Q about "cash back" offers via google ad sites

[CFDEngineCo97]

In speaking with an online vendor this afternoon, he directed me to google for cash back discounts on jewelry. Candidly, I was surprised to find that several online vendors (bluenile, ashford.com, diamond.com, etc.) through various rebate/coupon webstes advertise anywhere from 3-5.5% in cash back savings on sales. Obviously, $1k+ back on a $19k diamond is not bad when these vendors already are competitively priced. Seems too good to be true . . . what is the catch?

As always, your response is greatly appreciated.

Rob

 

[denverappraiser]

The key to all such offers is in the fine print. A 5% coupon from Blue Nile or Diamonds.com is a pretty good thing. Can you give us a link please? If there are restrictions, and there almost certainly are, the value of the coupon will depend on what those restrictions are and whether they apply to what you are wishing to buy. I wouldn''t count this as much of a reason to choose a particular vendor or a particular stone but the math is easy enough to apply to do a sensible price comparison with similar items elsewhere.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Independent Appraisals in Denver

 

[CFDEngineCo97]

As far as signing up, I went to google, typed in "cash back for diamonds," and then signed up for free at ebates.com and fatwallet.com. Soon thereafter, I received an e-mail from each service providing more detailed information. I found that the rebates/coupons at fatwallet were slightly better for the vendors that I was looking at. This is what I found out:

Fatwallet.com is offering 3% cash back at bluenile and 5.5% cash back at diamond.com. There are cash back offers at several other online vendors, including 15% cash back on various selected items at Mondera.

bluenile''s 3% cash back is capped at $12,500 and cannot be used with any other offers.
diamond.com''s 5.5% does not have a cap; however, the rebate cannot be combined with any other offer, including the $250 off of loose diamond''s also advertised on the fatwallet.com website.

According to both ebates and fatwallet, the cash back rebates will take appoximately 120 days to credit to my paypal account (or I can get a check). Also, I was warned repeated by the service representative at fatwallet that follow the stated cash back procedure very closely in order to insure that I receive the rebate. She warned that vendors will void the rebate if the correct procedure is not followed. Notwithstanding the above, the representative was very helpful and offered to walk me through the actual process when I make the purchase. Further, she offered to speak with the vendor representative to insure that everything is handled smoothly.

While the above sounds great, I read the warning in an archived PS thread that a 5.5% discount is not so great when the diamond is overpriced by 8-10%; that being said, where the diamond is priced competitively and other vendors refuse to negotiate (which is understandable given the thin profit margin), 5.5% makes a lot of sense to me.

Notwithstanding the above, already I have encountered a few hiccups with the cash back rebate process. Today I am going to find out how it will work for me. I have about $14k of the purchase price in cash. I wanted to wire this amount to get an additional 2% off (on a prorated basis). I plan to put the remaining amount on a 12 month no APR credit card. Given the stringent "cash back" procedures, I do not know if I will be able to:

1) make separate payments on the websites for the same item and still get the full 5.5% for the entire purchase price, and
2) get an additional savings of 2% (prorated) on the bank wire portion of the payment.

I will see how it goes and report back (hopefully in less verbose fashion).

Rob

 

[CFDEngineCo97]

I confirmed with fatwallet.com and diamond.com that there is no ceiling on 5.5% cash back and loose stones are included in the offer. Further, according to the fatwallet representative, you can combine with other fatwallet.com diamond.com discounts ($20 off and free shipping), but you cannot combine with outside offers (or use additional discount codes on the diamond.com site). Finally, together they are working with me to reach an agreement on how to apply the 2 payments ($14k bank wire and $7k credit card payment) in order to secure the full 5.5% and a portion of the "bank wire" discount (likely less than a full prorated amount, but at least 1% total for 66% paid in cash). So it looks like this is the scenario for my purchase (example using a diamond.com stone advertised on PS):

Carat - 2.10
Color - E
Clarity- SI1
Measurements: 8.21 x 8.25 x 5.06
Depth: 61.5
Table: 59
Girdle: TH-MD
Cutlet: None
Polish: EX
Symmetry: EX
Flouro: MB
GIA Cert
Diamond.com Price - $20,083
Price with 5.5% discount = $18,978.44
Additional 1% off for bank wire = $18,777.61
Additional $20 off and free shipping = $18,757.61

This looks like a heck of a deal to my uneducated eye. You educated thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

 

[kesco]

Quite a deal indeed. I just got the following:

1.01ct/round

Length-to-Width 6.39 x 6.47 x 3.99
Depth 62.1

Table 57

Girdle MED-STK

Culet NON

Polish VG

Symmetry EX

Clarity Grade SI2

Color Grade G

Fluorescence NON

Premium Cut

With GIA cert.. $4043-$250 = $3793 plus 5.5% back (already posted to FatWallet account) = $3584.38