Our Experience With GOG

[Team02]

Hi Everyone,

After spending months learning about the basic fundamentals of diamond cuts through PS I decided to buy my fiancee a ring. After reading all the stellar reviews, my fiancee and I set-up an appt. with Jonathan at GOG to select a H&A diamond and setting. When we got to the store, instead of meeting with Jonathan, we were directed to Amy (Jonathan was out sick). Needless to say, we were a little diappointed after driving out to meet the man we had heard so much about (no offense to Amy). While she spent a good deal of time with us, it seemed as though at some points she wasn''t really paying attention to what we wanted (at one point she brought a Si2 stone and started pitching me on it after I had told her our base clarity was VS2). After we found the right diamond for my fiancee(1.41 H&A, VS1, Color I),we proceeded to the choose a setting. This was particularly disconcerting process.

Since we wanted (not needed) the rock sooner rather than later, she showed us some used rings. We finally selected one and Amy told us it would be set the NEXT day. Later that night my fiancee unhappy with the fit (it was a little loose) and the fact that it was used wanted to order a brand new, slightly different setting in a different size.

 

[Team02]

Continued...

At this point we told her we could wait and were unconcerned about time (prev. scheduled business trip had been cancelled). I called her the next day to confirm that she had ordered the new ring and to my shock she said she had set the diamond in the original setting. I told her that we specifically wanted it changed and she started hard-selling us on the old setting. After reading everything I had read on PS, I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

We stood our ground and she finally ordered the new ring (which she said would be here in 2 weeks - it took over 3 weeks). In the interim, we had the rock shipped to AGA - D. Atlas for an appraisal. There service was 2nd to none and I felt really comfortable dealing with them. They told me they shipped the diamond and appraisal back to Amy at GOG and Amy insisted that AGA still had the appraisal (guess who I believed). In the need we got the ring (which was still a little loose), the appraisal (which GOG had all along) and (almost) all of the paperwork and test results posted on the site. Outside of the service we received, we are tremendously happy with the diamond itself. I'm not trying to slander GOG or Amy, I know a lot of you have excellent experience dealing with them. As an aside, now that we have to get the ring resized, any recommendations on where to go in NYC?

Best Wishes and Thank you all!

 

[Daniela]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It's frustrating when things don't go exactly as planned. I'm sure that posting your thoughts here will likely lead to GOG reviewing the situation, and if necessary, making some changes if they conclude that there is room for improvement on some level (keeping track of orders, document, whatever). Then again, perhaps it was just an anomale? Mistakes do happen sometimes, I guess. Hard to say. My experience with GOG has been that if you call Jonathan, he's quite accomodating and really tries to do right by you.

Just out of curiousity, what setting did you end up ordering? We can't wait to see pictures, so be sure to post. I'm sure your diamond is beautiful!

 

[AM]

We had a strange experience with the setting with GOG too. Jonathan was great about trying to find a stone, but the setting was handled by a different person. We sent her numerous emails about a particular setting, but did not hear back from her until a week passed. We even called and left messages. At that point, we were considering a stone from a different vendor. Finally, we got her on the phone, only to find out that if we don't purchase a stone from GOG, they can't sell us that setting. We simply thought it wasn't worth the hassle, and went with a vendor who was much more responsive. Yesterday, I received an email from her responding to my oooold emails. I think she forgot she ever spoke to me.

 

[Mara]

This actually speaks to somewhat of a larger issue that it seems has become slightly more prevalent. It almost seems as though some of the more popular vendors here on PScope have lowered the customer service levels somehow. I don't know if being extremely busy has to do with most of it, or not having enough manpower to assist all customers, or maybe they just don't even realize what they are doing. However, I have seen posts and PM's on vendors not responding at all to customers requests, or requesting items and getting them a week or two weeks later. It's important for all vendors to realize that even if you have the most beautiful, most amazing, most perfect stone, if your customer service is not up to par, people will NOT buy from you. There are way too many stones and great vendors out there to suffer through horrible customer service. Especially when you are building a future relationship with a vendor.




