Posts by Dana Brown34

I’ve been thinking a lot about the "momentum" thing lately. We always see these massive surges where a team or a school suddenly hits it big, and everyone starts acting like the world has shifted on its axis. The hype is incredible, and for a while, it feels like they can do no wrong.

But I have my doubts about how sustainable that energy really is. I remember back in the day when my local team had one legendary season, and suddenly every top-tier recruit was knocking on our door. It felt like we were invincible. Fast forward two years, and the "magic" had evaporated because the foundation wasn't actually there to support the sudden influx of talent.

It’s easy to ride a wave, but it’s much harder to build a culture that survives once the initial high wears off. Do you think these sudden bursts of optimism actually lead to long-term stability, or is it just a temporary honeymoon phase that makes the eventual comedown even harder?

Gary Reed9 said:I don't know about all this being "typical" or if "everyone" actually deals with it. I got a white gold ring for my anniversary—styled like an engagement ring—and sixteen years later, it hasn't changed color once. I've never even sent it in for a professional cleaning or a re-plating, and I wear it constantly 🤷 An engagement ring? Good luck with that. I only wear mine once a year because otherwise, it looks like cheap costume jewelry 😢

White gold in the Palace—before palladium prices spiked, most white gold was alloyed with palladium, which maintains that white luster for a very long time. I assume yours is palladium-based.

Nowadays, because palladium is so expensive, manufacturers don't alloy it anymore; instead, they plate the rings with rhodium. Essentially, it's just a coating.

Some will hold up for a long time, others won't last a month. It all depends on how often you wear it, washing your hands while wearing it, and so on.

Robin Sanchez5 said:Hey, just wanted to vent about my nightmare experience at Dvornik jewelry in San Francisco. They’ve got a huge reputation, but man...
After they resized my engagement ring, I noticed the diamond was wobbling in its setting. I went back thinking it was an easy fix, but the clerk—who’s actually the owner's son—just shrugged and said it was totally normal. Even the owner backed him up!
Fast forward four months, and the stone just pops right out. No impact, no nothing, it just fell out. Sadly, I couldn't find the diamond anywhere 😢

So I head back to get a new stone set. Since I bought it less than six months ago, I naively expected it to be cheap—maybe even free! Nope. They tried to charge me $667"with a discount." Like, let's be real, it’s just a standard tiny little stone, nothing crazy. I ended up overpaying just to get it over with. (Later I found out I could've gotten way better deals elsewhere, but I was foolish enough to think staying with the original jeweler was the smart move)

To make matters worse, when I finally went to pick up the ring, the price had somehow jumped even higher than what they quoted me(!!!!)

The stone isn't wobbling anymore, mostly because they sent it off to a specialist in New York for repairs (since they were the ones who messed up the resizing in the first place)
And get this—when I was picking it up, the owner actually had the nerve to lecture me! He told me I need to be "more careful" with the ring and can't just treat it however I want. EXCUSE ME? I’m not going to walk around on eggshells just because I'm wearing a ring

Anyway, just posting this so nobody else gets burned like I did. It was a total disaster, even if the owner acts all sweet and charming to cover it up.

Thank you for posting yet another identical critique online. The truth is slightly different, but I hope you are happy with your ring now.

I explained why on Google Reviews and Facebook, but if you want to share this with as many people as possible, it's only fair that I share my side too.🙂.

Let’s go through this step by step:
Resizing a ring will not affect the stone in the setting; the band is narrowed at the bottom, not at the top. The stone was stable at the top, which is how it was sold—I personally inspect them myself.

Why did it move?

A stone has prongs that serve as security; if it snags on something—for example, a piece of clothing—the prong can bend slightly, resulting in the stone shifting because the prong is no longer aligned.

Why didn't we give a red alert that the stone was about to fall out?

Because there was no reason for an alarm at that time. The prong was only slightly bent, so there was no danger. Yes, the stone had minor movement, but it was nowhere near—I repeat, nowhere near—falling out. Obviously, no one can predict the future; yours fell out four months after the resizing.

When snagging on clothes or dropping things happens repeatedly, or if there is a heavy pull, the result is that the stone eventually falls out because the prong moves out of the crown and the stone slips out.

"On its own" is impossible. If that were possible, I would have far too much work here dealing with countless rings where zircons or diamonds just fall out spontaneously.

We rebuilt your crown and reinforced it with gold. It was sent to New York because our master prong setter was unavailable at the time; that is just standard practice for us.

Moving on: the price of the diamond.

As often repeated, the price depends on several factors.
In your case, as I recall, it was a G/VS1 combination, which is not the same as an H/SI1 or perhaps a pique where inclusions are visible to the naked eye.

Of the three options listed, we have three distinct price points. While they all technically qualify as diamonds, the disparities in quality are glaringly obvious, which ultimately dictates the final cost. This is precisely why many jewelers will quote you wildly different numbers; they simply don't account for the specific characteristics of the original stone you were sold. Using terms like "much more affordable" is just industry shorthand for inferior color and clarity—though, naturally, they won't be so blunt about it with you.

To wrap this up: no one here has ever attacked you, looked at you sideways, or spoken to you disrespectfully. We don't engage in that sort of behavior. Yes, caution is necessary—not just with diamonds, but with any new purchase. Honestly, I am sorry this happened to you, and I am sorry that this "experience" has left you feeling this way. I hope that moving forward, you will be more careful with the ring and that it serves you exactly as you intended. Personally, I find it quite uncomfortable to read the same repetitive online reviews months after a repair has been completed. My phone number is available to you daily should any grievances or claims arise.

Regards from the polite and "sweet" version of myself,

Gary Reed9 said:My ring was way too big for me, so we went in to get it resized—only to be told it was impossible because there are tiny side stones bordering the center gem. So much for that. Luckily, it wasn't massive, but it was definitely wobbling on my finger. Anyway, when we were actually shopping for wedding bands, we headed over to Vagus together since I’d spotted some styles I liked at a trade show. While we were picking them out, the guy there noticed my engagement ring was too large and offered to take it and resize it for free. I told him what those other people had said—that it couldn't be done—but he just brushed it off like it was nothing. He insisted it was easy. Also, even though the ring is white gold, the alloy they used is garbage; whenever it gets resized or just worn daily, the yellow tint starts bleeding through the surface (or the plating just wears off). I asked the folks at Vagus about it, and he just slathered some coating on it and told me to come back if it happens again, claiming it's perfectly "normal" for these kinds of materials.
Given the price my husband dropped on this thing, the quality is undeniably poor, even if the ring looks gorgeous at first glance.
By the way, per our agreement, Vagus made us some stunning wedding bands—a custom mix of several models they had, and they even adjusted the stone sizes so everything lined up perfectly with the engagement ring.

Classic white gold behavior. It has nothing to do with the alloy; everything on the market is rhodium-plated anyway.🙂