Ritani Reviews: Are They Legit? (My In-Depth Experience)

Last Updated on May 24, 2023 by Juli "Jewels" Church

If you're on the market for a custom designer engagement ring at a fair price, this Ritani review is for you.

Join me as I share my findings and personal experience to help you determine if Ritani is the ideal choice for your next breathtaking jewelry purchase.

I've delved deep into Ritani reviews, seeking to uncover the truth behind their craftsmanship, quality, and customer service. 

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At LearningJewelry.com, we understand that trust is a vital factor in the diamond buying process. That's why we want to assure you that our articles are written by experts who have extensive knowledge and experience in the diamond industry. 

Our primary author Juli Church is a certified diamontologist with over 7 years of experience in sorting and evaluating diamonds for quality and value. She worked at retail stores for Kay and Zales where she learned industry secrets and now uses her insider knowledge to help readers like you to save big on the perfect gem for their needs.

Juli has written hundreds of jewelry and diamond articles and spends much of her free time browsing and helping out in ring buying Facebook groups to keep up with the latest diamond and wedding trends. Her wealth of knowledge and experience has given her a unique perspective on what information truly helps our readers find and buy the perfect diamond engagement ring or piece of jewelry.

With our team of experts and our commitment to providing accurate and trustworthy information, you can trust LearningJewelry.com to guide you through the diamond buying process with confidence.

Who Is Ritani? Is Ritani Legit?

ritani homepage

Ritani is a name that's usually associated with ring designers like Tiffany or Cartier. They were first and foremost known as a ring setting designer and have deals with various online retailers including Whiteflash. 

However, in 2012 after Brian Watkins (ex Blue Nile CEO) took over Ritani, they began to also sell loose diamonds.

Like most online retailers we've reviewed, Ritani lets you customize a ring by choosing your loose diamond and ring setting.

What Makes Ritani Stand Out?

Ritani's business model is what sets them apart from other similar online retailers, like James Allen and Blue Nile. It is called the clicks and bricks business approach. The clicks and bricks model is a fun way of saying the company provides a full service both online and in-store. 

Some online retailers may have full service online, but very few locations for customers to visit, like Whiteflash. Or, they may have 5-20 locations like James Allen or Brilliant Earth.

But since Ritani has partners rather than stores, you can browse and view what you're creating online at a store near you. Of course, they're not going to be in every location, but there's a lot.

They will allow you to design your perfect Ritani engagement ring by handpicking from a wide selection of quality diamonds. Then, as long as you have a credit card, you'll need to reserve it.

Ritani Reserve Diamonds are shipped to the closest trusted partner to you, that way you can come up for your free in-store preview. That's right, there is no obligation to buy.

If you decide that you don't like the diamond ring you've put together, you can simply say so. All of Ritani's jewelry is one of a kind, so the diamond will be returned to inventory and the setting will be melted down to be reused.

I had the chance to admire Ritani's craftsmanship and compare their offerings to other retailers. Ritani had already previously amassed relationships with jewelry stores all over by being a manufacturer and dabbling in retail.

By partnering with local jewelry stores, those stores not only receive a commission, but they get the chance to show customers something else if they choose. 

The relationships Ritani has are integral to its success. 

They took the best of brick and mortar jewelry stores and combined it with the convenience of internet e-commerce. As a jewelry expert and aficionado, I appreciate the unique opportunity they offer to educate customers on diamonds and settings, both online and in-person. 

Ritani's Customer Service

One of the key things I found Ritani doesn't have going for them is lack the customer service availability. While big online retailers like James Allen and Blue Nile have customer service available 24/7, Ritani doesn't.

Ritani's customer service is only available at the following times: 

My Ritani Live Chat Experience

I decided to get a little more research for this guide, so I popped up their online chat. Within 10 seconds, I was put with someone named Lizbeth. She was friendly with a "hi, how are you" vibe.

I'm really disappointed with the fact that Ritani doesn't have 360˚ video or even images for all the diamonds, so I wanted to know why. There wasn't too good of an explanation, but she did tell me that I can request HD images and get them, so that's okay.

I still think I shouldn't have to contact a company to see each of their products though. 

ritani customer service live chat screenshot 1
ritani customer service live chat screenshot 2
ritani customer service live chat screenshot 3

I also asked about selling your diamond. Initially, she didn't really give me much to go off of, but she quickly corrected herself and apologized, then gave me more of what I was looking for, with all the rundown of that price.

This is great information. As you can see by all the factors Lizbeth listed for me, there are a lot of fees that probably get taken out when you sell your diamond back to Ritani.

This lets me know you'll be less likely to get full value for a diamond.

The last thing I wanted to know was about how long it takes Ritani to warranty out your jewelry. Kays and Zales takes 7-10 business days, if you're lucky. But Lizbeth informs me that it does take the same amount, but they overnight, which is so nice. I don't know many places that do that.

