MG
Mai-Ling Garcia
Sep 28, 2025
TL;DR: DO NOT BUY A TIFFANY ENGAGEMENT RING.
My engagement ring was three years old. Two of the prongs on the ring broke causing the center fancy diamond to fall out. There was no dramatic incident that happened that would have caused them to break.
Here's where I'll pick up the story.
I enter the store with my fiance seeking assistance. We're not offered water, a seat or ask if we need assistance, just a suspicious eye. After about 5-7 minutes of lingering around, we ask someone if they can help us with my ring missing the diamond.
Nicole, the associate, is probably the most reliable character in this story. She is apologetic, responsive and helpful throughout the ordeal. However, the company is not. The Walnut Creek store is not. While I think someone might look at the ring and tell me about my options for repair, she tells me it needs to go to New York for about a week.
Two months later, no ring. No communication. Many follow ups and only responses from Nicole. Without getting into the frustrating details, here's some things you should know:
1. You need to keep your CLEANING +INSPECTION RECEIPTS. I came to the Walnut Creek Tiffany's for YEARS. I don't even remember getting paperwork. Getting my ring inspected and cleaned pretty regularly - anytime I was downtown for more than a couple of hours, I'd go to the back room or counter, show my ID, drop off and pick up my ring after an hour or so. However, they claimed there was no receipts. No evidence I had ever been there at all-- I even had photos of a couple of my ring post-clean. This was nuts. Instead, I got a bunch of patronizing emails telling me I needed to care for my ring better- when those instructions had been followed all along. I don't know if this would have resulted responsibility on their end, or maybe just kinder emails- but the bottom line is- they don't keep records, and they will definitely hold it against you. Hence, why my review still reflects the Walnut Creek store.
2. NOT ALLOWED TO PICK A REPLACEMENT STONE. So. My biggest gripe with this whole process was that my fiance spent so much time picking a stone- picking its place of origin, its color, etc. Responsibility for the defect aside, I intended on getting it repaired. And, while I get there are constraints with settings, etc... this is not what I would expect from the brand.We were paying for the stone, but we couldn't pick out the stone we were paying for. Instead we were told we would get a diamond of "comprable value."
3. ESTIMATED VALUE - when asking for an estimate for the value of the remaining band and mele diamonds, they even refused to provide that information. I could ballpark and deduce, but they would not provide an estimate which was frustrating.
4. VERY POOR COMMUNICATION. Credit to Nicole - she was very responsive, but often didn't have answers that corporate needed to resolve. And they hardly communicated. I had to be extremely proactive, otherwise would likely have had little information about what happened to this ring, even while it was being appraised over weeks and months.
5. UNDER FIANCE NAME ONLY - I was gifted this ring. I took the ring for cleanings. I also took it in for repair. However, at various points, including pickup, and despite being instructed otherwise, I was only always listed as "c/o" This made it really difficult to track the ring at times and always took multiple looks ups to actually find the ring - and sadly, was not the reason for the poor communication (my fiance received no communication on status either).
So all, in all- I didn't really see an advantage in owning a Tiffany ring. While I understand what their warranties promise in writing, I still don't understand what their 'lifetime warranty' or 'lifetime of service' is actually supposed to DELIVER in actuality.
In reality there were, only big disadvantages - including poor prong quality, bad communication, did not meet timelines, extremely cold impersonal communication about an extremely personal and sentimental item, and just very unhelpful all around.