puravida
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 4, 2008
- Messages
- 166
There was a similar type of story posted by MC about her attempt at trying some B&M shopping recently. I thought I''d post the experience that my BF and I had this weekend....
Even though we are leaning towards purchasing a stone and e-ring setting on-line, I wanted to go to a few local stores locally to see in person what settings I see on the internet look like on my hand. I knew it would likely be difficult to find stuff locally that was exactly or at least very similar to what I like on-line, I thought I''d try anyway.
I wanted to see the difference between 4 and 6 prong solitaires, the difference between settings with a cathedral or not, and wanted to see if by some miracle, I could find something similar to Lynn B''s new BGD custom "Grace" setting.
We live outside Toronto and we decided to go to Spence which is a store that brags about their low prices and 4000+ settings. We also wanted to go to the most reputable independant jeweller near us, with whom we''ve had good customer service from before.
Spence: Their concept is that they have open showcases with prototypes that makes it easy for a customer to help themselves to the various settings. Its really too bad that all they had were horrible prototypes because it made trying on something that looked decent really hard. After we walked in a saleslady asked if we needed any help and I asked if she had any bezel set wedding bands, with the stones going either half way or all the way around. I described what I was looking for more than one way but each time emphasized that I was looking for stones set into bezels. She looked confused and came back with a wedding band with bead set stones. Yikes. I then told her that what I''m looking for is like the Tiffany Jazz. She had no idea what I was talking about but one of her co-workers looked it up on the internet and then they were able to find something similar in store for me to try on e-ring samples with.
Later when I asked if the store uses AGS for their certs, the saleslady was baffled again. LOL. I then asked who certifies their stones and they said various one: Gemscan, GIA.
Needless to say I didn''t find a setting I loved. At least I was able to determine that I ''d prefer a lower set solitaire, nothing with a peg head or cathedral that would sit up too high. The latter look good to me from the top but are a bit too high from the side for my taste.
I actually did find something remotely resembling Lynn B''s Grace in that it had the same little donut at the bottom that hers did and was a lower sitting 4 prong setting.
Damiani Jewellers: A local family owner jewellery store with a good reputation. I took a look at their settings but nothing really impressed me. Most of their solitaire settings had the shank going up to meet the diamond (cathedral) and I didn''t want that.
At one point I asked to try on a setting and noticed that the center stone wasn''t set right in that it was crooked and it wobbled in the 4 prongs. I mentioned it to the salesguy and he seemed embarassed about it. I asked if they received that line of settings with the center stones set of if the store set them and he didn''t really answer my question.
My main goal at this store was to compare G and H coloured stones. Prior to looking at some stones I told him I was interested in a RB Ideal cut RB G colour, eyeclean SI1. He told me I could get an eyeclean SI2 and I asked for further explanation. He said that the store is strict when they purchase their stones and they call an SI2 an eyeclean stone and that it would have no visible inclusions. I asked what their definition of eyeclean was in terms of vision and distance viewed. He said those things didn''t matter in the definition but didn''t really explain why not. I wasn''t interested in wasting time proving him wrong.
Then I asked if he could should me the difference in stones that were BIC and FIC. (I wanted to see if I had a prefeance for either.) He told me that what is most important is "luster", not fire or brilliance. ???
We looked at a ~ 1 ct RB SI2 G (GIA) and a ~ 1 ct RB SI1 H (Gemscan).
The guy assured me that I wouldn''t be able to see the inclusion in the SI2 but both my BF and I saw it right away. When I pointed out where it was the salesguy seemed surprised.
The GIA stone seemed to be cut well as it filled the requirements of my "cheat sheet". The Gemscan stone didn''t fit the specs bc it had a crown angle of 35.8.
Q: What effect would this C of 35.8 have had on the appearance of the stone.
Q: I know that one stone looked much more "vivid" in that it seemed crisper and I could "see through it" a bit better. The other one looked a bit more opaque that the crisper one but not fully cloudy. What might have been going one in terms of specs to produce the different looks of these stones?
When I mentioned to the salesguy that I preferred the look of that certain stone he said that he liked the other one, that it "spoke to him a bit more". He says in the end you have to go with the stone that "speaks to you". He said that there was nothing wrong with GIA Very Good cut stones and that he bought his wife a Very Good cut stone bc it "spoke" to him. Sigh. I told him that I had a perferance for a better cut than just VG. He said that as long as the polish and symmetry were EX I could go down to a VG and the stone would still look good. What the......?
Anyway, the pricing at Damiani actually wasn''t too bad. I think the GIA stone was 5900CAD and the Gemscan one was 5300CAD. (Or vice versa
) I''m gonna keep an eye on their online inventory and maybe go see some more stones when they come in. They didn''t have an SI1 G Ideal cut at the time I went.
At least I got to compare G and H stones. At first I couldn''t tell the difference in the two and then when the salesguy told me which was which and told me to look at them from the side with a sheet of white paper underneath and behind, I saw the difference.
I feel a bit frustrated that I''m not able to try on a setting locally similar to that which I''ve seen on PS/BGD websites. I''d feel comfortable buying online but I''m not sure about buying online, sight unseen, without having tried on anything similar. Any advice?
