Best online retailer?

[prking21]

I am looking at buying a ring online but want to hear some reviews from you! Does anyone have any experience with James Allen, Blue Nile, or Brilliance(dot)com? Good experiences? Bad experiences? Returns? Any thing helps!

And I'm sure there is probably a older more commented post on this topic so please post a link if so.

 

[Gypsy]

Best vendor? What's your criteria for best.

There is vendor that is the BEST at everything.

What matters to you?
Lowest price?
Customer service that will hold your hand step by step.
Most in-house selection?
Best with fancy shapes?
Carries ideal light performance hearts and arrows?
Does in house custom work? CAD? Handforged?


Why don't you tell us what you want and how you NEED and we'll help you find the right vendor for you.

 

[prking21]

I think all those things you mentioned would come into play. I am just interested in hearing about people's experience with online vendors, both good and bad. Would you purchase from this vendor again?

 

[Gypsy]

You aren't getting that. It's not something that is practical for us to do. People post reviews. You can do a search and read them. No one is going to spend time giving you a review of every vendor on here. There is a wealth of information you can mine on your own, and that is frankly what we need you to do. And this question has been asked before a number of times. And you can search for that too. We aren't going to post links for you.

We are all hobbyist volunteers here. We don't get paid in anyway. So you have to respect that.

We also have an entire forum called Show Me the Bling and you can look through pages of pieces people have had made and see who they used and how their experience went. [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/forums/show-me-the-bling-rings-earrings-jewelry.8/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/forums/show-me-the-bling-rings-earrings-jewelry.8/[/URL]


What we are here for is to help you with your specific project. If you want to post what you are looking for we can give you specific recommendations. But that's pretty much it.

 

[WillyDiamond]

OP
Just go read older threads about experiences with PS vendors

 

[distracts]

This whole forum is about experiences with vendors. What we would recommend for you specifically depends on what sort of thing you're looking for and the questions Gypsy asked.

I will say that off the top of my head I'm not sure I've seen much if anything about brilliance.com

 

[drk14]

OP,
Your first stop should be to look at the list of Featured Sponsors (found under the "Resources" tab above). These have all undergone some degree of vetting by PS, as the website does not accept sponsorship from just any vendor who doesn't meet their standards; these vendors are also known as "PS vendors" (but see this FAQ). That being said, there is a subset of PS vendors that appear to be more commonly recommended (presumably because the owners/reps participate in the forum and/or forum consumers have had generally good experiences). These vendors are mentioned so frequently that their names are usually not spelled out, and you will see acronyms instead. A (possibly incomplete) list of these commonly recommended vendors is (listed alphabetically):

BGD (Brian Gavin Diamonds)
ERD (Engagement Rings Direct)
GOG (Good Old Gold)
HPD (High Performance Diamonds)
JA (James Allen)
WF (Whiteflash)

Of these, certain ones are better for certain things, depending on what your needs are. There will be others not listed above who may be preferable if you are trying to shop for something unusal, like a custom setting or a colored stone, etc. I think that's what Gypsy was trying to get across to you: there's no one answer to your question ("Best online retailer?").

Now that you know the lay of the land, your next step should be to use the excellent Search function found at the top of the page. Type the name of any of the vendors listed above, or any of the abbreviations, or the names of other vendors not listed here, and you will find links to threads in which PS consumers discuss their experiences with that particular vendor. Then you can decide for yourself which one is "best".

Conversely, you can tell us very specifically what your needs are and what you're looking for (i.e., answers to the questions in Gypsy's first repsonse to you), and someone here will be able to make a more specific recommendation.

My final suggestion, newbie to newbie, is that you spend some time to read through others' posts on the forum, read the FAQs and the Helpful Threads Archive, as well as all the educational resources under the "Knowledge" and "Resources" tabs. Doing this will give you a lot of valuable insight, and help you ask the type of questions that are more likely to get answers that are useful to you.

Happy hunting!