I cruised with royal caribbean during the week of 11-oct-08 to 18-oct-08. While in phillipsburg, sm, I made a purchase of a diamond engagement ring at tanzanite international in wathey square. Upon returning to the ship, we noticed that the center stone was mounted crookedly, and took the ring to the onboard "shopping assistant" to discuss how we could go about getting the problem remedied. Unfortunately, a tropical storm decided to blow us out of puerto rico, so nothing could be fixed while on the ship. I filled out a "merchandise adjustment form" and agreed to having royal caribbean contact the dealer so that they could get in contact with me.



Upon returning to the states, I went to have the ring appraised at a reputable and trusted jeweler. It came as a bit of a shock when the jeweler took one look at the ring, and informed me that I had "been taken" by diamonds international (parent company to ti). The jeweler then proceeded to give me a laundry list of problems with the stone/setting/mounting that include the following highlights:



- the original diamond was over-priced and poorly cut.

- the stone was over sized for the setting that it was placed in and had to be forced into the setting.

- as a result of the stone being over sized and a complete mismatch for the setting, the di jeweler that mounted the stone had to do the following:



* one of the four prongs was broken off and then soldered back onto the ring. This resulted in a visible crack on the broken off prong and a possible weakness in the mount that could result in a lost stone.

* the other three prongs were just as atrocious. As the stone was originally cut funny, it fit into the setting crooked. This caused gaps in the other three sides that had to be filled in with a ridiculous amount of solder. The solder caused visible markings in the 3 remaining prongs and caused the center diamond to be both not square to the setting and caused the diamond to "run downhill.



- in addition to the center stone, the ring has a"pave"setting. Due to poor polishing and mounting, the di jeweler polished off the outside prongs on one whole side of the pave-setting. This will, most certainly, cause the outside diamonds to fall out much easier than they would if the prongs remained intact.

- as a result of having to shrink the size of the ring, the whole mounting is crooked and leans to the left. This can also be seen by the naked eye, and could result in an improper fit.



Di took almost 2 hours to mount and size this setting and diamond, and as a result of the store nearing closing hours, I feel that it was a rushed job and they butchered the ring. There's absolutely no way I could have ever proposed with this ring. Our family jeweler was appalled by this ring.



Upon contacting diamonds international and presenting them with this information, I was put in touch (and would continue for the next 6 months) with juan. I was informed that I was just having"buyers remorse"and there was nothing that they could do. I then had it professionally appraised by an independent appraiser where it was valued at $1200 less than what I had paid for it. Diamonds international then told me they didn't trust my appraiser, and needed to see it for themselves. For the next 6 months, I fought back and forth with them, reluctantly sending it back to them for appraisal, only to have them tell me that their appraiser found nothing wrong with it and that I was left with little options. Fed up, I finally told the guy on the line that I could no longer deal with him and needed to speak with someone else. I was finally put on with a manager, who told me that I would be able to get store credit. I told him that it was pointless to get store credit for"crap product"if it was just going to go back to more"crap product". Luckily, di sells loose stones. I purchased a loose diamond from them which I then put into a mount provided by the aforementioned trust-worthy jeweler.



I will never do business with this company again. Their business practices are vicious. They make every attempt to make you feel awful for trying to get your money back. Do not buy anything from them! Ever!