Comments on: People’s Jewellers Complaint

By: Evelyne

Evelyne — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:03:17 +0000

I do not buy rings with the expectation that the stones will regularly fall out because I am “active”. I am an office worker, not a labourer. I bought a mother’s pride ring from peoples at Bayshore in Ottawa for $700 just over a year ago, and I’ve had two stones fall out already. Lesson learned - I should have visited this site before I bought anything from peoples.

By: surprised

surprised — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 07:17:43 +0000

I just have a few things to say in response to some of these comments i have read. I have shopped at peoples for over 20 yrs and have purchased a lot of jewellery. I have never had the kind of experiences that are described on the website and have a very hard time believing that no one was willing to help you. I have had stones fall out and I have always been taken care of very well at Peoples. I also know that it is very easy to break a chain if it is worn all the time and it can come from any store and still happen. Perhaps it is easy to blame the company, but truthfully if you know jewellery, then you will know that gold is a soft metal and alot of rings now have small claws on them that compared to a solitaire ring for instance…a lot of women are very active and dont realize that they have hit their ring on something because you wont feel it…i have seen friends with custom work who have still had issues not from Peoples…and I love that all i need to do is take my ring in for inspection every 6 months and if something happens to my diamonds, it is taken care of for me. I once was shovelling my snow and a diamond fell out of my 3 stone ring. No questions were asked, it was simply sent out and taken care of for me. THe diamond bond doesnt cost you anything and the protection plan has paid for itself through the times that i have had the ring professionally cleaned and polished and for the sizing as well. We are all human and make mistakes, I am pretty sure that we can all admit that we havent handled every situation with people in our lives perfectly every time…whether it is work related or personal…so to not give peoples or its employees a second chance does seem a little extreme

By: Colleen

Colleen — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 18:30:31 +0000

My son bought his girlfriend a ring for christmas. She had it sized through peoples. She got it back and wore it for about a month and the diamond fell out. He bought a lifetime warranty on the ring as it is more of an engagement ring than a promise ring he intended it to be. She took it in with the warranty and receipt. They were not going to fix it. After much arguing they finally did send it away. I will never ever shop there again as the Manager and employees in the sunridge mall location in Calgary are extremely rude. They don’t even acknowledge your presence when looking. I have told my sons girlfriend she had better take it else where to be appraised afterwards as they will probably replace it with a cubic zerconia. Very Very Poor service. I really can’t believe they are still in business.

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 09:57:35 +0000

I sure am happy I stumbled across this site. I was just browsing engagement rings. Spence Diamonds will get my business. After the way you poor souls have been treated, Peoples will not get a single dime from me.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 03:41:15 +0000

After my last experience I will never buy anything from People’s again.
While in Toronto in September, I purchased an three stone Opal ring, surrounded with diamonds. I paid $500 for it, not a lot of money but enough for an Opal ring.
After I returned to Calgary, I noticed that some of the claws on the sides of the ring were really sharp. Since I had purchased the lifetime warrenty and the ring needed sizing I went to People’s in Market Mall. I had some other jewelery that I took in to have repairs done, as well as the ring. I had to wait over three weeks to pick up the work. When I called to ask if everything was in, the woman on the other end of the phone said “did they call you about your Opal ring?” I said “no, what about my ring” “Oh, well it wasn’t worth fixing so we sent a ring from our store to be sized”
I own a lot of opal jewelery, mainly because I love them and my birthday happens to be in October. I said to the woman “what if I don’t like the stones in the ring from your store?” she said “if you don’t like it, you don’t have to take it”
The next night I went to the People’s store and picked up my ring. It was not as nice as the ring I had purchased and the middle, larger, Opal had a flaw across the bottom of the stone. I asked the store manager if she could not see the flaw and the stone wasn’t as nice as the ring I had and she said yes I see the flaw and if you don’t like the ring you don’t have to take it. I couldn’t believe that a 500 dollar ring wasn’t worth fixing. I asked if the centre stone of my ring could be put into the ring they had sent out and the manager told me that no they couldn’t do that becasue the heat would damage the opal. I told her they got the stones into the ring somehow. The Store Manager, Belinda, told me that I would have to go around to other People Stores and find a ring that I was happy with. The other jewelery repairs were $160 on top of the $500 I already paid for the ring.
I went to four People stores before I found a ring at Cross Iron Mills that compared to the ring I had bought. I spoke to the Store Manager there and she asked if she could send my ring out for an estimate regarding fixing it. I thought, oh no, here we go again. I agreed on one condition, that the ring they had in their store be put on hold and if the repair guy didn’t want to fix my ring, that they send the ring that was on hold to be sized. She agreed. Three weeks later I went to pick up my ring and they fixed it. Though my ring is now wearable, I won’t buy so much as a paper bag from People’s in the future.
I really hope that People’s Head Office gets wind of this site as they really need to pump up the Customer Service in most of their stores.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 19:27:00 +0000

