GIA -- paying them and Malca Amit

[mwq3434]

I suppose I can ask them directly an probably will but how do you handle the payment end of things with GIA and the courier?

I want to send a diamond to be graded and see all the paperwork I need to do but it doesn't say on their site how to pay.

Do they send you an invoice AFTER they receive the diamond (I'm an individual though -- do not have an "account" with them or anything).
Or do you just determine the fees and send a certified check enclosed with the diamond? Also -- it only lists Carlsbad as a payment center?

very confusing.

Also, when I go to Malca Amit, can I go ahead and pay for both shipping to GIA and the return shipping also? Do I include the return label in the box or something?

thanks so much.

 

[denverappraiser]

I think they take credit cards but I'm sure they would be thrilled to discuss it if you call them.

You'll have to pay the courier and the lab separtely. As with GIA, I'm sure Malca is prepared to discuss with you how to pay them and I would fully expect that they'll take plastic. The return courier will be a 3rd transaction although you may be able to pay that one as part of your GIA bill.

 

[mwq3434]

I know -- I should call them and will.

Thanks. They cover everything on their site but really vague on payment procedure.

 

[TransGuardian]

You have to pay the courier both way separately. You have lots of ways to do this, but here are some things to consider:

1. You need insurance, obviously.
2. You can ship via UPS, FedEx, or the US Postal Service.

All of these carriers pick up at the GIA daily, so your return shipment is not a problem. For the outbound shipment, you need to give the parcel to one of these carriers and make sure you get a carrier acceptance scan so that your transit insurance is in place. (That is, don't put the parcel in a drop box.)

This is not a commercial, but if you were to use our company to do that, here's what you could do using our online software (although there are quite a few options):

Let's say you made an outbound bar-coded label using USPS Express Mail from you to the GIA, insured for $10,000. (Wells Fargo Insurance Services brokers our policy for up to $150,000 per parcel; other companies have other insurance arrangements; make sure you check the limits and limitations and that the policy is paid up and in force).

The good thing about Express Mail is you can drop it at your local PO (and there are, of course, tens of thousands more of these around the country than UPS and FedEx manned locations). Also, you can get a free pick up from the USPS at your home or office - you can book this at www.usps.com or you can also do it via our website.

Express Mail travels overnight by noon the next day and includes Signature (free) and incurs no other surcharges, as UPS and FedEx do.
Nothing wrong with the 3-Letter Carriers, but they cost more and the USPS has become far more trackable and reliable in the last several years. Our experience regarding losses (and we do hundreds of thousands of high-value parcels) is: Best: USPS, 2nd Best: UPS, 3rd Best: OnTrac, 4th Best: FedEx (probably contrary to urban myth!). And remember, it is a felony to tamper with the mail and the USPS has its own law enforcement agency that really drills down hard on any mail tampering - the US Postal Inspection Service. I've worked with them a lot, and they're great. It's no wonder they caught the Unabomber! It is not necessarily a felony to tamper with a contract carrier parcel.

Then you could print a return label with the insurance already bound for the return label and put it inside the outbound box.

Of course, you can have it go outbound by Express Mail and return by UPS, if you like. You just need a multi-carrier system that can do that.

Both the outbound and the return shipment will be fully trackable online and insured from door to door.

There are more exotic methodologies for managing insured returns - we have service called Boomerang for this - but it sounds like this is a one-time event for you, so that might be overkill.