How do you feel about Excels comparison of online diamond vendors in their blog?

[vintagelover229]

So,
Being bored as I usually am, I was searching many different things today. One of my google searches pulles up a bling bling blog for exceldiamonds.com

Here is the linky

Now, I understand this is a blog...and that they have every right to do it...and I dont own either business, so I guess I really dont care...but I was wondering how the PS community feels about this whole thing?

I know PS is a resource for the community and to share experiences, etc. but I''m kinda baffled that some of the threads are being used to perhaps sway or not to sway sales from/to vendors. Like I said, I''m not upset...just a little taken back.

So, i figured I''d point it out to ya''ll and ask how YOU feel about it. What your reactions are.

Is it right? Wrong? Doesn''t matter? I''m just wondering!

 

[neatfreak]

Personally I think it's in poor taste to name drop other vendors in a negative way. One thing to use generalized terms, but a whole different ballgame to name vendors specifically.

I also think it's in poor taste to use a PS thread to do it. Doesn't make me think nicely of Excel, that's for sure.

 

[paeony]

I NEVER like/endorse the practice of building one''s self up by putting others down...

A business could have the best prices/sevice/product, but one comment like that-- and I''m gone based on principles

 

[vintagelover229]

Date: 3/8/2009 4:09:00 PM
Author: neatfreak
Personally I think it''s in poor taste to name drop other vendors in a negative way. One thing to use generalized terms, but a whole different ballgame to name vendors specifically.

I also think it''s in poor taste to use a PS thread to do it. Doesn''t make me think nicely of Excel, that''s for sure.

Thats how I kinda felt too. I REALLY didnt like that they brought a thread into it! I mean, REALLY? That isnt what PS is for. Its for someone to take all the information and make the decision for themselves, learn, and make a decision for themselves. IMO.

 

[Maisie]

He doesn''t even have his facts straight. John Pollard doesn''t work for Whiteflash anymore, and he was never Director of Sales. He was Director of Education.

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 3/8/2009 4:32:03 PM
Author: Maisie
He doesn''t even have his facts straight. John Pollard doesn''t work for Whiteflash anymore, and he was never Director of Sales. He was Director of Education.

Yup and ditto to what neatfreak had to say.

 

[vintagelover229]

So I''m not going to be stoned or shot if I say I am horrified that I stumbled upon this? Was I correct in thinking that this should be brought to the PS community''s attention? I''m not tyring to cause trouble, but I was horrifed when I found it!

 

[Maisie]

I'm not sure that linking to a blog is allowed. You might want to check with Andrey or Ali. I am glad you posted though. Its a very underhand way to get customers.

 

[atroop711]

this just annoyed me. To me it''s sounds like high school...when you have one girl jealous of another....so she goes around trashing their name. Not nice Excel. I did buy my stone from WF and I had 2 stones brought in..I was never asked nor charged for anything

 

[Maisie]

I wonder when that blog was written. That PS thread they posted is from almost a year ago.

 

[swingirl]

Date: 3/8/2009 5:01:39 PM
Author: atroop711
this just annoyed me. To me it's sounds like high school...when you have one girl jealous of another....so she goes around trashing their name. Not nice Excel. I did buy my stone from WF and I had 2 stones brought in..I was never asked nor charged for anything

I could be wrong but my understanding is most vendors don't charge for the first or second one they call in. And if you buy the stone they apply the fee towards it's cost. I wonder how many stones Excel will call in for free? I hope Excel's PR department gets slapped for this one, especially when there is a lot of positive feedback on PS about them. They should know better than to use this tactic and get away with it.

 

[vintagelover229]

Date: 3/8/2009 4:59:12 PM
Author: Maisie
I'm not sure that linking to a blog is allowed. You might want to check with Andrey or Ali. I am glad you posted though. Its a very underhand way to get customers.

If its not I'm sorry. I just found it when I was searching though stuff and thought it was apart of their website, I didnt even think about it being a blog site because its directly linked on their vendor site under diamond tips. I think they just titled that one "bling bling blog". I could be wrong, but its under their diamond tips section right on their site. If not I'm sorry Andrey and Ali!