Ritani's customer service was overall very helpful and honest, which I appreciate.

Lizbeth was very knowledgeable and I felt as if I was in good hands. I love how she didn't push me into getting something, but left the ball in my court to come back. That's real customer service. 

My Ritani Engagement Ring Shopping Experience

So, what can you expect when shopping with Ritani? Let me give you a full over-the-shoulder walkthrough on how to best navigate their website and buy an engagement ring.

Most Ritani diamond reviews don't go this in-depth to show you exactly how the shopping process goes.

1. Picking Your Loose Diamond

Before going straight to their loose diamond selection, note that the Ritani website has an education section where you can brush up on your diamond knowledge briefly before browsing. 

I'm choosing a 1.21 carat natural radiant cut diamond from Ritani's catalogue of over 80,000 loose diamonds. They also carry fancy yellow diamonds and lab grown diamonds, if you want either of those. 

It doesn't really matter where you start-diamond, setting, or gemologist. Each process is the same. You can choose your own diamond grades narrowing down to preference. All Ritani diamonds are GIA or AGS certified, which are the only grading reports we recommend. Major plus in my book. 

My radiant diamond has SI1 clarity and H color grades. I noticed right off the bat that they don't carry I clarity diamonds, which are heavily included. While I diamonds are cheap, they're not pretty. Places like Zales and Kay have majority of I clarity diamond in their in-store engagement rings being sold for way more than they're worth.

Ritani's 360˚ viewer has been updated multiple times to be displayed differently. Some of them have the viewer and others don't, which is indicated in the corner when browsing the catalog. 

Ritani viewing

The viewer itself isn't my fave either. You can't control it to see exactly how the light hits any visible inclusions because it's just a video loop.

The diamond is blown up, but it's also pretty blurry compared to online retailers like James Allen or Blue Nile. Not all of them are though, which is frustrating. 

They do have a lot of info for each diamond, including a market analysis (which we'll go into when we talk about prices), diamond attributes, carat weight guide, and quick links to diamond education articles. 

Now that we've got our center stone, let's go pick out an engagement ring setting!

2. Choosing Your Setting

While Ritani diamonds are pretty comparable to other online retailers, the ring settings are where it gets tricky. Depending on the shape you've chosen, you might have less options.

Make sure you're choosing one that's fitted for your shape. 

Don't expect to find anything other than a solitaire ring setting if you're trying to cap it under $1,000. Keep in mind that Ritani is a ring setting designer first, so you're paying extra for a branded designer setting. Their designs are patented. 

I've chosen a French set pave ring setting to go with my radiant diamond. They also offer 360˚ view for the setting, and it's much clearer. 

3. Purchase Process

After you've chosen your diamond and its setting, you're ready to buy. Ritani offers you multiple ways to buy your jewelry, including their Ritani credit card. The Ritani card offers you 3 promotional terms upon financing approval. 

The card is called the Symphony Luxury Credit Card on the payment screen, but its still Ritani's credit card. You can be approved up to $20,000. 

If I were to purchase this ring with that card, my payments would be spread out over 12 months and as long as I've paid on time, it'd be interest free. You can also choose from a 36 or 60 month plan with equal payments. 

Thankfully, you've got other options to pay for my purchase. If you pay via bank wire, you receive a 1.5% discount. They also offer an option for split payment, in case you need to use multiple cards. You can pay via debit card, Paypal, Ritani credit card, Ritani gift card, Amazon Pay, and others. 

Normally, shipping is overnighted via FedEx, but because of the COVID 19 chaos, they show an estimated time frame of 10 days.

4. Return Policy

If for some reason I don't love the ring I've purchased from Ritani, I've got 30 days to return it, no questions asked. Ritani stands behind their products and doubts that you'll return a ring you handcrafted, but it does happen. 

They'll also have it arrange for FedEx to pick up the ring at your door, so you don't even have to go drop it off. 

All you need to do to return your ring is to contact Ritani's customer service via the 1-800 number. The associate will them email you the return slip to be included in your return. Make sure that everything the ring came with is going back with it, especially its GIA or AGS grading report.

If you don't have it, you'll still get your return. But they have to get diamonds without their certificates recertified from the lab it came from, so they will charge you $175. 

What Did I Like About Ritani?

Pick Up In-Store

We've touched on it a bit when talking about what sets them apart, but it's such a great benefit to have the "Buy online, pick up in store" option. Instead of free FedEx shipping to your home, you can actually pick up and review your ring at one of their trusted jewelry partners.

To find out where you might be able you to see a Ritani diamond ring, you'll need to call their customer service number. 

Ritani claims to have over 180 trusted jewelry partners spread throughout the United States and Canada, so it'd be a lot easier to find one nearby than with most online jewelers. 

