DIAMONDS are meant to be a girl's best friend but not when the jewels don't match expectations.
A huge online backlash has began this week since afternoon audience members at Oprah Winfrey's Sydney shows in December began receiving their gifts. Instead of something really special many complained about the pink diamond pendant and silver necklace, venting their disappointment on The Daily Telegraph's Oprah Facebook fan page.
Some said they were expecting a pink diamond-encrusted O pendant on a gold chain - but instead received a rather unfetching silver-chained O pendant featuring seven "tiny" diamonds courtesy of Rio Tinto's Argyle mine.
"I finally got it yesterday after six months wait," one reader told us yesterday.
"And I can't see any diamonds on it but other than that it looks like a cheap piece of costume jewellery.
"They call it a 'special edition', but really there's nothing special about it. I'm really disappointed."
Another fan complained:
"It's small. The pink diamond is pretty pale and in the middle you can't really see it too well in the photo."
The items were made by China's Chow Tai Fook jeweller and are officially valued at $405 - although the business has been selling an "unofficial" version of them online for $200.
A local spokeswoman for Winfrey's Harpo Productions said the necklace's were Rio Tinto's responsibility.
A spokeswoman for the mining giant said confusion had been created after a $7000 diamond encrusted necklace was mistaken for what was always planned.
"What has been delivered is what we promised and while there has been negative feedback based on false expectations we have also had a lot of extremely positive feedback," she said.
After running the Laboratory in Sydney Australia for Ten years this is not a surprise, we would be surprised if it was worth the money.
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