What a dissapointment!!!

<p>I've never known a company(or perhaps this is a store level, giving a company a bad reputation) to fail in every imaginable and unimaginable way!</p> <p>My boyfriend decided in around March that he was ready to propose - we live in KZN & at the time he was travelling to JHB on Monday and back on a Friday - this being said he went to Eastrand Mall to buy a ring.</p> <p>He bought the ring and it needed to be resized, which East rand mall wouldn't have been able to do in time - so he took the ring, decided he'd propose and we'd have the ring sized in KZN (Gateway was the closest store to us). When he'd bought the ring, Eastrand Mall had agreed that he could have the ring sized to the size that we needed it. (it needed to be 5 sizes bigger)</p> <p>He proposed and off we went to Sterns Gateway Mall to have the ring sized - and this is where our headaches started... imagine you've just gotten engaged, you've spent a fortune on an engagement ring, we're excited and happy for the new chapter in our lives - get there and the staff in Sterns say no sorry, we can't size this ring *dissapointment* - so we explain that Eastrand Mall had confirmed that the ring could be sized, this conversation must have lasted over an hour, until eventually the woman agreed that the ring could in fact be sized.</p> <p> </p> <p>We got the ring back a week later (which I'd say isn't too bad) - and it was the correct size!!</p> <p> </p> <p>Fast forward a couple of months - around <strong>August</strong> my fiance and i go to Sterns Gateway to buy Wedding bands for the ring - we order <strong>two</strong> rose gold bands and about 4 - 5 weeks later - he gets a call that the bands are ready for collection (please take note here, the phone call was your bandS have arrived, because we'd ordered TWO)</p> <p>Off he goes to collect the bands, gets there to pick up TWO rose gold bands.... there is only ONE *seriously* The order says two bands, you've phoned and said two bands - so why when you get there, would there only be one band? Why wasn't this checked when the order arrived?</p> <p>By now the staff in the store know him by name.</p> <p> </p> <p>Another 6 weeks go by and we get a call - hi you can come and collect your bands - so my fiance says, are you sure both are there now? please double check? Yes Mr D****** both bands are here.</p> <p> </p> <p>We left the bands for a couple of weeks - and went to pick them up around 21 December. Now when someone picks up expensive jewellery - I would imagine that a Jewellery store would provide Valuation Certificates for the items, without being asked - so that you can have these items insured?</p> <p>This wasn't the case when we went to collect the bands on 21 December. During this encounter in the store - my fiance had once again had an altercation with the store manager and some of the staff, which led to him saying to the Store Manager that he had gotten to the point where he actually would rather just return the engagement ring and the bands and get a full refund - and she was quite happy to do this, she said to him go and get the engagement ring, i'll give you a refund....</p> <p>I was shocked - i wasn't in the store with my fiance, i was in another store, my phone rang - and he says to me bring me your engagement ring, they're going to refund me.</p> <p>I don't know if it's just me, i don't think it is - but an engagement ring is something sentimental - and especially when someone has gone and picked out a ring specifically for you, without your involvement, being told to give it back there'll be a refund actually isn't a very nice feeling. AND i would have thought that a store manager would want to fix the problem, not fix the problem by making it go away???? How did you get to being a Store Manager then, because that isn't how you fix problems - you are there to represent a brand.</p> <p> </p> <p>I didn't give my ring back! But because tempers were running high - we didn't think of asking for the certificates at that point in time either - and realized when we got home and put the rings in the safe.</p> <p><strong>26 December</strong> we pop in to Sterns Gateway - early morning - and the staff see my fiance & I walk in the door and everyone starts dissapearing, no one makes eye contact - we walk up to the counter and the Store Manager sees us from the office - and comes out of the office - so we ask, weren't we meant to be issued with Valuation Certificates for the bands? Of course she says - didn't you get them (*sigh* - what sort of a question is that, would we have come back to a busy Mall, in the Holidays if we'd been issued with the necessary?)</p> <p>She then says well the lady that does the certificates isn't in right now - can we wait half an hour, will we be in the mall? So I say no we won't - and ask her if they can prepare the certificate and give us a call when they're ready and we'll come and collect.</p> <p>Sure she says no problem - we'll get a call in the next hour and we can come and collect when we're ready.</p> <p>No surprise - we got a call <strong>at 20.00 on 27 December </strong>saying the certificates were ready for collection - thank goodness we didn't wait around in the mall - it would have been a long wait.</p> <p> </p> <p>We've subsequently been away - and went in to Sterns Gateway yesterday - 2 January 2017 to pick up the certificate - and as i've said in this trail of events, these people have called my fiance by his Last Name each time we've walked into the store. He will walk in and go his it's Bob (first name) - and they'd go oh Hi Mr D****** - so they know who he is.</p> <p>We pick up the certificate yesterday - walking out of the store he looks at the certificate and they've put his information on the certificate as Mr D Bob (i.e first letter of his last name & full name as his surname) - the frustration is too much - and I think that after what we've been through with this store they'd be extra vigilant with anything that they're doing for us? If i were the store manager I'd double check the certificate to ensure that it was 100% correct, before giving it to Bob? But clearly not - it's like they're enjoying wasting our time, and giving us a poor experience?</p> <p>So here is my next problem... On 24 December we noticed that one of the diamonds has fallen out of my engagement ring - so when we went in to the store on the 26th I asked the store manager what the process is?</p> <p>I was guaranteed that it can be fixed free of charge, since the ring is not a year old yet... and that I should bring it back after 5 January when the work shop will be open. But to be honest I am terrfied to say the very least - because we get married at the beginning of February - and based on the experience that we've had this far, I don't know if I will get my ring back in time, or if i'll even get my ring back???</p> <p> </p> <p>Is it just Sterns Gateway - or is this the service from the Sterns group in General?</p> <p>Getting engaged and choosing bands for our wedding was meant to be a happy experience - Sterns Gateway has managed to make it a shocking, unpleasant experience - i really didn't think you could mess up as badly as what you have, and I still have to go through another experience with you - and I am truly dreading it.</p> <p> </p>