Calling Rhino @ GOG!

[audball]

Hi Rhino

Many threads lately our wonderful PSers have been pointing newbies towards GOG for purchasing diamonds. In helping (with what I can and know) in Rocky Talky, it seems like some of the hangups are in dealing with settings for the stones, and it got me to thinking.

Many consumers LOVE LOVE LOVE your diamonds, and knowledge, and customer service, but some are, honestly, less impressed with the setting side of the purchase.

I've heard that your website may be getting revamped soon and make it easier to look at available settings, etc...any truth to that?

Also, you do work with some specific designer setting vendors like Verragio and Ritani...are there any plans to add more to the inventory in the future? I know some other popular designers used for settings that I would love to see carried at GOG, and I'm sure other PSers who adore your cuts and these settings wouldn't mind either! A few designers that come to mind that are frequented on PS include Beverly K and Sholdt Design.

Many of the new shoppers seem to be looking for more of a 'one stop shop' and seem to be going with the vendor who has the setting they want for their diamond purchase to keep it all in house

I know in my time here at PS, I happen to know that you carry LOTS of settings and have a ton of options, but it would be lovely if your website was a bit more user friendly on the setting side of things...and the more choices, views, pictures, the better.

Thanks!!

audball

 

[Rhino]

Thank you audball and I appreciate your constructive criticism. This very thing is on my plate and is my short term goal even before we produce any other topical video programs. As an FYI we do carry both Beverly K as well as Sholdt and we are also now the exclusive distributors of Mark Morrell settings (which qualifies our clients for an additional discount on their diamond purchase as well). I have taken time off from the store to actually learn to build what I know will be a more user friendly site for our settings and am working towards that now.

Kindest regards,

 

[audball]

This is WONDERFUL news!! I'm glad you didn't take my words harshly...I was certainly just trying to offer helpful suggestions and inquire about rumors I'd heard/read!

I had no idea you carried Sholdt! They aren't listed on your website and even looking at their website, you aren't listed as a retailer!

All very exciting news!! This will be a welcome addition to your site. Can't wait to see the final product!

 

[audball]

Do you have a list somewhere of the designers you do carry that you could post? It would be helpful (to me) in making recommendations to know who you have established relationships with since that section of your website is a work in progress.

TIA!

 

[Glitteratti]

Thank you audball and I appreciate your constructive criticism. This very thing is on my plate and is my short term goal even before we produce any other topical video programs. As an FYI we do carry both Beverly K as well as Sholdt and we are also now the exclusive distributors of Mark Morrell settings (which qualifies our clients for an additional discount on their diamond purchase as well). I have taken time off from the store to actually learn to build what I know will be a more user friendly site for our settings and am working towards that now.

Kindest regards,

Is there a combo discount for other settings as well? (Specifically, I'm asking about Tacori.) If so, how does it work? Is there a fixed percentage?

 

[AprilBaby]

I do hope you update your website and make things easier to find. I recently considered you for an item but found the website too hard to navigate.

 

[audball]

I do hope you update your website and make things easier to find. I recently considered you for an item but found the website too hard to navigate.

I mostly agree with this. The diamond search function is great and the amount of information available for diamonds is fabulous. And the knowledge content you provide on your website is the best I've seen. I initially found Pricescope in 2008, and quickly learned of GOG from PS. I subsequently learned almost everything I know about diamonds from your videos, tutorials, and comparisons. If you brought the rest of your website up to these standards...I feel like you'd be unstoppable.

 

[Rhino]

Thank you audball and I appreciate your constructive criticism. This very thing is on my plate and is my short term goal even before we produce any other topical video programs. As an FYI we do carry both Beverly K as well as Sholdt and we are also now the exclusive distributors of Mark Morrell settings (which qualifies our clients for an additional discount on their diamond purchase as well). I have taken time off from the store to actually learn to build what I know will be a more user friendly site for our settings and am working towards that now.

Kindest regards,

Is there a combo discount for other settings as well? (Specifically, I'm asking about Tacori.) If so, how does it work? Is there a fixed percentage?

