Buying Moissanite from Tianyu Gems

[akpil_tm]

Hi! I'm a bit new here, but long story short - I wanted to order a ring just like an existing listing on Alibaba, but in 14k rose gold.
I made an inquiry, got the price, everything seems in order, but... how do I actually describe it using the Trade Assurance Order? Do I put a detailed description in the "remarks" field?
I am concerned by the security of this entire transaction - I want to be as protected as it gets, as I'd be ordering jewelry from China for the first time.
Bonus questions - what do I put in the shipment date & trade terms?
Link to the ring, just to make it more relatable.

 

[sd_flp]

Hi! I'm a bit new here, but long story short - I wanted to order a ring just like an existing listing on Alibaba, but in 14k rose gold.
I made an inquiry, got the price, everything seems in order, but... how do I actually describe it using the Trade Assurance Order? Do I put a detailed description in the "remarks" field?
I am concerned by the security of this entire transaction - I want to be as protected as it gets, as I'd be ordering jewelry from China for the first time.
Bonus questions - what do I put in the shipment date & trade terms?
Link to the ring, just to make it more relatable.

I don't know too many people who've used the Trade Assurance Form as it's a bit confusing; I think the Trade Assurance form is fit for actual distributors as opposed to consumers. Most of us either emailed the sales reps directly, contacted the reps through WhatsApp, or used the chat function (which is what I did). A sales rep will then give you an invoice that is like a spreadsheet listing your specifications and a price breakdown.

As far as payment, most of us requested to use Paypal to pay; they will add a small percentage to the total cost, but to me it's worth it as Paypal provides protection to its consumers over Alibaba.

 

[akpil_tm]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, appreciate it a lot!

A sales rep will then give you an invoice that is like a spreadsheet listing your specifications and a price breakdown.

As far as payment, most of us requested to use Paypal to pay; they will add a small percentage to the total cost, but to me it's worth it as Paypal provides protection to its consumers over Alibaba.

Three questions:
1. How do they send you an invoice?
2. If they don't send it through PayPal, how do I hold ground against them in case I don't get the product in time? And can PayPal determine that I have not received the product in time?
3. How do I indicate in the payment that I'm paying for a particular invoice?

I'm sorry if my questions are a bit dumb, but I have never used PayPal. Once again - I appreciate your help greatly, thanks a ton.

 

[sd_flp]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, appreciate it a lot!

Three questions:
1. How do they send you an invoice?
2. If they don't send it through PayPal, how do I hold ground against them in case I don't get the product in time? And can PayPal determine that I have not received the product in time?
3. How do I indicate in the payment that I'm paying for a particular invoice?

I'm sorry if my questions are a bit dumb, but I have never used PayPal. Once again - I appreciate your help greatly, thanks a ton.

I got my invoice through the messaging system; on page 64 of this thread there is a sample of what the invoice looks like. Otherwise, if you communicated through Whatsapp or email, the sales rep will send the invoice through those aforementioned avenues.

If you decide to get a paypal account, they will send you an invoice to pay for the goods through Paypal using the email you have associated with your paypal account. One thing I like about Paypal is that it offers buyer protection in case something goes awry. You can easily file a claim after a certain period if a product was not received or significantly not as described (SNAD). Also, Paypal tends to be buyer friendly and you get a copy of the receipt for the transaction.

Unfortunately I can't help you with payment information outside of paypal as I've used Paypal only. I think there are a couple members who've paid through Alibaba; perhaps they can chime in?

 

[ShinyPink]

Back in December I inquired about a 5 stone band. After I gave Ella my Paypal info so she could invoice me, I never heard anything again. I sent four more emails to her so that I could order and pay, but never received an answer. Finally, yesterday I requested the ring via Alibaba. It's now $100 more, from $400 to $500, plus shipping!!!!!!

 

[sd_flp]

Back in December I inquired about a 5 stone band. After I gave Ella my Paypal info so she could invoice me, I never heard anything again. I sent four more emails to her so that I could order and pay, but never received an answer. Finally, yesterday I requested the ring via Alibaba. It's now $100 more, from $400 to $500, plus shipping!!!!!!

Wow. I would direct message this to the manager and complain. I think that's Vanessa??? That is absolutely unacceptable, especially since you reached out multiple times and received no response.

I know customer service is different across cultures, but that is straight up unfair and not right. They should try and offer you to pay the old price at the very least. Clearly they are not hurting for money since they have kept raising their prices due to their popularity on Reddit.

 

[ShinyPink]

Wow. I would direct message this to the manager and complain. I think that's Vanessa???

I think I will take your suggestion and do this. Thanks!