 

[neatfreak]

Date: 3/8/2009 5:02:45 PM
Author: Maisie
I wonder when that blog was written. That PS thread they posted is from almost a year ago.

Around the same time. The stamp is July 30, 2007.

 

[melz]

My recent experience is that Whiteflash states a charge of $75 if they bring in a diamond, create ASET/IS reports etc. and I don''t buy it, unless it didn''t live up to its specs. I think that is perfectly fair, but just to keep the facts straight ...

Personally I''d rather they charge for this on an individual basis as they do than build the cost in to the price of the diamonds, so that everyone is charged for one person''s indecision. Either way someone''s going to pay.

 

[oldmancoyote]

Date: 3/8/2009 4:32:03 PM
Author: Maisie
He doesn''t even have his facts straight. John Pollard doesn''t work for Whiteflash anymore, and he was never Director of Sales. He was Director of Education.

Admittedly, the blog entry is for July 2007, when I think John was still at Whiteflash...

 

[Maisie]

Date: 3/8/2009 5:53:14 PM
Author: oldmancoyote

Date: 3/8/2009 4:32:03 PM
Author: Maisie
He doesn''t even have his facts straight. John Pollard doesn''t work for Whiteflash anymore, and he was never Director of Sales. He was Director of Education.

Admittedly, the blog entry is for July 2007, when I think John was still at Whiteflash...

Yes but he wasn''t Director of Sales. If they want to make comparisons they could at least get the basic information correct.

 

[Regular Guy]

There may or may not be administrative issues here (should the Excel post have been shown here or not), but I found the facts introduced most interesting:

Date: 3/8/2009 5:21:13 PM
Author: swingirl

Date: 3/8/2009 5:01:39 PM
Author: atroop711
this just annoyed me. To me it's sounds like high school...when you have one girl jealous of another....so she goes around trashing their name. Not nice Excel. I did buy my stone from WF and I had 2 stones brought in..I was never asked nor charged for anything

I could be wrong but my understanding is most vendors don't charge for the first or second one they call in. And if you buy the stone they apply the fee towards it's cost. I wonder how many stones Excel will call in for free? I hope Excel's PR department gets slapped for this one, especially when there is a lot of positive feedback on PS about them. They should know better than to use this tactic and get away with it.

I think it in human nature, and any company's best interest, to want to highlight their advantages, and point out other's disadvantages. I can recall...it was pretty long ago...when a competitor's name was first called out on TV, and it was shocking.

Reading and understanding White Flash's policy, from the point of view of public policy, personally, I think their stated policy is both understandable, and sort of admirable. You can even like a company that puts in place a policy where you can see they are setting themselves up in a way to not be take advantage of...and you can respect them for that.

With Excel's stated policy, they would prefer you to like them because you can use their services to your own advantage, and not have to think too hard about being circumspect in your shopping.

As Excel has sought to do for their blog, is identify text to put themselves in a more favorable light. What I could choose to do, is do a search on Excel, and find threads not showing them in a so favorable light. Unfortunately, over some several years, they are named often enough as being somewhat rude and/or abusive to their clients, that I feel no need to produce threads to show the same....just type in Excel, and...if Pricescope is working as it should...you will see many of these. I can help you find one. Type in my name as an author, and include in the text something like "Excel" and "don't they expect people to shop.?" They have shown...at least in the past...a pattern of practice of not engaging some customers that, it seems to them on first blush, they may not enjoy or value working with.

When you have an approach to the public, I think, as WF does, where you will show an equal hand to all customers, it seems reasonable to me to have written policies in place to protect yourself. If you have no such concern, and are willing to show any customer the door at any time, I suppose you can say anything you want any time.

Just my two cents...with appreciation for Judah's recent active posting here from Excel, and with the hope that what has been past policies, may take a change of course for the present & future.

 

[strmrdr]

Is it factual other than John's at the time title?
Yep it is.
I have been mildly annoyed at that WF policy for years.
I see why they do it and other vendors may be forced to follow eventually but I still don't like it.
I believe that the gog policy of 2 free is much more consumer friendly.
Thumbs up on Excels policy.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out ones competitive advantage.