Yes there is when you pair that Tacori with specific diamonds we feature. Ie. Just about all of our signature diamonds. In fact not just Tacori but many of the designer lines we feature.

 

[Rhino]

I do hope you update your website and make things easier to find. I recently considered you for an item but found the website too hard to navigate.

April, I am more frustrated about this than you know. I have hired companies to "build" but all I did was get soaked. As audball pointed out, our content and information regarding diamonds is 2nd to none but when it comes to the settings portion its where we are hurting and we do feature a tremendous variety. Matt is on vacation this week and I'm filling in for him at the store but when he returns I'll be turning my emails over to my assistants and not stopping until I am completed.

In the meantime, my staff is at this moment updating our settings page to include the list of all the companies and designers that we do feature. That should be updated within 24-48 hours so our clients are aware and questions/quotes are just a phone call or email away.

Kindest regards,
Jonathan

 

[rosetta]

I too think your website needs a real revamp.

Good luck and hope the new site looks as fabulous as your stones!

 

[ame]

I am glad to see you're going to work on the setting side of it. You have TONS in your store, and Ill be glad to see most of them on your site.

I know how long and how hard you've been working on this training and reeducating yourself for this project and I can not wait to see it finished

 

[audball]

I do hope you update your website and make things easier to find. I recently considered you for an item but found the website too hard to navigate.

April, I am more frustrated about this than you know. I have hired companies to "build" but all I did was get soaked. As audball pointed out, our content and information regarding diamonds is 2nd to none but when it comes to the settings portion its where we are hurting and we do feature a tremendous variety. Matt is on vacation this week and I'm filling in for him at the store but when he returns I'll be turning my emails over to my assistants and not stopping until I am completed.

In the meantime, my staff is at this moment updating our settings page to include the list of all the companies and designers that we do feature. That should be updated within 24-48 hours so our clients are aware and questions/quotes are just a phone call or email away.

Kindest regards,
Jonathan

We all look very forward to the new site!! Even having the site updated with just a list of designer you have will help a lot. So that's a good first step. Then we can at least look at those designer's main sites to get an idea of the options.

You have a lot of support here on PS, we look forward to the new additions!

 

[audball]

I am glad to see you're going to work on the setting side of it. You have TONS in your store, and Ill be glad to see most of them on your site.

I know how long and how hard you've been working on this training and reeducating yourself for this project and I can not wait to see it finished

I had heard orignally that because he also has a store front was the main reason most settings weren't listed on the site. But seeing as how a lot of his business comes from online sales anymore, getting them out there for us to see will make a huge difference for many I think.

ETA: Ame - totally jealous by the way that you've had the chance to go to Jon's store...I dream to go someday myself. Though I'll have to trek half way around the country to get there!

 

[ame]

It was SO FUN. And I got to try on an 8ct. OMG! We flew up there to look at more stones before I was sure about this one, and boy did we have fun. It was worth the 1 hour each way train ride there. DH enjoyed himself too! It was a pretty good sized store too. TONS of stuff. DH had made friends with an older gentleman sitting up front too.

 

[Sky56]

That is true, Rhino, that your diamond information tutorials on your site are great. I recommend them to all my 'diamond newbie' friends as a place to learn in a clear and fun way. Good to hear you are working on your site. I have never been a customer but hope to be sometime in the future. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate the tutorials and pictures....while drooling over the August Vintage line

 

[Rhino]

That is true, Rhino, that your diamond information tutorials on your site are great. I recommend them to all my 'diamond newbie' friends as a place to learn in a clear and fun way. Good to hear you are working on your site. I have never been a customer but hope to be sometime in the future. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate the tutorials and pictures....while drooling over the August Vintage line

Thanks sky.

audball, I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate any kind words uttered about us here. I am forever grateful & indebted and is why I work towards helping & educating the consumer to the best of my ability. I have big dreams and much I want to accomplish. Unfortunately I can't clone myself.