 

[akpil_tm]

If you decide to get a paypal account, they will send you an invoice to pay for the goods through Paypal using the email you have associated with your paypal account. One thing I like about Paypal is that it offers buyer protection in case something goes awry. You can easily file a claim after a certain period if a product was not received or significantly not as described (SNAD). Also, Paypal tends to be buyer friendly and you get a copy of the receipt for the transaction.

I am assuming I am paying the total sum of the invoice right after I receive it, and only then do they start working on the ring - would that be correct?

 

[sd_flp]

I am assuming I am paying the total sum of the invoice right after I receive it, and only then do they start working on the ring - would that be correct?

Correct!

 

[swaye2010]

Back in December I inquired about a 5 stone band. After I gave Ella my Paypal info so she could invoice me, I never heard anything again. I sent four more emails to her so that I could order and pay, but never received an answer. Finally, yesterday I requested the ring via Alibaba. It's now $100 more, from $400 to $500, plus shipping!!!!!!

I would speak to Emily about this or get a quote from Starsgem as it will probably be much cheaper at this point. Not sure if Vanessa is still there or not since she was on maternity leave at one point. I think they raised their prices quite a bit in the New Year because they have had to hire a lot of new staff to deal with the orders.

 

[swaye2010]

I am assuming I am paying the total sum of the invoice right after I receive it, and only then do they start working on the ring - would that be correct?

Use the chat on Alibaba or email Ella at [email protected]. I would use paypal if this is your first order and as other’s mentioned, they will send an invoice and you get buyer protection. After payment, they will send a CAD to go over before you ok it for production.

To get an accurate quote, please make sure you send them inspiration pictures with different views top/profile/side. You don’t really want a band that is too thin so if you post your pic’s we can give you some suggestions about what to ask for so the quote is accrurate. Also the finger size will help

 

[akpil_tm]

To get an accurate quote, please make sure you send them inspiration pictures with different views top/profile/side. You don’t really want a band that is too thin so if you post your pic’s we can give you some suggestions about what to ask for so the quote is accrurate. Also the finger size will help

I told them I would like the band to be shaped as in an existing listing:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...504.html?spm=a2700.8443308.0.0.20083e5fFkoTWU
What do you think? I provided them with a finger size as well, I got an actual quote.

 

[sd_flp]

I would speak to Emily about this or get a quote from Starsgem as it will probably be much cheaper at this point. Not sure if Vanessa is still there or not since she was on maternity leave at one point. I think they raised their prices quite a bit in the New Year because they have had to hire a lot of new staff to deal with the orders.

You could be right, although I'm not 100% sure how much of this price increase is due to new hires. Starsgem has also hired more staff and their prices did not exponentially increase the way Tianyu's did. Then again, I don't know how much bigger Tianyu is compared to Starsgem and how their profit margins compare with each other.

 

[swaye2010]

You could be right, although I'm not 100% sure how much of this price increase is due to new hires. Starsgem has also hired more staff and their prices did not exponentially increase the way Tianyu's did. Then again, I don't know how much bigger Tianyu is compared to Starsgem and how their profit margins compare with each other.

I think they are just different in the way they run their business. Tianyu is in a building with a lot of other moissanite companies and SG is outside of that area. Both of them are rather reluctant to do custom rings or have ebay/etsy pages with full blown customization. SG mostly sticks to loose stones and Tianyu is selling the cheap silver jewelry on etsy now. They have confidentiality agreements with the companies they represent and will limit how much detail they will give. I am sure it keep evolving and hopefully SG doesn’t jack up the prices too much too or we will be back to just buying loose moissanites again and they will both loose a lot of the extra business.....

 

[akpil_tm]

I think they are just different in the way they run their business. Tianyu is in a building with a lot of other moissanite companies and SG is outside of that area. Both of them are rather reluctant to do custom rings or have ebay/etsy pages with full blown customization. SG mostly sticks to loose stones and Tianyu is selling the cheap silver jewelry on etsy now.

Can you send me a link to the actual Etsy shop you have in mind? How do you know the shop you mean is in fact "theirs"?

 

[bludiva]

Use the chat on Alibaba or email Ella at [email protected]. I would use paypal if this is your first order and as other’s mentioned, they will send an invoice and you get buyer protection. After payment, they will send a CAD to go over before you ok it for production.

To get an accurate quote, please make sure you send them inspiration pictures with different views top/profile/side. You don’t really want a band that is too thin so if you post your pic’s we can give you some suggestions about what to ask for so the quote is accrurate. Also the finger size will help

i tried emailing her yesterday to see how much my quote had gone up and got a "failure notice" is she still there?

 

[swaye2010]

Can you send me a link to the actual Etsy shop you have in mind? How do you know the shop you mean is in fact "theirs"?

Can you send me a link to the actual Etsy shop you have in mind? How do you know the shop you mean is in fact "theirs"?

