Is it safe to assume the vendors listed here are reputable?

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

Please don''t take my question the wrong way. I''m only trying to make sure I can get the best diamond I can afford for the woman I love. And I''m very new to all this.

I''ve searched around and love the service!! It''s great being able to search for stones from so many sites at once. But honestly, I don''t personally know a thing about any of them. Is it proper to ask for opinions for the best ones?

Thanks for any help!

 

[abradabra]

If you are considering going with a particular vendor, I'd suggest using the search tool to see what people have to say about the different vendors. Although in my perusal of the threads over the past couple of months, there are a lot fewer comments about some than others...

For ovals, I recently saw SuperbCert was starting a line, but I don't know anything about pears or ovals--so take that for what it's worth. Cflutist has a pear, so maybe she could chime in here...

 

[reena]

hi christmas eve proposer! first let me just say that i think a christmas eve proposal will be so wonderful--that's just such a magical time of year.

i would love to be proposed to on xmas eve (except that i'm too impatient to wait that long!)

anyway, IMO the answer to your question is yes--but i think it's perfectly reasonable for you to ask. plenty of people are intimidated at first at the thought of buying a diamond online. i think if you stick around here long enough, though, you'll learn that it's absolutely possible to get a fabulous stone online, and you'll probably save a great deal of $$$ too. i agree with abradabra--the best thing to do if you want to learn about the various vendors is to run searches on this site for their names. you'll pull up a whole slew of posts from people who have had experiences with each particular vendor, and you can make a decision from there. (IMO, you really can't go wrong.)

also, not that you asked for opinions on this, but a little unsolicited two cents from me: have you considered saving the necklace and earrings for a different occasion and spending your entire budget on the e-ring? i say this for two reasons: (1) this is a huge purchase and something she's going to wear every day for years to come, so if it were me i wouldn't want to dilute my ring budget with other diamond purchases--i'd put the whole amount into the ring! (that being said, it sounds like you have a very healthy budget for the ring even if you do go for the earrings and necklace, so feel free to ignore me.) and (2) i am sort of of the old fashioned opinion that the ring should stand alone when you give it to her, and should not have to share the spotlight, so to speak, with other fine jewelry purchases. not to mention, i'd be afraid she'd be so excited about the ring that the other two pieces (which would each be fabulous gifts in and of themselves and, under ordinary circumstances, be doted over) will get "lost" in the shuffle.

anyway as i said, just my opinion--i'm sure she is going to be so thrilled and excited no matter what you do.

how exciting! have you given some thought to what shape stone you'd like?

 

[Blueman33]

Reena,

You are a very wise one indeed.

However, in this case, maybe the multiple gift thing might work because it IS three occassions!

It is 1. Christmas, 2. Her Birthday, 3. Proposal.

So, I haven't even figured how I'm going to do my own proposal, I can't even get the setting settled, so i'm don't have a great plan, just that maybe this might work.

I would say give the earrings and necklace FIRST for B-day, Christmas, like they are the conclusion! Cool, matching earrings and necklace, aren't they nice.

Then the next evening when she didn't think it could get any better....
POP THE QUESTION!!!!!!

Ok, this is off the cuff, i have not considered it much, just an idea.......kick it around.

 

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

Hi Reena,

Thanks so much for the response!

I assume you've read my signature? If so, you'll see that her birthday is also on Christmas Eve (I'm actually going to propose at about 11:59PM and 45 seconds on Christmas Eve so I can ask her on her birthday and she can answer on Christmas...She'll dig that and it will make for two even MORE wonderful days the rest of our lives).

Anyway...

I'm giving her the necklace on her birthday on Christmas Eve Day. (It's my heart). And since we've already talked about spending relatively little on each other for Christmas (And birthdays), so we can buy a lot for her kids, she'll assume that's her BIG present for both her birthday and Christmas (It's part of my plan to MAKE SURE this is a surprise for her). Then she gets the ring as discussed above. Then Christmas morning, she gets the earrings TOTALLY unexpected!! (That will REALLY make her cry!!).

