Associate, Susan Novak put fake merchandise in the box. I'm not expert on diamonds and to me anything that sparkles under their lights is a diamond.


Now after what happened to me, I question why is that jewelers only perform quality check on their diamonds when they've been returned, but not when the customer is buying them, to guarantee they're selling to the customer what they say it is even if the diamonds come with a Gemological Report?? 

So far FRED MEYER JEWELERS Corporate hasn't done any internal investigation to get to the bottom of the problem. When all this just had happened, I sent a written complaint to Peter M. Engel, President and he in reply delegated the problem to Abir Elaimy, Regional Supervisor, who called me not to get to a resolution to my complaint, but just to tell me they were a "very reputable nationwide jewelers", that their employees were diamond certified and she didn't think the earrings were switched at the store! She even got very upset when I brought up the issue of the employee who might have swapped the merchandise, and then suggested I did the swap at my home! She was the rudest person I have ever dealt with. They are not even willing to go over all the security tapes surrounding the dates since they received the earrings from their supplier until the date of the sale.

I filed a consumer complaint with the Attorney General Office of Idaho in hopes of obtaining some legal support. Unfortunately, that was not the case here. For the AGO to take action against this company or any other (to proceed to investigate any further and protect my rights as a consumer), it needs to have more than 1 complaint and so far mine is the only one. I'm sure there are more people out there who just like me, bought merchandise from this company and innocently thought they got diamonds but instead received cubic zirconium, but unfortunately theydon't know it yet.

On their response to the AGO and the BBB, Fred Meyer mentioned to show the videos of my visits to the store. How can they be 100% certain they gave me diamond earrings if they have not reviewed their surveillance videos from the date they received those particular earrings until the day they were sold to me? They may just discover that they in fact did not perform the "rigorous quality check" they say they did before I bought the diamond earrings; or perhaps, that the sales associate did not show me the merchandise she put in the store bag before she gave it to me.

I've tried to get support from the BBB, the AGO, Angie's List, but so far no one has done anything other than requesting a response from this company to my complaint. They all have accepted a written response but haven't taken any action to investigate the issue any further.

This is a true proof of how corporate America controls the organizations that are supposed to protect our consumer rights."

DON'T LET THIS HAPPENS TO YOU TOO!  Avoid this jeweler if you don't want to fall victim of diamond fraud.