The Jewelry Exchange?

[waves044]

Does anyone have an experience with this company? My BF has suggested that we start our ring shopping experience here... I am a bit iffy about it. Opinions?

 

[nytemist]

That''s where my ring is from. I have a beautilful F, SI round and I love it.

I know a lot of people think they just sell junk, but we had a great selection of stones to choose from when we went in back in February. We had to wait a bit for a salesperson, since it was about 3 weeks before Valentine''s and they were busy, but our salesperson was great as was the price and we have lifetime trade-up.

 

[FireGoddess]

Ya gotta go into the diamond room in the back. No shopping at the front of the store where the $500 1ct stone specials are. They''ve got good stones in the diamond room, but you need to know your stuff about cut. The diamond sellers there generally don''t, in my experience.

 

[Miranda]

That''s where DH got my stone and ering almost 13 years ago. Their prices were fine then. Since I haven''t shopped there recently, I can''t give you any more info. Do be sure you know what you are looking for and be ready for a hard sell. Compare prices, cut quality, etc. online also. Since they have a large quantity of stones it''s a great place to see what clarity and color you are comfortable with.

 

[SuzyQZ]

I've bought diamonds there. We had the manager help us and he was great, I would highly recommend HIM, he's been doing this for over 15 years, was very knowledgeable, and no hard sell at all because he doesn't have a "quota" which I believe the sales staff might have had. The salespeople were not knowledgeable at all, so go for the guy with the most experience in the store, in this case it was the Manager. Just ask upfront what experience your sales person has, if you don't feel like it's enough, ask to speak to the most senior person there or go back another day when someone with more experience can help you.

We saw loose diamonds only, all certed and nothing pre set, one carat and larger in size. We went back and forth to the "vault" many, many, times, they had a great selection and we were able to view 2 or 3 stones side by side, in different lighting. Only the manager was able to let us see several stones and compare side by side at the same time, the salespeople can only take out 1 at a time and frankly, didn't really know what they were talking about.

Believe it or not, the manager was very honest and asked us what our budget was and really worked with us, we went back several times over several days and he was always friendly and helpful. One day we were there for 5 hours looking at diamonds and walked out without a purchase because I couldn't make up my mind! We talked about what we were willing to compromise on cut, clarity, color and he made his recommendations to help us to find our "sweet spot", the best value for the color, cut, and clarity for our budget in a diamond. I even changed our mind after we had purchased and we made an exchange with no problem. There were other stones that we were considering too, some off the internet, and he told us quite honestly, that if the specs were as we had written down, that it was a great deal, he couldn't match it and that we should buy the diamond from the other vendor. He was 100% willing to walk away from our sale. Never talked down the competition. As it turned out though, I looked at some other cuts that I hadn't seen before because he had so many in the vault that I ended up falling in love with something different and I ultimately purchased our diamonds from him.

Bottom line is YOU need to know your stuff. You need to know what you are talking about and what you are looking for and what a good competitive price is. No one is going to give anything away, and if it's too good to be true, well, you know the rest! Bring in print outs of other stones, specs, reports and prices from the internet. If your salesman knows what he's talking about and so do you then you've got a good match.

Now I must say that If I had been helped by one of the staff salespeople I would have walked out in frustration as I didn't feel that they were particularly helpful or knowledgeable. Also, their jewelery craftsmanship was not good, they send a lot of it out and I wasn't impressed with the quality. So I bought my diamonds there but had my rings made somewhere else.

What the Jewelry Exchange has going for it is that they have a lot of inventory on site. Certed and non certed diamonds. We only looked at GIA and EGL-USA certed fancy cuts. You do feel like it's a cattle call, especially when the place is full, the din can be quite overwhelming. We went only during off hours, during the week, not the weekend and felt relaxed and unpressured.

As with any major purchase, buyer beware. Do your homework and be informed.
Good luck to you.

ETA: When I took our newly purchased diamonds to our jeweler to have a custom ring made, I was complemented on the diamond color match and quality of the diamond. When I told her how much we had paid for them she said "You guys got a great deal!" Yes, it was a heck of a lot of money for us, but in the "diamond world" where prices are so high, it really was a good deal!

 

[waves044]

Thanks for the advice and opinions ladies! I will do my homework a bit before we visit the store. I think that this will be a good experience for us to just see a bunch of different cuts of diamonds and get an idea of what style is right for us, if nothing else. Thanks again.

 

[ellybelly]

I bought a diamond from them a month ago and I agree that the salespeople have no idea what they''re talking about and to ask a manager and go when it''s not busy