AME ... We loved having you!!! You've been here and know our selection in settings. Job #1. Now ... think of all the estate jewelry I also want to publish online and make searchable. That is coming too. Not enough hours in the day.

 

[LittleSparkle]

Oy, I almost wish that goodoldgold.com was even harder to navigate! Perhaps that would stop me from stocking up on AVCs/AVRs???

 

[ame]

AME ... We loved having you!!! You've been here and know our selection in settings. Job #1. Now ... think of all the estate jewelry I also want to publish online and make searchable. That is coming too. Not enough hours in the day.

I should about you guys ALL THE TIME, and always tell people (as I think you're aware) EMAIL JON AND MARIE and they will find it.

But what's this about estate???? Ooooooooohhhhh THAT will be fantastic!!!! That was the case on the whole left wall IIRC, I think? I didn't spend near enough time over there. I am trying to figure out if I can save up for an AVR melee so I can give one to the husband to oogle.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

GOG is different than the vendors that mainly carry their own setting styles and have maybe 50-100 settings listed on their site. When a jeweler carries multiple designers with 1000's of settings, there is simply no earthly way they can list every setting with current prices. My local jeweler would have to call Tacori or Memoire to get current prices if I walked in there tomorrow.

I do think it is important for all the designers to be listed with links (and this is already done for many of the designers), but the GOG stock settings could be priced on the site, and that would be helpful.

http://www.goodoldgold.com/SettingSearch/

 

[StoopidMonkey]

Rhino, one more suggestion I'll add since we're on the subject is not only to expand the settings content, but also men's and women's wedding bands. One stop shop and all that.

 

[Rhino]

Rhino, one more suggestion I'll add since we're on the subject is not only to expand the settings content, but also men's and women's wedding bands. One stop shop and all that.

Totally with you guys on this. Ultimately, in the back we'll be working on the settings while the front of our store will be inputting and photographing the jewelry. It is a big task but not impossible.

Ame, yes. My dad came up with the name "Good Old Gold" because we've always had awesome selections of estate jewelry and in our neck of the woods where we've been for 30+ years we buy a lot of old gold including a lot of estate jewelry. Lately with the influx of people selling their old gold we have probably more estate jewelry now than we ever have. It needs to be online. We take it in at good buys and the name of our game is quick turnover.

DiamondSeeker you're right. We're not just talking 50-100 settings. Today i was looking at a spread sheet from just one designer alone and there were somewhere close to 1400 engagement rings (when you include all the variations) and with the prices varying based on gold/platinum prices ... its a job to keep it accurate and I don't want to misquote. What is nice is those companies that do update their distributors with prices via spread sheets and/or live feeds I can easily do it and always keep it up to speed. When they don't I'm thinking of an "email for most current quote" button or someone can simply call too.

I really appreciate the constructive criticism everyone. It really is encouraging.

 

[slg47]

Rhino, one more suggestion I'll add since we're on the subject is not only to expand the settings content, but also men's and women's wedding bands. One stop shop and all that.

Totally with you guys on this. Ultimately, in the back we'll be working on the settings while the front of our store will be inputting and photographing the jewelry. It is a big task but not impossible.

Ame, yes. My dad came up with the name "Good Old Gold" because we've always had awesome selections of estate jewelry and in our neck of the woods where we've been for 30+ years we buy a lot of old gold including a lot of estate jewelry. Lately with the influx of people selling their old gold we have probably more estate jewelry now than we ever have. It needs to be online. We take it in at good buys and the name of our game is quick turnover.

DiamondSeeker you're right. We're not just talking 50-100 settings. Today i was looking at a spread sheet from just one designer alone and there were somewhere close to 1400 engagement rings (when you include all the variations) and with the prices varying based on gold/platinum prices ... its a job to keep it accurate and I don't want to misquote. What is nice is those companies that do update their distributors with prices via spread sheets and/or live feeds I can easily do it and always keep it up to speed. When they don't I'm thinking of an "email for most current quote" button or someone can simply call too.

I really appreciate the constructive criticism everyone. It really is encouraging.