So it's kind of a full plan thing. Plus, I can afford another 500 total for the necklace and earrings!!

And another part of my plan is to wrap fake gifts, with weights in them in order to throw her off even MORE!! (Probably put roses and love notes in them all or something like that).

I think it's a pretty good plan. And considering she KNOWS it's time for us to do this, I think this all is the perfect way to fool her, and make it all very special for her.

Thanks again!


Please see this post for pictures of the ring, necklace and earrings I have in mind...

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/what-about-rings-necklaces-and-earrings.20663/

 

[reena]

yeah, i hear ya blueman. CEP, i think if you do decide to go with all three blueman's got a good suggestion of how you should go about it. she'll never expect the ring after receiving the beautiful earrings and necklace.

 

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

Any more on reputations of vendors?

 

[EZ-Monet]

Greetings,

There is absolutely no guarantee that you will get the best stone through one of the vendors frequently mentioned on this forum…although you may.Unfortunately, this forum is not open. It is a controlled venue committed to the apparent benefit of entities other than posters such as you and me.In my case, I was asked to no longer recommend a vendor that had consistently listed stones (and still does) of superior value to those frequently mentioned here, merely because “it could not be proven that I did not work for the vendor”(which I do not.)In addition, management apparently works to “protect” its members from using their own best judgment as to purchasing from ebay vendors (including ebay vendors that are listed on this forum’s own “Jeweler of Choice” list with exemplary B&M reputations dating back almost 60 years.)I can only assume management finds some value in limiting access to certain vendors at our expense. That said, I have noted that the “usual” vendors mentioned here attempt to bend over backward to satisfy members with their selections…limited as those selections may be.

 

[chrono]

EZ-Monet,

You are incorrect is stating that this is not an open forum. It is an open forum where anyone and everyone is encouraged to participate and learn about diamonds and other gemstones. Selling and adverstising by vendors are not welcomed and allowed.

I am just a regular consumer like you and we are not told what we can or cannot buy. We are advised and given suggestions but the ultimate decision and purchasing choice is ours alone. No one is saying you can or cannot buy a particular diamond of your liking from whoever you choose. We are not limited at all but cautioned about buying from ebay as there are more unreputable vendors than good and proven vendors. There is also the issue of buying a drop-shipped diamond and buying unseen which is highly unrecommended.

I don't know what you experienced here at PS but I assure you that it isn't the norm. Many of the vendors who frequent PS do carry their own diamonds in stock which is very nice because they can view the stone personally and give you their opinion, take pictures, run other optical performance tests, send it to the appraisor of your choice etc. without fear of the stone being unavailable as compared to one from a virtual listing. To give the consumer even more choices, many of these same PS vendors have access to a virtual list of diamonds. These PS vendors can call it in, view it in person and give you their opinion before shipping it to you or your appraisor. In addition, they have excellent return policies, upgrade policies and their customer service is top notch.

 

[EZ-Monet]

Greetings chrono,

Thank you for your response.

Please note, I have not said we (posters) are not prevented from purchasing where and from whomever we wish, merely that we are prevented from “recommending” those same entities.In my opinion, that constitutes a closed forum but certainly not a useless one.

Should my poor attempt at explaining my position fail, I would ask that you personally (or actually any interested party) contact the management of this forum and ask for a copy of their relevant email correspondence to/from me and post it here for general consumption.

Your other comments concerning the usual forum vendors are will taken.

Have a nice day!

 

[reena]

Date: 10/28/2004 10

2:54 AM
Author: EZ-Monet

Greetings chrono,

Thank you for your response.

Please note, I have not said we (posters) are not prevented from purchasing where and from whomever we wish, merely that we are prevented from “recommending” those same entities.In my opinion, that constitutes a closed forum but certainly not a useless one.

Should my poor attempt at explaining my position fail, I would ask that you personally (or actually any interested party) contact the management of this forum and ask for a copy of their relevant email correspondence to/from me and post it here for general consumption.

