BUYING A CZ ENGAGEMENT RING?

True story:

A couple comes into the jewelry store to get her engagement ring sized while they wait.

She’s happy and smiling. He’s happy and smiling. Everybody’s happy…

Too bad it didn’t stay like that.

By the time they left, he was mad, she was screaming and I was left holding the ring.

Let me explain.

They come in because she needs her engagement ring sized.

She wants it done today.

No problem. We can do that.

She takes off her ring and sets it on the counter. I proceed to size her finger.

I start writing up a repair slip as she’s giving her engagement ring a pouty face because she doesn’t want to part with it.

Once the form is filled out, she hands the ring over to me waving bye-bye to it.

I look at the ring.

I’m shocked.

It’s a fake.

The stone is obviously not a real diamond. It’s a CZ (cubic zirconia).

I can tell instantly from the amount of color play in the stone. It has a lot of fire.

I diamond test the stone just to be sure.

Yes, it’s fake.

I look up at the couple, they’re still smiling. I figure they know it’s a CZ. Still not a problem.

“Give me a second,” I say “I need to show this to the jeweler to see if there are any concerns with sizing it.”

She stops me before I go “Concerns?“

“Yes,” I said “I need to see if he can size this ring as is, or if he needs to take the stone out of the mounting first.”

I say this because you can’t put heat to CZ’s. CZ’s will crack and explode under heat or pressure.

And of course, I don’t want to ruin their pretty, little CZ stone.

He’s no longer smiling.

Neither is she.

She looks at him for a second then says to me “Why would they have to remove the diamond?” (she didn’t like the sound of that…)

I take a quick, deep breath. This could get ugly. She thinks it’s a diamond.

Uh-Oh!

He takes a step back so she can’t see him and starts flagging his hands at me wildly.

Oh crap.

It’s one of THOSE situations…

“Is there something wrong with the diamond?” She asked.

I look at him, he’s panicking and waving his hands at his neck line like ‘Cut it out.‘

That’s about the time that she turns to him, sees what he’s doing and blurts “What’s wrong with the diamond, fool?”

She now has a little anger in her voice.

He fumbles, comes back to the counter “Can’t the jeweler just size the diamond?”

He winks at me.

I nod…

“Let me find out.” I smile.

As I turn to leave I can hear him saying to her “Don’t worry baby, ain’t nothing wrong with your diamond.”

Her reply is “And it’s a real diamond?“

LOL

I’d hate to be in his shoes.

I show the ring to the jeweler. The CZ is bezel set (see picture) and will need to come out of the mounting in order to size it. Oh boy! I had a sneaky feeling…

I go back out.

She’s leaning on the counter and he’s now pacing the floor.

“The jeweler can size the ring, but he has to remove the stone first to size it.” I say “It’s not a big deal, but it will take him a little bit longer” (notice I never called it a diamond).

“Are you kidding me?”

She says and looks at the pacing man. “Did you hear that? They have to remove the stone” (She knows something’s up). “What aren’t you telling me?”

She turns back to me and comes right out with it:

“Is it a real diamond?”

He’s coming back quickly to the counter again making all sorts of crazy hand signals (which looks more like fists to me).

I hesitate and take another deep breath. I don’t want to be in the middle of this mess. I don’t want to lie either. But I also don’t want to get punched.

My face said it all.

(I didn’t have to say a word.)

“IT’S A FAKE!” She suddenly screams.

She literally exploded with it. It was like watching Fire Starter.

She turned to him and went off, yelling and cussing and punching his arm for a good ten minutes. I stepped back from all of the action. His waving finally turned into begging and pleading. She’s still screaming. My boss is looking out the office window… The guy is mumbling to her. I’ve never seen a woman so mad. She was furious. “How could you? I showed that ring to my mother!”

Finally she turns back to me and smiles. “We won’t be needing the ring sized anymore.“

OUCH!

He’s trying to grab her arm. She’s yanking away still cursing under her breath. They make their way out of the store, but not before he gives me one final nasty look as the door hits him in the…

Moral of the story:

If you buy her a CZ as an engagement ring, sooner or later, she WILL find out.

And when she does, it’s not going to be pretty.

You may fool her once, but not for long. CZ’s are brittle, can chip easily, plus, they’ll dull up and lose their sparkle.

They do NOT make good engagement rings (unlike these beautiful engagement rings here at James Allen).

It’s only a matter of time before she spots the fake…

And I fear, she may be looking at you.

Cheers! :)