Has anyone had there bank prevent them from purchasing jewelry through Adiamor "due to their merchant fraud score"?

[lovedogs]

**UPDATE** Adiamor was kind enough to reach out directly as we tried to figure what was going on with my bank on a conference call. The bank has refused to tell us specifics on a merchant score and were not transparent with their reasoning or methodology. The bank said they would reach back out and did not. After speaking with Adiamors owner I feel completely comfortable with them and purchasing from them. At this point I blame my bank for causing confusion and trouble, and completely failing to clarify or provide any specifics for their arbitrary fraud score. This is not the first time this banks fraud department has seemed to be disorganized and mismanaged (based on previous card locks). I will be switching banks and purchasing my original ring through Adiamor from a new bank card.

This sounds like great customer service from adiamor, and further proof that your bank is being unreasonable. I think you are doing the right thing switching, because arbitrarily telling you that you can't buy from somewhere (w.o more specifics) is really unacceptable.

 

[marymm]

OP, you've probably already considered this, but remember Adiamor's goal is to get you to purchase their wares ... your bank's goal is to protect your money and reduce risk ... if I were you, I'd take the time to re-think this whole situation but in place of you pretend it is someone you adore and feel responsible for ... would you tell that person to ignore the bank's caution?

 

[yssie]

@the_mother_thing and @marymm both said exactly what I’ve been thinking reading this thread.

Especially if this is a large, nationwide bank... Banks are generally incentivised to make it easy for you to spend money...

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

It sounds to me like you have a pretty good bank. The Mother Thing posted exactly what you ought to consider as the most important aspect of this situation. My bank has also interfered against fraud on my behalf and subverted a theft, twice.

Annette

 

[Kaycee2018]

My most recent purchase from Adiamor was just a couple weeks ago, over $20k and with my Amex (I never wire since the extra cost for the protection offered by using my card, coupled with the points earned , is worth it to me). Zero issues. I don’t know what bank OP has (local, national, etc), but Amex has a reputation of being very consumer friendly, so if they haven’t flagged Adiamor I’m not sure why any financial institution would. Glad it worked out for OP. Adiamor has been nothing short of professional is all my dealings with them and I’ve never felt cause for alarm.

 

[TheLady]

My most recent purchase from Adiamor was just a couple weeks ago, over $20k and with my Amex (I never wire since the extra cost for the protection offered by using my card, coupled with the points earned , is worth it to me). Zero issues. I don’t know what bank OP has (local, national, etc), but Amex has a reputation of being very consumer friendly, so if they haven’t flagged Adiamor I’m not sure why any financial institution would. Glad it worked out for OP. Adiamor has been nothing short of professional is all my dealings with them and I’ve never felt cause for alarm.

I agree with everything you said regarding Adiamor. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase from them again. As I previously stated I made two purchases. Zero issues. I ended up returning the stone I bought with my credit card and received my refund 1 day after they received the return. I've also had fraud alerts when making large purchases with different credit cards. I appreciate this. I've never had my credit card company flat out refuse to let me make a purchase though, interesting....

 

[the_mother_thing]

... Amex has a reputation of being very consumer friendly, so if they haven’t flagged Adiamor I’m not sure why any financial institution would.

It’s likely because OP’s bank has other customers who processed chargebacks with Adiamor, but perhaps AmEx has not ... or it could be an issue of ‘scale’. For example, if OP’s bank has 10k customers and 3 processed a chargeback with one merchant, that may be enough to trigger/elevate their fraud score; whereas if AmEx (or another bank) has 500k customers and 3 chargebacks with one merchant, it may not be considered as ‘high risk’ for them.

 

[distracts]

The thing about having purchased from places in the past, even recently, and had it be fine is NOT to me an argument to do it... last year I bought something from a company (not jewelry but clothing) I have bought from a bunch of times before and did not receive it... they suddenly had stopped shipping orders, were millions of dollars in debt to suppliers, have sent out a ton of apology emails, delayed delayed delayed on as many things as possible until most people were outside of chargeback periods, there are multiple lawsuits against them, and idk what is going to end up happening. They may end up closing. I had to do a chargeback after multiple attempts to communicate with the company went unanswered. It was only a couple hundred dollars but I firstly didn't want to lose even that and secondly wanted the credit card company aware that the merchant was now unreliable, exactly in case they got multiple other reports and stopped doing business with them. It's a place I liked and ordered from with no issues right up until I DID have issues. If you read the Enchanted Diamonds thread, it looked like that followed a similar pattern.

For me personally, nothing Adiamor offers is unique enough to risk it. I would just pick a different diamond and setting from any one of the other zillions of online websites that don't have this problem. Sure, it could be "friendly fraud" and there could be no issues, but on a multi-thousand-dollar purchase, the risk for me is too great.

 

[sledge]

For me personally, nothing Adiamor offers is unique enough to risk it. I would just pick a different diamond and setting from any one of the other zillions of online websites that don't have this problem. Sure, it could be "friendly fraud" and there could be no issues, but on a multi-thousand-dollar purchase, the risk for me is too great.

The key word there is risk. And more importantly a person's own tolerance and perception of the particular risk in question.

I am more tolerable to risk than most people I've encountered, but each situation has to be analyzed carefully. There's a major difference between taking calculated risk with proper reward vs just being wreckless and taking risk where it makes no sense.

In a situation like this I personally believe the bank is being over cautious. That said, I feel relatively certain the same stone could be purchased elsewhere for the same money and without the hassle or potential risk factor.

So what reward would I have to make my life difficult, or put my finances at risk?

And yes, companies can and do go under in the blink of an eye. My company does lots of government contracts and we purchase from suppliers that have to follow the same strict regulations we are held to. One of the products we purchase requires engineered shop drawings and calculations, stamped by a professional engineer with proper credentials in the locations we work.

I bought tens of millions of product from this supplier. The owner and I had a great relationship built on trust and their ability to manufacture and deliver under tough deadlines. I went to bed one night and all was well. The next morning I learned he was going to prison for providing falsified engineering documents. All their company operations immediately ceased and all monetary and manufactured product assets were frozen.

Strange things can and do happen.