| Thinking about ordering a piece of jewelry from Allurez online? I wish you the best of luck, but consider this a gentle warning about doing business with them. Caveat emptor. To be fair to the company, I’ve seen a number of positive reviews about it. Perhaps their fake or paid reviews--I don’t know. I can just report on my experience with them. Below is an account of my experience with Allurez. In hopes of having the piece delivered by Christmas, I ordered the piece of jewelry on Dec 17, 2012. The Allurez website was both quick and easy to use. It’s funny though, I first found the piece of jewelry that I picked out on eBay. I would have ordered it on eBay; however, I decided to poke around on the company’s website before buying it on eBay. I am glad I did. The price on eBay was notably higher. Because I wanted the item shipped to a different address than to my billing address--which, by the way, online shoppers request tens of thousands of times a day--I had to call my credit card company and place the delivery address (my work address) on my account as an “official” address that can be delivered to. I’ve had credit cards for over twenty years, and I’d never heard of such a policy. However, I’ve never ordered jewelry online, so maybe all online jewelers require this step. After a couple of calls to get the credit card settled, I received an email indicating my order was in process. I thought I was all set. However, four days after I placed the order, Customer Service Rep Kelly called with an update. She started the conversation with, “Well, I’ll start by saying we’re not happy about this on our end.” She then informed me the jewelry that I picked out was out of stock, even though neither eBay nor their website indicated it was. Furthermore, it would be four weeks before it would be shipped. Before being able to give a reaction, Kelly informed me that she’d spoken to her manager about the issue. The Allurez manager attempted to make the situation right by “allowing” me the opportunity to pick something else that was in stock. They tried offering me jewelry that was “similar” to what I picked out. I declined. I wanted the piece I’d ordered. As an aside, I found it humorous the manager asked me to pick out something else that was IN STOCK. Based on what their website and eBay auctions indicated, the original piece of jewelry I picked out was IN STOCK. With Allurez not truthfully telling customers what jewelry was in and out of stock, how would I know the substitute piece of jewelry wasn’t also out of stock? After weighing my limited options, I decided to wait for the piece to come in. I was informed by Kelly that the item would ship mid-January. However, not having heard anything from them in a few weeks, I emailed the company on January 11. On January 14 I received a reply from another customer service rep, Korine. She emailed me the following reply, “Unfortunately, your package was lost. We can ship you a new one which will take about 4 weeks or we can ship you a similar one in stock which is more expensive but we will offer it to you for the same price. Attached is a picture of the similar cross in white gold which is the 0.25 ctw.” I called customer service to see what the heck happened, and I reached Kelly. She informed me that there was a a “mix up” with UPS and they’re trying to find the box. Assuming they couldn’t, Kelly told me it would be another month before they could get the jewelry to me, but they’d offer a $50 gift certificate. “It’s staggering to me that you could lose a $500 piece of jewelry,” I joked. In turn, Kelly responded, “We’ve had issues like this before--sometimes things get lost.” Having no other options than to take another piece of jewelry or wait until February for a gift I’d ordered before Christmas, I cancelled the order. If you decide to order from Allurez, I hope you have better luck than I did. The customer service reps were friendly, but you’ll want to weigh if it’s worth it to do business with a jewelry company that doesn’t accurately inform customers what’s in stock, and one that frequently loses shipments. As a last note, I visited the Allurez website and eBay auctions on Dec 21 and 28, and January 14, just to see if the piece of jewelry I tried to order was still listed as “in stock.” It was. Apparently, Allurez doesn’t see an issue with telling customers items are in stock when they aren’t. Upon canceling my order with Kelly, I asked her to do me one favor: I asked the company remove the eBay listing as well as indicate on the website that the jewelry was out-of-stock, so other customers wouldn’t get burned. She politely resounded she’ll pass my request along. I checked the eBay auction several days after speaking with Kelly--the eBay auction still indicates there are two available, and their website doesn't indicate the item is out of stock. |
