James Allen PS Discount

[Newname123]

I have been dealing with JA about considering a ring purchase, and the PS discount offered was $140. They said that was the PS discount on any diamond.

I have been reading around, and it sounds like some people are getting >$500 discounts. Are they telling me the truth that the discount is only $140? This is on a $10,000 loose diamond.

Thanks.

 

[marymm]

It was my understanding that JA offers a discount on loose diamonds to PS members of between 1-5% depending on the specific diamond. The discount on your stone is within that range by my calculations.

I have not purchased from JA but I would imagine the sliding scale takes into account the listed price and whether it is a JA-owned stone or from a third-party vendor/wholesaler.

 

[Newname123]

The diamond in question is in their stock. I was asking about a few other diamonds and have not been able to get out of the 1.5% discount range.

Has anyone received anything above 2% off with James Allen?

 

[BhavinJ]

I guess most of the PS listed vendors provide discounts up-till 4%.

They might also have price match guarantee. You will have to do some more research in order to get the best prices.

Good Luck!

 

[SHOWBIZ]

I recently bought a loose diamond from James Allen about a month or so ago and was given about 3.3% off with the PS discount.

 

[Newname123]

SHOWBIZ, if you don't mind me asking, what was the price of the diamond? Was it a $140 discount which worked out to 3.3%, or was it a better deal?
Did you have to do something to get the discount, or just mention pricescope and they gave you 3.3%?

Thanks.

 

[Laila619]

When I bought my diamond in November from them, they told me every diamond was different and there was no set percentage off that everyone receives. Kind of annoying; I'd like it better if they extended the same discount for every diamond.

 

[SHOWBIZ]

SHOWBIZ, if you don't mind me asking, what was the price of the diamond? Was it a $140 discount which worked out to 3.3%, or was it a better deal?
Did you have to do something to get the discount, or just mention pricescope and they gave you 3.3%?

Thanks.

All I did was ask for what the pricescope price. I got $180 off my diamond, so seems like the PS discount varies by stone.

 

[Newname123]

Thanks.
I guess the recent discounts are around the $100-200 mark. I just thought I was missing out on a good deal when I heard of over $500 off.

 

[Karl_K]

I dropped Jim(JA's head honcho) an email to see if he can post an official answer to this question as it has been raised before.

 

[YoungPapa]

Hi folks,

Karl sent me a heads-up about this issue, and given it has been discussed before I figured I would throw in what I could.

As to discounts, let me start by saying that 'officially', we don't discount at all. If you call the office and ask for a discount (without mentioning PS), the answer is 'sorry, but no.' I can't tell you that we never bend on that policy, but it's the company line and one we hold pretty firm.

As to PS, our discounting policy has changed. Discounts are a little lower than they used to be, but so are prices across the board, so the 'net' price to the client is about the same. There isn't any set amount either, and discounts range (on average) 1-3% depending on a variety of factors, not all of which are obvious. Keep in mind, however, that customers paying by wire will receive an additional 1.5% discount, so the sum of the two is still pretty significant.

To be honest, I would like to stop offering a PS discount all together. While we recognize and appreciate the PS community, we just aren't (and don't want to be considered) a 'discount' retailer. What we would prefer to do is create policies that the community finds more valuable than a few bucks off the list price. Relaxing our 2x upgrade policy, for example, is something that's on the table. Before we made that kind of change, however, we would really need to understand how that would be received, as well as other ideas that might be considered 'valuable' to the community in whole. I can't specifically ask those questions on the forum, so it's information we're gathering organically and will act on once we're confident with the data.

Hope this helps.

 

[thecat]

From my experience, lower discounts for popular specs, slightly more for unpopular specs. J IF and D SI2 have slightly higher discount than G VS. By more, it was less than 1% difference. But I might be wrong since my experience with them is very limited.

 

[BhavinJ]

To my knowledge, as compared to the retail outlets most of the online stores work on very less profit margin as they do not stock most of the diamonds/ jewelry's. (virtual inventories). On top of it there's wire discounts (varies from 1% to 2%), then comes PS discount. Then comes seasonal/ festival discounts such as xmas, valentine, 4th July, etc. Plus there are various other competitors who try to break the prices to cut throat margin just to acquire their sales targets. So there's hardly any room for profit. I've worked for online companies and I am well aware of this module. I really like the way these big giants (JA, BGD, BN, WF, GOG etc) work. No- matter their prices maybe slightly higher than others but they take utmost care of their customers and they will be in business for long. Their work ethics, business policies, customer services are really commendable.

Besides, some of the online stores provide more discounts if you are their repeat customers.

 

[Newname123]

Thanks to everyone for their input, especially Jim for providing the information from the source.