reena
Ideal_Rock
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2004
- Messages
- 2,531
as some of you may know from my obsessive posting as of late, my BF and i just purchased a GORGEOUS cushion cut diamond from Mark Turnowski at engagementringsdirect.com. We are so thrilled about the stone, and dealing with mark was such an all-around pleasure that I thought I should share our experience with others.
my BF and i started the search for a stone about two months ago, and fortunately we stumbled upon pricescope right away. reading up on this site confirmed what we already knew: that we''d get the absolute best deal going through an online vendor as opposed to a local B&M. originally we were planning to purchase through Good Old Gold, because we live fairly close to their store (we''re in manhattan) and because everyone on this board says such fantastic things about them (and from what I can tell from my limited dealings with GOG, they''re deserved). however, for most of the time i was searching GOG''s storefront was closed, and I was depressed because i was super-impatient to start looking at some stones. in addition, and i am just being honest here, i was a little frustrated by GOG''s somewhat delayed (although always very informative and courteous) responses to my inquiries about stones and (especially) settings. (now to be fair, i am an extremely impatient person!)
luckily, about this time Alexah suggested that I give mark at ERD--who has an office in midtown, which would enable me to go in on my lunch hour and see stones--a call. on a thursday afternoon, i did. mark took all of my information down and explained that, although he''d be out of the office that Friday, he would start looking for stones for me first thing on monday morning. sure enough, on monday morning--before 11am!--mark called me with a list of potential stones, and even faxed over the GIA certs for my review. now this was the kind of response i was looking for! a day or two later i was in mark''s office looking at four cushion cuts that matched my specifications--most of which were pricescope-listed stones that he was offering to us at prices BELOW even the lowest "pricescope discount" price offered by the other vendors. (as a side note, i was just thrilled at the opportunity to see and compare four stones, especially since if i had gone through GOG i would have had to pay the shipping costs ($65 and up/stone) after the second stone.)
as it turns out, one of the four stones i saw that day was actually the stone we ended up purchasing. that particular stone was a little less square than i originally had wanted, so i was about to rule it out, but Mark told me it was gorgeous and strongly suggested that i see it. very glad i did!
after that first visit i pretty much drove mark nuts with questions and requests to see other stones. he always responded to my calls, emails, requests and questions extremely promptly--as in, that very day, in some cases late at night or on weekends from home. mark also researched a number of other cushions for me to see, but if he thought from the specs (and in some cases, from seeing the stone in person) that the stone was not going to be a good performer, he didn''t waste my time by calling it in. in the end, when it became obvious that the stone from the first group was going to be THE ONE, mark even stayed late one night and delayed the start of his weekend--he had to make a long drive out of town that night--so that i could bring my BF in to see the diamond. (mark even managed to make my boyfriend, who was uneasy with the whole process, very comfortable by chatting him up about baseball and similar guy matters.)
as for the final diamond purchase, mark sold us a gorgeous, pricescope listed, 2.07c G/VS2 cushion cut of unbelievable brilliance for a few hundred less than even the lowest "pricescope discount" price offered by the other vendors (and about $1000 less than the stone was listed for on Whiteflash''s website). he never pressured us to buy, but was happy to give us his professional opinion (he used to work for GIA) about the various stones we saw, IF we asked. when we took the stone to be appraised, the appraiser said that it was everything Mark had said and more, and noted that we were getting a very good price.
i''m not trying to sound like a cheerleader here, but the basic point is that working with mark made a very scary experience much simpler and more relaxing, and we couldn''t be more thrilled with the result. basically, if you''re looking for a vendor who will sell you great stone at a great price AND put up with your incessant/obsessive questions and inquiries, mark is your guy.
my BF and i started the search for a stone about two months ago, and fortunately we stumbled upon pricescope right away. reading up on this site confirmed what we already knew: that we''d get the absolute best deal going through an online vendor as opposed to a local B&M. originally we were planning to purchase through Good Old Gold, because we live fairly close to their store (we''re in manhattan) and because everyone on this board says such fantastic things about them (and from what I can tell from my limited dealings with GOG, they''re deserved). however, for most of the time i was searching GOG''s storefront was closed, and I was depressed because i was super-impatient to start looking at some stones. in addition, and i am just being honest here, i was a little frustrated by GOG''s somewhat delayed (although always very informative and courteous) responses to my inquiries about stones and (especially) settings. (now to be fair, i am an extremely impatient person!)
luckily, about this time Alexah suggested that I give mark at ERD--who has an office in midtown, which would enable me to go in on my lunch hour and see stones--a call. on a thursday afternoon, i did. mark took all of my information down and explained that, although he''d be out of the office that Friday, he would start looking for stones for me first thing on monday morning. sure enough, on monday morning--before 11am!--mark called me with a list of potential stones, and even faxed over the GIA certs for my review. now this was the kind of response i was looking for! a day or two later i was in mark''s office looking at four cushion cuts that matched my specifications--most of which were pricescope-listed stones that he was offering to us at prices BELOW even the lowest "pricescope discount" price offered by the other vendors. (as a side note, i was just thrilled at the opportunity to see and compare four stones, especially since if i had gone through GOG i would have had to pay the shipping costs ($65 and up/stone) after the second stone.)
as it turns out, one of the four stones i saw that day was actually the stone we ended up purchasing. that particular stone was a little less square than i originally had wanted, so i was about to rule it out, but Mark told me it was gorgeous and strongly suggested that i see it. very glad i did!
after that first visit i pretty much drove mark nuts with questions and requests to see other stones. he always responded to my calls, emails, requests and questions extremely promptly--as in, that very day, in some cases late at night or on weekends from home. mark also researched a number of other cushions for me to see, but if he thought from the specs (and in some cases, from seeing the stone in person) that the stone was not going to be a good performer, he didn''t waste my time by calling it in. in the end, when it became obvious that the stone from the first group was going to be THE ONE, mark even stayed late one night and delayed the start of his weekend--he had to make a long drive out of town that night--so that i could bring my BF in to see the diamond. (mark even managed to make my boyfriend, who was uneasy with the whole process, very comfortable by chatting him up about baseball and similar guy matters.)
as for the final diamond purchase, mark sold us a gorgeous, pricescope listed, 2.07c G/VS2 cushion cut of unbelievable brilliance for a few hundred less than even the lowest "pricescope discount" price offered by the other vendors (and about $1000 less than the stone was listed for on Whiteflash''s website). he never pressured us to buy, but was happy to give us his professional opinion (he used to work for GIA) about the various stones we saw, IF we asked. when we took the stone to be appraised, the appraiser said that it was everything Mark had said and more, and noted that we were getting a very good price.
i''m not trying to sound like a cheerleader here, but the basic point is that working with mark made a very scary experience much simpler and more relaxing, and we couldn''t be more thrilled with the result. basically, if you''re looking for a vendor who will sell you great stone at a great price AND put up with your incessant/obsessive questions and inquiries, mark is your guy.
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