Fred Meyer

In November of 2010, in good faith I purchased at the Meridian, ID store, a pair of 14k white gold 1ctw Princess cut diamond earrings, which I kept in the original box they came in, and stored them in my personal safe until when for personal reasons I changed my mind about keeping them.

I went back to the store with the intention to return them, where the store manager, Josh Wittchow, performed an inspection on the diamonds (test I wasn't aware of since I'd never returned any piece of jewelry before), to my great astonishment he told me that they weren't diamonds but CUBIC ZIRCONIA! I was so appalled just to think that they even came with a Gemological Science International report and also that I had paid over $2, 000 for them. He did not take them back or gave me a refund for the fake diamonds but offered to communicate with their Loss Prevention Department and with the supplier of the diamonds to find out where the real ones were at. Why is it that jewelers only perform quality check on their diamonds when they've been returned, but not when the customer is buying them, to guarantee they're selling to to the customer what they say it is?

What is really appalling to me is the fact that if it wasn't for the fact that I decided to return them, I'd had never found out their Sales Associate, Susan Novak put fake merchandise in the box. I'm not expert on diamonds and to me anything that shines under their lights is a diamond.

So far FRED MEYER JEWELERS Corporate hasn't done any investigation to get to the bottom of the problem. When all this just had happened, I sent a written complaint to Peter M. Engel, President and he in reply delegated the problem to Abir Elaimy, Regional Supervisor, who called me not to settle the complaint but just to tell me the they were a "very reputable nationwide jewelers" and that their employees were diamond certified. She even got very upset when I brought up the issue of the employee who might have swapped the merchandise and then suggested I did the swap at my home! She was the rudest person I have ever dealt with. They are not even willing to go over all the security tapes surrounding the dates since they received the earrings from their supplier until the date of the sale.

I had filed a consumer complaint with the Attorney General Office of Idaho, hoping I would get the legal support needed to settle this fraud knowingly committed by someone working for Fred Meyer or by the company's supplier of these particular earrings; unfortunately, that was not the case here. The AGO decided to close my consumer complaint based on the response by the company's Customer Service Support Specialist. On the letter I received it says, quote: "the business's enclosed response reflects factual disputes between the parties". Does this mean I have a chance at proving I’ve been a victim of fraud here, even though my only proof is the merchandise I received from their store sales associate?

On their response to the AGO, Fred Meyer mentioned to show the videos of my visits to the store. What is that going to prove? That they in fact did not perform the "rigorous quality control check" on the earrings on the day I bought them?, or that on that day the earrings were switched by one of the employees?

I am 100% certain I've been a victim of fraud here.