33 Jewels

I walked into the shop frustrated, insulted and frankly bored with all of the other jewelry shops in Santa Barbara. I came in expecting the same old same old but Diane walked up to me with enthusiasm and brought life back into my engagement ring search. Not only was she fun to be with but she was honest and accommodating. She showed me her whole range of jewelry without once asking me what my budget was. She let me know that whatever I liked she would find a way to make it fit within my budget. It was so refreshing to have someone listen to what I wanted, instead of pushing what they wanted to sell. She’s like the friend you want to go jewelry shopping with, and then go have a glass of wine with. Not to mention the most important part: that all of her engagement rings are picked out by a woman, meaning that they’re all gorgeous and special. The kind of thing a woman wants to wear instead of just the kind of thing a man wants to buy. I won’t go anywhere else for my jewelry purchases.

Mr & I saw a lovely art deco pendant in the windows of 33 Jewels & decided to go in & check it out.
Advised it could be a brooch or a pendant, I quickly discovered it was not a pendant at all. They had placed a chain through the pin but there wasn’t a specific pendant loop nor were there stabilizing brackets, so it kept flopping to the side when modeled on a chain… but the brooch itself was exquisite
Inquired about price & advised they had just received the piece, so the price was firm at the time — which led me to believe they might be open to negotiation — but we never got that far
When we started asking questions about whether this was a period piece or in the «style-​of», this is where things started going downhill… we got the feeling this was an insult because from then on, the answers to our questions were short & curt
Additional questions about any hallmarks or makers marks were likewise blown off & finally we were told that the Estate person was on vacation so they’d have to get back to us.
Well, we really liked the brooch so we ignored the curtness & provided our info in the hopes to learn more about the piece… you see where this is going
It’s now been 4 weeks and we have had no follow up… and I’m certainly not going to beg anyone to purchase a piece. Too many other lovelies out there.

Above and Beyond… It’s not often I find myself up in Santa Barbara, let alone a reason to walk into a jewelry store. This was one elegantly cozy place. Was just looking out side of their windows at the jewelry, watches and knives on display and was instantly drawn in by the unscratched itch to see more.
I was greeted right away by the owner Diane. I told her right away I wasn’t interested in buying, just admiring. That didn’t deter her from being hospitable the entire time and extremely friendly. Her sales associate Amy also answered my amateur questions about the cool collection of eclectic jewelry they had there. Diane’s fiancé Mark/​Matt was extremely generous offering to have my ring steamed while I went next door to do a wine tasting.
Great meeting new friends, and seeing incredible jewelry at the same time.

We bought our wedding rings at 33 jewels. The staff were very friendly and helpful, and went right along with our weird sense of humor! Neither of us had ever bought any jewelry before, but they put us right at ease and made us feel welcome. They were great at asking questions to figure out what we wanted and were very respectful of our simple design choices. We were a little pressed for time, but the rings arrived in plenty of time for the wedding. Thank you 33 Jewels for making this part of our wedding so stress-​free and fun! We recommend them highly!

I passed by this store downtown as my girlfriend and I were looking for jewelry stores. WE liked their taste of jewelry in the window so we popped in… So glad we did. I had a horrible engagement ring experience with the local jewelry from home but this place brought hope back into my life for jewelry. Too many times have I walked into a jewelry store and felt like the owners were dirty car salesmen. This was different.
Diane greeted my friend and I warmly and listened to my engagement ring dilemma. After talking to her for a little while, I felt I finally found someone who had my best interest at heart. She was very knowledgeable and based on the pieces in the store, had excellent taste. I have not bought anything from her yet, but I am excited to see which rings she finds that are close to what I am looking for. Thank you for your great service!

My girlfriend and I were in SB for a wedding. My girl’s gold earrings came apart and our fingers were to big to fix the issue. Short on time and keeping my girl from being disappointed, I went on State St., to every jewelry shop until I came to, ’33 Jewels.’
I spoke with the owner Matthew and he said he would check with the jeweler who was currently working on a wedding ring that had to be finished by the end of the day but when Matthew took my girl’s earring to him, he did it on the spot. Charged me barely anything and I was out the door under ten minutes.
I was happy, and my girl was happy, so that is all that really matters. Matthew took care of me and made my life a bit more easier that day.

So happy with our experience here! Diane was amazing, and Lee we know personally as an amazing jeweler. We walked in after going to Bryant & Sons and being extremely disappointed not to have found tungsten metal and having no other options appealing to my fiancé for a men’s wedding band. In we walk and Diane greets us smiling, and even though we didn’t make an appointment immediately explains she doesn’t carry tungsten either because it shatters and doesn’t want that for her shop (yikes!).
My fiancé and I decide we wanted to look at others, and Diane helps us find some amazing pieces to try on and immediately my fiancé finds an ebony and silver ring he loves!!! She offered us water, showed my some wedding bands and gave me time to decide. She also shined my engagement ring to better than new for free! :) Diane also offered Tim a small glass of scotch, saying she keeps it there for men who possibly get nervous while buying engagement rings — how cute and personal! I love the small town feel, approach, and that we’re supporting one of the only women-​owned jewelry businesses in town :) Highly recommend and can’t wait to go back closer to the wedding date :) :) Thank you Diane, Lee and team!

