I had a very odd experience at Alson. My boyfriend and I went in to look at diamonds/engagement rings. The sales associate at the time was Bonnie. We looked at loose stones first. I had came to the conclusion all I wanted was GIA stones, however, my boyfriend wasn't feeling the price. Bonnie suggested we look at the already set collection Alson offers. She said they are cheaper this way. We found a mirrored diamond that was actually about a thousand cheaper from the loose stone. We didn't think twice about it, how nice of Bonnie to save us some money! The boyfriend wasn't sure how he wanted to go about paying that night so we left. He had contacted Bonnie the next day about coming in a few days later to pay for it. I was so obsessed with it in the meantime I looked it up on the website, however, I found it extremely odd there was no certification in the ring description. I expressed my concerns to my boyfriend and he followed up with Bonnie. It seemed all day Bonnie was avoiding the question. During my lunch I decided to just drop in and ask to see the certification. Bonnie shuffled through a box and told me she couldn't find it at the time but it didn't look to be GIA. She let me walk outside with the diamond so I could see in the natural light and feel better about it since I told her I was having second thoughts since it wasn't a GIA stone. My boyfriend and I discussed it and he felt something wasn't right. He called her and wanted to know the certification before he made the 45 min trip to buy it. On the phone Bonnie came clean, IT WAS A LAB DIAMOND. Nothing is wrong with a lab diamond, but we felt the lack of transparency in this sale was just unbelievable. There is no doubt in my mind this was a deceitful run at trying to get us to buy a diamond. Bonnie could sense our diamond ignorance and still tried to sell us this ring. Not only will we never be going back to Alson but it just ruined a moment that was meant to be so special between us. I am in shock that someone could do this to another human being. As we look at diamonds from other jewelers we will be sure to get the certification first. I hope this review can help as a buyer beware. I will be turning this into the BBB.