I just wanted to post here my experiences with online purchasing, so as to help others who are looking for information around the subject. I was looking and now have purchased a Pendant and stud Earrings for my girlfriend.
I originally posted on these forums in the "Trusted Vendors Sticky" thread asking about www.pearlsonly.com.au (i'm Australian, it's a global franchise with warehouses seemingly in a few places), I also had been looking at Pearls of Joy, Purepearls and quite a few others, but they are purely based in the United States, and I'm not really protected by Australian consumer law buying from them, bar the 30-60 day return period.
I did try and place an order through Pearlsonly, only for their website to reject my payment three (3) times, for some bizarre reason, so clearly a glitch there on the website for some reason. I received confirmation emails stating my order had started but that "ORDER HAD FAILED!", and so I moved on to www.ThePearlsource.com.au . (In the meantime, I received a day later an email from pearlsonly stating they had attached a "PayPal link" for me to use to pay, sadly it was too late, I had moved on) I had seen they, being Pearlsource, seemingly have excellent ebay feedback, that Leon Rbibo the CEO had been involved with CPAA (Cultured Pearl Association of America) and Jewellers of America, but there are a few complaints I see about aftersales service (to be expected with an online shop only!) in reviews and the thread here that ain't so rosy! I read NacreLover's post in that thread, and the fact they had spent quite a few thousand over time on Tahitian pearls through them still, and Leon had posted pictures of the Hanadama "pearls of drama", which looked ok seemingly vs the negative claims, and decided to take a chance.
So I ordered a Tahitian pearl pendant, spent extra on the 10mm AAAA graded Black Tahitian on 14k White gold setting/chain and a pair of 8mm AAAA grade black Tahitian stud earrings (even though I know reading up that "AAAA" is not really a recognised Tahitian pearl grade ie AAA = A, AA+ = B, AA = C, A = D in the two scales of remote grading standards recognized) and thankyou to Kevin over at Pearls of Joy for outstanding information around all this, appreciate it as a newcomer! So I AM EXPECTING at least a AAA Grade to "Gem Grade" product, and I will be posting up photos here when I receive the product. I'm also getting the items looked at by a trusted jeweller where I live, for their opinion on the items.
Now after the order of the Pendant at Pearlsource (as I ordered it first, was only planning to ever order the Pendant, but had a change of heart later to add the earrings), strangely I never received a confirmation email with an order number, I checked my account from which I paid for the Pendant, and the cash had been taken. It was lateish here in Australia, Eastern side, around 9pm, and so I waited 30 minutes, and still nothing, I sent a "How can we help?" request from their Contact us page. I then went to bed. I was emailed back 8 hours later by Celene from the European branch it appeared, Euros being shown as the currency on the invoice, even though I paid in Australian dollars via the website. And she proceeded to be very helpful, including giving me the 15% discount I had missed on the site after a simple request. Celene also proceeded to state they would look after me and try and match the pearls of the corresponding earring set with the pendant, which I appreciate, on top of the 15% refund on the pendant order I made due to missing the Promo code whilst ordering. So what was seemingly potentially bad service in terms of website failure to acknowledge even the purchase (which would be worrisome to some I would imagine after seeing the money taken from your account), it's switched around with what I would say excellent communication and service from Celene there.
I await the shipment and tracking information and will keep everyone posted on it.
I originally posted on these forums in the "Trusted Vendors Sticky" thread asking about www.pearlsonly.com.au (i'm Australian, it's a global franchise with warehouses seemingly in a few places), I also had been looking at Pearls of Joy, Purepearls and quite a few others, but they are purely based in the United States, and I'm not really protected by Australian consumer law buying from them, bar the 30-60 day return period.
I did try and place an order through Pearlsonly, only for their website to reject my payment three (3) times, for some bizarre reason, so clearly a glitch there on the website for some reason. I received confirmation emails stating my order had started but that "ORDER HAD FAILED!", and so I moved on to www.ThePearlsource.com.au . (In the meantime, I received a day later an email from pearlsonly stating they had attached a "PayPal link" for me to use to pay, sadly it was too late, I had moved on) I had seen they, being Pearlsource, seemingly have excellent ebay feedback, that Leon Rbibo the CEO had been involved with CPAA (Cultured Pearl Association of America) and Jewellers of America, but there are a few complaints I see about aftersales service (to be expected with an online shop only!) in reviews and the thread here that ain't so rosy! I read NacreLover's post in that thread, and the fact they had spent quite a few thousand over time on Tahitian pearls through them still, and Leon had posted pictures of the Hanadama "pearls of drama", which looked ok seemingly vs the negative claims, and decided to take a chance.
So I ordered a Tahitian pearl pendant, spent extra on the 10mm AAAA graded Black Tahitian on 14k White gold setting/chain and a pair of 8mm AAAA grade black Tahitian stud earrings (even though I know reading up that "AAAA" is not really a recognised Tahitian pearl grade ie AAA = A, AA+ = B, AA = C, A = D in the two scales of remote grading standards recognized) and thankyou to Kevin over at Pearls of Joy for outstanding information around all this, appreciate it as a newcomer! So I AM EXPECTING at least a AAA Grade to "Gem Grade" product, and I will be posting up photos here when I receive the product. I'm also getting the items looked at by a trusted jeweller where I live, for their opinion on the items.
Now after the order of the Pendant at Pearlsource (as I ordered it first, was only planning to ever order the Pendant, but had a change of heart later to add the earrings), strangely I never received a confirmation email with an order number, I checked my account from which I paid for the Pendant, and the cash had been taken. It was lateish here in Australia, Eastern side, around 9pm, and so I waited 30 minutes, and still nothing, I sent a "How can we help?" request from their Contact us page. I then went to bed. I was emailed back 8 hours later by Celene from the European branch it appeared, Euros being shown as the currency on the invoice, even though I paid in Australian dollars via the website. And she proceeded to be very helpful, including giving me the 15% discount I had missed on the site after a simple request. Celene also proceeded to state they would look after me and try and match the pearls of the corresponding earring set with the pendant, which I appreciate, on top of the 15% refund on the pendant order I made due to missing the Promo code whilst ordering. So what was seemingly potentially bad service in terms of website failure to acknowledge even the purchase (which would be worrisome to some I would imagine after seeing the money taken from your account), it's switched around with what I would say excellent communication and service from Celene there.
I await the shipment and tracking information and will keep everyone posted on it.
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