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A Terrible experience with IG Seller CeylonSapphireGems

cheegg

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Messages
28
I know this seller has been mentioned here a few times, and I am here to share with you my first, and last, experience with this seller. If you are thinking about buying from him, please read and think twice, and good luck.

I got interested in gemstones very recently and read a few posts about this seller. I was really concerned about using a bank transfer, but the reviews here made it sound promising, so I decided to give it a try. And interestingly, he also shared one of the threads talking about his business and reputation from here to me.

I bought a 5 carats sapphire, and I was so looking forward to receiving it, but the minute after the bank transfer, the waiting game started. He kept saying that he would send the stone out the next day, but every day became the same thing. I understand it is a pandemic, but really wish I could have gotten an honest timeline from him instead of his story constantly changing. Well, I hoped all the negative feelings would end here, and I told myself I would be so happy once the stone shipped out.

Unfortunately, it was just the start of my terrible journey. A few days after he sent out the package, he reached out to me that he had sent the wrong stone to me and switched it with another customer in the US (from now on I will refer the other client as R), and without providing any solution, he asked us to solve the issue ourselves.

Do you expect this from a seller whose mistake caused the inconvenience to his customers? I did not, so I asked him to arrange the exchange, and he promised to do so (as you can see from here, there are lots and lots of promises):
1628116700217.png 1628116709304.png

After this, we created a group chat to figure out a solution, both R and I thought it would be best for him to create the shipping label for us for the exchange so we don’t have to worry about him refunding the money for shipping back to us, and you can see in the discussion here, promise #2:

1628116724714.png
The next day, no shipping label created. So I followed up, and instead of creating a shipping label for us, he asked us to handle this by ourselves again, but promised us a refund, promise #3:
1628116748222.png
As you can see, R did mention that it is hard to transfer money to us, so he agreed to create and send shipping labels to us, promise #4:
1628116764660.png
No labels “today,” and many more promises that he would deal with the situation soon, but 2 days later, even more frustration:
1628116778934.png
He then claimed that he is having technical issues, even though I was trying to help him go step by step. We realized this is a dead end, so we decided to get our stones back first, and did confirm with him again on refunding:
1628116804402.png 1628116810591.png
A few days passed, still no response. He claimed he was unavailable, but he was online every day during that time. And then his story changes: instead of refunding, he proposes to discount our money on our next gemstone purchase with him. Great!
1628116832279.png 1628116835811.png
Ok, so do you remember R mentioned this to him before, and he did not say anything at that time?

In the end, we were able to get our own stones back by ourselves.
Till today, no response, no follow up, no refund, nothing.

With how much I spent on this stone, I was losing sleep over all of the things that could go wrong, wondering if I would ever get my stone or money in the end. What made it harder was the seller never being responsible for fixing a problem that he caused, and this gave me a feeling of having no control over the situation. The thoughts that something like this could happen to me were a worst-case scenario, even though luckily, R and I were able to work together and got our own gems in the end.

I know this is a rare case, but I feel the need to share this with you, as who knows what will happen next, but in my experience, he is not a trustworthy businessman.

In the end, bank transfer is not buyer friendly. You save some money in not buying in US, but you could lose it all; and good reviews does not mean good customer service, and it cannot guarantee you a worry-free shopping experience.

You would think he would value his reputation since Price Scope brings him business, but clearly the minute he gets money from you, his focus immediately shifts to getting money from other buyers.

If you are like me, please do yourself a favor, think twice before making a deal with him and consider: is it worth the risk? And do you want to enable him on continuing doing business this way, to harm other customers, when this could eventually happen to you too?

There are many sellers out there, but I don’t really think this seller has better stones or better value stones than others, including others from Sri Lanka.

For your reference, I am a new customer, but R was a frequent customer of his, and this can still happen to either of us. One thing I know is neither of us can believe this is the way he conducts business.

Thank you for reading.
 

Sprinkles&Stones

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
May 19, 2020
Messages
1,992
Holy crap! This is terrible! It definitely seems like he was beating around the bush trying to delay fixing the problem…. I am so glad that R was willing to work things out directly with you. Yikes. Definitely will not be buying from him. Thanks for sharing
 

Rfisher

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
Messages
5,487
Unbelievably lazy of the vendor.

im sorry this was ever an issue for you both - hopefully you both can move forward now it’s done and over with. But true to the nth degree about your statement
“In the end, bank transfer is not buyer friendly. You save some money in not buying in US, but you could lose it all; and good reviews does not mean good customer service, and it cannot guarantee you a worry-free shopping experience.”


