Since we chose Dean Frederick largely because of the reviews he received on sites such as this one, I feel it's necessary and responsible to share our story.
We took a 120-year-old family diamond to Dean and asked him to design a custom engagement ring for us. We immediately loved working with him - loved his work, loved his studio, loved his dog. He came across as a cool guy with a cool design aesthetic - someone we wanted to work with, hopefully well into the future as we needed other pieces of jewelry (including our wedding bands).
However, after he disregarded, ignored, and pushed back every promised deadline, we ended up receiving our ring several weeks after he originally stated.
He was weeks late on his initial CAD design after promising us multiple times that he'd get to us soon and we were next on his list. We had so much trouble getting him to draw up the initial design because he had a few ""emergency"" pieces he had to work on during this time that we actually ended up firing him because he clearly could not deliver in a timely manner. He assured us he wanted to work on our ring and we would be his priority, so we agreed to stick with him. The rest of the design process was mostly painless, but once it was time for production of the ring to begin, we faced the same odd deadline challenges. We would excitedly tell our friends and family the ring was a week away, only to have it pushed back another two to three weeks. We never did receive an adequate explanation of why things were taking so long or why we hadn't been put on ""emergency"" status the way other people had. And interestingly enough, we did see him out entertaining friends at SXSW in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday, which only added insult to injury. Maybe his priorities are simply not his work?
We have literally spent the past several weeks waiting on edge for the finished product - we are a solid 5 weeks behind schedule. I can't tell you how much stress and confusion this has added to a time in our lives that is supposed to be one of the most special. The ring is beautiful, but that is no longer the point - the process itself was a painful one and we would never recommend this jeweler to anyone.
Pros: Beautiful pieces
Cons: Horrible timeline, bad attitude, poor communication
more