GOG vs Others Online

[Rhino]

Hi elle,

Was alerted to your post. At my earliest I''ll give you some real world examples of why we implemented this policy with trades. Wink and Allison have basically hit the nail on the head though. I''ve mathmatically went through every scenario ...

1. original purchase with cc, trade with wire.
2. original purchase with cc, trade with cc.
3. original purchase with wire, trade with cc.
4. original purchase with wire, trade with wife.

In each instance where cc''s are involved and we give back the full purchase price there is no guarantee we are going to collect that on the next purchase as the next person may purchase that with wire and we are giving back funds we never collected in the first place and may not indeed collect the 2nd time around. Unfortunately I learned this the hard way with multiple thousands at stake. A mistake I will not make again. If I weren''t working off of internet markups the 3.5% difference would not be an issue but with Internet markups that 3.5% on top of the price of the diamond can easily add up to over half of your profit. I''ll lay out the math for you shortly to help you better understand.

Kind regards,

 

[stone-cold11]

Date: 10/20/2009 6:06:06 PM
Author: Rhino
4. original purchase with wire, trade with wife.

???

 

[nkarma]

I love that, if you want to upgrade your stone, you have trade your wife in. Some men may not object to that.

Can you just have the bank wire price of the original stone be the trade in value? Someone bought $10,000 stone with CC, but can use $9650 for their credit on upgrade using bank wire. That way CC company retains the 3.5% charged and consumer does not have to keep giving that to the CC company everytime they upgrade and the vendor loses nothing.

 

[elle_chris]

Collee- I don''t understand why you took it personally as it wasn''t directed at you. The question was for GOG, but other vendors were answering.

BTW- I understand exactly what Allison is saying.

As far as going to GOG prior to purchashing, I live two hours away. At least that''s how long it took us by car. I don''t think that''s close? The reason I did go out there was because I was undecided about the setting and needed to see the various pendants they had in person. Pointless anyway as I had it set locally. But still glad I did because it did set my mind at ease knowing they were real jewelers.

Rhino- AT LAST! Glad you said SOMETHING

nkarama- I said that earlier as well, but Wink and Allison said the fees vendors get charged differ.

 

[Collee]

Date: 10/20/2009 6:38:45 PM
Author: elle_chris
Collee- I don't understand why you took it personally as it wasn't directed at you. The question was for GOG, but other vendors were answering.

BTW- I understand exactly what Allison is saying.

As far as going to GOG prior to purchashing, I live two hours away. At least that's how long it took us by car. I don't think that's close? The reason I did go out there was because I was undecided about the setting and needed to see the various pendants they had in person. Pointless anyway as I had it set locally. But still glad I did because it did set my mind at ease knowing they were real jewelers.

Rhino- AT LAST! Glad you said SOMETHING

nkarama- I said that earlier as well, but Wink and Allison said the fees vendors get charged differ.

Huh? Now I REALLY am confused. I took NOTHING personally as you shouldn't have as well. Never once did I state that I was offended by your posts (took ANYTHING personally) or that you were attacking Jon (as you claimed that i was inferring). I actually thought my replies to to your posts were quite pleasant and diplomatic. And IMHO, we are/were all just engaging in a freindly Q and A session. If you expected your questions to be addressed by Jon persoanlly, than you should have emailed him directly as GOGs trade up policy was really was not the intended topic of this thread.

I guess I misunderstood your trip purpose as I thought you stated you were still uncomfortable with the purchase of the stone prior to it shipping, therefore took the drive to GOG to ease your mind about the stone purchase.

Relatively speaking and in PS world, a 2 hr (4 hrs round trip) drive IS close. Then again, I love "road trips".

Although this wasn't the orginal subject of the thread, I am also glad that Jon has joined the discussion. NDSWR, sorry again that your thread was hijacked.

 

[kenny]

If I bought my wife with my CC can I still trade her in?

 

[NDSWMR]

No worries about changing the subject. I got my questioned answered and am now in the process of figuring out which diamond to go for. I''ve gotten some nice responses concerning each diamond on another thread, but am always open to more. Thanks for all the help.

 

[Rhino]

Date: 10/20/2009 6:12:22 PM
Author: Stone-cold11

Date: 10/20/2009 6:06:06 PM
Author: Rhino
4. original purchase with wire, trade with wife.

???

oops. Freudian slip?

 

[Rhino]

Date: 10/20/2009 6:38:45 PM
Author: elle_chris
Collee- I don''t understand why you took it personally as it wasn''t directed at you. The question was for GOG, but other vendors were answering.

BTW- I understand exactly what Allison is saying.

As far as going to GOG prior to purchashing, I live two hours away. At least that''s how long it took us by car. I don''t think that''s close? The reason I did go out there was because I was undecided about the setting and needed to see the various pendants they had in person. Pointless anyway as I had it set locally. But still glad I did because it did set my mind at ease knowing they were real jewelers.

Rhino- AT LAST! Glad you said SOMETHING

nkarama- I said that earlier as well, but Wink and Allison said the fees vendors get charged differ.

I was away the past few days and came back on Tues to many emails I''m yet to catch up with. Sometimes unless someone tells me I''m oblivious to many of the posts here.

Sorry I didn''t respond sooner.

 

[Rhino]

Ok. Here it is from a mathematical/business/capital investment perspective.

This example I''m using is hypothetical yet very real with regards to internet transactions.

Say we acquire a diamond and its base cost is 40k (not taking into account shipping expenses of this and any other diamonds that client wanted to see in a comparison).

Say on this 40k diamond a margin of 5% is added making the diamond $42k total (wire discount) or $43,470 retail price (client can pay most convenient way for them, cc etc.) $1470 of that $43470 we collect but never see.

Now this client changes their mind after 30 days and want a different shape entirely (which they can do with a diamond we place lifetime policies on).
Let''s say the new diamond they trade for, they really don''t want to shell any large sum out of pocket for and the new diamond they want must not exceed $1000 more than their original purchase.

So on a wire the new diamond costs $44,000 (wire discount) or $45,540 (other) $41,905 being cost.
Giving back the client the full retail price (via cc, etc.) of $43,470 towards 44k leaves a balance of $530 and I have allowed funds towards the trade I''ve never seen the light of day on. Now say I do that and the diamond they traded is sold (days, weeks, months, or years later) and a person purchases the diamond at the wire price of $42k.

Not only have I waited the time it takes to realize any profit from the initial trade but I''ve just realized a loss of $1470 on that transaction.
What business would you get into where you didn''t realize profit at a much later date than the transaction and lose 1470 of your profit in the process?

This addendum to our policy alleviates that tension. Not the time factor but at least from the perspective of the standpoint of capital investment. And $1470 would be more than half of our profit on the initial investment since that profit was only 2k, in essence making the profit of the sale of the traded diamond $530 on a 42k sale.

Same type of math can apply whether you''re using a 10k diamond or a 42k diamond but even a slightly higher margin on the 10k diamond.

In the end a loss is realized of over half the profit on the traded diamond should the traded diamond be sold for wire wherein the full amount was allowed from a cc transaction of the prior sale. If we charged what typical B&M''s did the additional 3.5% over the wire discount would not be an issue but with Internet pricing as close as it is to cost this is the only solution that makes sense if I am to stick to my word of giving clients back what they pay on a trade.

Hope this helps.

Kindest regards,