My finger turned green! Isn’t that every jewelry lover’s nightmare? I have been a Wal-Mart customer for over ten years. I have purchased quality products at rock bottom prices. Having never bought Wal-Mart jewelry, I assumed that I would receive the same high quality product as before. Wal-Mart disappointed me when they sold me fake jewelry.
I was on the hunt for two sterling silver promise rings. I prefer sterling silver jewelry because I hate the way gold looks with my skin tone and because it is cheaper than white gold. My boyfriend feels the same. Wal-Mart had a sale on some of their sterling silver rings. I got two beautiful silver rings, stamped with .925 which indicates genuine silver, for less than twenty dollars. The price was almost too good to be true. The Wal-Mart jewelry associate assured me that the rings were solid sterling silver. I made sure to ask because I suspected that they may have been silver plated rings.
My boyfriend and I were so excited to get such nice rings at such a low price. Thoughts of fake jewelry never crossed our minds. After wearing them for about a week, however, our fingers turned green! The humanity! I called the Wal-Mart jewelry department to ask if my purchases were fake rings. Surely Wal-Mart didn’t sell me fake jewelry after telling me that these were real silver as opposed to silver plated rings. The Wal-Mart jewelry associate said that I may have high acid levels in my skin which was causing the ring to discolor my finger. I argued back that I was currently wearing a silver ring on my pinky and it wasn’t turning my finger green, so why would only one of my fingers be affected?
The jewelry associate told me that Wal-Mart’s rings are solid sterling silver, not silver plated rings. Then why was the ring itself fading to a copper shade? It was as if the silver were rubbing off and revealing whatever cheap metal was beneath. The associate then asked me if I had cleaned the rings with any sort of harsh chemicals. I had not. After going back and forth about my obvious fake jewelry, I was told to bring the fake rings into the store so that she could see them for herself.
Needless to say, I did get a full refund for the fake rings. The Wal-Mart jewelry associates wouldn’t admit that their fake rings were silver plated rings. They still insisted that their jewelry suppliers guaranteed that their rings were solid silver, not silver plated rings. I was so upset about being swindled. At least I got a refund, but the associates looked at me as if I had tarnished their fake jewelry on purpose somehow. The belittling glances were obvious. So was the fact that the fake rings they sold me were copper rings plated with silver.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Wal-Mart and have been a satisfied customer for a long time. I’ll just never buy fake jewelry from them again!