It's important to note that what I am saying is NOT directed at GOG at all, this thread just happened to ring a bell for me since I have seen some posts here and there recently, and gotten some PM's and emails about this particular issue across various vendors, and it seems as though the bar for customer service needs to be raised across the board. PScopers are an extremely demanding bunch, if they come here to do the research and find the vendor through PScope testimonials or with great stones, they expect more than the average shopper. Pscope vendors have to know that and act accordingly IMO. No excuses.




That said...I worked with GOG and Amy in particular when they re-set my Regent and I was very happy with their service, they did everything they said and on time which was refreshing nowadays in light of what I just noted!

Everyone can have a bad day, but as long as the "bad experience" does not become a trend....to me that is all that matters.




I also think it's important for the vendors to get this particular type of feedback. If you end up not working with a vendor because they never responded or had too long of a turnaround, LET THEM KNOW. Some people tend to think 'well I just don't even want to waste any more time with them'. I think that is the wrong attitude to take because some vendors and people just do not get what they are doing wrong, they may not even realize that you lost interest. I believe in being very vocal about my displeasure or pleasure in any situation. If someone does a great job, praise them. If they screw it up royally, let them know that too. If you don't tell someone how you feel, you can't assume that they know. My last 2 cents.

Okay I'm done for the night!

 

[valeria101]

Strange enough that both these come about settings not the stones, rally. It seems so hard to deal with matching the tremendous amount of info around here and attention paid to diamonds, with the relative dearth of options for those matching 'diamond holders'. Oh well...

 

[sparklyandsquare]

Speaking of unresponsive vendors, I emailed DirtCheapDiamonds about a setting a few days ago & have yet to hear back.

 

[chris-uk04]

Okay, I had a SIMILAR recent GOG purchasing experience. First off, Jonathan is spot on. In case, you don't know, he handles all diamond issues and sales. He's responsive and extremely helpful. I could expect a reply from Jonathan within a day. I was quite pleased and singing GOG's praisies.

However, I, too, was a bit disappointed by the service from GOG's setting people. From then on, I had to find a setting for which, I was dealing with several different people at GOG, because some of them worked only part time. Email response was sometimes okay, sometimes slow, and sometimes non-existant. They blamed "email problems" but they seemed to have had "emails problems" for a couple of months (get them fixed already). They would forget who I was, and I basically had to call them and nag them for follow through. I would call and they said they would do something and email it to me, but the next day it wasn't there so I'd have to call back and they would say "oh yeah, we were getting to it, etc." It was quite frustrating.

I must admit, I must have been a bit of a pain because I took so long to pick a setting, but for me choosing a setting turned out to be more difficult than the stone. Of the different settings online, you usually get one picture from one angle. So I constantly wanted to see a bunch of different pictures of several settings. Perhaps they should set up a database for additional pictures & information of settings they carry, becauase it is quite hard to spend $1500 on a setting when all you see is from the top down. I wanted to know things like "How many accents are there and what's the ctw?" That they should know or have in a database, and not have to phone the company everytime and take a week to get back to me (or force me to call and nag in the between time). The time it would have taken would have been a lot shorter if they had more information on hand. Granted they sell a lot of settings, but over time they should save information they collect from these manufacturers. Overall, this was the biggest purchase I ever made (car withstanding) and since I'd already put down a deposit on my stone, so they could have been a little more attentive.

In the end, the product looks great and I will post pictures sometime closer to the date when the gf gets the ring. I would say the setting people weren't bad, but mediocre. I don't think they are lazy or rude, but disorganized. I think they perhaps need to reexamine their management of orders and potential orders. Perhaps they can just ask Jonathan.

 

[C60]

Interestingly, I had problems with JewelryZone. They were responsive to my inquiries about their diamonds, but when I asked about crown/pavillion angles, sarin reports, etc..., they went into hibernation mode.

 

[strmrdr]

I agree with mara haveing seen the same thing.
Iv sent a few people from other boards to the top 5 ps vendors and have got reports back that some of them have been less than steller in responce to customers.

That said email is a mess right now accross the internet.

The top 3-4 email server software packages that isp's and hosting companies use have all had multiple bad updates that have been raising havoc the last 3 months.
Everyone is rushing to impliment virus and spam filtering and crap code is being rushed into production envirements.
This raises a catch 22 for the hosting companies they either be vulnerable to viruses or risk rushing bad updates neither of which is good.
Even if the code is good a machine that used to be big enough to handle a few thousand users may choke on the load of 500 users with filtering.
Adding computers to handle the load can be very costly and time consuming.
Rushing into it leads us back to the problem of bad software.

