Disappointed with first colored stone purchase

[stepmars]

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing...

I''m a novice but did some homework. Read a couple of informative tutorials. Browsed Pricescope and other forums. Searched numerous websites until I found what I wanted. The website photos, taken from best angle, looked great prior to purchase but now the stones have arrived I''m disappointed.

I ordered a variety of gems. The garnets and peridots are good but the sapphires, which were the bulk of the $1400 I spent, are ordinary. They look dull and lifeless. One of them - see attached photo - is a yellow sapphire which you can see through. I presume this is a window caused by a poor cut. Is this correct?

My primary mission is to find a pair of round pink gems. I''d prefer sapphire or spinel but would consider others. Will consider any shade of pink. My requirements are as follows:

good match for size, colour and cut
5-6 mm diameter (+5.5 prefered)
eye clean
best quality

I want a stunningly beautiful pair of stones but after my last experience I''m now a little hestitant about buying sight unseen over the internet. I have bought H&A quality diamonds before and have never had a problem but I find colored stones are much harder to assess without actually seeing them.

Would appreciate opinions on which internet vendors have good reputations for what I''m looking for.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[valeria101]

I am very convinced that the best (and most price effective) way to get these is ordering from your jeweler...

Still, I am very curious about where the sapphire comes from ?

 

[gct888]

Hi,
I'm sorry to hear about your experience. Have you looked at ajsgems.com? I bought my sapphire from there and had it evaluated by my jeweler-friend who confirmed it had excellent cut and color. They have only a few sapphire pairs on their site, though I've read on another forum you can email them for special requests.
Afraid I don't have first-hand experience of other sapphire vendors, though I've ordered red spinel from creativegems(am having them evaluated still, though to my admittedly non-expert eyes they look good), and am planning to order from simplysapphires.com. Because of my budget, I've limited my purchases to these sites, but many on this forum have listed other sources like palagems.com and cherrypicked.com which may or may not be what you're looking for.
Good luck and I hope you find your stone.

Georgina

 

[valeria101]

" Pairs that really match "


Btw. most sapphres would show some 'window' when tilted. Of course, the worse the cut, the less you have to tilt it to see through... Not sure this is the case in the pic above - the stone looks a tad shallow, but they can get much worse than that unfortunately

I just hope you can return the unwanted pieces.

 

[katbadness]

Steve,

I saw that you're in Sydney, Australia. Maybe you can contact Cut Nut who posts on this board to help you with your search? He has a (couple, if I'm not mistaken) jewelry shop.

AnA, I forgot about those guys! They have nice stuff. I love their blue sapphires, and I am *so* drooling over one of their padparadschas..

 

[valeria101]

oh... and, well, you might want to look over these (African sapphire pair). I must say that I would be totally surprised if a pair from this origin wouuld turn out hot pink - and this is what the price says and there is more where these guys come from. Given that the pair will get into a diamond ring, I would go the extra mile fron $50/apiece from a couple hundred to get a precisely cut top pair ordered from a cutter, if the maker of the ring is not likely to accomodate your order.

 

[Richard M.]

Steve,

I'm confused by your complaint. Don't you have the option of returning the undesirable stone(s) for exchange or refund?

Every reputable on-line gem dealer I know of has a clearly-stated policy concerning that situation. Most will bend over backwards to make sure a customer is happy.

Could you please clarify that matter for us?

Richard M.

 

[Richard M.]

----------------
On 4/17/2004 2:26:28 PM Furthermore wrote:

The key word in that last post being 'reputable'.

Dave----------------

That's what we're trying to establish. I believe customers have responsibilities in on-line transactions too. If a return policy isn't clearly stated then it's a "buyer beware" situation and a big warning signal. But before charging a seller with being not reputable, I think we need to learn the facts. Is there or isn't there a return/exchange policy on this purchase? Has the buyer exhausted all his options? So far that hasn't been made clear.

Richard M.

 

[stepmars]

Thanks to everyone for your helpful advice.

I deliberately omitted the name of my vendor as I don't want to publicly malign him. My order was for 17 gemstones of which I am disappointed with the 8 sapphires. He is not even aware yet that I am unhappy (unless he reads this) as I only received the stones last Friday and I thought I'd run it past you experts first. I will also show them to the jeweller in Sydney who is making my ring for a first hand opinion on Tuesday.