And really, I’m sure him giving you a discount on a future purchase is much much cheaper than his time and costs woukd have been involved in him fixing it himself. But - without his prices being publicly posted, would you ever feel a discount was ever given if you were to take him up on the offer? Are they publicly posted once he allows you to view his account, in his circle of IG trust ? Ooh, is that what “IG cred” means? Hahaha.

hope you both post pictures of what you bought.
we can only try to squeal, ohh and aah enough to help you move forward? :lol:
 

Mreader

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Aug 14, 2018
Messages
6,075
My jaw is still on the floor about him telling you to work it out with the other buyer. Good Lord! I mean thank goodness other buyer was honest in the event that one of the stones was higher priced than the other. Just wow.
 

lovedogs

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 31, 2014
Messages
18,033
WHAT????? omg I am so shocked. That is insane behavior. First telling you to work it out. Then outright lying about refunding you???? Wtf. I will never buy from him and he needs to do the right thing and reimburse both of you for shipping asap.
 

Slickk

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 3, 2013
Messages
4,927
Wow! Thanks so much for sharing this! I’m appalled at the response from this seller. A seller I just recently followed due to a thread here on PS. I think I shall go unfollow now. I would never do business with such an unscrupulous seller.
I am so glad you got your stone and hope it knocks your socks off!! Especially after what it took to get! Pictures!??
 

Snowbebe

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Messages
56
So the other person “R” is me. I can fill in on some background info. So I ordered one stone recently from him and I received it before Chee did. when I opened the package, I realized it was not the one I had ordered. (It was indeed cheaper than Chee’s stone. So a little pat on my shoulder. Hahah.) I checked each photo on his IG and found the stone that he sent me.
Then I contacted him and that’s when he realized he switched the stones and contacted Chee. Chee hasn’t received the stone yet at this point. The rest of the story is what she wrote.
I have very mixed feeling about him. I had ordered from him before and had no problems. However this time was not a good experience for me. Imagine if one of us does not live in US and this happens!
 
W

westofhere

Guest
Thank goodness cheegg and snowbebe that you’re both honest and good people. If he had sent a stone to someone who wasn’t willing to give up the stone they got, it would have been an even worse nightmare. I’m so sorry you went through this!

I’ve never done a bank wire transfer in my life. I know it’s not the point of this thread, but he must lose out on tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from people who do not want to buy this way.

If the sapphire seller reads this: When you realized you didn’t know how to refund the shipping, you could have immediately sent both customers an additional small but nice stone to make up for their costs, time, and anxiety.
 

nutellakitty

Shiny_Rock
Trade
Joined
Jan 5, 2021
Messages
434
I guess most of Ceylon Sapphire Gem‘s customers heard about his business from Pricecope.
He had good reputation on Ps and that is why he got his business. Now I am curious to see if anyone would still buy from him.
 

cheegg

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Messages
28
Unbelievably lazy of the vendor.

im sorry this was ever an issue for you both - hopefully you both can move forward now it’s done and over with. But true to the nth degree about your statement
“In the end, bank transfer is not buyer friendly. You save some money in not buying in US, but you could lose it all; and good reviews does not mean good customer service, and it cannot guarantee you a worry-free shopping experience.”


And really, I’m sure him giving you a discount on a future purchase is much much cheaper than his time and costs woukd have been involved in him fixing it himself. But - without his prices being publicly posted, would you ever feel a discount was ever given if you were to take him up on the offer? Are they publicly posted once he allows you to view his account, in his circle of IG trust ? Ooh, is that what “IG cred” means? Hahaha.

hope you both post pictures of what you bought.
we can only try to squeal, ohh and aah enough to help you move forward? :lol:

Yeah, I agree on the discount. And I cannot believe that he even suggested that after all of these.
Instead of fixing the damage, all he cared about was to making more money...
 

cheegg

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Messages
28
So the other person “R” is me. I can fill in on some background info. So I ordered one stone recently from him and I received it before Chee did. when I opened the package, I realized it was not the one I had ordered. (It was indeed cheaper than Chee’s stone. So a little pat on my shoulder. Hahah.) I checked each photo on his IG and found the stone that he sent me.
Then I contacted him and that’s when he realized he switched the stones and contacted Chee. Chee hasn’t received the stone yet at this point. The rest of the story is what she wrote.
I have very mixed feeling about him. I had ordered from him before and had no problems. However this time was not a good experience for me. Imagine if one of us does not live in US and this happens!

