3 /5 ashley lin: Let me start by saying that John is a very nice guy. He is attentive, kind, and does make an effort to listen to your wishes. I think he makes fine jewelry in his own style; however, if you are seeking a custom ring with anything beyond the normal (pointed prongs, unique setting), I would advise you check out other places.
My fiancé took our diamonds to John Charles who walked us through a customization process. We wanted a 3 stone, trellis setting. John assured us the timeline and design was no problem at all and did communicate with us during the entire process. Once my fiancé got the ring back we immediately noticed issues. Primarily an entire prong on the trellis was broken, stones were loose, prongs were not touching, and many thin sections from improper setting which made the rings structural integrity bad (see pictures). John of course took the ring back to repair. On top of the actual issues with the setting the ring size was entirely too large. When we went back the second time, we walked through all the issues with John, who again was very kind and listened, we emphasized that the ring needed to be resized and even used his ring sizer to get the right size. 2 whole months later we finally have the ring back in possession. It is the same size it was when we took it in, literally not changed at all. While this time there are no loose stones there are still prongs which do not touch the ring. I want to emphasize that John is a great person, who I am sure is great with traditional settings but if you are looking for something custom, make sure you know what you’re looking for and be prepared to be patient and double check every step of the way.