Hopefully, our review can override any negatives posted for this company. We chose to travel from Long Beach. CA, to create original engagement rings, here.
1. Location of S.B. Had become dear to us.
2. Found a perfect fit/​original piece.
3. Both rings modified to fit price range of UNDER $ 1,000.
4. Relaxed, energetic ownership/​staff.
5. Independently-​run; owner works directly with customers.
6. Very happy with the realistic personnel;
7. Beautiful resulting art work/​rings, reflecting what we wanted.
We worked directly with Diane, her husband, and Amy.
Word from the wise: be a gracious customer, and communicate.
Thank you to the staff, here, for being so caring and personable.
— Alyssa and Randy :)

I am a stylist with very particular taste in what I buy. So, finding the setting for the diamond my husband had proposed with was a very long arduous process! As was choosing the right band for me!
Diane, Aimee, and Lee all made me feel extremely comfortable, understood, and at ease. Diane took ample time to sit with me, view all of my crazy pinterest inspiration pictures, and talked me through my options.
She went to great lengths to get me the bands I wanted– she had one custom made by Lee to match the «rustic-​glam» look I was going for, and the other she had her jeweler in Europe fashion me a custom ring as well! Well, her hard work paid off– I’m absolutely in love with my rings, and I found my life-​long jeweler and a friend In the team at 33 jewels!
Aside from my rings being ridiculously perfect, my husband bought the most magical moonstone earrings for me to wear on the wedding day! They made my look come together seamlessly and I couldn’t be more happy with the quality of the stone!
Diane even HAND DELIVERED to my house, my husbands ring she worked on the day before the wedding with a bottle of wine! I mean, she’s the best out there!!!
I highly highly recommend 33 jewels and I can’t wait to continue finding new treasures with them in the future years to come!

Awful customer service. Long story short: all I wanted to do was buy a diamond ring, and they refused to get back to me. After going in twice, I called and emailed a few times… nothing! We are new to town and were hoping to establish a relationship with a jeweler (I like bling!) Frankly this is a bummer because I liked Diane and her selection, but I don’t want to have to chase her down to purchase something. We went next door to Bryant and Sons and have been extremely pleased with their professionalism and the ring we had made.

I just picked up an engagement ring from 33 Jewels. My fiancé had seen the ring setting in their poster and told me that was the one. Having the ring made there was very easy and enjoyable. Diane brought in a few different diamonds for me to look at and I selected the one that I liked the best. Then their jeweler mounted it in the setting and I was ready to go. I will be back very soon for wedding bands.

33 Jewels is my favorite jewelry store in Santa Barbara. I found a beautiful opal ring there that I fell in love with, from the moment I saw it. Unfortunately it was a little big, but they sized it down in a day, and it looked perfect. I love this ring, and I love this store. I will definitely be shopping there again.

I love this store. I received fabulous service and the jewelry I got I absolutely love. I have two pearl necklaces from there and I wear them all the time. I worked with two different people Diane on one occasion and Amy on another. LOVE THEM. Will go back.

I need to update because I am still dealing with the repercussions of having my promise ring sized by 33 Jewels.
As well as doing a shoddy job on the sizing, the rhodium on my ring had been buffed off and the ring started to yellow. Because modern white gold is plated, not mixed with alloy, the rhodium will tend to wear off over time and the ring will eventually need to be re-​plated. I expected this. However, I didn’t expect to have that process accelerated by a polish-​happy jeweler.
When I look at the ring I can see buffing lines from where the jeweler pressed too hard against the wheel. Also, he or she did not check or tighten any of the prongs after sizing the ring down. I lost a diamond shortly after. Normally I am the kind of person to take this sort of thing up with the owner but after the first bout of drama I don’t want to go within ten feet of the store let alone let the same jeweler touch my ring. I’m just going to suck up the expense but I feel I should warn other people.
I am now paying over $ 100.00 to replace the stone and have the ring re-​plated. This is frustrating because it is a needless expense. I’ve only had the ring for a few years and I take extra good care of my jewelry and go out of my way to not wear it during any activity where I feel it might even get a little ding or scratch and now I have to pay for the carelessness of a so-​called professional.