Based on my experience above, I can only imagine how bad the service/product knowledge would be at jewellery stores in the mall
Even though we are leaning towards purchasing a stone and e-ring setting on-line, I wanted to go to a few local stores locally to see in person what settings I see on the internet look like on my hand. I knew it would likely be difficult to find stuff locally that was exactly or at least very similar to what I like on-line, I thought I''d try anyway.
I wanted to see the difference between 4 and 6 prong solitaires, the difference between settings with a cathedral or not, and wanted to see if by some miracle, I could find something similar to Lynn B''s new BGD custom "Grace" setting.
We live outside Toronto and we decided to go to Spence which is a store that brags about their low prices and 4000+ settings. We also wanted to go to the most reputable independant jeweller near us, with whom we''ve had good customer service from before.
Spence: Their concept is that they have open showcases with prototypes that makes it easy for a customer to help themselves to the various settings. Its really too bad that all they had were horrible prototypes because it made trying on something that looked decent really hard. After we walked in a saleslady asked if we needed any help and I asked if she had any bezel set wedding bands, with the stones going either half way or all the way around. I described what I was looking for more than one way but each time emphasized that I was looking for stones set into bezels. She looked confused and came back with a wedding band with bead set stones. Yikes. I then told her that what I''m looking for is like the Tiffany Jazz. She had no idea what I was talking about but one of her co-workers looked it up on the internet and then they were able to find something similar in store for me to try on e-ring samples with.
Later when I asked if the store uses AGS for their certs, the saleslady was baffled again. LOL. I then asked who certifies their stones and they said various one: Gemscan, GIA.
Needless to say I didn''t find a setting I loved. At least I was able to determine that I ''d prefer a lower set solitaire, nothing with a peg head or cathedral that would sit up too high. The latter look good to me from the top but are a bit too high from the side for my taste.
I actually did find something remotely resembling Lynn B''s Grace in that it had the same little donut at the bottom that hers did and was a lower sitting 4 prong setting.
Damiani Jewellers: A local family owner jewellery store with a good reputation. I took a look at their settings but nothing really impressed me. Most of their solitaire settings had the shank going up to meet the diamond (cathedral) and I didn''t want that.
At one point I asked to try on a setting and noticed that the center stone wasn''t set right in that it was crooked and it wobbled in the 4 prongs. I mentioned it to the salesguy and he seemed embarassed about it. I asked if they received that line of settings with the center stones set of if the store set them and he didn''t really answer my question.
My main goal at this store was to compare G and H coloured stones. Prior to looking at some stones I told him I was interested in a RB Ideal cut RB G colour, eyeclean SI1. He told me I could get an eyeclean SI2 and I asked for further explanation. He said that the store is strict when they purchase their stones and they call an SI2 an eyeclean stone and that it would have no visible inclusions. I asked what their definition of eyeclean was in terms of vision and distance viewed. He said those things didn''t matter in the definition but didn''t really explain why not. I wasn''t interested in wasting time proving him wrong.
Then I asked if he could should me the difference in stones that were BIC and FIC. (I wanted to see if I had a prefeance for either.) He told me that what is most important is "luster", not fire or brilliance. ???
We looked at a ~ 1 ct RB SI2 G (GIA) and a ~ 1 ct RB SI1 H (Gemscan).
The guy assured me that I wouldn''t be able to see the inclusion in the SI2 but both my BF and I saw it right away. When I pointed out where it was the salesguy seemed surprised.
The GIA stone seemed to be cut well as it filled the requirements of my "cheat sheet". The Gemscan stone didn''t fit the specs bc it had a crown angle of 35.8.
Q: What effect would this C of 35.8 have had on the appearance of the stone.
Q: I know that one stone looked much more "vivid" in that it seemed crisper and I could "see through it" a bit better. The other one looked a bit more opaque that the crisper one but not fully cloudy. What might have been going one in terms of specs to produce the different looks of these stones?
When I mentioned to the salesguy that I preferred the look of that certain stone he said that he liked the other one, that it "spoke to him a bit more". He says in the end you have to go with the stone that "speaks to you". He said that there was nothing wrong with GIA Very Good cut stones and that he bought his wife a Very Good cut stone bc it "spoke" to him. Sigh. I told him that I had a perferance for a better cut than just VG. He said that as long as the polish and symmetry were EX I could go down to a VG and the stone would still look good. What the......?
Anyway, the pricing at Damiani actually wasn''t too bad. I think the GIA stone was 5900CAD and the Gemscan one was 5300CAD. (Or vice versa
At least I got to compare G and H stones. At first I couldn''t tell the difference in the two and then when the salesguy told me which was which and told me to look at them from the side with a sheet of white paper underneath and behind, I saw the difference.
I feel a bit frustrated that I''m not able to try on a setting locally similar to that which I''ve seen on PS/BGD websites. I''d feel comfortable buying online but I''m not sure about buying online, sight unseen, without having tried on anything similar. Any advice?
Based on my experience above, I can only imagine how bad the service/product knowledge would be at jewellery stores in the mall
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