Little situation here, need some help.

[truazn]

Hi guys, needs some help! Firstly some information, I ended up getting this princess from goodoldgold.com. 1.063, F, VS1 AGS0 http://goodoldgold.com/diamond/1978
And then had it sent to whiteflash to have it set in the legato sleek lines. I recieved the complete ring it it looked awesome! Until I took it to a local appraiser to have it looked at.
The appraiser discovered that that there was a chip under one of the prongs, UHOH!! She appraised it as a SI1 because of that. I was thinking this was gonna get ugly, I notified whiteflash of the situation along with what the appraiser''s findings.
They have been very helpful and are offering to have the diamond replaced because polishing it would affect the weight/cut greatly!
I''m extremely impressed in the way they are dealing with things thus far.
They immediately gave me 3 options. What do you guys think???


1.012 ct G VS1 Princess **** Brian The Cutter recommends this one the most.
http://www.whiteflash.com/princess/Princess-cut-diamond-114405.htm#

1.003 ct H VVS2 A Cut Above Princess
http://www.whiteflash.com/aca_princess/A-Cut-Above-Princess-cut-diamond-1158450.htm#

1.051 ct F VS2 Princess
http://www.whiteflash.com/princess/Princess-cut-diamond-49934.htm#

 

[jstarfireb]

You really can not go wrong with a diamond recommended by Brian! The second one looks fantastic as well. Are they charging you any price difference? If not, I''d go with the first because it''s recommended and the highest in both size and color; it''s also nearly a perfect square. If they''re asking you to pay the difference between your original stone and this one, I''d choose the second stone to save about $900. I''d pass on the third because it seems to have more leakage in the center.

 

[Skippy123]

Date: 8/8/2008 8:13:42 PM
Author: jstarfireb
You really can not go wrong with a diamond recommended by Brian! The second one looks fantastic as well. Are they charging you any price difference? If not, I''d go with the first because it''s recommended and the highest in both size and color; it''s also nearly a perfect square. If they''re asking you to pay the difference between your original stone and this one, I''d choose the second stone to save about $900. I''d pass on the third because it seems to have more leakage in the center.

I agree! Go with the one he says; what a class act!

 

[Richard Sherwood]

Sounds like a very classy solution to the problem on Whiteflash''s part.


Rich, Independent GG Appraiser
Sarasota Gemological Laboratory

 

[Cleo]

Good to hear that Whiteflash are fixing the problem in such a professional way for you.

I would choose the diamond that Brian recommends!

x x x

 

[purrfectpear]

You might ask about this one too. 1.047 AGS E, VS1

 

[jstarfireb]

Just a random thought...when WF takes the diamond back, I wonder if they could just clip all the corners and turn it into an X-Factor? This doesn''t affect you of course, but I was just wondering.

 

[risingsun]

I would follow Brian's recommendation. When I purchased my diamond, I couldn't decided between several choices. I took his advice and never regretted it!

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 8/9/2008 1:18:34 AM
Author: risingsun
I would follow Brian''s recommendation. When I purchased my diamond, I couldn''t decided between several choices. I took his advice and never regretted it!

Ditto - Brian has a superb eye, I would definitely strongly consider a diamond he recommends.

 

[honey22]

WOW! I don''t think many vendors will cover a stone they didn''t provide, so you are a lucky thing! But knowing WF, I shouldn''t be suprised. They are excellent when it comes to customer service.

Ditto taking Brian''s advice, he is the king. The only question I would have, is what basis did he make the decision on? Price? I just find it strange that he would recommend another stone over an ACA stone, since he handpicks them as the best of the best. I am certainly not questioning his decision, I trust him absolutely, I am just curious. Are you sure he didn''t pick the ACA?

 

[denverappraiser]

This is an example of how a dealer SHOULD be responding to this situation and kudos to Whiteflash for doing it right. It’s the reason I recommend always using a setter who will take responsibility for their work.

Note to jewelers out there who don’t do this.

It pays.

It’s certainly correct that Whiteflash will repair the damaged stone, recert it and resell it but it’s often more difficult to make a specialty cut like the x-factor than simply cropping the corners and it may be better to keep it a ‘standard’ princess but you can bet this decision will be made thoughtfully and with an eye to what will produce the best possible results. They’re not taking anywhere near the bath on this that it looks like.

Here’s some numbers.

They’re giving up a $7,000 stone in order to make a bad situation right. Eeek. That’s a bite. They then will need to pay a cutter to redo the damaged one, pay a lab to regrade it, pay a bit of shipping, and pay someone to take those photos and post it for sale. That’ll be another $500 or so out of pocket and will take a month or two before they can offer the stone for sale. The clarity and color are likely to remain the same, the weight will be a little less but it’ll still be over a carat and, assuming they hire a good cutter (highly likely given the dealer involved) the cut will still be excellent. The result will be another $7,000 stone going back into inventory. Add all of this up and they spend a bunch of time dealing with it, $500 or so and they were out of the market with it for a few months. Annoying to be sure, but not a disaster.

I have no idea what their breakage rate is like but even if it were bad we would be talking about a risk of less than 1%. This means that the break even on the ‘insurance’ component for setting a $7,000 stone that they didn’t sell is something like $5. Even in disastrous scenarios like when the recut stone drops below a carat weight or otherwise lose an important amount of weight or the original stone was badly overgraded so the clarity/color drop on the recut we’re looking at an effective risk of under $20.

Frankly it surprises me that more jewelers don’t do it like Whiteflash is doing and this is the reason for making this post. Y’all are making a mistake. It’s damaging to your customers and it’s damaging to YOU. The perceived value to the customer here is WAY over the $5 it costs and the profit available on the mounting and/or the setting charges by making sales to customers who otherwise might avoid you (and quite possibly take their business to Whiteflash because of their excellent customer service) is more than enough to cover your risks. Jewelers, take the plunge. Take responsibility for your work. Everybody wins.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver

 

[jstarfireb]

Date: 8/9/2008 8:08:46 AM
Author: honey22
WOW! I don''t think many vendors will cover a stone they didn''t provide, so you are a lucky thing! But knowing WF, I shouldn''t be suprised. They are excellent when it comes to customer service.


Ditto taking Brian''s advice, he is the king. The only question I would have, is what basis did he make the decision on? Price? I just find it strange that he would recommend another stone over an ACA stone, since he handpicks them as the best of the best. I am certainly not questioning his decision, I trust him absolutely, I am just curious. Are you sure he didn''t pick the ACA?

Could it be because the other stone is a G, and that''s more comparable in color? The G/VS1 might have been one of those stones that just barely missed ACA by the numbers...who knows? (Well, Brian maybe!)

 

[elmo]

Original stone was F-VS1. Why are replacement options lower than F or lower than VS1?