Broadway Gold Center

Fraud! Unsuspecting buyers beware! Unscrupulous owners (3 brothers)!

In late March I went into the Broadway Gold Center to look for a pair of diamond earrings. Robert, one of the owners, showed me one stone which I liked that weighted 0.74 ct. He said he could get me the second one later (same weight, same quality), once I paid the full amount. I used my debit card to pay for the first 1,000.

On June I go there with cash to get the earrings. When I get the receipt it shows 1.42 total carat weight. I tell the lady, I purchased two 0.74 ct diamonds, she goes back and tells that to Robert, comes back to me and modifies the receipt to show 1.48 ct. She hands me the diamonds and the certificate.

I left, and then noticed one diamond was visibly smaller and lower quality. In addition, the certificate for that diamond was missing.

I came back a week later to explain the situation, and they said they would work on a better paired set. They also gave me only half of the second certificate, which stated the weight, 0.67ct. And they did not give me the appraised value the second time because I it was much lower, it being a visibly lower quality stone.

At this point I don't want to purchase from Robert and his brother. I cannot trust somebody with such a high purchase that tries to deceive me. I go back a week later to get my money back. They say they cannot pay me full balance because of:

- The first 1000 I paid with a debit card and they have to pay taxes. So they kept 100. My counter argument is I'm returning the product, so no need to pay taxes on a purchase that never happened.

- Then because I wanted 18k settings, and they did not have those, they said they purchased those for me, thus they kept 200. I said if I'm paying them at least give me those settings, which they did. But I'm ready to return those settings for my money. What am I to do with unused pair of settings? I'm not a jewelry store that can repurpose them.

- They kept 50 for setting the diamonds.

- They kept 150 for his troubles. Saying he spent time trying to find the diamonds for me.

In total they kept 500USD and gave me the gold settings. My argument, is they tried to deceive me from the start, thus I cannot make a large purchase like this with them. They may switch diamonds on me at the last second, they are not honest. But still they kept my money, saying that there were no returns. But they never mentioned sales were final. In fact, I never was OK with the product they delivered to me. They misstated the weight and tried to deceive me.

This is not right or ethical. These people need to be stopped.