Ritani Reclaim

Ritani reclaim is the company's version of a diamond buyback program. This buyback program is different from other trade in programs that many companies offer. You can choose to turn in your center stone (unmounted) to upgrade to another one. 

Most companies require that your upgrade be 2x the amount of the original stone. This allows you to get up to 50% off of a new ring. But the way Ritani does it, that's not the case. 

Ritani's Reclaim program allows you to sell your diamond to Ritani. It can be originally purchased from the company, or from somewhere else. One of Ritani's gemologists will analyze and appraise it and give you the estimate. If you approve, they send payment. If denied, they send it back to you free of charge. 

You can either choose to have it credited toward another Ritani purchase, or cash back into your pocket. By offering both, Ritani offers the power of choosing to their customers, without large benefit to themselves. 

Opportunities to Save

If you're familiar with online shopping, you know that most online sites give out promo codes via email, usually for a first time customer or signing up for the mailing list. A lot of companies will continue sending you discount.

Ritani also sends promo discounts, but they have discounts that are stationery. This means that these discounts are available any time and all the time for Ritani purchases.

They have a student discount, which allows the student 25% off their Ritani ring. You do have to register through a system in order to verify your student status, but that's with any student discount, so there's not much getting around that. 

Ritani also has a military discount, though many companies also offer this. Their military discount is 1.5% off the purchase, which is a little skimpy in my opinion. It's about the same cost to buy at Blue Nile with a bank wire discount. Kay Jewelers and Zales actually give 10% off for their military discount. 

But even if it's not as big as the other guys, the other guys don't have student discounts either. Not many will do price adjustments like Ritani does. If you find out that your chosen Ritani engagement ring goes on sale within 14 days of purchase, they'll go ahead and adjust the price difference.

What Didn't I Like About Ritani?

There are a couple of things I wish were different with this company. Here are the things I wasn't too keen on about Ritani. 

High Priced Ring Settings

The Ritani ring settings are very boring, in my opinion. I just don't see anything I haven't seen before. And if I've seen it, I've seen it a hell of a lot cheaper than Ritani's asking price. They also only carry rose gold in 18K, so if you were looking for 14K, you're out of luck. 

As far as low priced settings, they leave very few for the buyer to choose from. Basically, it's like which solitaire setting do you want? And if you're looking for halo settings, they only have a few. Which, I think is kind of preposterous as halo settings have been one of the most popular engagement rings setting choices. 

Limited Selection

Ritani's website selection is pretty underwhelming, honestly. There are many online retailers that could capture your eye with both a better price and a wider selection. Some have colored gemstones and editable ring settings, but nothing about Ritani really scream unique. 

Unless you just have to have that Ritani setting, there's no big draw in with the company. Do they set the bar as a popular online retailer? Not so much. 

How's Ritani's Pricing?

Well, I can almost guarantee you'll save more money for higher quality diamonds at Ritani than many famous brick and mortar stores, like Jared or Kay. But how does this particular diamond compare with other online diamond retailers? Let's find out! 

I've pulled a same graded diamond with close specs as possible. This diamond is from James Allen, who tends to be our favorite diamond retailer to buy from because of their prices.

Ritani is just a little bit more expensive than James Allen, at $5,031. However, James Allen has a variety of ring settings and styles under $1000. Ritani's only ring styles that are below $1000 are very simple solitaire settings, with the exception of three with surprise diamonds. 

Ritani's diamonds may be comparable to our best priced online diamond dealer, but they are very limited. The ring settings jump from cheap to very expensive quickly.

And it makes you ask yourself, are Ritani's cheap diamonds worth it? Ritani ring settings are expensive, and they're not all that unique. With a limited amount of choices, you can save money, but it might not be something you absolutely love.

How Ritani Stacks Up To Other Brands

Get the full breakdown on how Ritani compares to other popular retailers:

Ritani Review Bottom Line: Shop Here If...

So, is Ritani a good place to buy your own ring? Well, it really depends on what you're looking for.

Ritani allows you to get the most out of yours or your fiance's wedding ring. If diamond price isn't a huge factor, they are a great option.

Ritani gives you so many benefits if you purchase with them, but you don't get a lower price like you would at James Allen or Blue Nile. 

2 Carat TDW Lab Diamond Weddiing Band

You get the best diamond upgrade package, allowing you to sell your diamond back to their diamond experts. Many retailers including James Allen, will only let you upgrade diamonds purchased within the company, and you don't get any kind of credit for the setting if it doesn't fit. 

Not only do they stand behind their craftsmanship with a 30 day money back guarantee, they also include a warranty that will allow them to service your jewelry for life. They have many opportunities to save whether you're a student, military member, or want a small discount via bank wire. 

They may not be the least expensive diamond dealer on the web, but you can be assured you're getting high quality diamond rings and settings with a solid brand like Ritani.

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