Thanks for being a decent person :)
 

Cerulean

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Sep 13, 2019
Messages
5,077
I really want to send this thread to him. He just lost soooo much money by refusing to refund a relatively tiny amount (65/75, respectively).

Totally. ***EDIT As long as people involved feel ok with it. (I say that bc someone shared a thread with a vendor I wrote and it really backfired and resulted in an ugly interaction before a project was done)

Such a stupid way to conduct business...so many PSers buy gems through a recommendation on PS, especially for overseas vendors where there are more risks.

Unfollowed. Definitely on my "no" list...
 
M

maru8888777

Guest
I've tried to follow him on IG to no avail :(
 
M

maru8888777

Guest
Yes, we both got our own stones

Are you happy with them? I hope at least that part of the transaction was satisfactory!
 

Bron357

Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
6,534
Thank goodness it all worked out ok.
that’s why I don’t do Instagram.
I’m only prepared to pay via PayPal with a linked credit card. Etsy I’m still cautious because you don’t really know if all buyers were happy. ebay, for all its flaws, is skewed in the buyers favor and you can see how long they’ve been around, how many sales, what previous sales were and all the feedback.
 

fussykiki

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Jun 28, 2011
Messages
450
I am sorry for your experience. I, too, did experience some delay in shipping. He told me Fedex does not have flight due to the pandamic situtation. I called Fedex, and they told me that was not true and the tracking info provided to me was not a valid package. Later from the conversation with the seller, I found that the stone was still with the export organization. After clearence by the export organization, there was a new tracking info which was not provided to me. It was quite stressful. I will feel much better if he was upfront honest with me about the actual status.

Edit to add: But I am happy with the stone tho. :D
 

cheegg

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jul 7, 2021
Messages
28
I am sorry for your experience. I, too, did experience some delay in shipping. He told me Fedex does not have flight due to the pandamic situtation. I called Fedex, and they told me that was not true and the tracking info provided to me was not a valid package. Later from the conversation with the seller, I found that the stone was still with the export organization. After clearence by the export organization, there was a new tracking info which was not provided to me. It was quite stressful. I will feel much better if he was upfront honest with me about the actual status.

Edit to add: But I am happy with the stone tho. :D

I don't understand why it is so easy for him to be dishonest, rather than just telling the truth...
 

Diamondbug

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jul 23, 2009
Messages
977
WOW that is some crazy $hi#. I am glad it eventually worked out after much stress and headache. Thank you for sharing your experience. It serves as a reminder to us to be more careful with who we deal with ... after having some iffy experiences myself, I am a little hesitant of internet shopping.
 

LemonMoonLex

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Apr 13, 2018
Messages
2,061
Was seriously considering purchasing something from him, all due to the glowing reviews here but I can definitively say that I never will. Him washing his hands of you both and making you both figure it out is unacceptable. Unfollowed.

If there wasn't any way that he could figure out how to send you both FedEx shipping labels, then he should have refunded you two partially for the inconvenience and let you keep the stones.

A seller can be wonderful by having great gems and great prices, but a true wonderful seller will make things right, and will make you whole when things go wrong due to their own mistakes.

And CeylonSapphireGems, if you're reading this, how dare you make your customers who did nothing wrong have to stress out over this purchase & if they were ever even going to receive what they paid for. You made the mistake therefore the stress should have been all your own. If it were me, even despite an amazing stone the sour energy would cloud my vision and love for the stone, as each time I looked at it, I'd remember this crazy fiasco.

You both are surely, simply, lucky that you each got a wonderful co-buyer to get mixed up in this with. Lucky for sure!
 

Snowbebe

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 10, 2019
Messages
56
Someone asked about stone itself. Shipping experience aside, I have no problems with quality of his stones. His pictures are always pretty accurate. And he always has some beautiful stones that I am interested in. But I am a little afraid of his handling man mixing up stones again.
 

ItsMainelyYou

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Jun 27, 2014
Messages
4,760
And what would've happened if either of your stones went to some rando, who couldn't believe their luck and then just ghosted the seller?
I have to say I'm pretty reticent to send money into the ether after hearing things like this.
 

voce

Ideal_Rock
Joined
May 13, 2018
Messages
5,161
I am appalled by the lack of support and outright lying, so this buyer is never taking her dollars to him.
 
M

maru8888777

Guest
To be honest, after going through this, I am having mixed feeling about the stone... :cry2:

I can imagine that you'd have a ton of doubts. I can completely understand asking for a wire transfer... and I myself have done this for international sellers (I'm U.S. based). However, since the transaction requires trust, I'm surprised and saddened that he was not more responsive. I hope that in time you can enjoy your gem.
 
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