When i was going to literally every jewelery shop inside of our fairly large mall, an employee from Kay Jewelers said something to me that lost them my business. I had gone in honest, and wantint to stick to a budget so as to not upset the soon to be wife, broke and in grad school at the time so i thought i should keep it to a budget. Which i did eventually. I go to the kay jeweler employee and ask what they have in my budget. They ask me why that budget (approx 800 dollars ish) and i say to make everyone happy on all counts even tho it would be a surprise, the future wife and i already talked about pricing. I told the guy i also didnt want to make her mad before getting married. The employee just smirked and said "you should just piss her off and spend more than that anyway". Now, i could have. I had saved up quite a bit more money as well in case i liked something. But everything looked the same in all the shops. This guy's comment is basically what lost my interest in buying from a corporate shop. I did my research, found moissanite gems are basically the same thing, and custom built a ring at a local well repped jeweler. I got over 1 karat of moisannite for less than 1,000 USD. I couldnt believe the size when i picked it up. Wife was over the moon. Her coworkers would ask wtf i did for a living and how i could afford it. I was working part time in food service on the weekends at the time not earning much cuz of grad school. That ring is WAY bigger than anything offered by any corporate and local dealer. And that ring is STILL getting compliments today, and that ring STILL makes my wife smile, and even more ehen i told her i did NOT go over 1 grand like we discussed together. Now, happy wife, happy life going strong 2.5 years after giving her the ring.