 

[purrfectpear]

Date: 3/8/2009 7:18:32 PM
Author: strmrdr
Is it factual other than John''s at the time title?
Yep it is.
I have been mildly annoyed at that WF policy for years.
I see why they do it and other vendors may be forced to follow eventually but I still don''t like it.
I believe that the gog policy of 2 free is much more consumer friendly.
Thumbs up on Excels policy.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out ones competitive advantage.

Ditto.

I like Whiteflash a lot. I purchased my pear from them. They were very clear about the $75 charge for calling in the stone. I''d say Excel has a good policy and they decided to blog about how their policy was better than Whiteflash. No problem there from my perspective.

 

[Judah Gutwein]

RedRose 29,

Thanks for the opportunity address this.
When you sent us a unsolicited and harsh e-mail over the weekend, I was going to respond to you personally. Then I saw your thread here and understood that my response in this venue would be more appropriate.
I respect your desire to solicit the opinions of others on these boards and appreciate my ability to clarify our own position as well. This is one of the things that makes this such a great community.

First, let me say that although we are (all) human, in my capacity at Excel and with adherence to our customer service commitment, every effort is made to treat all customers with respect and dedication. We make no distinction between large or small requests and we cater to all of our customers to the best of our abilities. Do we make mistakes? Sure. If we didn't, we wouldn't be human.

In addition, we strive to promote our company according to our own merits. To promote ones company by denigrating the competition, is ultimately more than just an exercise in futility, it is also self demeaning.

With respect to our internal 'bling bling' blog entry of almost two years ago, I believe a few points of clarification are in order:

1. This entry was put up on our INTERNAL blog (called 'bling bling' and hosted on our e-commerce website) which is by definition and as clearly defined, a blog for self advertisement. To this end, our obvious objectives are to highlight the quality and value of our products and services. This is no different than any company's self promotion and within their own personal venues.

2. We have nothing but the highest respect for Whiteflash. Indeed, if you carefully read and re-read this entry, you will clearly note that each one of our references to Whiteflash was made with utmost respect and open acknowledgement of their stellar reputation and for the added value which they provide. Within its proper context, it is clearly obvious that there was no attempt made to denigrate a competitor in order to promote ourselves. There was simply an attempt made to distinguish between two stellar policies within the framework of customer support, on the part of our two companies.

3. The blog entry was respectful, direct and FACTUAL. The entry was put up quite some time ago and indeed during the period of time when John P. was employed at Whiteflash. If there was an unintentional oversight made with respect to his actual title, it does not diminish the veracity nor the accuracy of the posting itself and at the TIME that it was published.


Finally, I appreciate and respect your opinion and I do not begrudge you that at all. In fact, I take your e-mail to heart and will use it as a means for further evaluation of our policies and priorities.

They say 'past performance is no guarantee of future results'......
Every day is cause for new reflection and evaluation and your input affords us the opportunity to see if we need to do something better, or different. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

 

[elle_chris]

Any vendor has a right to self promote on their own sites. Nothing wrong with that.

Redrose, if you don''t care and you weren''t upset why did you email exel regarding the blog? I don''t get it.

I think some of the folks here need to relax and not take it as a personal insult if they find something is said about a vendor they find unflattering. It comes off bad to me and doesn''t help a forum that supposed to have a consumers best interests at heart. In fact, sometimes I wonder if we''re looking out for consumers, or the vendors here.

 

[vintagelover229]

Date: 3/8/2009 8:36:02 PM
Author: Judah Gutwein
RedRose 29,

Thanks for the opportunity address this.
When you sent us a unsolicited and harsh e-mail over the weekend, I was going to respond to you personally. Then I saw your thread here and understood that my response in this venue would be more appropriate.
I respect your desire to solicit the opinions of others on these boards and appreciate my ability to clarify our own position as well. This is one of the things that makes this such a great community.

First, let me say that although we are (all) human, in my capacity at Excel and with adherence to our customer service commitment, every effort is made to treat all customers with respect and dedication. We make no distinction between large or small requests and we cater to all of our customers to the best of our abilities. Do we make mistakes? Sure. If we didn''t, we wouldn''t be human.

