Hi all,
I come asking for help with the purchase of a diamond, and I leave hoping to be a new member of such a useful community!
I am looking for an engagement ring in the UK, and have set around a 7k budget. I was originally putting carat above everything as I know my girlfriend would love a huge rock and may not care or notice too much about the other specs, however I then started to realise I would rather have a high quality diamond that sparkles like crazy and lower the size accordingly! I'd rather a diamond that clearly sparkles like a Tiffany's than a dull, large one.
Anyway, I was in Hatton Gardens and a dealer showed me some uncertified stones. I explained I would not buy a stone that isn't certified and it has to be from a body I am aware of, after he noted this is both well cut AND huge on carat.
He said EGL would give it a D/VS2 and I thought, well GIA that may be a G/SI2 which is still cool for me considering the cut was excellent and the carat was a whopping 2.10.
He said for 7.7k I can have the stone, with a platinum band. It definitely feels too good to be true, so alarm bells were ringing.
He convinced me I was going to miss out on an excellent stone, noting it had been clarity enhanced therefore cheaper.
I didn't know too much about this process and he ensured me there were no downsides other than re-sale value, so I thought ok and handed a small deposit of 300 on the basis he gets me an EGL certificate.
I felt immediately like things were fishy, but I thought if he's so confident maybe it's worth having a look.
He's come back to me with the certificate, and honestly now appears to be TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
We're talking D colour SI1 (Clarity Enhanced) with an Excellent Ideal shape, Excellent Polish and Symmetry @ 2.10ct Princess. For circa 6.7k just the stone.
Now where this gets interesting....
He showed me the certificate, which looked like a legit EGL cert, except for one detail.
IT told me to go to www.egl-lab.com to check the report.
I did, went to EGL151620706 and got the same report my dealer showed me.
Except this www.egl-lab.com seemed like the dodgiest website ever. It also calls a URL wgi-global.com when performing a lookup on the certificate, so it's clearly NOT EGL.
Running a who.is on the site shows it's registered in Auckland, since late 2015 - very very fishy indeed.
Now what do I do - unless someone can confirm this is legit I know I do not want to be anywhere near that stone.
Can I come back at the dealer and say this is bulls**** and to give me back my 300?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I went a little to deep for my own good and am now going to run back to a local, reputable GIA certified seller
Thanks all!
I come asking for help with the purchase of a diamond, and I leave hoping to be a new member of such a useful community!
I am looking for an engagement ring in the UK, and have set around a 7k budget. I was originally putting carat above everything as I know my girlfriend would love a huge rock and may not care or notice too much about the other specs, however I then started to realise I would rather have a high quality diamond that sparkles like crazy and lower the size accordingly! I'd rather a diamond that clearly sparkles like a Tiffany's than a dull, large one.
Anyway, I was in Hatton Gardens and a dealer showed me some uncertified stones. I explained I would not buy a stone that isn't certified and it has to be from a body I am aware of, after he noted this is both well cut AND huge on carat.
He said EGL would give it a D/VS2 and I thought, well GIA that may be a G/SI2 which is still cool for me considering the cut was excellent and the carat was a whopping 2.10.
He said for 7.7k I can have the stone, with a platinum band. It definitely feels too good to be true, so alarm bells were ringing.
He convinced me I was going to miss out on an excellent stone, noting it had been clarity enhanced therefore cheaper.
I didn't know too much about this process and he ensured me there were no downsides other than re-sale value, so I thought ok and handed a small deposit of 300 on the basis he gets me an EGL certificate.
I felt immediately like things were fishy, but I thought if he's so confident maybe it's worth having a look.
He's come back to me with the certificate, and honestly now appears to be TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.
We're talking D colour SI1 (Clarity Enhanced) with an Excellent Ideal shape, Excellent Polish and Symmetry @ 2.10ct Princess. For circa 6.7k just the stone.
Now where this gets interesting....
He showed me the certificate, which looked like a legit EGL cert, except for one detail.
IT told me to go to www.egl-lab.com to check the report.
I did, went to EGL151620706 and got the same report my dealer showed me.
Except this www.egl-lab.com seemed like the dodgiest website ever. It also calls a URL wgi-global.com when performing a lookup on the certificate, so it's clearly NOT EGL.
Running a who.is on the site shows it's registered in Auckland, since late 2015 - very very fishy indeed.
Now what do I do - unless someone can confirm this is legit I know I do not want to be anywhere near that stone.
Can I come back at the dealer and say this is bulls**** and to give me back my 300?
Any help would be greatly appreciated, I went a little to deep for my own good and am now going to run back to a local, reputable GIA certified seller
Thanks all!