Your other comments concerning the usual forum vendors are will taken.

Have a nice day!

who on this site prevented you from recommending a particular vendor? it seems to me that if you''re going to make statements of this nature, you should fully explain the situation so as not to leave people guessing. thanks.

 

[chrono]

Thanks for the clarification. However, I must disagree. I don''t think we are not allowed to recommend any vendor that we''ve had a good experience with. Would you care to elaborate or share with us your experience?

For example, Signed Pieces and Engagement Rings Direct are two pretty newly recommended vendors. They''ve been around for many years, of course, but due to great experiences by many posters here, they are now often recommended. In fact, I think there is a push to increase this circle of reputable vendors because it can only benefit us, the consumers, to have more choices.

 

[EZ-Monet]

Greetings,

Chrono: Your disagreement is respectfully noted and other comments well taken.

Reena: Please note that I have indicated “management” as the party in question. Clearly, identification of any particular individual (even if an agent) is not appropriate for what appears to be a management issue. Should you (or any interested party) contact them for the relevant source documents - and post them - as I have suggested, I imagine they would not be shy about stating their position.Failing that, my comments stand as submitted.

Christmas Eve Proposer: I wish to offer my apologies for distracting your thread.I trust you will still be able to find that which you seek.

 

[reena]

i understand the meaning of "management", but i stand by my earlier comment that, if you''re going to make a claim of this nature, then you should set forth all the facts. it''s not fair to make nebulous accusations of censorship against "management" and not tell us precisely what you''re talking about. period.

 

[noobie]

CEP (Chirstmas Eve Proposer)

As people have said run a search for the various vendors listed here to get feedback on experiences. One thing to keep in mind, that different people have different experiences and expectations. Your experience may vary. I''ve purchased from five of the listed vendors here in the last six months and have had dealings with seven. In most cases my experiences mirrored the majority of the posts in some cases it did not. That being said, your experiences could be totally different from mine. Use your judgment and not soley the opinions here.

If this is your first major diamond purchase, I would recommend that you stick to in stock stones and buy from a vendor here that has the stone that most closely meets your specifications and provides you with the service you are comfortable with.

You may wish to avoid virtual listed stones dropped shipped even though they may appear cheaper, unlesss you trust the vendor to look at it first. I recently sent back a dropped shipped stone that was not what it was represented to be. The sarin was off and it had black carbon after I specifically asked about the presence of black crystals. However I had already the benefit of buying four ideal stones, have an IdealScope, two loupes and a H&A viewer. If not for all these reference points, I would have probably assumed the stone was the best since the specs were great. Instead, back it went. Refund was handled reasonably well, but not totally smoothly.

One last thing, ask for people''s opinions here on the stones you are considering, but make sure your top candidates are on hold. Beautiful stones that are posted here have a habit of disappearing.

Good luck

 

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

Date: 10/28/2004 11

9:39 AM
Author: noobie

If this is your first major diamond purchase, I would recommend that you stick to in stock stones and buy from a vendor here that has the stone that most closely meets your specifications and provides you with the service you are comfortable with.

I''m definately shopping here! You guys have been SO nice. And unless this forum is some kind of huge conspiracy spanning years and billions of posts while waiting on me to finially commit, I''m pretty sure I can trust you''re not all here to rip me off!!

But, I just assummed these vendors here were the kind that ship from different places...Thus the great prices!! Are you telling me these are REAL vendors? AND I get the great deals???

 

[oldminer]

One thing is certain. The vendors who operate out of Pricescope are subject to any and all derogatory statements a consumer might wish to post about them This sort of negative situation would be very harmful to any vendor who hoped to promote their business here. With that very strong force in the hands of every consumer, I''d say that Pricescope is one of the safest venues to shop in. It is always open season on cheats here!

