New PS advertiser/diamond vendor Parcel & Stone

[the_mother_thing]

Happened to notice a new (to me) ad on the top of a PS forum page:


https://parcelandstone.com/

Anyone shopped/bought from them before? Is this an actual ‘new’ business or one that just changed names recently?

 

[Swirl68]

I bought a loose diamond from them in May. The stone was overseas but got here in good time. I don't know if they are a new business or not. Online it says the company was formed in 2017.

The man I talked with on the phone was very helpful. I bought a stone with very strong fluorescence and I called to ask if they could find out if there was any haze or milkiness to it. He had notes from the cutter on it that said it was a M-0. He said that was an internal scale they used for fluorescence effect on the appearance that went (if I remember correctly) from 0-3. My diamond had a 0 so should have no haziness or milkiness. Sure enough, no haziness at all in real life. It is a beautiful stone at a pretty good price.

The loose stone came in a black box (velvet-like interior, with a clear plastic window top) and included a cleaning pen thing. It also came with a free appraisal which was nice, some online places charge extra for that.

They say they are out of NC. I live in the midwest and was charged sales tax. That was a surprise. I looked later and saw they charge sales tax in the following states: NC, SC, AL, VA, TX, OK, FL, UT, IN, MO, OH, KS. I don't know why that is if they are based in NC.

When I bought it, I could have sworn they had a 60 day return policy. But it says 45 days on their site now. 45 days is still pretty good though.

He asked how I heard about them and I said Pricescope. He seemed surprised but happy about that.

 

[the_mother_thing]

Thank you @Swirl68 Good to know someone has bought from them. I will keep an eye on what they offer, customer service, etc. I took a quick spin through a few of their settings, and they seem to have some decent prices on the couple designers they offer. I noted in the FAQs that they will sell settings (for outside stones) with proper measurements provided, but they do not set outside diamonds. I guess they send the setting to the buyer to have set by their own bench.

I suspect you were charged sales tax as a result of the Supreme Court ruling last year or year before, requiring online merchants to collect sales tax from buyers on out of state purchases. There are a few threads about it on here; it’s not anything really ‘new’ except for people who were unaware of the ruling. I don’t think P&S did anything out of the ordinary there.

 

[LLJsmom]

@Swirl68 , the states for which they charge sales tax is based on where the customer is. They apply the rate of the state in which the customer is located. It is not affected by where there are located. And with the recent changes in state sales tax laws, there will just be more people being charged sales tax on online purchases.

Thanks for the review. I hope more people will post reviews of this company.

 

[Swirl68]

Thank you @Swirl68 I suspect you were charged sales tax as a result of the Supreme Court ruling last year or year before, requiring online merchants to collect sales tax from buyers on out of state purchases. There are a few threads about it on here; it’s not anything really ‘new’ except for people who were unaware of the ruling. I don’t think P&S did anything out of the ordinary there.

I did find this out of the ordinary.
I know that several states enacted online sales taxes after that Supreme Court ruling, but our state legislature was unable to do so despite valiant efforts in both houses this past session. (We are required to report it ourselves on our state taxes in April once we reach $2000 though.) There are other online diamond dealers that do not charge sales tax to my state, in fact most do not. I mentioned it in case others also found this unusual and want to choose a business that does not charge sales tax over this one that does. (A lot of the virtual inventory found on Parcel and Stone can be found on other sites as well.) I was going to have to pay sales tax one way or another so just went with Parcel and Stone.

I’m wondering if it possibly had to do with online retailers being required to collect sales tax if the company received business referrals from an affiliate in my state. It looks like we do have a tax law on the books for that.

 

[the_mother_thing]

I did find this out of the ordinary.
I know that several states enacted online sales taxes after that Supreme Court ruling, but our state legislature was unable to do so despite valiant efforts in both houses this past session. (We are required to report it ourselves on our state taxes in April once we reach $2000 though.) There are other online diamond dealers that do not charge sales tax to my state, in fact most do not. I mentioned it in case others also found this unusual and want to choose a business that does not charge sales tax over this one that does. (A lot of the virtual inventory found on Parcel and Stone can be found on other sites as well.) I was going to have to pay sales tax one way or another so just went with Parcel and Stone.

I’m wondering if it possibly had to do with online retailers being required to collect sales tax if the company received business referrals from an affiliate in my state. It looks like we do have a tax law on the books for that.

We’re you referred to P&S from an affiliate in your home state?

While your state may not have enacted legislation yet around this, that doesn’t preclude another state - or business in another state - from choosing to ‘do the inevitable’ now and collect the tax to pay the origin state. P&S may have found it was easier to just collect it across the board from the get-go rather than try to stay up-to-date on individual states’ legislation, requiring them to frequently change their policies, software, etc. That doesn’t seem all that unusual or concerning to me, but that’s just my assumption.

In the end, if you were going to pay it anyway, it seems easier to just let the vendor do it rather than make your taxes/documentation-gathering more complicated at year end.

 

[the_mother_thing]

One thing they do that I definitely do NOT like is re-using the same photo (that is not watermarked with ‘sample’ for multiple diamond listings when they don’t have that particular diamond’s actual still photo. I feel like that is misleading and frustrating for people searching for a diamond. Worse for them is that when I tend to see that, I’m not likely to click on that item. The irony is that in one case where I did click one of them, they actually have a video of the diamond, just no still image (they just use the same “sample image”). I think it’d behoove them to add an icon to that item on this ‘list’ view noting a video is available when it’s clearly a reused/sample image to entice shoppers to click on an item.

 

[the_mother_thing]

I also note some ‘oddities’ with regard to a couple of their diamonds I browsed through in terms of the images vs. the GIA reports.

In example A, the report only notes a cloud for the clarity grade, but I think I see pinpoints and something on the girdle. In example B, I think I see pinpoints as well but they aren’t noted on the report. In example C, again, report notes clouds, but I see crystals. Am I seeing things wrong?


Maybe my eyes aren’t as ‘trained’ to assess inclusions, but these just jumped out to me enough to raise my eyebrow and want to look further at them.

Example A: https://parcelandstone.com/diamond/Round/0.70-carat-J-color-SI2-clarity-stockNo-1213126/

Example B: https://parcelandstone.com/diamond/Round/0.70-carat-K-color-SI2-clarity-stockNo-100729440040/

Example C: https://parcelandstone.com/diamond/Round/0.70-carat-K-color-SI2-clarity-stockNo-100723074127/

 

[Venzen007]

That does seem odd. Here's another photo of A, showing that same inclusion having a reflector party back there. Doesn't look like a cloud to me.