Conversation with a Shane Company employee

[erindy]

I recently had a conversation with an online helper from the Shane Company that you all might find interesting.

me: could you tell me more about your in house grading system?
Dustin: I know that neither of those diamonds will have a grading lab cert. Our cert''d diamonds will be over half a carat in weight.
Dustin: Our in house grading system is proprietary to the Shane Company/
Dustin: It''s a rated system, similar to how AGS grades there cut. AGS uses a scale of 1 -10
Dustin: *their cut
Dustin: Because there is no standard to do so, companies will use their own method to grade.
Dustin: What one company will call an "Ideal" most likely is not what another company considers "ideal"
ME: how do you assign those numbers. do you have a range of percentages that equal a 1, etc.
Dustin: Cut grades are based on a number of dimensions. Table size, crown angle, girdle thickness, pavilion depth, culet size, symmetry, etc.
ME: so what are the maximum and minimum table sizes, crown angles, girdle thickness, pavilion depth, culet size symmetry, etc for a #2 class from you guys
Dustin: I do not have that information. That is all done by our diamond graders.
ME: is there any way that I could get that information.
Dustin: No, I''m sorry I would not have that information for you.
ME: You couldn''t get it from your home office, or from the graders.
ME: I could wait for an email.
Dustin: No, it''s a proprietary system. I can not give out that information.
ME: Thank you, good bye.
Dustin: Was there any other questions I could answer for you?


Does this seem normal for you guys? Do most companies keep their grading system confedential?

 

[valeria101]

Some do, some not.

Those left out in the open must be widely accepted comparison from buyers and stand criticism from peers ... just like any bit of public information. This doesn't sound easy at all.

Just my 0.2

 

[recran]

Whoa. That''s BIZARRE to me. I wouldn''t buy from ''em.

 

[Jelly]

It seems if they had good numbers, they''d want to show them off to the educated buyer. With keeping them a secret, it seems like they have something to hide. Interesting conversation, thanks for sharing!

 

[diamondsbylauren]

There's really not a lot of major sellers that have specific grades for cut which are meaningful to those in the business- mainly because the companies that subscribe to "cut grading" are usually using AGS as a benchmark.

This sounds more like a salesman doing his thing- bluffing around substantive answers he can't provide.
There's a lot of pressure to sell- a consumer that has some knowledge is really nightmare for such a seller

 

[valeria101]

Date: 11/15/2005 7:43:49 PM
Author: diamondsbylauren


This sounds more like a salesman doing his thing- bluffing around substantive answers he can't provide.

Eringdy, you can always find a salesman ready to swamp your questions with cut technicals... As David says, there's allot of pressure to sell, and that's mostly what you will hear when asking about merchandise anywhere, sure enough...