viscera912
Shiny_Rock
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2004
- Messages
- 109
good day to everyone,
i know there has been a lot of debating and bashing of the b&m lately, i want to preface that this is neither a bashing of a b&m store. this is merely to relate my experience so others who are curious about going to local stores vs online stores can see one in perspective. for those of you who didn''t read the beginning of this post it can be found here
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/just-goin-for-a-looksee-at-a-b-m-any-advice.14602/
i hope that link works, if not its on page 4 of this forum entitled "goin for a looksee at a b&m, any advice."
anyway, so here is the story. first i went to a local jeweller here in the area that a friend of mine referred me to. before i went to the store i made sure i was really prepared with all the knowledge i have garnered here as if i was going to take the boards that day! i walked in and had some small chit chat with the salesperson then he asked how he could help me. i told him i wanted to look at princesses in a certain carat range and sadly, he only had 4 loose stones to show me. the other stones were allready set. i was hoping to see a bunch of loose stones so i could see different table and depth numbers. of the 4 loose stones i saw, neither was very impressive; i asked their specs on them and he only had the gia cert on him and wasn''t aware of the table, depth, crown and all that other good info. i asked him if he had a listing or something that i could look at like a multiple vendor listing. he said he did but he didn''t allow me to look at it because he said he just can''t do that. i didn''t understand why but perhaps its a legal matter. anyway, i did find out that he does his own custom settings so we spent the most part of my time there discussing various settings. oh by the way, this gentlemen was a gemologist (gia). so i showed him some of the settings i was currently interested in and he said he would be able to make them and match some prices. so we ended and he said to email him all my parameters of what i was looking for in a princess and he said he would find various stones for me. when i told him i was probably going to purchase online he was very supportive of it as he went on to explain that one would find a cheaper stone online, but they don''t receive the same human to human service. but he never bashed or tryed to sway me from internet purchasing. he said he would try and be flexible with his pricing if he found various stones for me so i was happy with that. basically, ill use this store as a reference for a setting, i am currently thinking that is a good possibility. as for a center stone, i will be curious what kind of stones he finds for me and price ranges as well.
.....on to the mall stores.....i first went into kay jewelers and actually it took like 4 minutes of walking around the store before someone came up and said hello to me. besides the negligent staff, which was a bad impression to begin with the lady was friendly, she couldn''t have been more than 23 and tried to flirt with me
ahem, anyway, she showed me some ugly ugly stones, they were graded from IGI and ive never heard of a color such as G-H. i didn''t know there were ranges for colors as well as ranges for clarity. i asked her table and depth info and she had no clue what they were but at least she didn''t attempt to give me some lame explanation. she was trying to peddle me their "exclusive" brand, the LEO diamond which if i remember correctly has 62 facets instead of just 58 or something like that. i was particulary interested in her wonderful memory of the salespitch the head office made her memorize
the prices for these stones were totally outrageous!!!! at least 1000 to 1500 more than what i have found here on the PS search. i said thank you and left with great haste on to helzberg diamonds.
at helzberg i was promptly greeted and made to sit down and tell them what i was looking for. after i told them they showed me about 2 stones and said these are beauties, again graded by IGI, had the ranges thing going on and at that point i was starting to get angry because i had been to 3 stores and i haven''t seen but 2 decent stones, and about 10 terrible stones. i said thank you and left. the last story is the best...
i walked into zales jewelry and was greeted very warmly. i sat down and told her i was looking for princesses and she showed me 3 stones. these stones were graded by IGI and had the whole range thing going on again. so by this time i was rather angry and hungry so i just decided to have some fun and ask her the table percentage. this poor girl, i feel so sorry for her...without hesitation she pointed me at the measurements listing!!!!! she smiled and said, "oh its right here", and pointed at the 5.45x5.45x3.45 (numbers made up). i wanted to laugh sooo bad but i composed myself and thought she is just trying to help and she doesn''t know any better. i said thank you and quickly left to the chinese fast food restaurant at the food court!!
i want to reiterate that i am not trying to bash these companies, the people, or their knowledge. it is just to share an experience, but from what i have learned the mall stores just don''t have beautiful stones to buy and whats worse they are SOOOO overpriced. in saying that, i haven''t been to a lot of stores, i do have plans to visit some more this friday (its my day off now!!). but i am so dissapointed because i haven''t found any diamonds that i can actually look at and learn about differences. i want to see the difference between a really good cut and the normal zales diamonds. im kinda scared that im never going to see one until i make the purchase from an online vendor. i feel so sorry for the chaps who purchase from the mall stores as they are getting such a ripoff. oh well, the main point of this post was to reassure those who are beginning in their knowledge of diamonds to realize that their knowledge will help them immensely in their purchase. they will be able to weed out bad stones and save themselves a loss of money. also, its a testament to those who regularly post here and help those of us who want and need to learn about diamonds. to ya''ll i say thanks! well i apologize for the long post, i hope you aren''t asleep by this time so ill close and let you read other posts!
