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Blue Nile Jewelry Scams and Consumer Complaints
Source
Last Christmas, my husband bought me some garnet & diamond earrings
from BlueNile.com. A few weeks
ago, due to some wacky physical comedy involving spilled water &
a grated Parmesan cheese explosion, one of the earrings was inadvertently
swept up and thrown away, never to be seen again. When I deduced
this, I was completely distraught, as I am a sentimental sort.
The next day, I emailed Blue Nile’s Customer Service
department, explaining the situation involving my garnet and diamond
studs, and asked if there was any way to purchase one earring. Honestly,
I expected bad news, but thought that it couldn’t hurt to ask. Then
” Diamond and Jewelry Consultant” Terri Brown wrote me back saying:
“We can help you replace your missing earring at half the price
of a new pair of pre-set diamond stud earrings, but we’ll want to
make special arrangements to make sure you end up with a well matched
pair of earrings. What we’ll have you do is mail back your remaining
single earring, and then we’ll send back a new pair of earrings
so that we can be assured of the best match between the diamonds.
I would suggest contacting us by phone to make these arrangements.
You can call us at 1-800-242-2728 Monday - Friday 5 A.M. - 9 P.M.
and Saturday - Sunday 6 A.M. - 7 P.M. Pacific and any consultant
you reach will be able to assist you.” I was ecstatic. I went home
and told my husband the good news. It turns out that he and emailed
them the same day and he, too, had been told a replacement was possible.
A few days later, he called the toll-free number
to set the replacement process in motion. That’s where the ecstasy
ends, as he was told that Terri Brown was mistaken, only diamond
studs are eligible for this service and Terri Brown’s mistake, it
seems, was our misfortune. This matter was then turned over to me
as my husband is the yelling and hanging up sort and has learned
not to engage and alienate them forever. I called Blue Nile back
and explained the situation to a customer service rep on the other
end of the phone. He “understood my frustration” but was “unable
to authorize a replacement.” I explained that this situation made
it quite unlikely that I was ever going to spend any more money
with Blue Nile because, while I now understood the literal policy,
I was still led to believe that my earring was replaceable for 1/2
the cost of the pair. As was my husband. I was then told that a
supervisor would call me within 24 hours. 24 hours passed, nothing.
I called back again, nothing.
5 days later, I called back and spoke with ANOTHER
representative, who gave me the same explanation. I was told that
the other two representatives I had spoken to were “temporary employees.”
Not my problem. I was told that Terri Brown must have misinterpreted
my original email (which clearly stated they were garnet & diamond
studs, not just diamond studs), and that his email was a template.
Again, I informed him that their misinformation should not be my
problem, and what’s more, I have been waiting for some sort of definitive
answer to my question for almost a week. I said that I was beginning
to feel as though they just wanted me to go away and give up, but
made it clear that I would not, and that, frankly, this runaround
was severely decreasingly the likelihood that I would ever buy anything
from them again, let alone give them $150 to replace the earrings. |