MSN/Hotmail and AOL have been particulary bad lately.
Expecialy trying to send from one to the other.

 

[oldminer]

Four things to keep in mind:

1. Diamonds can readily be bought and sold over the Internet because they are very describable and can be listed in a very orderly manner.

2. Mountings and amany other things have so many variables that no one can just offer them simply on the Internet. They need to be personally described, each one needs to fit your stone and finger. They are all very different from one another in many important aspects. In other words, they don't lend themselves as well to remote purchasing as diamonds do.

3. The buying of diamonds on the Internet has really caught on. These successful vendors are now being asked to preform the tricky task of mountin diamonds much more often. They are in a growth mode and not all quite ready for such activity.

4. Buying at the lowest price implies less complex service. When you pay full list, expect total service. When you pay cheap, you must be prepared for a little waiting in line or reminding the seller that you are in a hurry. It is part of the fun sometimes.

 

[aljdewey]

Dave, you make some excellent points. Allow me as a customer to add a few of my own.

You comment that buying cheap means expecting less service. True to a point, but I'd submit that many of us have chosen to buy from online vendors not because they are the cheapest but because they carry a broader selection of ideal stones.

The comments that follow below are NOT specific to GOG.....they are across the board comments that all vendors might want to give thought to.

Part of the problem is that vendors spend a boatload of time trying to educate customers about diamonds, but they don't spend any time educating us about the buying process. If a vendor set guidelines for reasonable expectations, that would eliminate more than half of the problems....the vendor, for instance, might say to the customer, "I'll order the setting, but it may take between 2-4 weeks".

There is just *no excuse* for not keeping one's word and/or poor communication. If a vendor says to me, "I'll have that to you by Wednesday", then I expect it on Wednesday. If he's unable to do that, no problem....have the courtesy to phone me or email me *on Wednesday* and tell me that you need more time. Don't let six more days go by before calling to apologize that you didn't call me *last week*....that's unacceptable.

Yes, it's possible to have random email problems, but I think this excuse is far overused. Honestly, there are vendors here who receive many accolades for timely responses to emails and phone calls and for exemplary customer service. If they are able to pull this off, then it's not unreasonable to expect other vendors to meet that standard.

When I was e-ring shopping, I asked one vendor for Sarin reports on a few stones. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so he told me he couldn't ask for them until Friday, and would likely not have them until Monday the next week. No problem, that was reasonable. By *Friday* of the *following* week, I still did not have even one of the Sarins I requested. The vendor hadn't contacted me at all during the week to say, "hey, I'm having trouble getting this info..."....nothing. In fact, he never mentioned the Sarins again....it was as though I'd never made the request. This is why that vendor didn't get my business.

Another vendor never responded to phone calls....scratched them too.

Yes, Dave, it's true that you get what you pay for many times. However, I don't set the prices for their goods.....they do. If they need to elevate those prices a bit to hire an extra set of hands to give the customer service, then so be it, but they shouldn't make excuses for poor communications and lack of response.

 

[Mara]

I also wanted to throw in that the problems I have been privvy to hearing about were not related to emails getting lost or similar (e.g. no fault of the net itself). It was more that the vendor did not respond in a timely fashion, or even did not return phone calls or follow-up on things they had promised. Lost emails are one thing and that does happen. But that is not what I have seen happening.

 

[CaptAubrey]

the fact that no one from gog has joined this thread after a couple of days tells me that they are indeed overworked right now.

 

[hoorray]

I talked to several vendors about my new earrings. Granted - it wasn't a huge purchase, but my experience was similar to when we were buying a 2.5ct stone, which was a big one. Some were incredibly prompt, some reasonably prompt, and one mainstream vendor simply lost a sale both times since they either never got back to me with answers to my questions or took so long, it was too late. I don't think it is a lost email problem unless it is specific to the organizational skills of the individual or company. Expectation setting would have done the job -- replying promptly with an acknowledgement and estimate of when they could provided the info if it wasn't right away.

edited to add: this wasn't GOG -- I don't want to give the wrong impression since this started out as a GOG post.

