Preference & Price between BN, WF and GOG

[jimmy963]

What are people''s general inpressions of these online dealers, especially in terms of price? Are the differences worth it?

 

[Lorelei]

Date: 10/3/2008 3:49:58 AM
Author:jimmy963
What are people''s general inpressions of these online dealers, especially in terms of price? Are the differences worth it?

Personally I like WF and GOG as they have in house diamonds and experts to advise, plus the cut analysis is done on the diamonds very often. They also have trade in policies. These benefits are important to me, so I would gladly pay a little extra for them.

 

[jstarfireb]

With WF and GOG, you know exactly what you''re getting with all the info they upload, and you''re also getting great customer service. They also offer lifetime trade-up policies, as well as a discount for being a PS member.

With BN, so little info about the diamonds is posted (not even a picture, let alone ASET or IS!) that you don''t always know what you''re getting. There''s no trade-up policy, and very little personalized customer service. They have a much bigger inventory of stones, and from what I''ve seen they tend to be less expensive, but the quality of the cut varies greatly.

 

[stone-cold11]

Date: 10/3/2008 10:23:16 AM
Author: jstarfireb
With BN, so little info about the diamonds is posted (not even a picture, let alone ASET or IS!) that you don''t always know what you''re getting. There''s no trade-up policy, and very little personalized customer service. They have a much bigger inventory of stones, and from what I''ve seen they tend to be less expensive, but the quality of the cut varies greatly.

But their in-house stones, susposedly on par to ACA or GOG, are more expensive.

 

[sarah95]

Bluenile seems to be priced higher than the others imo, so it wasn''t even a consideration for me. Whiteflash and Good Old Gold were very helpful and informative, but in the end I purchased from www.usacerteddiamonds.com. Martin Sheffield was very knowledgable, thorough and polite. It came down to price for me and usacerted offered me the best (and lowest price) on the diamond I was looking for. They beat everyone. I also liked that the diamond was sent to an appraiser in my area so I could view the stone before purchasing it. If I didn''t like it, the appraiser sends it back and Martin would have found me another stone. I prefer to see what I''m buying in person with as little risk as possible, rather than putting down a ton of cash and possibly dealing with return hassles.

 

[oldminer]

Blue Nile is often mentioned because their mark-up tends to be higher than their Internet competitors. Maybe on poorer cuts they seem lower, but that may just be the discount due to the cut quality and not due to cut profit margins.

I have examined many Whiteflash stones before the client paid for them, so the no up front money service mentioned from USA Certed can be duplicated by others when everything works right. GOG probably can make the same arrangement from time to time. A lot depends on the credibility of the appraiser where the diamond is going to be sent for inspection.

 

[ilovedogs]

I think you should also check out James Allen, another vendor here. To me they had the best price and service.......

 

[Maisie]

I love working with Whiteflash. I like how its very personal service. You can speak to the same person every time and they remember you. I believe the same could be said for GOG. I would love to work with GOG too.

I also like the upgrade service they provide!

I had considered working with BN at one point (in my early learning days) but I decided against them. I would rather see real photos of the diamonds and have that personal service.

 

[lovinsparkles]

I think it depends on which vendor has the most stones of the type you are looking for in house and/or provides images for those stones. For example, WF has tons of rounds that it posts pictures of and would probably be an excellent source for that. I was searching for emerald cuts though, and their in house inventory was extremely limited, so any time I wanted to actually see a picture of a stone (or even just have them review it for me), I had to pay to bring it in. Frustrating! WF, if you''re listening, I wish you would post more images of the non-rounds too! Good customer service otherwise.

In my experience BN prices were higher than the competitors also.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I would have to agree that GOG and WF specialize in top quality stones which they carry in-house, and they both have great trade-in policies. I found BN prices higher with many stones to sift through to find good ones. I just prefer the security of knowing that if I ever wanted to change to another shape or size stone, I could easily do so with no money lost on my old stone.

Compared to local jewelers, the same stones would have cost much more. But in fact, no one carried stones of that quality. We ended up buying a ring stone from GOG and two diamonds for earrings from WF.