I went to People’s for a repair on a necklace that was purchased at a different store. I chose them because they had sign saying one hour repair. It was weekend and the guy said the person who can do what I need will be there tomorrow and my neclace will be ready by 5pm the next day. I agreed. When I went back at scheduled time, the neckalce was still not done and I asked to have it back. The guy went to the back, put some glue on my necklace really quick and came back 5 min later telling me is still unfinished, but he will still charge me for the service even though job was unfinished (it needed some adjustments). I am very disappointed because he lied to me “we are all about customer service” and he didn’t return me the broken necklace when I asked for it because he really wanted to charge me. Shame on you People! I hope the message gets to people before they spend their money with dishonest people.

By: Darlene Martin

Darlene Martin — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:45:51 +0000

I have the lifetime replacement warranty. Diamond fell out. they had the ring was in for a month, when I got it back not nearly the quality that was in there before. Will be complaining today, will keep posted

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 01:20:51 +0000

I received my wedding band today via their online store and I’ve never been so disappointed. I should have read all these reviews beforehand. I thought they would be as trustworthy as Bluenile, but I was wrong. I was so happy when the package arrived, but it was in a FedEx bubble envelope - free to move around. I expected the ring box to be secured or at least wrapped in bubble wrap, but it was not secured by ANYTHING and the ring fell out of the ring box during shipping (moving around freely and in the corner of the envelop). The ring box was also BROKEN. I would have expected better packaging for something worth a few hundred dollars. I called customer service and she said they never get complaints about the packaging for shipping and to go into a store to return it. I plan to return it and never shop there again.

If anyone is looking to purchase jewelery online, I highly recommend Bluenile their products, shipping, and customer service are all an A+.

By: Shady

Shady — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:28:45 +0000

My boyfriend bought me a beautiful promise ring and we went to go get it sized, white gold plated, and polished. Two weeks later we picked it up. Major problems. They claim they “forgot” to change the gold plated part to white (wth??) and it’s so freakin tight that it hurts to actually wear (leaves a mark on my finger). Not only that, but not even a full day of me wearing it, I noticed a diamond is missing! I am so upset because my boyfriend did a very thoughtful and sweet gesture of getting me this ring and we patiently waited for this disaster of an experience! He purchased the lifetime warranty which makes me feel bad because they are such liars! How does a big manufacturing company like People’s not double check their work before they send it back to their customers? How do they just “forget” to do what’s requested and paid for? I just don’t get it. And yes you would think “People’s is a reliable jeweler with good quality”..right? Don’t think so. Honestly as beautiful as the ring is, I feel that my boyfriend got cheated with this purchase and I want him to get a refund and buy a ring from somewhere else. I’m so upset and dissapointed, so is he!

By: Shady

Shady — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 20:17:02 +0000

they are terrible!