In addition, we strive to promote our company according to our own merits. To promote ones company by denigrating the competition, is ultimately more than just an exercise in futility, it is also self demeaning.

With respect to our internal ''bling bling'' blog entry of almost two years ago, I believe a few points of clarification are in order:

1. This entry was put up on our INTERNAL blog (called ''bling bling'' and hosted on our e-commerce website) which is by definition and as clearly defined, a blog for self advertisement. To this end, our obvious objectives are to highlight the quality and value of our products and services. This is no different than any company''s self promotion and within their own personal venues.

2. We have nothing but the highest respect for Whiteflash. Indeed, if you carefully read and re-read this entry, you will clearly note that each one of our references to Whiteflash was made with utmost respect and open acknowledgement of their stellar reputation and for the added value which they provide. Within its proper context, it is clearly obvious that there was no attempt made to denigrate a competitor in order to promote ourselves. There was simply an attempt made to distinguish between two stellar policies within the framework of customer support, on the part of our two companies.

3. The blog entry was respectful, direct and FACTUAL. The entry was put up quite some time ago and indeed during the period of time when John P. was employed at Whiteflash. If there was an unintentional oversight made with respect to his actual title, it does not diminish the veracity nor the accuracy of the posting itself and at the TIME that it was published.


Finally, I appreciate and respect your opinion and I do not begrudge you that at all. In fact, I take your e-mail to heart and will use it as a means for further evaluation of our policies and priorities.

They say ''past performance is no guarantee of future results''......
Every day is cause for new reflection and evaluation and your input affords us the opportunity to see if we need to do something better, or different. I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um...I never sent you an email...so I have no clue what your talking about there. I found this and posted it to see if the way I felt was out of line or not in the way I felt.

But I never ever sent you an email, and I''m offended that you said that "I" sent you a "harsh" email and then called me out on the thread I started assuming it was me. I never sent you an email.

 

[vintagelover229]

Date: 3/8/2009 8:55:31 PM
Author: elle_chris
Any vendor has a right to self promote on their own sites. Nothing wrong with that.

Redrose, if you don''t care and you weren''t upset why did you email exel regarding the blog? I don''t get it.

I think some of the folks here need to relax and not take it as a personal insult if they find something is said about a vendor they find unflattering. It comes off bad to me and doesn''t help a forum that supposed to have a consumers best interests at heart. In fact, sometimes I wonder if we''re looking out for consumers, or the vendors here.

I agree that a vendor has a right to self promote. That is why I posted this and asked for OP opinions about it. I wasn''t sure if they way I felt was something I was blowing out of proportion or not. I didn''t ever send excel an email, and now I really am upset because he said I sent him a "harsh" email. I have NO CLUE what he is talking about. NO CLUE. I didnt have a problem with excel until the incorrect calling out of me. I agree that they have a right, that is why I set up an opinion thread to see how OP reacted to it. I in no way was attacking, just wondering if I was the only one who felt a little off by it.

And then to accuse me of something I didnt do, well that''s just plan rude. I haven''t emailed excel in well over a year, and did so with an email address I no longer use. And when I WAS emailing them regarding an e-ring I was impressed by their service. But to call me out when it wasnt'' me...well thats just plain rude.

Judah: I suggest if you wanted to say what you said on this post to the person who emailed you over the weekend, I suggest you copy and paste it and email it, because it wasn''t me.

 

[Judah Gutwein]

Stephanie;

Duly noted and I stand corrected. Reviewing the time stamps, your posting here preceded the e-mail to us by less than an hour. Thus it serves to say that someone who read your posting here was immediately motivated to send us the private e-mail.

Once again I appreciate the opportunity to address your concerns on this forum and hope that those who read our Bling-Bling Blog entry will concur with my aforementioed clarification and within its proper context.

 

[Harriet]

Date: 3/8/2009 8:55:31 PM
Author: elle_chris
I think some of the folks here need to relax and not take it as a personal insult if they find something is said about a vendor they find unflattering. It comes off bad to me and doesn''t help a forum that supposed to have a consumers best interests at heart. In fact, sometimes I wonder if we''re looking out for consumers, or the vendors here.

I agree.
P.S. Isn''t the quibble over John''s title irrelevant and trivial?