SHANE CO and this diamond

[missnikkie]

Has anyone heard anything about Shane Company?

I went to look at some rings and found a 1.57c I1 F color - princess, premium cut GIA diamond for 4990. I saw the feathers of the diamond and they (2) are on the edges...is it true that some store''s gemologists are more stringent on the ratings than others?

Nik

 

[Garry H (Cut Nut)]

Enter their name into the search box - there have been many reviews by customers - some not so good as i remeber

 

[Mara]

if the stone is GIA graded, the store did not grade it, the GIA lab did.

what do you want to know about the Shane Co? They are a huge chain of stores, very maul and mainstream, sell diamonds and settings. i would never shop there but many people have and have been happy.

do as Garry noted and search on them...read up and then make your decision. good luck.

 

[ame]

Shane Co is definitely not stringent on quality in my experience. And from what I remember, they SAY their stones are graded independently but when you actually ASK to see it, magically this cert doesn''t exist.

Id stay far away from them.

 

[bluedawg]

Date: 5/12/2005 12:21

8 AM
Author:missnikkie
Has anyone heard anything about Shane Company?

I went to look at some rings and found a 1.57c I1 F color - princess, premium cut GIA diamond for 4990. I saw the feathers of the diamond and they (2) are on the edges...is it true that some store''s gemologists are more stringent on the ratings than others?

Nik

You said it''s GIA rated and I1? I would expect to see inclusions on that stone, since it got the I1 rating.

We have been on a search for an upgrade diamond and visited nearly every local B&M (not any mall chain stores, though). We did purchase from an online vendor-- but I thought I''d give you my experience on Shane Co.

I did not want to like them, since the radio commercials are so annoying! When we went in, we were at first approached by an older salesman who could answer only a few of our questions. When we started asking about crown angles and light return, he turned us over to another man. This guy was great-- very knowledgeable and helpful. Also, no pressure. They claim that their staff is not on commission, and they way we were treated made me believe it. They had a couple diamonds that were AGS0 and quite lovely (but too small)-- they were willing to get a Sarin if we wanted to place a deposit. No thanks. The stones in their inventory were too small for us-- and they didn''t have a lot of inventory. They were willing to get more diamonds in-- again, with a deposit. Prices were quite decent compared to other B&Ms, but not compared to internet vendors.

I think you need to get thru the first or second layer of sales staff and get the knowledgable diamond person at Shane Co. Then you might have a chance of seeing a nice diamond. If they happen to have what you''re looking for, you could do okay there. Still not going to compare to online vendors!

GL

 

[Lord Summerisle]

Also ask if you can see their collection of ''Frozen Monkey Spit'' that they use as reference against the way other stores stones look.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I''m with Mara on this one. I''d NEVER shop there. . .the two people I know with stones from there, have very included stones that they paid FAR TOO MUCH for!

 

[Layne]

I also would advise against Shane Co. I''ve only been there once but there selection leaves something to be desired.
And those commercials on the radio! Ugh.

 

[denverappraiser]

Nik,

An easy way to get past the first tier of sales people is to show up with one of these.

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

 

[lakerkobe]

Yeah... I live in the Portland area where the Shane Co. is located. They are all hype from what I can tell. They say that their diamonds are all graded by in-house GIA trained people... but they do NOT offer any sort of certification with their diamonds.

It''s as if thet feel you should just take their word for it... just because you hear their radio advertisements hourly.

I would never buy anything from them again (I bought a pair of small diamond earrings there a few years back before I knew about Pricescope).

 

[michaell1999]

Date: 5/12/2005 12:23:07 PM
Author: denverappraiser
Nik,

An easy way to get past the first tier of sales people is to show up with one of these.

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

Cool. Thanks for the link. Ordering one now.

When I was at Jared they had a scope to show off the Hearts on Fire. Hearts on Fire looked great. But then I used the same scope on the Leo and their regular diamonds and was suprised at how bad hey looked under this scope.
Salesperson didn''t want me looking at the other diamonds under the scope

 

[denverappraiser]

Date: 5/16/2005 10:50:02 AM
Author: michaell1999

When I was at Jared they had a scope to show off the Hearts on Fire. Hearts on Fire looked great. But then I used the same scope on the Leo and their regular diamonds and was suprised at how bad hey looked under this scope.
Salesperson didn''t want me looking at the other diamonds under the scope

HOF makes a pretty good line. There has been quite a bit of discussion here in the forum about the tool they used in your presentation. It''s called a Hearts and Arrows scope. Use the search box at the top right corner of this page for ''Hearts and Arrorws" and various perumuations (like H&A). There''s a brief discussion of it in the tutorial as well. Some Leo''s perform pretty well under the H&A scope while others don''t for the same reasons that some Round Brilliant cuts perform better than others.

I should comment that when you go into a store with a piece of your own equipment, like the ideal-scope, a loupe or especially a pair of tweezers, ask the salesperson permission first and allow them to inspect your tool if they wish. If they have something similar, they usually prefer you use their tools because they are concerned about security issues. This is a reasonable concern. People sometimes steal and the jewelers are smart to be nervous about unknown people with unknown devices.

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

 

[mellyjm]

My fiance bought my diamond from a jeweler and had it set in a simple solitaire setting. We did however buy my wedding set from the Shane Co. in Scottsdale. I love my setting from them, but I don''t think I would ever buy a diamond from them. Seems a little overpriced for the quality you will be getting. But they do have a ton of settings if you just want to set a diamond. Other than that, my experience was ok.

 

[bluedawg]

Date: 5/12/2005 6:29:43 PM
Author: lakerkobe
Yeah... I live in the Portland area where the Shane Co. is located. They are all hype from what I can tell. They say that their diamonds are all graded by in-house GIA trained people... but they do NOT offer any sort of certification with their diamonds.

When I went in here in Atlanta (again, purely to try on sizes and check them out-- we did get our diamond from a PS vendor) I specifically requested AGS 0 stones and was able to see a few. It is true that they will bring you uncerted (well, "house" graded

) diamonds if you don''t tell them what you want. But they do carry GIA and AGS certed diamonds.