cakeeatingcat
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2020
- Messages
- 60
Hi PSers!
After going through a million threads in this forum, I ended up going with a WF ACA stone in a custom setting for my engagement ring. Thanks to everyone from RockyTalky who was very helpful with their feedback. Anyways, I thought I'd share my experience as a Canadian (from Vancouver) purchasing an ACA from Whiteflash. I don't know who would really be that interested as my ring is quite modest compared to the stunners on here, but I had found it helpful to read old posts about Canadians' experiences during my googling/research, so I am hoping to pay it forward by sharing my own experience.
For my fellow Canadians, I’ll post about the costs and shipping-related things (taxes, cross-border shipping) in a comment to this post so that non-Canadians can skip that if desired.
Design: I noticed I was always drawn to rings with pears or round melee diamonds next to a RB centre. James Allen has a similar stock design, but I wanted mine to have six claw prongs (for security, as my job is very hands-on) and a flat band {my partner’s choice}, so I ended up going with a custom design.
The process: We actually had started off at three local B&M stores which have good reputations for great customer service with non-commission-based salespeople. They guided us through the different band widths, metals, the 4Cs, etc. We were going to go with one of the local B&M stores... until I fell down the rabbit hole that is Pricescope.
After that, I noticed that all the RBs we were shown in B&M stores had poor HCA scores and suboptimal CA/PAs so I asked that they look for something with better proportions. The B&M store we originally settled on with got back to us after a month asking if I could be more flexible with what I was looking for (after not acknowledging my request.. I thought they ghosted me). After reading through literally 100+ pages worth of posts on PS, I knew I couldn't settle for anything less than super ideal as the thought would always linger in the back of my head that my stone could have been "better". My partner was super apprehensive about purchasing a 5 digit dollar item from the Internet but after reading all the good things people had to say about WF (on PS, RedFlagDeals, Reddit, etc), we felt reassured.
The end result:
Centre stone: 0.933 ct, H VS2 ACA with HCA of 0.9 (specs here)
Side stones: 0.12 ctw, F-G VS2 ACA melee diamonds x 6
Band: 1.9mm flat band, 14K WG
Ring size: 4.75
Here's a video of it reflecting the pink ceiling and my pink clothes in the food court: VIDEO LINK. Look at that sparkle!
Outside vs Inside:
Various angles:
The inclusion is a small feather on the side that does not cross the pavilion. The WF rep said that it would not compromise the structural integrity and that it was not visible and so did not need to be hidden by a prong. I asked for the stone to be positioned so that the arrows would not be covered by the prongs and for the inclusion to be positioned away from the "danger zones" as I've seen @Garry H (Cut Nut) post before (yes... I am a chronic worrier and overanalyzer). I was worried the color of the melee stones would make my center stone yellow in comparison but it wasn't the case!
Initially, WF forgot to shave down the claws to claw prongs so I had to ship it back from Vancouver to Texas. It ended up being a very painless and quick process, despite the fact that the ring had to go across the border again and back! No tax issues at all! Thanks to WF for being super responsive and doing all the paperwork on my behalf. You read more about it here.
To conclude: I think our end result looks great! My now-fiance rolls his eyes every time I tell him to look at how sparkly my ring is... which is pretty much every time we're in the elevator or the supermarket. I love the prong positioning; I'm so glad I went with six prongs oriented the way that they are. Ultimately we did pay a small premium for an ACA H&A diamond, but I loved that WF had all the data and ASET on each stone available for viewing, unlike some other online retailers. Overall, I think we ended up getting something amazing for about the same price I would have paid here at a B&M store in Vancouver for something a lot more mediocre. For any Canadians in the same position, I wouldn't hesitate to go with Whiteflash again. Their service and product is amazing!
Thank you so much to this wonderful, knowledgeable community. People have been so helpful and direct while being tactful. I've learned so much from all the posts here. The only downside of using PS is that now I’m saving up for an upgrade already (I didn't know this was a thing until PS!)