By: Arin

Arin — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 21:15:01 +0000

I got my engagement ring from people’s and went there to buy out wedding bands. When my ring went to get sized they filed the band so thin it will wear through within 3 years. I was at another jewellers and he asked if he could look at it. He said its a gorgeous ring but it ha not been properly sized and that it was very shoddy work. Our wedding bands finally came in from being sized and we wanted them engraved. 80$ a ring and they’d be gone for 3-4 weeks. The jeweler that warned me about my ring said he would engrave on site for 30$ a piece. I went to get them engraved and he refused to engrave my fiances ring because it was hollow! A fact we were NOT made aware of when we bought it from people’s. I brought both rings back to people’s and stated my concerns and complaints. When we were hopping we made the salesperson aware that my fiancé works with his hands, a lot. Looking for the strongest possible gold ring, our hollow ring being their “most durable” gold band, something that if banged on a counter will dent.when speaking with the manager she told me that,yes, my ring is in need of getting fixed. But my fiances ring is our own fault and that’ve are out of luck with it. Then proceeded to tell me that it is not their responsibility to tell customers the ring is hollow and that the reason we weren’t told it was hollow is because the girl didn’t know what she was talking about and was fired after we bought out rings. Stating that the independent jewellers we saw was being crooked and trying to steal their business and was saying anything to steal their business. We are now stuck with a ring that he can’t even wear at work and that isn’t engrave able unless we want to loose it for a month. My ring already needs to be sent away for 2 weeks to be rhodium plated. I will never go back to people’s again, even though all of our rings have the lifetime warranty. They are a bunch of crooks who can’t take responsibility for their employees

By: Riley

Riley — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 18:34:57 +0000

Thank you for these posts. I was seriously considering buying a stone and ring from Peoples. I knew that they would be more expensive than a local jeweller, the only question was going to be how much more. I don’t mind paying more for quality service, a lifetime guarantee and peace of mind, however, if the difference was sufficiently large, I was going to go with a local jeweller.
Peoples made me what I thought was a very good offer. They showed me a stone, the certificate, and allowed me to view it at 10x magnification and it was very stunning. They quoted it at $7200 but offered a 25% discount. They said that this stone was being held for another client, but that they could have a very similar stone in the store in a few days to show me. They called me a few days later to tell me that the stone was in store and that I could view it at my leisure, I went the very next day.
This time the 10x magnification loupe was not presented to me. I thought this was odd and asked to see the certificate. The colour and inclusion grades were 2 grades lower than the “very similar” stone I was previously able to thoroughly inspect. It was also 0.96 carats (for those of you who don’t know, there’s a pretty big price jump from just under a carat to a carat). Lying by omission, strike one.
I kept quiet and said that I would like some time to consider my options and asked how soon I would have to act before they would sell the stone to another buyer. He said, “Today. We have another buyer ready to purchase and the stone ships to another store tonight.” Wait a sec… yesterday I could come in at my leisure, but today this is a time limited opportunity? Lying directly, strike two.
I left the store, indicating that I would call them by the end of the business day with my decision. I was still considering them. Yes, they were trying to make the price sound like an amazing steal, but in the end, the price of the stone was in the ballpark. Also, I can forgive the “limited time only!” sales tactics, every company does it and I’d probably embellish my own situation a little if I thought they’d knock a few hundred of the price tag. In the end, having a life time guarantee on the ring and knowing that I would get high quality jewellery from a professional store was very important to me.
I then came home and read these posts. Strike three…. and four and five and six. Thank you all for contributing. If it’s any consulation for all of your troubles, I really do believe you have saved me from having to go through these experiences also.

