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Is this typical CS of James Allen?

Heidibrooke

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Sep 16, 2013
Messages
284
I have placed two orders. 1) Reset a diamond I already own. 2) Upgrade a diamond I purchased in 2013.

They received my oval diamond (order 1) on 1/22, and my round diamond (order 2) on 1/25.

I know I’ve been an annoying customer because I have had a lot of questions about the diamond I’m purchasing for the upgrade. I’ve been given opinions by many different reps regarding the overall performance and clarity. I’ve simply asked that someone lay eyes on the actual stone and give me feedback on:

1) eye cleanness (SI1)
2) transparency (cloudiness)
3) fire and brilliance

They told me it has an idealscope image and that should suffice that the diamond is not cloudy. That’s simply not accurate. I agree with them that it’s unlikely to be cloudy, based on the more noticeable inclusions and not having clouds in the plot.

They replied and said they had to take my case to a manager to get an approval for the diamond to be inspected and that will add about another week to the whole process.
 
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That sounds about right - the regular customer service reps are not gemologists. The rep who talked about idealscope not showing cloudiness - was that using their "real-time diamond inspection" feature? They're supposed to be GIA-trained gemologists. That would be concerning. Also now that JA is owned by Signet their customer service quality is quite lacking. I found that bugging them is the way to get things moving.

Would the extra week to evaluate cut into your 30-day return window though? Maybe it's best to just evaluate yourself and send it back if you don't like it? If it doesn't affect the 30-day window, then I would just wait the extra week if they're willing to have a gemologist inspect the stone.
 
That sounds about right - the regular customer service reps are not gemologists. The rep who talked about idealscope not showing cloudiness - was that using their "real-time diamond inspection" feature? They're supposed to be GIA-trained gemologists. That would be concerning. Also now that JA is owned by Signet their customer service quality is quite lacking. I found that bugging them is the way to get things moving.

Would the extra week to evaluate cut into your 30-day return window though? Maybe it's best to just evaluate yourself and send it back if you don't like it? If it doesn't affect the 30-day window, then I would just wait the extra week if they're willing to have a gemologist inspect the stone.

It’s like I’m dealing with a completely different company than the JA I bought from in 2013. I didn’t know they were owned by Signet now.

The rep that told me the idealscope could be used to detect transparency issues was not under the “live inspection” tab.

I am trying to be patient but I don’t want to extend the process out to the 7 week mark, which is what the extra week would do.

I may just have to try it out in a lot of different lighting to see if I can notice any haziness/cloudiness.

Thanks so much for the info!
 
Hi @Heidibrooke -
Jackie here from James Allen. I do apologize for the frustrations you're experiencing. To offer some explanation: in 2013, we only sourced diamonds from New York, which made it feasible for our team to do a pre-sale inspection. Today, we source diamonds from all over the world, which makes doing a pre-sale inspection by our in-house gemologists much more complicated. In these cases, we require management approval.
 
Hi @Heidibrooke -
Jackie here from James Allen. I do apologize for the frustrations you're experiencing. To offer some explanation: in 2013, we only sourced diamonds from New York, which made it feasible for our team to do a pre-sale inspection. Today, we source diamonds from all over the world, which makes doing a pre-sale inspection by our in-house gemologists much more complicated. In these cases, we require management approval.

Thank you, Jackie. A manager called me today and was so nice and is helping me get this diamond inspected and if all goes well, I should have it by next week. This whole experience has made me so anxious but after speaking to Lorraine today, I feel so relieved.
 
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