HELZBERG DIAMONDS store...

Ana "The greatest experts are only as good as the sum total of what they have seen." [Souren Melikian]

Why use a big word when a diminutive word would be succinct!

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Just a regular person trying to be helpful. Consult a Pro prior to purchase!

Date: 2/25/2005 126:42 AM
Author:diamond326
guys I went to this store few days ago trying to see their diamond rings.. I decided to play stupid and pretend I don`t know anything about diamonds....
 

Diamond326,

I understand the strategy of asking questions for which you already know the answers in order to gauge the credibility of answers where you don’t know.  I do it regularly in my own shopping habits, much to the irritation of my wife. This works reasonably well but there are some serious traps that you should watch out for.  Firstly, the conversation you have with the salesperson is usually led by the customer, not the salesman. This means that if you ask about brands and financing when what you really want to hear about is optics, you are likely to be disappointed in the advice you receive. Also bear in mind that the salesepeople will only be willing to devote a limited amount of time to your education. If you spend all of your available time talking about irrelevancies, you have no opportunity to learn anything new.

If you’re looking for education, let them know this and have an actual conversation.  Keep your BS filter tuned, of course, but your chances of learning something useful improve greatly in a two way exchange.  It still works to ask a few ‘credibility check’ type questions but these actually work better if they understand you are fairly well informed anyway. It makes them more careful about their choice of words. If you are looking for something other than education (like a firm offer), it will go faster and easier if you are as clear as possible about your parameters.  Keeping your knowledge a secret does you very little good and can lead to a frustrating experience for everyone involved, especially if what you know to be true is, in fact, incorrect.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.

Bill Leiberum
1948-2007
Thanks for everything and Rest In Peace,Bill.

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Piece of cake and a candle.
**ng gift**

There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.

Date: 2/25/2005 120:32 PM
Author: codex57


Spencer's is in a lot of mauls.  They sell hilarious stuff.  It's not a gag store, altho they have a lot of joke items.  It's like a weird humor gift store.

There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.

I’m with Dave although I hate to hijack diamond326’s thread to discuss the matter.  I supposed it’s already done so here goes.

There is a decided tendency in the forum to suggest that a jeweler who decides to rent a space in a convenient shopping mall or jewelers that are owned by large and successful companies are somehow by definition bad.  This is simply not the case.  Stores in the mall are there because that’s where customers want to go to find stores.  They pay big money to be there, they hire large staffs so they can be open long hours and they do all of this because it’s convenient for their customers.  Sure, they may not have the right products or services for everyone but no one does. That’s why there are so many different types of stores and they have their own place in the market.  Nothing in the original post suggested that either Helzburg or Whitehall behaved badly, had unsatisfactory merchandise, charged unreasonable prices, had uninformed staff or even has unreasonable policies.  The only thing that either one of them did was wrong was to set up shop in a location that’s convenient for their customers. Ok, Helzburg doesn’t discount.  What’s wrong with that?

Rockdoc, you know better.  It was a pretty good joke but you present yourself as an expert on jewelry and the jewelry industry.  You shouldn’t be posting such things.  As you well know, it’s not the address that makes a store good or bad and you do a disservice to the public to suggest otherwise, even in jest. 

Diamond326, please don't let all this nonsense confuse you.  I think your question was actually answered in the above series of posts but please feel free to ask for more details if you wish.   You seem to have touched a nerve with some of us but everyone here is still happy to help you find your perfect ring.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.

IrishEyes,AJP (GIA)

Lostdog,

I wouldn’t begin to defend all mall jewelers.  I wouldn’t even defend most of them.  It’s the tendency to attack them, and all storefront jewelers as a group that makes me a little cranky.  

If someone were to make a post saying all internet merchants were frauds and then defended it with an example or two, there would be a dozen replies within an hour explaining the difference between the good dealers and the bad.  It’s not the internet that makes the good ones good any more than it’s the mall that makes the bad dealers bad.  We should all be painting with a smaller brush, especially the pros.

I have never been in a town big enough to have a mall that doesn’t also have jewelry stores elsewhere in the community.  There’s TONS of choices.  Every department store sells jewelry.  Every gift shop sells jewelry.  Walmart is the biggest selling jeweler in the world, just ahead of the home shopping network.  Want to buy online? A quick google search for ‘discount diamonds’ produces 2.7 million hits, Yahoo! Found 3.2M!  How many of those would the crew here endorse?  My guess is that a few hundred  would make the final cut.  My TV has entire channels devoted to selling jewelry. There are tupperware style parties, barter clubs, pawn shops and mail order catalogs everywhere.   None of this is especially new.  No one is forced to shop the mall. 
 
What I’m suggesting is that it’s unfair lump them all together. I think you agree. If you’ve got a problem with a particular store, have at it.  There are plenty out there that deserve your spite.  By all means, take your business elsewhere and tell your friends about your experiences.  It’s what helps the good dealers thrive and drives the deadbeats away.  The misspelling of ‘mall’ should be added to the filter that weeds out certain other 4 letter words.  It’s gone from being a cute play on words to an unfair attack on your neighbors business.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

There's never a crowd when you go that extra mile.

Just an observation.....re: Helzberg thread.... I DO feel bad for the consumer making the original post, asking for information....my concern is that consumer thinks he/she has "said" the wrong thing!!