I recently bought a diamond + ring from diamondexchange.ca in Toronto and thought I would share my experience with users here.
The thing that first attracted me to diamondexchange was the fact that they have an absolutely huge database of diamonds available, many of which are available at great prices, especially when compared to People's etc. The database they use is the same as the one used by usacerteddiamonds.com. USAcerteddiamonds deals in USD so for Canadians it's perhaps a little cheaper, but the fact that you have to deal with importing and the fact that diamondexchange has an office in Toronto decided me to go with them.
Diamond exchange also accepts custom-build requests for rings and settings at a reasonable price - you need to supply photos/descriptions of the ring, and they'll put it all together for you. A huge plus as my girlfriend was very particular about the type of ring, setting, etc. that she wanted.
I first began looking through their database quite a while ago, using very specific table, depth, pavilion and crown ratios, and sent several requests about various diamonds. Unfortunately getting back to me on those took them a fairly long time - apparently they have to first check it hasn't sold, second get it out of the vault (which I believe is in NYC), and third get a gemologist to check the diamond and give his own recommendations and feedback on the individual stone (which greatly helps when buying online). All that took about a day or more, so it's quite a slow process to find out even if the diamond you want is available, let alone if it looks nice. The good thing is though, that if it's ie. an SI1, the gemologist will give additional feedback about the types of inclusions - if they're white (ok) or black (bad), if the stone is eye-clear, and so forth.
After a fairly lengthy process of settling on specific stones and finding out they were sold / had bad inclusions, I finally found a stone that fit my specifications perfectly: Ideal cut SI1 D .70 60.7% depth, 56% table, 14%crown, 43% pavilion. I put in the order, paid for the total including setting and arranged to have it delivered to the Toronto office for inspection.
The total time from paying to collection was about 2 weeks in total - the stone came from the vault to the Toronto office and then went straight to their jeweller facility which I believe is in Etobicoke.
I was told I could collect the ring yesterday @ 2:30 so I arrived and was told the ring hadn't actually arrived in their latest courier shipment and could I come back at 5pm? I went back at 5pm only to find the office shut - called and discovered the assistant dealing with my purchase was still in Etobicoke at the jewller facility.
I arranged to come back today and had to wait around 20 minutes. I wasn't shown into an office (apparently it was in use) and ended up inspecting the ring in the reception area - not the greatest environment to appraise a ring. The assistant had apparently "forgotten her loupe" so I was left to simply eyeball the ring and wasn't able to verify the inclusions etc. I asked if she would be happy for me to verify the purchase with an independant jeweller and she seemed a little anxious: apparently they have had customers in the past verify purchases and been told the stone is not exactly as per the sales description/certificate. All very fishy and strange - surely you would welcome an independant verification.
All in I got extremely wary - it felt like I'd been given the run around, having been to the office three times in total and not actually ever even having seen the office. However, I had already paid in full via PayPal some 2 weeks before, so I decided to sign for receipt of the ring and get it independantly validated.
The ring itself is gorgeous, the setting is exactly as per my requirements and looks fantastic.
The stone looks quite a bit bigger than I expected - I ended up measuring it to check it is the right dimensions. It's worth mentioning it is an EGL-Intl. stone... I know I know, always go with GIA or AGS, but it's important to my girlfriend to have it 'conflict-free' on the certificate itself, which only EGL-Intl has. The ring has fairly decent sparkles - it's a 0.9 on the HCA PriceScope, and the official EGL cut grade is Excellent Ideal; I'd say more like a very good. There are no visible inclusions from eyeballing it - I was impressed that it's an eye-clear SI1 from EGL-Intl. The one big flaw is that it's supposed to be a D colour; however to my sensitive eyes it has got a definite yellowish tint in certain light; I'd say more like a G or H, which is quite a big difference, but in most light it does look nice and white. I am looking forward to an independant examination to see what else they say about it.
At the end of the day, the ring really does look fantastic, and probably saved me around $2000+ compared to a high-street retailer. The downside of dealing with diamondexchange was the frustration at having to visit the office 3 times, and not being able to examine the diamond properly, as well as the rather slow response times to my emails. Customer service - at least from the representative I was dealing with - was quite unprofessional at times, and I expected a much faster, more intelligent service, eg. making sure a loupe is available when I go to inspect the diamond. Would I deal with them again? Yes - but I'd buy AGS or GIA and take my own loupe...!