 

[moremoremore]

no cap't....it means Jonathan is on vacation! I sent an email re: another matter and received an automatic response stating same!

 

[strmrdr]

I want to make it double clear that im not slamming Jonathan or GOG I would buy a diamond from them without a second thought as to if they are a quality vendor .
Im sure he will look into it and do his best to fix it.

That said there is no excuse for crappy customer service.
The only acceptable answer is finding and fixing the problem so it doesnt happen again.


oldminer,
I have to disagree with point 4 The PS vendors are selling premium diamonds with higher average prices therefore they make more money per sale than someone selling low end diamonds with the same mark-up.
Part of the reason for people to pay the higher price is exellent service and the whole reason for buying it from one of the often recomended PS vendors versus all the thousands of others on the net and even the others that list on pricescope is a proven track record of service.
I will not recomend a vendor that does not have and keep that record.

Every business slips up at times and I hope that all the pricescope vendors that might be having problems get there act together quickly.
Pricescope is a double edge sword on one hand it can bring the vendors a ton of business but bite that hand and it can bite back hard.

I want to state again that while it appears that GOG is having a few problems here and there they are still on my good vendor list and Jonathon is on my good people list :}
I have no problem with sending my friends to him to buy diamonds.

 

[tawn]

At a customer service seminar, we were once told:

"A person who has a good experience with your company, will tell 1-3 people. However, a person who has a bad experience will tell 9-12 people!"

And, we were also informed that the majority of people who are unhappy with the service they received, will simply not do business with you again. Most of them never report their negative feedback to the company, but they will tell all of their friends!!

I always try to remember to send a compliment along to management when I have receive above average service. I'll also force myself to make a complaint, so they're aware that there is a problem area that needs to be rectified! (Hard to do for us conflict avoiders!)

 

[aljdewey]

----------------
On 4/9/2004 2:28:36 PM strmrdr wrote:

.....there is no excuse for crappy customer service.
The only acceptable answer is finding and fixing the problem so it doesnt happen again.

Every business slips up at times ........

----------------

Stormrider makes an EXCELLENT point here......NO vendor is infalliable, any more than we are as individuals, and everyone will have their share of missteps. The key is how quickly they resolve them and whether or not their problems appear systemic.

While there will always be those few PIA, never-happy types, I really believe that the greatest majority of customers are quite happy to be tolerant and understanding about the odd glitch or two.

Again, these next comments are not directed at GOG. An isolated incident or two doesn't equal an "problem"......but repeated failed commitments or poor response does. Resist the urge to promise the moon and fail, and instead promise the world and deliver.

 

[oldminer]

I basically agree with those points of comment where folks disagree with what I posted earlier. There are two sides to these issues and I value consumer input. My premise is the rapid increase in Internet buying and interest has truly taken the good dealers somewhat by storm in recent months. They anticipated a certain level of business and some increase, but the growth of activity has been more than just normal. In the areas of items not so well described on the Internet, such as mountings, the relaying of information is very manual and relatively labor intensive.

There is no excuse for not responding in a timely or polite way. There may be reasons, but that is not something to use as an excuse. Courtesy and responsiveness are requirements, not options.

Jonathan may be closed for Passover, so I imagine there may be an eventual response on his part. I have found him very customer oriented as I have found nearly every vendor on PS....The active sellers on this site are an enthusiastic bunch of diamond people.

 

[Mara]

One more thing I wanted to throw out there is that as a customer...it irks when I see vendors that seem to be in 'denial' about what is going on within their organization. If a customer speaks frankly to you about problems they see happening, and the customer is fobbed off with excuses and lack of accountability, to me that is disheartening. The internet IS a fast moving machine, and I do agree with OldMiner that some of the vendors have seen such a surge of business, especially from Pscopers, that they may have a problem keeping up with things.




However, accurate communication is absolutely KEY when you are dealing with internet transactions and people who do require things to happen in a timely fashion. Follow-through with what is promised. If a deadline cannot be met, let the customer know this.