The vendor offers a 10 money back guarantee and I have no reason to believe he will not honor this. When I asked about reputable vendors I did not mean to infer he was not - just that I would need to look elsewhere.

I have now emailed Walter Arnstein, AJS and Simply Sapphires. I will give Creative Gems a miss at present because I can't get them to reply to multiple emails sent regarding shipment of a small order I placed approx 2 weeks ago. Despite his credentials, I will also leave Cut Nut out as I am very happy with my own retail jeweller. Thanks for the suggestion anyway, Sintha.

I will ask my jeweller about Ana's idea of getting these cut to order - not something I'd previously considered. Finally, I'll forward Dave's comments to a few Canadian friends. Maybe I can appeal to their sense of patriotism?

Thanks again. This kind of knowledge sharing is invaluable. Hopefully those who give find it as rewarding as those who receive the help.

Steve.

 

[gct888]

Hmm, since you are in Sydney, another source you might try is Sapphex. They're a B&M gem supplier in the Dymocks Bldg selling mostly to the trade -your jeweler likely knows of them, but if you want to get a head start, their telephone number is (02)92338900. I've bought from them too, and they are nice people.
I do hope you find your gems.

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

Hey Wink..

Nice to see you posting here..I hope you drop in more often..

 

[stepmars]

Thanks Wink,
I've seen examples and have read about concave faceting. I would be interested and will make contact with you to discuss.
Regards,
Steve

 

[Colored Gemstone Nut]

----------------
On 4/18/2004 4:24:46 PM stepmars wrote:





Thanks Wink,
I've seen examples and have read about concave faceting. I would be interested and will make contact with you to discuss.
Regards,
Steve
----------------

Hi Stepmars,

Wink is great to work with..

I know Richard also deals with the public directly which eliminates the middle man. I am not trying to dissuade you from using any vendor, but when a cutter works with the public directly it might be beneficial to make contact with them because they work with a variety of different qualities of rough ...

Here's his email..[email protected]

Richard also has a website which displays his work.../idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif

Good luck and let us know if you decide to get a gem..

 

[wallace]

Hi - If you're willing to go that route - cutters - I would also like to recommend Jeff Graham at www.faceters.com. I flip constantly between their sites being blown away by their gorgeous cuts and I think they're both fabulous. I have purchased from Gem Faceters (Jeff) and was incerdibly happy with my purchase. I'll be posting some pictures Mon-Tues on show me the ring of my PINK colour change garnet cut to a practically ideal RB! Pink garnets (imperials, colour changes and the usual species in pink tones) may be inexpensive compared to spinels and sapphires but the colour ranges are lovely and the brilliance can be superb. Good luck with your search - and don't forget to show us the ring!

 

[WinkHPD]

----------------
On 4/18/2004 4:55:23 PM Colored Gemstone Nut wrote:

----------------

On 4/18/2004 4:24:46 PM stepmars wrote:





Thanks Wink,

I've seen examples and have read about concave faceting. I would be interested and will make contact with you to discuss.

Regards,

Steve

----------------

Hi Stepmars,

Wink is great to work with..

I know Richard also deals with the public directly which eliminates the middle man. I am not trying to dissuade you from using any vendor, but when a cutter works with the public directly it might be beneficial to make contact with them because they work with a variety of different qualities of rough ...

Here's his email..[email protected]

Richard also has a website which displays his work.../idealbb/images/smilies/1.gif

Good luck and let us know if you decide to get a gem..

----------------

Josh,

You were probably unaware of this, unfortunately, but if you tell Richard that you learned of him from me, then you will get a ten % discount on your purchase. Richard knows that I have spent hundreds of hours of my time and efforts promoting him and he rewards me for doing this by not cutting me out.

Wink

 

[winyan]

Wink

It's really good to see you here. I hope you enjoyed the pic I sent of the pad sapphire.

win

 

[WinkHPD]

I enjoyed it very much, your jeweler did a good job on the mounting.

Wink

 

[winyan]

Thanks Wink! He's the guy next door, literally, and a good friend. A very nice and honest man, iow, much like yourself!

win