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Thoughts on Jared and PS

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bfready

Rough_Rock
Joined
Feb 18, 2007
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On a somewhat limited budget and wanting the best stone my money can buy, I''m going to go online. But just for the fun of it I stopped in to a local Jared store to see what they could try to sell me. The saleswoman wanted to make sure I was familiar with the 4-C''s, and I tried to act like I hadn''t been stalking PS for the past month learning everything I could. I refused to tell her my budget but told her I wanted a stone that would look very nice on my gf''s finger. She took me to their certified but not ideal diamond section for RBs. All the stones had IGI certifications, and they told me they use that company because they are very conservative in their diamond grading. I wasn''t paying a whole lot of attention to her as she tried to convince me that this .75ct SI2 stone with an obviously mediocre cut was just such a great deal at $2300. Oh it was so lively and they must have been very conservative on that grading because it is so clean and blah blah blah. I never told her I was ready to pay about double that price for a good ring, so I just let her keep talking. The "certificates" didn''t have all the angles and percentages of the diamonds and I almost laughed out loud when I noticed that a .70 diamond had the exact same diameter as a .90 stone. Another young couple was sitting there looking at diamonds telling the saleswoman all the other B&Ms they had visited. In my head I kept thinking I should tell them "Walk out this door and spend a few hours on pricescope."

Before I post the stone I''m buying in the next couple days for comments and suggestions, I want to thank all the experts on PS for educating guys like me and not letting us fall victim to salespeople who want to sell based on fancy lighting and false superlatives about overpriced, low quality stones.
 
It''s fun to go jewelry shopping armed with knowledge from pricescope isn''t it? It is possible to buy from local jewelers, but you need to know your stuff. Of course the internet vendors provide many more choices and often much better pricing. My relationship with my local family owned jewelry store has improved greatly since I discovered pricescope. I am able to convey exactly what I want and if he can''t get it he knows that I will go elsewhere. Keep us posted on your search.
 
It always pays to do your homework when you''re making a substantial purchase....whether you''re buying a car,
home, boat, diamond, etc. Then you can tell if the salesperson is knowledgable and is truthful. After all, it''s your hard earned money.

www.metrojewelryappraisers.com
 
I went B&M shopping a whole lot before I made my purchase. The closest I came to the stone I eventually bought was a "Hearts on Fire" .65ct WG solitaire ring at Michael''s. They were asking $4900.00 for it. When I asked for their best price they came back at 10% off for a great deal at around $4500
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Of course what I ended up buying was a bigger, better center stone with about .35 in the band set in WG for $1400 less. The diamond game changed a while ago, and those that choose to play the old way are losing.
 
My bf and I went into a Jared store a couple of months ago. It was our first experience with the diamond buying process and I was not very pleased.

We told the SA that we were only looking and trying to get ideas. She was very nice and took time to talk about the 4 C''s and I tried on some settings. She brought out the microscope so we could look at a few diamonds to show us the difference between VV & V stones and even let us see a H&A diamond they had. Whatever her motives, it was cool to see each diamond in the microscope, I will admit that.

After that process, she started to steer us into the direction of a 1.33 RB diamond. I do not remember the spec''s as I was very new to the process, but it may have been a G or an H. She said it was not a H&A diamond, but that people buy those because "they like to know they are there and you cannot see them without magnification." From my novice eye, it looked like a nice diamond, but it was hard to tell b/c of their lighting. She said we could reserve the stone if we wanted and the stone alone was $9k. My bf had no intentions of going that far, so he thanked her very much for her time and said we would come back when the time is right. Then she said that she wanted us to talk to her manager because she thought she would be more helpful. This woman was quite pushy and would not take no for an answer. After my bf said "I would prefer not buying her ring with her standing here as I would like to plan a surprise" she replied "She knows she is getting the ring, it is the matter of how and when you suprise her." He was not happy with her response and we left and have not been back.

I only went to Jared b/c my friend bought her engagement ring from there. She said everyone was very nice and there was no "pressure" driven sales people. It could be she dealt with another sales associate and that she did not buy a diamond, I don''t know. I am glad she had a more positive experience than we did.
 
Just imagine how many young couples who know nothing about diamaonds get totally ripped off in this way. It makes you really wonder how someone can sell that way.
 
Whenever I have visited a Jared''s, Helzberg, or other big chain jewelry store, I have notice a kind of pitch or sales pattern. It''s usually a sales associate that approaches me and then after I have seen a few things, the sales associate goes to get a manager or another sales associate and explains to them what I''m looking for, etc. Usually the manager or sales associate #2 will then comment on how beautiful something is and be the one to encourage and pressure a sale.

I don''t know if the sales people are trained to do this kind of "buddy method", however it can be a little annoying.
 
That is exactly the situation I experienced. It becomes all the more annoying when you have to repeat yourself about what you are looking for in a diamond. I really felt like I was at a car dealership, but of course the woman told me they don''t negotiate on price.
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