A rave review for Martin Sheffield of USA Certed Diamonds

[diva_alicia]

My husband and I began tossing around the idea of upgrading my diamond a few years ago. During that time I began a spreadsheet of diamonds that I thought would fit the bill from a variety on online sources. When we finally decided to purchase, I had a "top 10" list based on everything from cut quality to clarity to price per carat and beyond. My search let me to Martin. Like many of you I was terrified by the website LOL but read reviews here and thought I'd give him a chance. I emailed him about a couple of diamonds. He provided his thoughts and additional data on the stones I selected. I exchanged many emails and telephone calls with him and was impressed with his attentiveness and overall customer service provided. The transaction was smooth and insanely fast. The diamond arrived at a FedEx depot location for secure pick up. When I got it, I was AMAZED. It was even more beautiful that I imagined. I went to my local jeweler to have it appraised and have my original solitaire and head removed and replaced with the new stone. My jeweler is skilled and has wonderful prices, but with a store and inventory that large, I knew I'd pay more overhead to them than I wanted. Martin offered the best price on the stone of anyone else online (yes the exact same stone was available through several vendors). My jeweler asked what I paid for it. When I told her, she was flabbergasted, and said this was one of the few positive stories of someone purchasing a loose diamond on the internet that she had heard. She said repeatedly what a great deal we got on the stone. Martin even followed up with me after to assure I was happy and to see if I needed help finding a jeweler to do the setting. After it was set into my cathedral ring (nothing but this solitaire diamond), it appraised for nearly three times what we paid for the stone through Martin. His concern for our satisfaction was genuine and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him. In fact, my jeweler asked for his contact information!

 

[Andelain]

Re: A rave review for Martin Sheffield of USA Certed Diamond

Hmmmm, first post........

 

[denverappraiser]

Re: A rave review for Martin Sheffield of USA Certed Diamond

I’m tickled that you’re happy with your purchase but, I have to say, It’s not a good sign that your jeweler appraised it for triple the transaction price, at least not if you plan on using this document to bind an insurance policy. If you can buy it for $xxx, your insurance company probably can too, and the result is that you’re paying triple for your insurance while getting no additional coverage. How so? The usual insurance policy is to replace with another stone of similar specs, not to write a check for the face value of the policy. The max they'll pay out is whatever it will actually cost them to replace the piece. Kudos to Martin but your jeweler/appraiser has done you no favors here.