Complaint Review: Bonjour Jewelers - Los Angeles CA

I realize that leaving such a low opinion for a business is not advised under normal circumstances but it appears that many lower end selling sites visa vi Groupon and Livingsocial (same company) allow unvetted sellers to advertise their goods on their sites visa vi Bonjour Jewelers in NYC and Paris Jewelers in Los Angeles should be indicted for deception.

I'm a professional jeweler for over 40yrs. I received an email from Livingsocial and they were offering 14k white gold, 6mm princess cut CZ earring studs @ $15.49. I ordered 3pr and when they arrived I tested the metal for pct of gold and what I received were anything but. What did receive was 3pr of copper based earrings with a rhodium plating to make them appear as white gold a common practice on cheaper costume jewelry typically made abroad in China and sell @ about a buck a pair.

I contacted livingsocial on this and I returned them to Paris Jewelers and gave them the benefit of an error on there part and they offered me an exchange or a refund and I took the exchange option. I did receive the exchange but the replacements were far from the photo on Livingsocial.

Instead of the depiction in the photo the 14k white gold mountings were much lighter weight and instead of 6mm princess cut stones they were 5mm but I kept them because they were still a good buy for resale. Again I gave them the benefit of error and ordered 3 more pair and the exact same experience occurred and they sent me the fake goods and this they made it far more difficult @ livingsocial to get the situation rectified but ultimately did send me the exact same replacements as the 1st order the lighter weight and smaller CZ earrings. Now confirming that this was not an error but a deceptive practice in the jewelry biz. The old switcharoo!

So I tried a different seller this time Bonjour Jewelers and the exact same experience! The old switcharoo! I received what were supposed to be 14k white gold 9mm round CZ studs and received the the costume earrings but this time the cost per earring was more expensive $19.50 per pair, 5pr in total of 10mm round CZ earrings. I promptly contacted Livingsocial and they in turn contacted the seller. They sent me a label to return the earrings which I did and they have now received them back but the seller can't find any record of the sale even after requesting and receiving copy of the original receipt from Livingsocial as well the copy of the return label they sent me. Today I was informed that they still can't find any record of the sale and now have turned it over to Groupon to resolve.

After both of these transactions I am convinced that these 2 sellers are one in the same. I'm no detective but I am bright enough to see the connection in "Paris Jewelers and Bonjour Jewelers" or let's just called it "the French Connection". Not a very good job on their part and BTW, all of the earrings received both the fake and the genuine all coincidentally came in the exact cardboard ring box. Again, a blind man could see through this deception and again indictable practice. I am going to also report this to the Jewelers Board of Trade.

Companies like this/these make all of us in the fine jewelry biz look bad and give us the bad name and reputation. It makes it hard for buyers to trust us and quite frankly I can't blame them. I've contact livingsocial on this and so far they've done nothing to remove this seller from their selling base.