Beefing up the manpower may be required in order to answer emails quickly and efficiently, email pictures and/or data, and adequate training may be required for those new additions. It's much easier to do something yourself than to give the task to someone else who may not be as well versed in the business yet...but if it takes you 2 days to do the task yourself vs 4 hours for the new person to train on the task and then 30 minutes to complete it, you are still doing better with option B. Additionally, once that new person is trained, you have a backup on assisting with that task...so that you are not taken away from potentially other valuable items that could benefit from your areas of expertise.

 

[aljdewey]

----------------
On 4/9/2004 3:41:34 PM oldminer wrote:







My premise is the rapid increase in Internet buying and interest has truly taken the good dealers somewhat by storm in recent months. They anticipated a certain level of business and some increase, but the growth of activity has been more than just normal.

----------------

I fully agree with this point, Dave.....and I celebrate with them for their extremely good fortune and increased revenue. These folks have been BOMBED with business, and I can see where they are just feeling shell-shocked.

That's why I think it's key for all of these vendors to prioritize a timely first acknowledgement backed by a *realistic* approach to making promises.

My favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant went through much the same thing. For two years, we'd been pretty much able to walk in on weeknights and get seated within 10 minutes......UNTIL one of the foodie critics wrote a RAVE review that ended up in a few well-placed publications. From the resulting onslaught, you would have thought every other restaurant in a 20-mile radius closed down and this was the only one left! The lines went out the door.

One of the things I found they did well, though, was to be as *honest* and thoughtful about their seating projections as they possibly could be. They didn't continue to tell me the wait would be "about ten minutes" under these new conditions.....we now hear "the wait is about 40 minutes". That's fine - at least we know what to expect. But if they were still telling us 10 minutes and we were waiting for 40, I'd be ticked.

They also got their hostess out from behind the typical desk and gave her a clipboard. She monitored the end of the line so that people just arriving were still greeted instantly and put on the list immediately. Their "first-response" was terrific.

It's really good to see this discussion because I think it does give vendors an opportunity to hear directly from customers what they feel is most important, and the message seems to be pretty unified.

 

[pqcollectibles]

----------------
On 4/9/2004 3:41:34 PM oldminer wrote:

I basically agree with those points of comment where folks disagree with what I posted earlier. There are two sides to these issues and I value consumer input. My premise is the rapid increase in Internet buying and interest has truly taken the good dealers somewhat by storm in recent months. They anticipated a certain level of business and some increase, but the growth of activity has been more than just normal. In the areas of items not so well described on the Internet, such as mountings, the relaying of information is very manual and relatively labor intensive.

There is no excuse for not responding in a timely or polite way. There may be reasons, but that is not something to use as an excuse. Courtesy and responsiveness are requirements, not options.

Jonathan may be closed for Passover, so I imagine there may be an eventual response on his part. I have found him very customer oriented as I have found nearly every vendor on PS....The active sellers on this site are an enthusiastic bunch of diamond people.----------------

Dave makes a very good point. Thanks to Price Scope, and other diamond discussion Forum websites, demand has outstripped personnel capacity. The Vendors do business world-wide. Not just one country. I know a couple of the Vendors have/are adding staff, and in one case, more space. Experienced people who normally address customer issues are also training photographers, sales staff, etc. The Vendors are playing catch up with the boom in business that internet sales have brought.

AL and Dave make good points. While there are many legitimate reasons for slower service, Vendors need to be honest with customers, answer emails/return phone calls in a timely manner. All of us only get one time to make a good "first impression."

 

[Rhino]

Greetings from Florida ya'll. I was able to hop on the net via dialup and do a lil online reading.




I greatly appreciate all the input that has been given here and I am fully aware of the areas of our business that need to be strengthened. For the most part I personally have all email directed to me, answered within a 24 hour turnaround time. Even before I left for vacation on Sunday morning every person who had written to me was answered up till Saturday night at midnight. When I return back home on Tuesday I'll be catching up with all my email no matter how many days it takes me to do so.




