While I like Wink and do consider him an honorable man, much of the hype for CBI was related to the outstanding cutter, Paul Slegers. So to not announce he was gone back in June is kind of a disappointment to me.
Well, I don’t think that is true, and I hate to keep it going on this post, but I also feel since OP brought it up and asked specific questions that if I can correct something, I probably should. So here I am giving my piece about this.
Most importantly, I think any questions about any of this should be addressed to Wink because Wink mentioned in his letter that he welcomes questions.
From my business dealings with
HPD (I have bought 3 diamonds plus made one upgrade so far), I do think Wink is trustworthy, honest and with a ton of integrity. Plus he is an ex marine, so he is also bad ass though he is also laid back and cool. It’s clear he respects and welcomes a transparent process about this issue, so as I mentioned, anyone with questions shouldn’t hesitate to call or email Wink.
I also think it bears repeating that Paul has never been and is not the owner of
HPD. In all of my dealings with
HPD, I have never spoken with Paul. I have spoken with Wink and Melissa through all my purchases. I think all customers of
HPD can attest to this.
I don’t think Paul was ever “THE” cutter. I think all
HPD diamonds are cut “in house” by a team of polishers and Paul was on the business end of things and set the quality standards and oversaw the cutting. I think he also procured the rough, which we all know he was extra picky about because he wrote about why
CBI inventory is smaller than other places. He was the reason
CBI diamonds were established to be of high quality and have what we have sometimes called “the secret sauce” (whatever that is lol).
I hate that there is any appearance of drama over this because I don’t think there is any. Whether Paul is there or not, the same team of cutters/polishers remains the same and I really don’t think Wink has any intention of dragging Paul through the mud or anything like that. (I can’t see Wink behaving in this way— it would be out of character of him.)
So since we know there have been many purchases shown off here on PS with zero change of quality levels (you can see in the pics nothing has changed) that tells me that Paul was not the secret sauce himself, but the team of in house cutters/polishers were. Also, no one has complained of interruptions in service and Wink still has all the same policies for upgrades/trade ins. He still is selling branded
CBI diamonds. Future cut diamonds are still listed in production
If anything, I think the continuation as usual of business and the same quality shows that while Paul began the company and set the standards, he has become irrelevant to the company continuing on without him. (As happens with many companies once the original owner sells out to a larger company).
I love the precision of my
CBI diamonds and I like that I can just pick one without a whole lot of thought and analysis paralysis.
I trust Wink and his team. I plan to upgrade again in a few months.