I think it would be helpful to have pricing info and search for the GOG brand settings.

however, I am a little surprised by this thread. is it the job of PSers to help improve PS vendor's websites/potentially sales?

 

[audball]

Rhino, one more suggestion I'll add since we're on the subject is not only to expand the settings content, but also men's and women's wedding bands. One stop shop and all that.

Totally with you guys on this. Ultimately, in the back we'll be working on the settings while the front of our store will be inputting and photographing the jewelry. It is a big task but not impossible.

Ame, yes. My dad came up with the name "Good Old Gold" because we've always had awesome selections of estate jewelry and in our neck of the woods where we've been for 30+ years we buy a lot of old gold including a lot of estate jewelry. Lately with the influx of people selling their old gold we have probably more estate jewelry now than we ever have. It needs to be online. We take it in at good buys and the name of our game is quick turnover.

DiamondSeeker you're right. We're not just talking 50-100 settings. Today i was looking at a spread sheet from just one designer alone and there were somewhere close to 1400 engagement rings (when you include all the variations) and with the prices varying based on gold/platinum prices ... its a job to keep it accurate and I don't want to misquote. What is nice is those companies that do update their distributors with prices via spread sheets and/or live feeds I can easily do it and always keep it up to speed. When they don't I'm thinking of an "email for most current quote" button or someone can simply call too.

I really appreciate the constructive criticism everyone. It really is encouraging.

Sounds like it's going to be amazing!!

 

[ame]

I think it would be helpful to have pricing info and search for the GOG brand settings.

however, I am a little surprised by this thread. is it the job of PSers to help improve PS vendor's websites/potentially sales?

Why is this problematic to you? If we felt another site was lacking and it was upping sales elsewhere or diverting attention elsewhere, we would post about that on here too. Easier to navigate, more information, will always benefit a consumer. We as a whole community are a consumer of theirs, and if we want to purchase from them, and cannot find what we want, then why is it a bad thing to point that out. It gives them feedback from a group of people who would be in the market to buy from them, now or later, and help them AND us find what we want and need easier.

 

[audball]

Rhino, one more suggestion I'll add since we're on the subject is not only to expand the settings content, but also men's and women's wedding bands. One stop shop and all that.

Totally with you guys on this. Ultimately, in the back we'll be working on the settings while the front of our store will be inputting and photographing the jewelry. It is a big task but not impossible.

Ame, yes. My dad came up with the name "Good Old Gold" because we've always had awesome selections of estate jewelry and in our neck of the woods where we've been for 30+ years we buy a lot of old gold including a lot of estate jewelry. Lately with the influx of people selling their old gold we have probably more estate jewelry now than we ever have. It needs to be online. We take it in at good buys and the name of our game is quick turnover.

DiamondSeeker you're right. We're not just talking 50-100 settings. Today i was looking at a spread sheet from just one designer alone and there were somewhere close to 1400 engagement rings (when you include all the variations) and with the prices varying based on gold/platinum prices ... its a job to keep it accurate and I don't want to misquote. What is nice is those companies that do update their distributors with prices via spread sheets and/or live feeds I can easily do it and always keep it up to speed. When they don't I'm thinking of an "email for most current quote" button or someone can simply call too.

I really appreciate the constructive criticism everyone. It really is encouraging.

I think it would be helpful to have pricing info and search for the GOG brand settings.

however, I am a little surprised by this thread. is it the job of PSers to help improve PS vendor's websites/potentially sales?

I can see your point. But I don't think that's what this really was. I started at least, just with the intention of finding out whehter or not it was true, about him revamping the site for the setting side, and offering that I personally thought it would be a great idea, and a great help.