Riley, Toronto

By: Michelle

Michelle — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:18:50 +0000

Wow! I thought that I was the only one with a problem with products at People’s! I wish my now husband would have seen this page before he purchased my ring…maybe a LOT of my headaches would not have been happening now!
Here’s my story:
I went into to People’s in YORKDALE MALL, Toronto, Ontario. I wanted to know if they could re-size my wedding band as only the engagement ring was sized. I went into the store the associate told me that I would need to bring in my original warranty and I said fine. My ring wasn’t looking as shiny as it probably should so she offered to clean it for me! I said sure and in my rings went into this little electric machine that moved from left to right as it completed its job (like it has done SEVERAL times before, with my rings) The lady took the rings out, she looked at them briefly and then I examined them! Only to notice that two stones were missing!!! The associate inspected again then had to confirm whether or not they were going to be able to fix my rings (mind you, the diamonds fell out in their machine)! Anyway she took my rings and created an order form to sent it off to get fixed, that was May 17, 2012. On June 8, 2012, I called People’s to find out where my ring was because now it was 3 weeks. The associate stated the ring came back into the store on the 1st and was sent BACK out on the 4th because the stone that they used to replace the missing one was a “dead stone”. I let her know that I was happy that she made that decision however, I expressed my disappointment in her or anyone not calling me to update me. She apologized and told me that my rings should be back into the store by the following week which would be June 11-15, 2012. Since she had no specific date I waited patiently. I waited until after 4pm on Friday evening. I called the story and the associate that answered proceeded to go into detail about my product. I told her that I was not interested in hearing again what happened to my rings just an answer as to when I can come into the store and pick it up. She told me that the ring was not in but should be in the following week. On Thursday June 21, 2012, I got the call that I had been waiting for! My ring was ready! I was so excited! I was unable to pick it up on Thursday but went to pick it on Friday evening. When I went into the store, I walked right over to an associate who was assisting me. She gave me my rings and I inspected them! Taking key note of the “dead stones….YES PLURAL” on the side of my ring! I asked her if she was kidding. I told her that this was getting ridiculous. The ring was sent back to the jeweler because of “dead stones” and now I am still getting the same “dead stones”?? I was livid but my friend was right beside me helping me to maintain my composure. The associate tried her best but her lack of concern or even remorse was only making my anger rise and so I began to speak loudly in the store obviously peaking the curiosity of customers and other associates alike! There was another associate at the back of the store who made the dumbest comment! She told me that staff members do “quality control” on the products that come in. (Blank stare…really???) So I asked her if she was confirming that someone is not doing their job?? Obviously she had nothing more to say after that because the timing of her comment was completely off and she was only agitating the situation.
I am currently waiting to speak with the manager, Cathy Trota, who is on vacation and will be returning to work tomorrow. I will also be making a call to the head office, 1-800-211-2272 for resolve on this issue! I am going to be leaving the country in a week and the only thing that I want is my ring…in the SAME condition that it was bought at which is the same condition that I brought it to the store in on May 17, 2012.
I will update this post when I hear back from Cathy at some point tomorrow.
Michelle Toronto, Ontario

By: Lainey

Lainey — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 04:05:03 +0000

Just a little add on… If the staff were knowledgable they would know that “oxidization” would appear darkened or black and could be cleaned off. My necklace sold as 10K gold appeared more like it was gold filled. A term used to describe jewelry made of base metal (commonly brass or copper) covered by sheets of gold bonded to the base by a mechanical process. In my case, the yellow plating was wearing off.

By: Lainey

Lainey — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 03:14:44 +0000

Three weeks ago I purchased a $600 yellow gold necklace with a 10K stamp on it at Peoples Jewellers. I purposely bought the item because it was 10K as gold plate and other junk jewelry cannot be worn all the time. A few days ago I took the necklace off and noticed strange pink and rusty color spots all over it. It looked more like a piece of copper with its gold plating wearing off. I called the People’s head office to enquire if this has ever happened before. They told me “no” and that I should return it to the store. When I brought it back to the People’s store, the staff acted as though this was normal. They told me that gold oxidizes. I’m a woman in my mid-forties and never in my life have I owned a piece of 10K gold jewelry that changed color or tarnished. As I didn’t even own the piece for 30 days they did refund my money. However, the attitude of the staff members was terrible. I was not apologized to but rather scolded for not agreeing that gold will tarnish. Not only was I disappointed in my treatment but also concerned with the authenticity of their karat marked gold jewelry. — Winnipeg, MB