In my several years doing appraisals, I have personally never found such an honest or open place to trade advice, gain knowledge, make relationships, or to do some good for people I will never meet. It is impossible to imagine a large number of people getting a bad deal here and very hard to imagine even one customer getting shafted with the open forum provided and the power they could use to get their problem cleared up.

Occasionally a consumer does have a problem, but if presented in a way that is curable, I have yet to see someone not get the matter fixed pretty well to the satisfaction of all those involved. Nothing is perfect, but this comes close.

 

[Hest88]

But, I just assummed these vendors here were the kind that ship from different places...Thus the great prices!!

Most of the vendors do "ship from different places" (if you do a search on the homepage and see the same stone listed multiple times it probably means no one has it in-house) but most have in-house inventory as well. And, yes, many of these also have real B&M stores.

 

[Rhino]

Greetings and welcome to the forum CEP.

You''ve really found what is perhaps the most active forum on the net regarding the subject of diamonds. While competitors in the business world tend to be viscious most of the vendors here also have great working relationships and we often refer one another if one of us are lacking what you''re looking for. I would also chime in and emphasize doing business with a vendor who actually *inspects* the merchandise they are selling. Most websites, ironically do not do this or offer this service. The folks on the forum emphasize this (as well as many vendors) due to the fact that there are many variables that can not be ascertained without a physical inspection of the diamond. Browse a few of the vendors sites, familiarize yourself with the diamonds and the data and if you''ve got questions we''re here for ya. We (vendors) tend to get very busy so if you want immediate professional help don''t hesitate to call any of us, otherwise post your questions here on the forum and as time allows we''ll come on and answer. Consumer opinions you''ll always get faster and the crowd here is IMO the best you''ll find on the net. There is also a group of appraisers who participate who are top notch. You''ve already met one of them (Dave Atlas).

Good to have you aboard!

Kind regards,

 

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

Edited because I'm an idiot!!

LOL!

 

[Hest88]

CEP, you''d better contact Rhino off-list, otherwise he might get dangerously close to self-promotion and that''s a no-no here.

 

[Nicrez]

Hey CEP, just to let you know, on the home page, there is a search engine of stones sold within all the inventories of the vendors registerd on Pricescope. If you fail to find the perfect stone, i suggest you use this feature, as it''s sort of a mass mailing to ALL vendors for what you want. usually the chat feature is used to do just that..."chat".

Business goes on behind the scenes between the buyer and the vendor, as you send out that Price Quote Request and all vendors respond back to you. from there you may have several people courting your business. Go with your gut, get to know the vendors and feel them out, if that makes you more comfortable in your purchase.

I can say that the vendors here have had many many successful sales, so I can recommend them wholeheartedly! I am actually hard pressed to give you a B&M jewlery who I recommend as much as these guys! (I have a few in NYC, but FEW)

Why? Because A Pricescope client is a special client. They are not the general public who comes in with a wad of crumpled bills and says "Get me a stone for ....this much." The PS client is usually someone who is looking for a specific stone, and may be detailed and specific about their wants and needs. They are making a big purchase (amny sight unseen), so they not only require more attention and more service, but they also require more trust and customer service. Now anyone who is used to handling clients with particular needs in diamonds, don''t you think they would be just as helpful to you, and that their services would be retold (whether good or bad) on the same forum where they are discovered and earn their living from? Of course!

Each vendor wants to make money here, same as the next jewelery guy, but they work on MUCH smaller margins than mall stores, or retail sotres, so that''s why you see the prices are much better than other places. While a Tiffany''s is pricier, they also have marketing, building costs, etc to pay for, as do some of these online guys, but they tend to have PS as their way of reaching out to customers, than expensive marketing campaigns. Blue Nile may be a good exception, along with perhaps a few others.

In the end it''s your choice to work with whomever you trust, be it online or off. But consider trying to go to a Diamond District with all these specifications of your settings, etc, and imagine how irritated the jeweler will get! Hopefully, they are learning to handle picky clients too, but they don''t have half as many as the online vendors here do!!!