If you go one page back, @luckyrabbit ordered one from their etsy shop last week just to see the quality and she is a regular customer and poster on this board. Here is the link.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/675787658/tianyu-gems-jewelry-cushion-cut-925?ref=shop_home_active_1

It appeared to me much lower quality moissanite then the ones we are getting cut to order but if you are looking for a cheap travel ring or RHR, it might be worth considering.

 

[swaye2010]

i tried emailing her yesterday to see how much my quote had gone up and got a "failure notice" is she still there?

Did you put a period in jerry.lu or just [email protected]. I haven’t heard about her not being there anymore. If you don’t get a reply, I would use the WhatsApp number on Alibaba just to start the conversation and then switch over to email if that is easier.

 

[bludiva]

Did you put a period in jerry.lu or just [email protected]. I haven’t heard about her not being there anymore. If you don’t get a reply, I would use the WhatsApp number on Alibaba just to start the conversation and then switch over to email if that is easier.

it might be the period, i have to check. i was replying to the last email i got though, weird!

 

[akpil_tm]

Tianyu received my payment. How quickly should I expect to receive the CAD in case I made an order stating that I'd like to replicate an existing ring of theirs, just change the gold color?
I'd guess they should have the CAD for the original ring ready, but maybe I'm missing something.

 

[tonielle]

This is really interesting...



Wonder why Mco would make that comment though? Wouldn’t they want to hide where they’re sourcing their products?

 

[FutureChocolateMLK]

This is really interesting...



Wonder why Mco would make that comment though? Wouldn’t they want to hide where they’re sourcing their products?

I was talking about that same post with another user. Something quite fishy.

 

[swaye2010]

I was talking about that same post with another user. Something quite fishy.

I think we were talking about that back in October. Does seem weird but they may provide their C&C Forever 1 stones that they sell....

 

[tonielle]

I was talking about that same post with another user. Something quite fishy.

It seems like Mco is probably trying out all of the same Chinese vendors as we are! I posted on the “Mona” thread about how both Mco and Mona have videos of the same criss cut emeralds

 

[swaye2010]

It seems like Mco is probably trying out all of the same Chinese vendors as we are! I posted on the “Mona” thread about how both Mco and Mona have videos of the same criss cut emeralds

I have also seen Tianyu talking about their Neo cuts on IG before.

 

[Clemsonfan15]

What price per carat has everyone been paying for "DEF" stones?

 

[sd_flp]

This got me thinking. Do you think MoCo gets their in house moissanite from Tianyu? Obviously not their AGS 000 moissanite, but these ones:

https://www.moissaniteco.com/moissanite_loose_stones.html

I tried looking for that OEC ring on their website but I didn’t see it. Not to mention MoCo’s OEC looks different from Tianyu’s. Forgive my dumbness, but what did MoCo mean when they said that was their ring? Did they just buy a bulk sample of items from Tianyu?

 

[Lucky_Rabbit]

This got me thinking. Do you think MoCo gets their in house moissanite from Tianyu? Obviously not their AGS 000 moissanite, but these ones:

https://www.moissaniteco.com/moissanite_loose_stones.html

I tried looking for that OEC ring on their website but I didn’t see it. Not to mention MoCo’s OEC looks different from Tianyu’s. Forgive my dumbness, but what did MoCo mean when they said that was their ring? Did they just buy a bulk sample of items from Tianyu?

MoCo doesn't make their own settings. Maybe they're trying out Tianyu or somethinig. Plus, MoCo doesn't put real mined diamonds in their settings. They used lab diamonds. It was found out half a year or a year ago on WB and they changed all their descriptions to say lab created. So they could totally be using Chinese companies to make their settings that might not be from Stuller's.

 

[docscully]

I saw that instagram post a few months ago-- I thought maybe MoissaniteCo posted the reply because it looked like a copy of one of their rings? As far as I can tell it's not identical to one they carry, but it's similar. I could be wrong on that. I know that Tianyu has #foreverone as a hashtag often.

 

[sd_flp]

Hmmm...so I made an inquiry about that French cut band that mrsgreeneyes and swaye2010 bought a while back. I have been waffling about an eternity band since Feb and I knew if I wanted one, I’d have to get one custom made since my size isn’t very common. Anyway, I just wanted to know how much the price went up for this band, but to my surprise, I don’t think it went up by too much...? It might also be because my fingers are small (I’m between 3.75 US-4 US).

It was for 14K white gold (no palladium) and I was quoted less than $400 with shipping. I thought it was easily going to be over $450. I’m still going to ask Starsgem for a price comparison.

I guess I’m just confused as to why certain items went up by a lot but not others.

Edit: I do know that this ring is more than what it used to be, but I guess I wasn’t expecting that price.