I think this may be one of the issues. I know some jewelers that are old school and see the internet as a threat to their business, hence the refusal to work with pieces ordered from the internet.

Simply snobbery IMO, no reason why any competent jeweler could not set a CZ without a problem.

I believe so borismom... CZ is harder then a lot of gemstones.... isn't it as hard as or harder then spinel too?? ... I have a local jeweler who will set CZ for me as well... even though I have never used her but have seen many pieces she has done so I would never second think it if I ever had to use her...

I finally found a jeweler that I am comfortable with that does great work!

There are definitely some buttheads out there though and Im sorry you had to deal with one. I hope you are able to find a good one.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience

I've had the opposite here. I have a local guy who will set CZ and not blink, and carries moissanite in his store. But I took a platinum diamond pave setting that had broken to him, just to take a look at it for repair/possible insurance purposes. He declared it shabbily made due to the thin shoulders with pave, told me it wasn't *really* pave due to the way the stones were set (wanted me to call it "bead set" instead), and on and on with his list of things to say about it. I was rather dumbfounded at a jeweler who seemed happier to deal with lower end pieces as opposed to "real" jewelry. Weird! So, you get all kinds no matter where you are!

that's just so terrible. I don't understand how "snobby" jewelers can be!
I had a really great jewelery store that I used to go to...they did great work and their prices were reasonable. Anyway, I love going to antique stores and finding "cheap" pieces of jewelery. On one particular trip I found a very cute antique silver ring with a pretty beat up cz in it. The whole ring was in pretty rough shape, but I thought it was really neat and wanted to fix it up so I could wear it.
I took it in to my jeweler ( the ring needed lots of work, including prong work) all I wanted was an estimate as to how much it would cost to fix everything..prongs, new cz etc. He looked at, the whole time making comments about how it was "just silver" then went on to say that if it wasn't sentimental to me it wasn't worth fixing. What?? isnt' that MY choice? He handed it back to me without an estimate and I haven't been back nor will I ever go back there again.

Bottom line is...if I'm willing to spend money...why would you turn me away?? Plus, don't they realize their comments hurt people's feelings?
Anyway, sorry for my long rant...just want to let you know you're not alone!
Take care and I'm sure when it's done it will be beautiful!