The thing that first attracted me to diamondexchange was the fact that they have an absolutely huge database of diamonds available, many of which are available at great prices, especially when compared to People's etc. The database they use is the same as the one used by usacerteddiamonds.com. USAcerteddiamonds deals in USD so for Canadians it's perhaps a little cheaper, but the fact that you have to deal with importing and the fact that diamondexchange has an office in Toronto decided me to go with them.
Diamond exchange also accepts custom-build requests for rings and settings at a reasonable price - you need to supply photos/descriptions of the ring, and they'll put it all together for you. A huge plus as my girlfriend was very particular about the type of ring, setting, etc. that she wanted.
I first began looking through their database quite a while ago, using very specific table, depth, pavilion and crown ratios, and sent several requests about various diamonds. Unfortunately getting back to me on those took them a fairly long time - apparently they have to first check it hasn't sold, second get it out of the vault (which I believe is in NYC), and third get a gemologist to check the diamond and give his own recommendations and feedback on the individual stone (which greatly helps when buying online). All that took about a day or more, so it's quite a slow process to find out even if the diamond you want is available, let alone if it looks nice. The good thing is though, that if it's ie. an SI1, the gemologist will give additional feedback about the types of inclusions - if they're white (ok) or black (bad), if the stone is eye-clear, and so forth.
After a fairly lengthy process of settling on specific stones and finding out they were sold / had bad inclusions, I finally found a stone that fit my specifications perfectly: Ideal cut SI1 D .70 60.7% depth, 56% table, 14%crown, 43% pavilion. I put in the order, paid for the total including setting and arranged to have it delivered to the Toronto office for inspection.
The total time from paying to collection was about 2 weeks in total - the stone came from the vault to the Toronto office and then went straight to their jeweller facility which I believe is in Etobicoke.
I was told I could collect the ring yesterday @ 2:30 so I arrived and was told the ring hadn't actually arrived in their latest courier shipment and could I come back at 5pm? I went back at 5pm only to find the office shut - called and discovered the assistant dealing with my purchase was still in Etobicoke at the jewller facility.
I arranged to come back today and had to wait around 20 minutes. I wasn't shown into an office (apparently it was in use) and ended up inspecting the ring in the reception area - not the greatest environment to appraise a ring. The assistant had apparently "forgotten her loupe" so I was left to simply eyeball the ring and wasn't able to verify the inclusions etc. I asked if she would be happy for me to verify the purchase with an independant jeweller and she seemed a little anxious: apparently they have had customers in the past verify purchases and been told the stone is not exactly as per the sales description/certificate. All very fishy and strange - surely you would welcome an independant verification.
All in I got extremely wary - it felt like I'd been given the run around, having been to the office three times in total and not actually ever even having seen the office. However, I had already paid in full via PayPal some 2 weeks before, so I decided to sign for receipt of the ring and get it independantly validated.
The ring itself is gorgeous, the setting is exactly as per my requirements and looks fantastic.
The stone looks quite a bit bigger than I expected - I ended up measuring it to check it is the right dimensions. It's worth mentioning it is an EGL-Intl. stone... I know I know, always go with GIA or AGS, but it's important to my girlfriend to have it 'conflict-free' on the certificate itself, which only EGL-Intl has. The ring has fairly decent sparkles - it's a 0.9 on the HCA PriceScope, and the official EGL cut grade is Excellent Ideal; I'd say more like a very good. There are no visible inclusions from eyeballing it - I was impressed that it's an eye-clear SI1 from EGL-Intl. The one big flaw is that it's supposed to be a D colour; however to my sensitive eyes it has got a definite yellowish tint in certain light; I'd say more like a G or H, which is quite a big difference, but in most light it does look nice and white. I am looking forward to an independant examination to see what else they say about it.
At the end of the day, the ring really does look fantastic, and probably saved me around $2000+ compared to a high-street retailer. The downside of dealing with diamondexchange was the frustration at having to visit the office 3 times, and not being able to examine the diamond properly, as well as the rather slow response times to my emails. Customer service - at least from the representative I was dealing with - was quite unprofessional at times, and I expected a much faster, more intelligent service, eg. making sure a loupe is available when I go to inspect the diamond. Would I deal with them again? Yes - but I'd buy AGS or GIA and take my own loupe...!
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