I never want to go shopping for a diamond again. It has been the most drawn-out and painful experience of my life. Luckily, I've been able to avoid the situations that people always talk about with used car salesmen, but jewelery salesmen are exactly the same thing. One salesman swore he must have known us from somewhere, and because we're such good friends of his he can get us about 30% off. Let me tell you a secret though, EVERY ring they sell is 30% off the listed price. It's possible to get a decent deal on a diamond, but I just don't think it can be done at a mall.

Let me just describe the experience we had at each store, both the positives and the negatives. During this ordeal, I've inadvertently learned more about diamonds than I EVER wanted to.

Zales is the absolute worst store of all the ones we tried. We both work, and could only go ring shopping in the evening between about 7:00 and 9:00. When we entered Zales, we were greeted by two ditzy girls that must have each been about eighteen. I swear all they knew about jewelery was what they knew from looking at the store inventory and what they must have seen on the job orientation video. None of their settings were really noteworthy, which was good considering that every diamond (pre-mounted) that well looked at in the loupe had gigantic inclusions. I think Zales business model must be to buy cheap diamonds, and then sell them at prices that sound inexpensive, but not when you consider the quality. They must need a constant stream of ignorant customers.

Morgan's had some nice settings, and some pretty nice diamonds, but the salesman was a total sleaze. He was a fast-talking used-car type, and tried to get a sale with us using every trick in the book.