First, thanks for Pricescope and all the helpful members here. I will post my experience here, and hopefully will be informative and helpful for someone.
I ordered ring 11151Y from JA, and asked for idealscope images for 3 diamonds. All 3 stones are excellent GIA cut and same price. The idealscope images took about a week, and looked close for all of them. JA representative told me that all three looks very close with almost similar performance, and I should make decision based on color or size. I chose the largest one as I thought 15% increase in carat will be more noticeable than one or two color grades.
Shipping was done one day later than scheduled. I was given the Fedex number on the shipping day, and I contacted fedex by phone. Fedex emailed my some forms which I filled and sent same day. The ring arrived the Canadian customs the next morning, and I got a call from Fedex asking for credit card number to charge the taxes. There are no duties charged, and I got the ring in less than 24 hours from shipping.
The actual diamond and sapphires are great. The diamond is one of the best that I saw, and I think the photos and videos that JA had online are great features and raised the bar too high for other online vendors. I would highly recommend James Allen’s diamonds especially if you are going with low clarity. On the other side, The gold setting was extremely tapered in thickness and width which make the ring loose in the finger. The setting looks much thinner than it should be, and the design is different than the computerized model they have on their website. When I asked about that, I was told by JA representative that the design changed and the website is not updated. This is not an acceptable excuse especially that they upload many videos for diamond, and we are dealing with precious metals in fine jewelry. Why they do not upload a video for an actual setting like Blue Nile for example. I saw several Blue Nile rings in personal and their settings are great without any corner cutting.
Price wise my diamond on JA was cheaper than other sites - I noticed that each online vendor website normally has a range of diamonds where it is very competitive. Pricescope members also get a discount from JA. I wired the money to JA’s bank and got 1.5% discount. I wired the price and all wire transfer cost, but JA took $10 out as bank fees and gave me $10 discount. I do not think it is decent to charge me for such an internal trivial fee. They can change the 1.5% discount instead. Union diamond gives 3% discount for example, and Blue Nile does not charge any extra fees. Anyways, the total amount is the same. It will only make a small difference in case of upgrading or returning the diamond.
Finally, I think it is important to mention that James Allen has a very helpful and wonderful customer services, and I would like to thank Adam and Chris for their help.
The bottom line: I would highly recommend James Allen for diamonds, but would not consider their settings – at least I will avoid the expensive ones.
I ordered ring 11151Y from JA, and asked for idealscope images for 3 diamonds. All 3 stones are excellent GIA cut and same price. The idealscope images took about a week, and looked close for all of them. JA representative told me that all three looks very close with almost similar performance, and I should make decision based on color or size. I chose the largest one as I thought 15% increase in carat will be more noticeable than one or two color grades.
Shipping was done one day later than scheduled. I was given the Fedex number on the shipping day, and I contacted fedex by phone. Fedex emailed my some forms which I filled and sent same day. The ring arrived the Canadian customs the next morning, and I got a call from Fedex asking for credit card number to charge the taxes. There are no duties charged, and I got the ring in less than 24 hours from shipping.
The actual diamond and sapphires are great. The diamond is one of the best that I saw, and I think the photos and videos that JA had online are great features and raised the bar too high for other online vendors. I would highly recommend James Allen’s diamonds especially if you are going with low clarity. On the other side, The gold setting was extremely tapered in thickness and width which make the ring loose in the finger. The setting looks much thinner than it should be, and the design is different than the computerized model they have on their website. When I asked about that, I was told by JA representative that the design changed and the website is not updated. This is not an acceptable excuse especially that they upload many videos for diamond, and we are dealing with precious metals in fine jewelry. Why they do not upload a video for an actual setting like Blue Nile for example. I saw several Blue Nile rings in personal and their settings are great without any corner cutting.
Price wise my diamond on JA was cheaper than other sites - I noticed that each online vendor website normally has a range of diamonds where it is very competitive. Pricescope members also get a discount from JA. I wired the money to JA’s bank and got 1.5% discount. I wired the price and all wire transfer cost, but JA took $10 out as bank fees and gave me $10 discount. I do not think it is decent to charge me for such an internal trivial fee. They can change the 1.5% discount instead. Union diamond gives 3% discount for example, and Blue Nile does not charge any extra fees. Anyways, the total amount is the same. It will only make a small difference in case of upgrading or returning the diamond.
Finally, I think it is important to mention that James Allen has a very helpful and wonderful customer services, and I would like to thank Adam and Chris for their help.
The bottom line: I would highly recommend James Allen for diamonds, but would not consider their settings – at least I will avoid the expensive ones.
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