In Rocky Talky, it seems like that's what we're all doing anyway, right? We're all improving vendor's sales by offering advice to new buyers about vendors that we love/use/recommend. It was an ovesrvation of mine recently (I don't usually spend a great deal of time in Rocky Talky) that MANY PSers were STRONGLY recommending GOG for a lot of newbies, and that some of the newbies were turned off by not being able to get the complete ring in one store. I thought that was something the vendor would want to know. I thought about posting it on his FB page, but I didn't want to say something about Rocky Talky and PS directly on his page for two reasons. 1) I didn't want to out myself as a poster with my real identity to others who have "Liked" his page (I couldn't care less if Jon knows my real identity, and he may), and 2) by talking about PS on his personal vendor FB page, I could have actually sent people looking for information about diamonds to this site who may have swayed them to a different vendor when they were looking at HIS business (on FB). Not to mention, my understanding of PS and how the moderators run things, is to keep things in threads so that everyone can benefit from the information. If we had PMing, I may have just sent him a personal message about it. But it seems many other posters were unaware to the quantities of settings he actually carries, that he carries estate jewelry which many of us are gaga for (I didn't know this either), and that (someone else brought up) he offers discounts on buying lifetime guanrantee diamonds with select designer settings. All of this information I think is helpful to other buyers in helping them make decisions.

I am personally partial to GOG as I've learned much from Jon's videos, but I would have done the same for another vendor if I thought something was really hurting them somewhere. Most of the other vendors sites are very nice and simple to navigate.

I hope this thread wasn't crossing some line, but I felt it was helpful.

ETA: I definitely did'nt mean to start anything controversial or inappropriate.

 

[audball]

I think it would be helpful to have pricing info and search for the GOG brand settings.

however, I am a little surprised by this thread. is it the job of PSers to help improve PS vendor's websites/potentially sales?

Why is this problematic to you? If we felt another site was lacking and it was upping sales elsewhere or diverting attention elsewhere, we would post about that on here too. Easier to navigate, more information, will always benefit a consumer. We as a whole community are a consumer of theirs, and if we want to purchase from them, and cannot find what we want, then why is it a bad thing to point that out. It gives them feedback from a group of people who would be in the market to buy from them, now or later, and help them AND us find what we want and need easier.

I don't know that she meant problematic, I think she was just questioning time/place thing. But I agree with you in it's appropriateness, you made my point better than I did, haha.

 

[ame]

I often wonder if when people ask questions like that, it's because they are more in favor of another vendor and want to give less attention to the vendor they are less inclined towards. Considering how many sales I feel GOG is "robbed of" by WF and BGDs rabid fans, because when someone already has stuff selected from GOG half of the following posts are directing the person to look at those two other vendors instead and time is spent convincing them to buy from someone other than GOG, I think WG and BGD tend to get MORE help from PSers on sales than anyone else. If it's because they prefer those vendors, fine, but I think it's not fair to try to redirect someone's selection elsewhere by giving any sort of implication that they're a better vendor than GOG. The amount of info Jon gives on his site, and does for the consumers in this industry is seriously second to NO ONE. No other vendor provides such education. And for that he SHOULD get help from the community since we are a community driven by consumers.

 

[smokey99]

[quote="slg47]
however, I am a little surprised by this thread. is it the job of PSers to help improve PS vendor's websites/potentially sales?[/quote]


I see what you're saying, but in the same regard- vendors in various markets require feedback from their consumers to help improve their product and its delivery- In this case, a better and easier means of viewing inventory. As they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease

We cant just expect a vendor to know exactly what we want to see. Giving them feedback on that helps them to provide a better shopping experience.

 

[Maisie]

The thing I particularly like about Whiteflash and BGD is that they have a good range of stock settings and show real life photos of them on their websites. I also like how WF have hand shots of each of their rings. I would much rather go to a website and be able to buy a complete ring. I wouldn't like to buy a diamond from one vendor and have to have the diamond shipped to another vendor for a setting.

I agree that GOG have excellent education resources and their diamond listings are first rate. I wonder if they could get more customers if they worked harder on showcasing their settings.

 

[gatorgrad]

I'm in the thick of shopping and have been a regular visitor to GOG lately. I've already noticed changes to the settings page, and it's much better. IMy input: I always wonder about with settings is what diamond size is shown, and what it would look like larger/smaller (usually smaller )