jason
i know there has been a lot of debating and bashing of the b&m lately, i want to preface that this is neither a bashing of a b&m store. this is merely to relate my experience so others who are curious about going to local stores vs online stores can see one in perspective. for those of you who didn''t read the beginning of this post it can be found here
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/just-goin-for-a-looksee-at-a-b-m-any-advice.14602/
i hope that link works, if not its on page 4 of this forum entitled "goin for a looksee at a b&m, any advice."
anyway, so here is the story. first i went to a local jeweller here in the area that a friend of mine referred me to. before i went to the store i made sure i was really prepared with all the knowledge i have garnered here as if i was going to take the boards that day! i walked in and had some small chit chat with the salesperson then he asked how he could help me. i told him i wanted to look at princesses in a certain carat range and sadly, he only had 4 loose stones to show me. the other stones were allready set. i was hoping to see a bunch of loose stones so i could see different table and depth numbers. of the 4 loose stones i saw, neither was very impressive; i asked their specs on them and he only had the gia cert on him and wasn''t aware of the table, depth, crown and all that other good info. i asked him if he had a listing or something that i could look at like a multiple vendor listing. he said he did but he didn''t allow me to look at it because he said he just can''t do that. i didn''t understand why but perhaps its a legal matter. anyway, i did find out that he does his own custom settings so we spent the most part of my time there discussing various settings. oh by the way, this gentlemen was a gemologist (gia). so i showed him some of the settings i was currently interested in and he said he would be able to make them and match some prices. so we ended and he said to email him all my parameters of what i was looking for in a princess and he said he would find various stones for me. when i told him i was probably going to purchase online he was very supportive of it as he went on to explain that one would find a cheaper stone online, but they don''t receive the same human to human service. but he never bashed or tryed to sway me from internet purchasing. he said he would try and be flexible with his pricing if he found various stones for me so i was happy with that. basically, ill use this store as a reference for a setting, i am currently thinking that is a good possibility. as for a center stone, i will be curious what kind of stones he finds for me and price ranges as well.
.....on to the mall stores.....i first went into kay jewelers and actually it took like 4 minutes of walking around the store before someone came up and said hello to me. besides the negligent staff, which was a bad impression to begin with the lady was friendly, she couldn''t have been more than 23 and tried to flirt with me
at helzberg i was promptly greeted and made to sit down and tell them what i was looking for. after i told them they showed me about 2 stones and said these are beauties, again graded by IGI, had the ranges thing going on and at that point i was starting to get angry because i had been to 3 stores and i haven''t seen but 2 decent stones, and about 10 terrible stones. i said thank you and left. the last story is the best...
i walked into zales jewelry and was greeted very warmly. i sat down and told her i was looking for princesses and she showed me 3 stones. these stones were graded by IGI and had the whole range thing going on again. so by this time i was rather angry and hungry so i just decided to have some fun and ask her the table percentage. this poor girl, i feel so sorry for her...without hesitation she pointed me at the measurements listing!!!!! she smiled and said, "oh its right here", and pointed at the 5.45x5.45x3.45 (numbers made up). i wanted to laugh sooo bad but i composed myself and thought she is just trying to help and she doesn''t know any better. i said thank you and quickly left to the chinese fast food restaurant at the food court!!
i want to reiterate that i am not trying to bash these companies, the people, or their knowledge. it is just to share an experience, but from what i have learned the mall stores just don''t have beautiful stones to buy and whats worse they are SOOOO overpriced. in saying that, i haven''t been to a lot of stores, i do have plans to visit some more this friday (its my day off now!!). but i am so dissapointed because i haven''t found any diamonds that i can actually look at and learn about differences. i want to see the difference between a really good cut and the normal zales diamonds. im kinda scared that im never going to see one until i make the purchase from an online vendor. i feel so sorry for the chaps who purchase from the mall stores as they are getting such a ripoff. oh well, the main point of this post was to reassure those who are beginning in their knowledge of diamonds to realize that their knowledge will help them immensely in their purchase. they will be able to weed out bad stones and save themselves a loss of money. also, its a testament to those who regularly post here and help those of us who want and need to learn about diamonds. to ya''ll i say thanks! well i apologize for the long post, i hope you aren''t asleep by this time so ill close and let you read other posts!
jason
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