World''s Biggest Engagement Ring Store

[str8fan]

Have you heard of "Robbins Bros." World''s Biggest Engagement Ring Store it''s located in California? If you have, what do you think?

Any and All opinions please...

 

[Mara]

Hi Samantha..RB is not just in California I don't think..we have gotten inquiries on them in the past.




Run a 'search' with Robbins in the subject and see what you find.




From what I can recall, they are a typical large B&M mall-type store..probably with mediocre quality and semi-inflated retail prices. Worth checking out, but be sure to do more research before buying ANYWHERE...online or offline. Return policy, quality of the stone, certification of the stone, upgrading policy, pricing, etc. Alot of times you can find better deals in terms of stone quality AND price online. The Pscope tutorial will help teach you about what to look for in diamonds.




Anyway when I hear things like 'Worlds Biggest...' I think of the Diamond Center in Burlingame...scary....1ctw 3 stone rings for $999? They have some sort of slogan too. Quality? Yeah and I got a bridge I want to sell you in SF. 2 in fact. They're small...

 

[str8fan]

Mara...You called that one! I did have "stars in my eyes looking at their stuff" Thanks a million for the the reply....my search for a reputable jeweller continues.

Sam

 

[sumi]

I've been in there once and the quality of craftsmanship of many of their pieces is poor. Even their so-called "designer" rings were of very poor quality. The lines of the pieces were a little sloppy, not smooth fluid lines.

It was also pretty annoying how they seemed to match you up with a salesman as soon as you walk in the door. They took down my name, and even tried to get my address/phone number the minute I walked in the door. I did not appreciate that at all.

Needless to say, I didn't stay long and I've never gone back. If you are looking for a nice diamond, the experts here can lead you in the right direction (...and away from Robbins Brothers...)

 

[niceice]

They're a traditional B&M like everybody else... World's Largest, World's Best, etc... Marketing hype, that's all... The unfortunate reality is that when it comes to designer mountings, we're all going to be priced the same simply because the designers set the minimum prices that we are allowed to sell their product for and we're all obviously going to sell it for the lowest price that we can... The one thing that really irks us though is how this one site BillBarnes.com is marketing their jewelry, check it out... As near as we can tell, when the ring is a two piece wedding set they set the "Starts At Price" at the price for the wedding band, not the engagement ring, and then they do so based upon the smallest price... So people ask us for a quote on Designer Ring XYZ and we respond with a request to determine their finger size, the size of the center stone and what metal they would like the ring made in and then send them a quote based on their actual needs just to receive a response asking why we are so much more expensive than these guys and then we have to instruct the customer on how to determine the actual selling price based on what they need on another vendor's web site and then they're like "oh that's sleazy!" and we're like "Duh!" but you know, it must be a marketing ploy that works because they seem to sell a lot of jewelry... Are people really this stupid? We're NOT saying that you're stupid Str8fan! You're asking the question because you're not stupid, we're just on a rant about this type of World's Best, World's Cheapest, etc. type of marketing... At least when we do it on our site, we're obviously ripping on the concept of this type of marketing

 

[str8fan]

----------------
On 1/18/2004 12:55:07 AM sumi wrote:

I've been in there once and the quality of craftsmanship of many of their pieces is poor. Even their so-called 'designer' rings were of very poor quality. The lines of the pieces were a little sloppy, not smooth fluid lines.

It was also pretty annoying how they seemed to match you up with a salesman as soon as you walk in the door. They took down my name, and even tried to get my address/phone number the minute I walked in the door. I did not appreciate that at all.

Needless to say, I didn't stay long and I've never gone back. If you are looking for a nice diamond, the experts here can lead you in the right direction (...and away from Robbins Brothers...)----------------

Oh my gosh, that's exactly what they did to us, as soon as we walked through the door. Thanks for the reply. We won't going there again either. Any ideas as to where we could go?

 

[icelady]

Robin and Todd: How do you really feel about BillBarnes.com? Don't hold back now!

I agree that this is a very sleazy practice, I hadn't even thought of how it affects your time having to explain how their pricing "scheme" works to your clients!

Will the manufacturers of the pieces step in and do something about BillBarnes if you complain?

 

[Mara]

Samantha, if you are looking for stones locally...let us know where you are located and people can give their recommendations if they are familiar with that area.




If you are looking online, there are alot of great online companies that give you tons of information on the stones, making a purchase alot easier in terms of comfortability. Read the tutorial, then you can search the diamond engine to see what you find. I would suggest if you are looking for a well cut stone to use the cut quality search: http://pricescope.com/sift.asp which will only show you stones with good #s and HCA scores. You should still get more info like pictures of the stone and IdealScope images to ensure good light return...my two cents!

Good luck & have fun!!

 

[sdtincup]

Hey Samantha!

Well...I think I'll add my $.02 since I was in the EXACT same boat as you not too long ago!! A few months ago me and my sweetie went down to Robbins Bros. (we live in San Diego) to go check out what all the fuss was about. I'd spent my time online and was on my way to knowing the 4Cs and all that good stuff...we figured we should go somewhere to see some loose diamonds and a better collection of settings. From research I did I already crossed off strip mall stores like Zales, etc. from consideration. In hindsight, I wasn't too thrilled with being assigned a sales rep. only to later get handed over to a diamond rep to look at stones. Anyway...it was a good trip, but I wasn't feeling great about the collection of stones they had...I think it was more the settings that drew me there first.

Anyway...then I found pricescope and Jonathan at GOG (trust me...you'll here his name a lot!!!). I've found tons of info. on the web and his site and am very proud to say that with help from the kick-@#$ people on this forum, I wired out money for my honey's new Regent for her engagement ring! Additionally I've been so impressed with the service and response that I WANT them to take care of the setting stuff for me...they've earned my business and I don't think I want to trust my prize to anyone else.

Couple other things...listen to the suggestions about the appraisal thing (I used RockDoc...another name you'll see a lot of)...and don't be overly hesitant about internet buying. The warranties will often be better, there's little/no B&M mark up on stones, etc. I'm in San Diego...bought my diamond (and setting soon) from New York and had it appraised in Florida and I have more information about my stone than most B&M stores could ever hope to give me!

Anyway...happy hunting and make full use of this forum...it's helped me tremendously...matter of fact I've got enough people that have helping me along they're demending to see pics when everything's finished!

-sdtincup