I bought from a B&M jeweler, and I will probably go to him for most of my jewelery needs, but I would also NOT hesitate to buy from an online PS vendor, because in the many months I have been here, they have earned my trust.

Either way, good luck and please post when you DO get the stone!!!!

 

[Rhino]

Date: 10/28/2004 7:41:32 PM
Author: Hest88
CEP, you''d better contact Rhino off-list, otherwise he might get dangerously close to self-promotion and that''s a no-no here.

Is there something offensive in what I wrote Hest?

 

[Christmas Eve Proposer]

No...It was me (And not anything offensive).

Check your in box...What I posted here, and then edited-out, I sent to you in a private message.

 

[Rhino]

OH! Oops! Sorry Hest!

Your question will be answered in a jiffy CEP.

 

[pricescope]

Facts: EZ-Monet used to recommend nobody but one eBay vendor. I asked EZ-Monet kindly to refrain from doing it.

Reasons: At that same time another eBay vendor masked as consumer was busted. There is no way for us to verify that EZ-Monet is not associated with the vendor he promoted.

Interestingly, EZ-Monet replied with understanding of my request back then. I''m surprised to see his bitterness now

I see my job to protect this community from spammers which surface rather often.

I''m thinking that we should have "no-eBay" policy

 

[Richard Sherwood]

--------------
Unfortunately, this forum is not open. It is a controlled venue committed to the apparent benefit of entities other than posters such as you and me. In my case, I was asked to no longer recommend a vendor that had consistently listed stones (and still does) of superior value to those frequently mentioned here, merely because “it could not be proven that I did not work for the vendor”(which I do not.) In addition, management apparently works to “protect” its members from using their own best judgment as to purchasing from ebay vendors (including ebay vendors that are listed on this forum’s own “Jeweler of Choice” list with exemplary B&M reputations dating back almost 60 years.) I can only assume management finds some value in limiting access to certain vendors at our expense. That said, I have noted that the “usual” vendors mentioned here attempt to bend over backward to satisfy members with their selections…limited as those selections may be.
--------------

EZ-Monet, this doesn''t sound right to me. I''ve watched the policies and decisions of "the management" on this forum for a couple years now, and have seen no evidence of the behaviour you suggest here.

Your reluctance to state the facts makes me think there''s more to the story than your account relates.

If you''re going to make accusations, back them up with specifics that can be proven or disproven, for the benefit of all.

 

[pricescope]

Hey Richard, we posted at the same time

. Check out my post above.

 

[EZ-Monet]

Greetings,

I see we continue…unfortunately.

Richard:

Please read Leonid’s mia culpa just prior to your post.

Leonid:

I appreciate your response. Please understand however that I am of the opinion that:

1. I should promote only vendors with whom I have had a particularly agreeable experience…hence the "only one eBay vendor" fixation on my part.
2. Paranoia that leads to official protectionism is unfortunate at best (never mind the insult to ones intelligence.)

I understand your concern about the evils you deal with each day; however, I wonder if there might be a better way (which I can’t think of at the moment) of handling them than restricting a vendor recommendation guilty of nothing other than association.

As to your gracious comment about my "understanding" our previous correspondence, I sense that there remains a slight misunderstanding. For clarity (as well as the record,) I offer the following:

I am greatly appreciative of, and impressed with this forum. For what my opinion is worth, I feel it provides an enormous benefit to its posters and lurkers alike, which includes me. However, I take great umbrage with your basis (as stated by both of us) for restricting my (and potentially others wishing to mention eBay vendors) recommendations. If this sounds like bitterness, I apologize, and ask that you merely chalk it up to just an ignorant old senile Texan and let’s leave it at that.

Have a nice day!

 

[perry]

That is not the only "advice/referral" site to Blue Nile.

When I first started shopping for diamonds on the internet I found not only the one listed above, but another one that linked primarily to Blue Nile, with on smaller, less obvious, link to Mondera.

It took me over a week to find PriceScope

Perry