I’ve had the most absolute worst experience here. I gave them my mothers wedding ring which I inherited, and I asked Diane (the owner) to resize it for me. She told me a price and that it would be done in 2 – 3 days. Almost 17 days later, yes 17, I had to call them myself to see what was going on with my ring. The first phone call I made, a man told me my ring was being fixed and it would be ready for pickup on day 14. Since nobody bothered to call me, I called. Apparently they lied to me, my ring was never even sent out to get resized! They never called me to update me on anything. All the owner told me was that she was having the worst 2 weeks of her life. Personal life and business should not be mixed, especially when she is dealing with precious jewelry. And the first price I was told actually doubled. This place is not worth it. Maybe to them my ring wasn’t so important because it wasn’t worth thousands of dollar, but it is to me. If you’re looking for good customer service, go elsewhere.

Really the worst customer service experience of our lives. Ruined the feeling of my husband’s wedding ring and made our lives very stressful. The owner was very rude, unresponsive to our needs, too busy to take care of our problems with the order, and constantly made excuses why our ring was not ready. We initially bought my husband’s ring there and it was great. However, one week into our marriage (early September) the ring was very scratched and this was just from laying on a beach for a week. I took it back and she said it would be fixed very quickly. The ring was sent back to us in November, and it was huge! It did not fit at all. I was so upset. She said to have my husband get his finger measured again… she measured it the first time! She told the ring maker to make the wrong size that time. Now I had to spend more of my own money to get it sent back again. The ring arrived again the week of Christmas, it fit fine, but it was not engraved like I had paid for the first time. The whole time she made nothing but excuses for being too busy and too understaffed… that is not my concern or my problem, I am the customer, you made the mistake, fix it! Very very stressful situation and I would not buy anything from this store again.

I have had the pleasure of doing business with 33 Jewels for several years now. Whether I’m having a ring/​pendant custom made or having a repair done the result is always remarkable. I just picked up a pendant I had made with a beautiful 10 carat citrine stone I had and I couldn’t be happier. Everyone that works there, especially Diane, are extremely helpful. I received multiple emails with photos to decide on my setting. Great communication and impeccable customer service! I highly recommend this store. Also, upstairs has the most amazing selection of vintage jewelry for all price ranges and more recently they now carry vintage couture dresses and furs. I about died over a little black Dior dress reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn and couldn’t help but fond over their gold Chanel selection! Check it out. I’m constantly i heckling out the new merchandise! Love love love!

There seem to be so many occasions for jewelry! This is a fabulous store, I love the personal attention you get. They always take the time to help you, discussing your lifestyle, making sure you are totally happy. i have never bought anything that doesn’t need to be modified. They do it fast and beautifully., I often have out of town guests, they have so much fun, like kids in candy stores! Most importantly we all love what we buy. The wonderful eclectic mix of designers and price range makes it for me. My husband likes it too now, isn’t that perfect…

Picked up the ring and we love it. Diane got the engraving done on time and all!
All worked out cept that they never emailed me the estimate of a ring for me and the weird conversation that I had with Judy a week prior to getting the ring…
Still no email about the other ring, but that’s ok I’m not sure that I would want to get a ring from them.
Diane is super friendly, but seriously the customer service is really lacking.
Lastly, I had a question about a ring and couldn’t get to Diane so I contacted Jerry Spaulding directly and he was very kind to oblige and answered all my questions about the ring. Kind man, excellent craftsmanship.

UPDATE: We later contacted the ring manufacturer, Prisma-​Express (in Los Angeles), who Diane told us had done the ring resizing, because I wanted to complain about the damage done to the ring during the resizing process, and to see if they’d re-​cast the ring to fix the problem — in addition to there being sanding marks around the outside of the ring, in the last re-​sizing (before we gave up in disgust) whoever did the work had managed to sand down 3 of the 4 outside prongs flat (the other prongs have a nice rounded top). Fixing the sanding marks should be easy, but I’m guessing the prongs can’t be fixed. I don’t understand what kind of incompetence can lead to that kind of mistake, since I’ve been told by another jewelery manufacturer I met recently that resizing is straightforward and quite simple.
Anyway, Prisma’s Danny Rubenstein told me that he contacted 33 Jewels to ask what happened (since he hadn’t done the resizing, apparently), and was told that Diane had contracted a local Santa Barbara company to do the resizing, and that since the ring had been modified after it left Prisma, their satisfaction guarantee was voided. This means that Diane lied to us about where the work was done, and is solely responsible for ruining the ring we purchased from her. It also explains why the ring was too big when we first got it – she didn’t want to pay to have it resized to the size we ordered (even though that was the only thing she actually had to do for us other than writing out the appraisal), so she tried to just pass it off to us without fulfilling the order properly.
Though she initially comes off as being very charming and trustworthy (why we went with her in the first place), Diane Garmendia cannot be trusted. I recommend avoiding 33 Jewels at all costs, and telling your friends that it is the worst possible place to buy jewelry, to save them from the grief we went through. I usually love small personally-​owned shops, but 33 Jewels lied to us, gave us incredibly crappy service, was totally insulting to us and ultimately sold us a damaged ring, which is completely unforgivable.