www.thaigem.com

[LaurenThePartier]

I just did a search on the forum for a vendor review on Thai Gem. I wasn''t too keen on the findings and was just wondering if they might just be hit or miss on their larger stones - or if it''s all of their stones.

I just purchased 2 small lots of baguette sapphires, mainly to replace a 3.5mm x 2mm sapphire that had fallen out of my bar set band. I also ordered a small lot of white sapphires, and found a hexagon shaped created white sapphire - just to play with.

For those that have bought natural stones from them, was it worth it? I figured my total investment, including shipping to be only $22.00, and regardless of the way the stones look, I have a design in mind that will be just fantastic! I just want to know if I should stop buying now - because I''m getting addicted.

 

[innerkitten]

have you received the stones yet?

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Not yet. I'm waiting to buy the last stone before I have them sent. I'm just hoping I'm not wasting cash on these stones.

 

[DiamondExpert]

"I just did a search on the forum for a vendor review on Thai Gem. I wasn't too keen on the findings..."

You may have answered your own question.

 

[Cave Keeper]

My only experiences with Thaigem.com, apart from ogling their fantastic range of stones available, plus playing with their ring-setting software, and consulting their wonderful library of stone knowledge, was failure to get PayPal to pay. Fortunately, Thaigem.com has this wonderful policy of letting a surfer's purchase expire automatically after 7 days, so I assume I was left without liability for not going through with the purchase by having to remit the amount payable through alternative means, rain or whirlwind, storm or flood.

There is only one thing I'm not too happy with, and Thaigem.com is not the only culprit that does this, and that is those vendors who want buyers to pay with PayPal do not inform buyers what their PayPal a/c email address is so that they can log into PayPal themselves to pay for their purchases, which is PayPal's recommended (and, perhaps, required) policy. Instead, they link the buyer directly to the PayPal site immediately after the buyer has confirmed his or her purchase and shipping details. This is contrary to PayPal's policy and the buyer cannot be sure if he was actually sent to the real PayPal site and not logging on with his PayPal password on a masqueraded "PayPal" site.

The only solution, apart from refusing to buy from such sites, is to re-visit the PayPal site immediately after the payment instruction has been made to change your PayPal password.

 

[spinel]

I have heard this is some sort of cash raising & running organization. You send them money and receive something which doesnt match what you wanted. So you engage into a claiming process which could last for months. During that time they make money with your cash (and with cash of thousands other buyers). Be aware and good luck! Spinel

 

[valeria101]

Some experience, but not much: I did return my only order from them (a strand of beads around 1k, a while ago, in 2002).

I think there is a reasonably interesting story about Thaigem being pressured by industry peers to disclose quality and treatments more clearly. This they did. However, it is still hard to navigate their description of items. I would trust this shop for handling professionally a major sale, but the less expensive items look (and sound, in descriptions) surprisingly similar to the top of the same range despite price.

Just my impression, of course.

 

[elepri]

I bought two rather inexpensive stones from them. One was okay, just not well cut. The other one was supposed to be a blue star sapphire advertised as eye-clean. Well, it was neither blue nor did it have a star. Instead, it was chipped and had huge black incusions right on top. I didn't have much trouble returning it but would never buy from them again.

 

[Jewelerwannabe]

I have bought several of their items on ebay and I have had only good luck with them. I recieved one stone that had color zoning but when I looked at the pic on ebay it showed that fact. I like shopping with them because you can see those type of things in the pictures they provide.

 

[yowahking]

Thai gem used to be a fairly small company in Thailand. I stay near their building when I go to Bangkok. Once the internet hit, they were smart enough to realize that all the gems the were sitting on for years found a home fairly quickly. Now they have a very fancy building by comparison and often buy from other dealer's "old" inventory for very little and make pretty good money shipping it to the US. They have not figured out what ACN and QVC has that the real profit is in the shipping. Thaigems stones are not bad when you stay under $100. Over that, there are better places to find quality.
Scott

 

[LaurenThePartier]

Thanks for all of the input everyone!

So, I received my sapphires yesterday and subsequently picked the best match for my sapphire/diamond band. I'm very happy with both sets of blue baguette sapphires, and mostly happy with my lot of 41 2.5 mm white sapphires. There are a few that are obviously not white, but I paid almost nothing for them, so I'm quite happy about that. All in all, the stone I'm most happy with is a 7mm created white hexagonal sapphire. I'm in the process of designing a ring to have made, so as soon as I get some good 3d of it, I'll post it up. The last few renders have been fantastic!