Are James Allen Jewelers Practices Legitimate?

[gunslinger]

I am dealing with James Allen jewelers right now in loooking at some diamonds. Interestingly enough, they have thier own internal iamond grading system. In other words, I looked at a diamond they are selling--on their webiste and it says Ideal cut, then I got the GIA certificate from them later on which indicated it was a "good" cut. They have told me that they looked at all the qualities and details and gave it thier own rating which is completely seperate from GIA. The one diamond I was referring to above had excellent polish and symetry, with good dimensions and so they said it was an ideal diamond overall. Any thoughts on this? Is it worth the hassel going through this or should i actually look for a dimond with an actual legitimate excellent or ideal cut on the certificate? Thanks again!!

 

[belle]

that sounds like what is going on in this thread https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/please-help-im-in-tears-and-confused.58925/
my advice is, any time someone is claiming ''ideal'' you should investigate what it is they mean becuase the term ''ideal'' is really just one of those overused jewelry biz buzzwords that is subject to interpretation.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Always look at the cert which should be posted with the diamond you''re looking at. Do not waste a minute looking at diamonds that don''t have a copy of the cert. Go by what is on the cert regardless of how the stone is labelled on the site. My answer is yes, look for GIA Excellent cut or AGS 0 cut if you are buying online.

 

[Regular Guy]

There''s a similar post current on the boards, where the buyer already bought.

JA''s categories are absolutely standard, similar to Blue Nile & others.

Separately, you could decide to a) ignore their categories, or b) use them, but as a filtering device. Yes, you need more criteria, if you want to use a decision process that most here would regard as due diligence. A GIA excellent, for example, could be a criteria for you, but, then again, many of those here would regard that as including too many poorly cut options, that that, neither, would be sufficient.

Combinations of tools is nice. Things like Ideal scopes, plus HCA scores are good. AGS0 is always helpful, and could be sufficient.

But what JA has done is not unusual. Ideally...they could even tell you what their criteria needs to be to pass "their" ideal, and then you''d know.

 

[gunslinger]

And just so everybody knows, the diamond rated a 2 on the HCA scale. Thanks

 

[Beacon]

This does sound inconvenient, especially if you prefer an "excellent" grade on your cert.

Even if they say it is Ideal, the ''good'' rating is a negative for the diamond down the road if you sell it. I wonder what is wrong with it to have a great HCA score, and Ideal from JA and only a ''good'' from GIA.

Maybe you should talk to JA and tell them you don''t want to see any diamonds with less than a certain cut rating. I probably would not buy a ''good'' unless it was really unique or priced really well!

 

[JulieN]

post the GIA report

 

[strmrdr]

Legitimate - not really but accepted in the trade.
common - yes
should be done away with - yes
should be relied on - no