What do I do now?

[BookGal2]

I am hoping the voices of experience here can help me. I ordered a lovely GIA 1.75 I vvs2 xxx diamond from Zoara on Saturday. Super stone with exceptional clarity, btw. On Sunday evening I received a phone call from a Zoara rep telling me "Good news, your diamond is available!" and the amount to wire to them along with the bank wire info. On Monday I e-chatted with a rep from Zoara to clarify the bank wire procedure and dates for delivery and I wired the money to Zoara. I then e-chatted with Zoara again to let them know I had wired the payment. All was well. Late today, I received a call from Zoara telling me the diamond I ordered was out on memo, was the "wrong" color, (a J not an I-- it is GIA cert!), whatever-- the bottom line is the stone is not available. Zoara has offered me another diamond that is a GIA 1.76, I vs1 xxx but I don't like the crystal in the table on the GIA report. Plus I am pretty mad that in communicating with 3 Zoara reps they all told me to send the money and not a one of them checked BEFORE I wired the money to be sure my diamond was still available. When a rep says send the money it does imply that the stone is available. Second, I don't think it is reasonable for them to ask me to pay the same price for a stone that is a grade lower in clarity. Is this the normal businees mode lfor an online diamond vendor? I can't imagine it is, but as a newbie, I need some guidance here, thanks for your advice and help.

 

[DevinG]

Awe phooey! Sorry to hear you've had a bad experience purchasing a diamond online.

My 2 cents...get your money back and start over with one of the vendors from this site. GOG, JBEG, JA, BN...etc.

They're listed under the 'resources tab' then click on Featured Sponsor, the list will pop up with links to their sites. The forum members have good things to say about these vendors.

I've done several inquiries about settings with two of the vendors (JA & Adiamor) via e-chat and email. They respond quickly and answer my questions.

Best of luck to ya!

 

[diamondloveaffair]

get your money back (in Full) first before making any further decisions. Don't let them push a diamond sale down your throat.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

This happens from time to time with drop shippers. They do not have the stones. The diamonds belong to diamond suppliers and the vendor may not know right away that a stone has been requested by someone else. I do think they should verify this before taking your money, but it appears they sometimes do this after you send the money. I agree with getting your money back and start over with a vendor that has in-house diamonds or who will verify the stone is available before you have to pay. I would also only use vendors who provide pictures of the stones. I don't think you need to worry about VS1 clarity at all, but you do need to see the cut of the stone.

 

[himni]

Get your money back & use a vendor with a good reputation. I've bought a diamond from James Allen & Leon Mege both were good choices & I had no issues.

 

[Christina...]

Unfortunately I've heard of this happening with drop shippers before as well. They deal with an enormous list of inventory that is constantly being listed and sold with many other companies as well, and it appears that they haven't found a way to perfect the updating system yet. I'm really sorry that this happened to you and can totally understand your frustration. Had this same thing happened with a PS vendor I may chalk it up to bad luck and consider their offer of helping me to locate another stone. However, I've never worked with this vendor nor am I familiar with them, so I would ask for a full refund and begin my search with another vendor as well.

As far as clarity, VSS2 is a very clean stone, however having owned stones that were VVS1 all the way down to a SI2 (eye clean) I wouldn't personally pay the premium for the higher clarity again. A VS1 will look identical to the VVS2 without a loupe. I'd actually argue that most people wouldn't see the tiny differences even with a loupe. But mind clean is important to, if you feel you must have a clarity that high, then by all means, but if you are simply looking for a high quality clean stone, then VS is definitely worth considering. It would likely allow you to go up a color grade as well.

 

[sakari_8]

Sorry to hear that, online stores do not own all the stones that you see in there inventory, they outsource it and since the
very stone you are looking to purchase is not in there office they have to call the owner of the stone, sometimes they delay
and in the process stones sold out, I believe customer should be inconvenienced, unfortunately the system is
unprofessional, not many stores figured out yet and are facing issues with the customers which ruin there reputation and there
customers are highly inconvenienced, I would also suggest to ask for refund and look for other stores like
James Allen, B2C Jewels, Bluenile, GOG they all are good and many pser's recommend them.