Australian Nubie looking for assistance

[Chikason]

Hi all,

First time poster so I hope you will forgive me if I am posting in the worng area.

I am currently sourcing a engagement in Sydney & so far have have dwindled the options down to three on the basis of value for money, & customer service/engagement.

My question is has anyone any ever dealt with the following companies in Sydney

# Max Diamonds

# Diamondsdirect /Marcus & Company

#Diamondspecialist.com.au

Any assistance or opinions would be appreciated thanks .

Chika

 

[Todd Gray]

PS Member Garry Holloway might be familiar with some of these, he lives in Australia...

 

[Chikason]

Thanks for that.

 

[meumax]

What are you looking for?

I went in to see Mr Kim from Diamond Specialists and they didn't have anything in my range (1ct G SI1). He looked at his list and said he could order in anything I wanted but would need a 50% deposit first. I said no thanks.

 

[Chikason]

What are you looking for?

I went in to see Mr Kim from Diamond Specialists and they didn't have anything in my range (1ct G SI1). He looked at his list and said he could order in anything I wanted but would need a 50% deposit first. I said no thanks.

They had a 0.80 round brillant triple ex F VS2 which was just right for what I wanted, I was just hoping to find any opinions Diamond Specialist, you know get an idea for who i was dealing with & their reputation.

 

[resident]

Just chiming in as a fellow Australian. You don't need to limit yourself to local stores. I just bought an engagement ring for my financée from whiteflash. I would almost go as far as saying that I would recommend that you look at the online stores due to the massive range and selection of diamonds at your disposal. Also, you can get ideal-scope/ASET images to help in the selection, which are probably more reliable in determining a diamonds brilliance than in-store if you are untrained as stores can only show you what they have and can control the lighting to make anything sparkle like crazy.

 

[meumax]

If you buy from an overseas vendor, just make sure to factor in all the extra costs. They are, GST, customs brokerage and shipping. Loose diamonds are not subject to duty but set stones may be depending on where it was made.

If you get it shipped by a courier like Fedex, they take care of customs brokerage and GST for you. They'll call you when your package arrives and you pay them the GST + brokerage fee over the phone and your package is released. Last time I used fedex to bring in something from the states, it was AU$50 for brokerage.

GST will calculated on the value of the diamond + the shipping costs. Whiteflash charge US$50 + 1% of the diamonds cost for shipping.

One other thing to be aware of is many overseas vendors only accept wire transfer payment for international orders. The bank I'm with charges a flat fee of $24 for wire transfers and the currency conversion rate quoted was about 3c lower than the interbank rate. So if you're calculating the price based on the conversion rate you see on something like xe.com, you may need to add a few extra percent to account for the reduced rates you get via wire transfer.

I ended up getting my diamond from a local jeweller called GP Israel in Sydney. All their stones are in stock so you can see them before you buy. I picked a few from their site to view after running them through HCA. They encouraged me to walk around their office to see the stones in different light including direct sunlight. I ended up buying one of the stones I viewed that day and the price was competitive with online as well.