I'm surprised there is no website that has taken advantage of the gap in this market. I have checked Leibish, DBL, and several other websites for weeks now, trying to find some stones, and have not been satisfied.
I contacted one of the top three engagement ring designers recommended in this forum last month and we entered into a work order agreement where I would supply my own center stone and he would make a setting including 4 "natural vivid pink diamonds." When he sent me a sample of the pinks, they were shockingly far from vivid per the GIA fancy scale. The jeweler agreed and we went through a process where he attempted to order increasingly higher quality pink melee from his vendor ($10,000/ct, $15,000/ct, until $18,000/ct).
I just saw photos of the $18,000 per carat set. This is for a set of four stones about .07 carats in total. I still wasn't impressed. I suppose I may be willing to accept them just so we could move forward with this project. I would say the stones were "fancy" or "fancy intense" in color, at best. The cuts are pretty bad as well.
Two questions for you all:
1. My jeweler wants to charge me more than the $4,400 we originally agreed to for the setting because the pink melee is turning out to be expensive. We previously clearly agreed these would be "natural, vivid pink color" and we also agreed upon the size at 1.8mm each stone, at the time of our contract. Is it standard practice that the stones he will now deliver are objectively not "vivid pink" per the GIA scale and are smaller than 1.8mm, yet he wants additional moneys? I feel that we had a contract and he is delivering less than he agreed but asking for more money.
2. Where the heck can I get better stones?
Also I want to make one important comment. I think this jeweler is great, this thread is not at all to complain about him or badmouth him. His work is good. He has been communicative. I also feel that he is honest. My only issue is, we had a contract. It seems like at the time we made our contract, he thought that vivid pink melee would be much more affordable than it turned out to be. Maybe he doesn't work with pink diamonds very often. Apparently, his vendor catalog had described some less expensive melee to him as "vivid" and after receiving those, he realized that it was going to take a lot more money to get this done as promised. I'm not bringing up the money issue with him because I don't want to upset the guy and create a trust issue between us. It's just very strange to me that I feel we have a contract with strictly defined terms and he doesn't seem to recognize that. Then again, I am an attorney so it's possible that I just pay closer attention to contract issues than others do.
I contacted one of the top three engagement ring designers recommended in this forum last month and we entered into a work order agreement where I would supply my own center stone and he would make a setting including 4 "natural vivid pink diamonds." When he sent me a sample of the pinks, they were shockingly far from vivid per the GIA fancy scale. The jeweler agreed and we went through a process where he attempted to order increasingly higher quality pink melee from his vendor ($10,000/ct, $15,000/ct, until $18,000/ct).
I just saw photos of the $18,000 per carat set. This is for a set of four stones about .07 carats in total. I still wasn't impressed. I suppose I may be willing to accept them just so we could move forward with this project. I would say the stones were "fancy" or "fancy intense" in color, at best. The cuts are pretty bad as well.
Two questions for you all:
1. My jeweler wants to charge me more than the $4,400 we originally agreed to for the setting because the pink melee is turning out to be expensive. We previously clearly agreed these would be "natural, vivid pink color" and we also agreed upon the size at 1.8mm each stone, at the time of our contract. Is it standard practice that the stones he will now deliver are objectively not "vivid pink" per the GIA scale and are smaller than 1.8mm, yet he wants additional moneys? I feel that we had a contract and he is delivering less than he agreed but asking for more money.
2. Where the heck can I get better stones?
Also I want to make one important comment. I think this jeweler is great, this thread is not at all to complain about him or badmouth him. His work is good. He has been communicative. I also feel that he is honest. My only issue is, we had a contract. It seems like at the time we made our contract, he thought that vivid pink melee would be much more affordable than it turned out to be. Maybe he doesn't work with pink diamonds very often. Apparently, his vendor catalog had described some less expensive melee to him as "vivid" and after receiving those, he realized that it was going to take a lot more money to get this done as promised. I'm not bringing up the money issue with him because I don't want to upset the guy and create a trust issue between us. It's just very strange to me that I feel we have a contract with strictly defined terms and he doesn't seem to recognize that. Then again, I am an attorney so it's possible that I just pay closer attention to contract issues than others do.
I had a similar situation when I was making inquiries about pink melee a few weeks ago. Some Ps'ers pitched in and confirmed my suspicions.
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