After going through a million threads in this forum, I ended up going with a WF ACA stone in a custom setting for my engagement ring. Thanks to everyone from RockyTalky who was very helpful with their feedback. Anyways, I thought I'd share my experience as a Canadian (from Vancouver) purchasing an ACA from Whiteflash. I don't know who would really be that interested as my ring is quite modest compared to the stunners on here, but I had found it helpful to read old posts about Canadians' experiences during my googling/research, so I am hoping to pay it forward by sharing my own experience.
For my fellow Canadians, I’ll post about the costs and shipping-related things (taxes, cross-border shipping) in a comment to this post so that non-Canadians can skip that if desired.
Design: I noticed I was always drawn to rings with pears or round melee diamonds next to a RB centre. James Allen has a similar stock design, but I wanted mine to have six claw prongs (for security, as my job is very hands-on) and a flat band {my partner’s choice}, so I ended up going with a custom design.
The process: We actually had started off at three local B&M stores which have good reputations for great customer service with non-commission-based salespeople. They guided us through the different band widths, metals, the 4Cs, etc. We were going to go with one of the local B&M stores... until I fell down the rabbit hole that is Pricescope.
After that, I noticed that all the RBs we were shown in B&M stores had poor HCA scores and suboptimal CA/PAs so I asked that they look for something with better proportions. The B&M store we originally settled on with got back to us after a month asking if I could be more flexible with what I was looking for (after not acknowledging my request.. I thought they ghosted me). After reading through literally 100+ pages worth of posts on PS, I knew I couldn't settle for anything less than super ideal as the thought would always linger in the back of my head that my stone could have been "better". My partner was super apprehensive about purchasing a 5 digit dollar item from the Internet but after reading all the good things people had to say about WF (on PS, RedFlagDeals, Reddit, etc), we felt reassured.
The end result:
Centre stone: 0.933 ct, H VS2 ACA with HCA of 0.9 (specs here)
Side stones: 0.12 ctw, F-G VS2 ACA melee diamonds x 6
Band: 1.9mm flat band, 14K WG
Ring size: 4.75
Here's a video of it reflecting the pink ceiling and my pink clothes in the food court: VIDEO LINK. Look at that sparkle!
Outside vs Inside:
Various angles:
The inclusion is a small feather on the side that does not cross the pavilion. The WF rep said that it would not compromise the structural integrity and that it was not visible and so did not need to be hidden by a prong. I asked for the stone to be positioned so that the arrows would not be covered by the prongs and for the inclusion to be positioned away from the "danger zones" as I've seen @Garry H (Cut Nut) post before (yes... I am a chronic worrier and overanalyzer). I was worried the color of the melee stones would make my center stone yellow in comparison but it wasn't the case!
Initially, WF forgot to shave down the claws to claw prongs so I had to ship it back from Vancouver to Texas. It ended up being a very painless and quick process, despite the fact that the ring had to go across the border again and back! No tax issues at all! Thanks to WF for being super responsive and doing all the paperwork on my behalf. You read more about it here.
To conclude: I think our end result looks great! My now-fiance rolls his eyes every time I tell him to look at how sparkly my ring is... which is pretty much every time we're in the elevator or the supermarket. I love the prong positioning; I'm so glad I went with six prongs oriented the way that they are. Ultimately we did pay a small premium for an ACA H&A diamond, but I loved that WF had all the data and ASET on each stone available for viewing, unlike some other online retailers. Overall, I think we ended up getting something amazing for about the same price I would have paid here at a B&M store in Vancouver for something a lot more mediocre. For any Canadians in the same position, I wouldn't hesitate to go with Whiteflash again. Their service and product is amazing!
Thank you so much to this wonderful, knowledgeable community. People have been so helpful and direct while being tactful. I've learned so much from all the posts here. The only downside of using PS is that now I’m saving up for an upgrade already (I didn't know this was a thing until PS!)