Dave has hit the nail on the head. We are experiencing growth pains in a way we did not expect and as we are trying to offer our clients more options with settings, having part-timers help with this has not turned out to have the best results and I apologize for this. I will be forwarding this thread to my staff (and the one who writes my checks

) to make them fully aware of this and we WILL RECTIFY THIS PROBLEM. We are going to be hiring more staff just for Internet help and specifically for client care and helping with settings. We have considered to cancel settings altogether or to keep it to a bare minimum of simple settings as this would streamline our service pertaining to diamonds but we do have an eye to the future of not just increasing our setting options but to also extend to the other jewelry and services we offer including our antique/estate jewelry, bracelets, chains, pendants, etc. which I realize I would need a whole seperate staff just for that arm of our web biz. One step at a time.




To those who have written to me over the course of this week I apologize in advance for my delay in responding as I do not take many vacations during the year but have to once in a while. If anyone needs immediate assistance the best thing to do is call the store and ask for either Christen, Marie or Charles who help me with all Internet related business. I also understand that many manufactureres are closed this week due to the Passover & Easter holiday so things will be back up to speed by Tuesday-Wednesday of next week.




I'll try to be back on soon again. We will be driving back up to NY this Sunday and will be back home Monday night.




Thanks again for all your input and understanding and we will be acting upon your comments and input.




Sincerely,


Jonathan

 

[valeria101]

----------------
On 4/9/2004 10:20:36 PM Rhino wrote:




having part-timers help with this has not turned out to have the best results

----------------

Congratulations for your growing business

but too bad for the temps... just when I thought I needed a third job

Happy Holiday!

 

[hoorray]

----------------
On 4/9/2004 3:05:52 PM tawn wrote:

At a customer service seminar, we were once told:

'A person who has a good experience with your company, will tell 1-3 people. However, a person who has a bad experience will tell 9-12 people!'

And, we were also informed that the majority of people who are unhappy with the service they received, will simply not do business with you again. Most of them never report their negative feedback to the company, but they will tell all of their friends!!
blockquote>


This is a belated acknowledgement of a very pertinent fact. Regardless of the reasons why....this statistic is what internet vendors should be running from...

 

[limey]

You know, I don't like bringing this thread up to the top again but I have to say that I do not get the complaint. Team02 uses terms like "hard sell", "disconcerting" etc. but then says he is not slandering. I took away from this story a different perspective. I read about a customer that wants something set ASAP, GOG gets it done and then the customer wants to change their mind and is a little miffed that what they want will take longer than they expected. GOG eats the first setting cost and does it a second time. At this point in the client-vendor relationship every little thing is scrutinized and the problem magnified. Then to make the magnification even more dramatic the customer does not approach GOG for a solution but retaliates on an Internet forum for the sole purpose of hurting their business.

This is not "Punk'd" this is real.

As for e-mail problems, absolutely this is a legitimate problem, not sure this has affected GOG. Many e-mails that you send to people might not make it due to spam-filters in place at even the smallest ISP's. These filters are not perfect and suffer from false-positive's for the silliest reasons. Out of 500 spams trapped today on our server 3-4 were real emails that had accidently been ranked as spam (html in body, colors, large fonts, malformed email headers etc.). Further, if one user on a network gets one of the latest round of viruses it can cripple the entire company.

 

[motomom]

The main problem I'm having with GOG is that with all the emails I've sent Jonathan over the last several weeks, he has answered them all within a couple of hours tops and that has spoiled me a bit

. He is so quick and so helpful and so nice and so knowledgeable that when his assistants can't get back to us as quickly because they also have "walk-in" customers to deal with, some get impatient. Just my humble opinion.

 

[pricescope]

I think this thread is a very good stuff (as long we'll keep it civil and constructive.

). It's different because those who were fans of certain vendors (not only GOG) express their concerns about service quality of their favorite vendors. It is not about protecting or criticizing anybody in particular.

Obviously, there are several instances when consumers are disappointed with the services they received or their expectations haven't been met. Both sides should benefit from such discussions.

I think companies should learn and try to improve their business practices. They either should keep up with the expectations they set or clearly outline what service their customers can expect from them in a given timeframe.

 

[strmrdr]

leonid,
Great summery of this thread I couldnt agree more.
This thread should be required reading for any vendor that wishes to get business from the forum here.
The dynamics of the vendor/comsumer relationships here would make an interesting study.
Thank you for providing the place and opertunity for us to interact with one another.