angel7 (and anyone else)... burdeens visit?

[LikeDeIce]

Angel, if you get this, I was wondering if you managed to get out to Burdeens in Buffalo Grove like you thought you might. I did get out there, and I was wondering if your impressions were the same as mine.

It looked like they had some good stones there, and the prices were pretty comparable to other places, but they didn''t strike me as the most honest. I started out by telling them that the cut was the most important thing to me, and I wanted and Excellent cut or at least very close. The sales lady told me that "Cut is the most important thing to burdeens and all of our diamonds are ideally cut" which sounded like a load of crap right off the bat.

After talking budget, she brought out 3 stones. When I asked her if I could see the certs she got a little nervous, but brought them out. First of all they were EGL when I asked for GIA or ASG. The stats were:

Table: 66%
Depth: 60.5%
Crown Angle: 38
Pavillion angle: 41
Symmetry: good
Polish: good

Well, I don''t know that much about diamonds (just starting to educate myself on here), but I knew the 66% table sounded way off, and sure enough typing that stuff into HCA, it came back with a 5.6 rating... hardly ideal. Glad I read up a bit on here, otherwise I could have been taken for a ride. Did you have a similar experience or better? I got the feeling the sales lady may have been new, so maybe an honest mistake?

 

[LikeDeIce]

Check that... you were going to Merry Richards, not Burdeens. I went there too and actually got a very positive impression from there.... your thoughts?

 

[honey22]

Hi - I have recently had the same experience in Australia. I went into a few B&M stores knowing exactly what I wanted in regards to cut (very tight numbers), although I didn''t really let on I knew about cut until I gave them a chance to prove themselves in regards to being honest. I also got the ''all of our stones are ideal cut, etc, even when I questioned the specs again I was told the same thing. It wasn''t until I gave them a ''crash course'' on AGS Ideal gradings, GIA vs AGS, and the HCA (I actually sent them a link and told them I wasn''t interested in anything that didn''t fall under 2, by that point I was so pi**ed off) they came back to me with AGS certed stones, all (they happily announced) had a score of 2 or under.

I also think that some SA''s are not deliberately being misleading, they are probably not educated themselves about cut. Many SAs I spoke with had no idea of what AGS was, and several seemed very suprised that I had any idea of what those numbers on the certificates meant. And an Ideal-scope! "What is that? Of couse we have a microscope you can view the diamonds under!".

Always feel free to post details about a stone you are considering and we will all put our two cents in (some of us, even more). There are many members who will help you find a gorgeous stone - with a much nicer table that 66%

 

[Catmom]

Date: 1/27/2008 1:53:14 AM
Author:LikeDeIce
Angel, if you get this, I was wondering if you managed to get out to Burdeens in Buffalo Grove like you thought you might. I did get out there, and I was wondering if your impressions were the same as mine.

It looked like they had some good stones there, and the prices were pretty comparable to other places, but they didn''t strike me as the most honest. I started out by telling them that the cut was the most important thing to me, and I wanted and Excellent cut or at least very close. The sales lady told me that ''Cut is the most important thing to burdeens and all of our diamonds are ideally cut'' which sounded like a load of crap right off the bat.

After talking budget, she brought out 3 stones. When I asked her if I could see the certs she got a little nervous, but brought them out. First of all they were EGL when I asked for GIA or ASG. The stats were:

Table: 66%
Depth: 60.5%
Crown Angle: 38
Pavillion angle: 41
Symmetry: good
Polish: good

Well, I don''t know that much about diamonds (just starting to educate myself on here), but I knew the 66% table sounded way off, and sure enough typing that stuff into HCA, it came back with a 5.6 rating... hardly ideal. Glad I read up a bit on here, otherwise I could have been taken for a ride. Did you have a similar experience or better? I got the feeling the sales lady may have been new, so maybe an honest mistake?

And there you have it and now you know why I won''t ever go there even though they are only about 10 minutes from my house! I also made the mistake once of having them do a couple of appraisals that ended up being 3 color grades off.

 

[Angel7]

LikeDeIce - I did not make it out to Burdeens but I did go to Merry Richards and dealt with Christina and LOVED her! Loved the store and her. She was so full of information, she let me use the Microscope, loupe, showed me rounds vs princesses and was just great! I loved going there and it was the most positive shopping experience I''ve had.

What did you look at at M. Richards? Good stones? All the ones we looked at 1.01, 1.24, 1.30 RBs were all great. We had planned to go to Burdeen''s after we went to Hoffman but they closed at 4 so we couldn''t make it. Sounds like I''m giong to stay away. Some people had a good experience there but if I don''t purchase online (to save on sales tax) I will definitley go back to M. Richards.

We went to Hoffman and saw a nice 1.5 RB at a very reasonable price and I was sort of worried why it was low and so come to find out it was EGL Israel..D..S12...so I don''t really feel that may be a quality stone.

I liked M. Richards because they only have GIA and E-F-G color and the clarity I desire and all the stones we saw fell into the round ideal proportions I was looking for.

What are you looking for? RB I assume? What''s your next plan of action?

Sorry Burdeen''s was not a good experience but I''ve found you live and you learn with this diamond shopping..it''s exhausting!

 

[LikeDeIce]

Thanks for the input honey and cat! Angel, as far as Merry Richards goes, I spoke with Laura there who was very friendly and knowledgable! I explained over the phone what I was looking for (RB, ideal cut, H-I, VS2-SI1, 1.15-1.3 carats) and she had two GIA stones to show me. They were both very nice stones. The price for the stones was a little bit higher than a few other places I''ve been, but not by much (similar stones were about $150 less at some other places I''ve looked at) but the settings were quite a bit less expensive, so it made up for some of the cost there.

I do have a question though, one of the things she mentioned as an option was to dip into the J color category, with medium to strong blue fluorenscence. She said that can sometimes offset the lower color grade and make the diamond face up more white. Any comments about this? She showed me an example, and it did seem to face up whiter than other J''s that I''ve seen, but I don''t have a keen enough eye to tell how much it clouded the diamond. Any input would be appreciated! Thanks!

 

[Angel7]

LikeDeIce - I don''t know much about Flour except that I''ve been looking for stones with none, I think it''s all about personal preference. But I have heard that stronger flour makes the stone seem more white. You may want to type in flour into the search bar, you will find tons of topics. Some people like it, some think it gives the diamond an odd appearance. I say if the stone looks good to you and you like it, go for it!

Here''s a link to some info on flouro
http://diamonds.pricescope.com/fluor.asp

 

[LikeDeIce]

Thanks for the pointers... I feel more prepared to buy every day!