Were these stones graded by IGI NY or Antwerp??
Living in Europe, and seeing a lot of IGI and HRDs, I'll express my opinion:
IGI Antwerp isn't that bad... Nowdays is much better than 2-3 years ago... Yes, they're a bit lenient on color --even if the difference is usually not more than one grade-- but most times stricter than EGL. I find them to be very good on fancy colors grading, though. On clarity they're OK... I do use IGI Antwerp for medium-small stones, as they're inexpensive, fast and not that bad, in my opinion.
HRD is a first class lab. Simply perfect! Sometimes even too strict, in my opinion. They're VERY hard on D-E-F colors --usually HRD-'E' gets GIA-'D' and so on-- and on finish grade (= polish + symmetry)...They use loupe-clean grade that stands for flawless (if it hasn't a comment) or internally flawless, if it has a comment like 'negligible external characteristics' or 'minor graining'... They grade the clarity according to the dimensions of the inclusions, and I think (I may be wrong) that if there is a pinpoint(clear or dark) smaller than one micron, the stone gets loupe-clean rating. Someone says that if this pinpoint is black, GIA would grade the stone as VVS 1... That's the most significant difference between HRD and GIA...