princesslover
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2004
- Messages
- 73
So, finally, here''s my little (read: long!) story of our purchase from Dirt Cheap Diamonds.
My fiancee and I had been looking for my princess cut engagement ring for some months, and wherever we looked, we always got back to DCD. Their prices were unbeatable, and the reviews always positive.
We (I) had settled on one stone, but by the time I got in touch with Josh, it had already been sold. So he suggested 2 other alternatives. One was in their Signature Series, and another was at the vendor''s.
Since we are located in Toronto, we wanted to have the stone shipped to Martin Fuller for examination, since he had been very helpful in my e-mail enquiries, as well as having an impeccable reputation!
But since I couldn''t make up my mind about the two different stones, Josh discussed it with Jim (the owner)and they said it would be hard to have 2 stones sent to an appraiser without me being there.
So they had the one stone sent in to their office so they could run a sarin and take some pictures for me and compare the two visually. I talked extensively with both Josh and Jim (hassled them is probably more like it..
), and after looking at the pictures and numbers on both stones, I asked for Jim''s opinion. He told me they were BOTH beautiful, and even though one was $1000 more he said he couldn''t really see a difference in the brilliance and fire, but the more expensive one was bigger (1.16 as compared to 1 ct), and also a little cleaner SI1 ..I also thought the ideal scope image looked better, plus the colour was a G instead of an H.
I had actually written a post here on Pricescope about my princess ideal scope image, and was so nervous when I read the replies...Many suggested it would be a total "dud" because there was more leakage on one side than the other. Some suggested it was because the pavillion has an excessive bulge on one side, which would make the stone have a dull patch on one quadrant.
I frantically wrote to Dave Atlas (the BEST source of information out there for consumers buying fancy shapes!..
)
He told me to wait till I saw the stone, since a pattern like the one on my ideal scope picture could actually ADD to the scintillation (which I definetely think is the case with mine!!).
So, I asked Jennifer at the office to make sure the setter would send the ring to a FedEx location in Buffalo so it was there on the 18.th of December, since thay was the only time we could pick it up. But since the jeweller was very efficient, he sent it too early, and it was there already on the 9.th. Since FedEx only hold packages for 5 days I was VERY nervous, but Jennifer called them and made sure they would hold it till we got there.
So on the 18.th we made the trip across - except they wouldn''t let me in to the US since I have a Norwegian passport (SEE, Barry (from Superbcert) - I am NORWEGIAN, not TEXAN!
), which is not machine readable...
My then boyfriend had to leave me on a Tim Horton''s on the Canadian side, while he went to pick it up.
After 2 hours he came back and looked to be in a really sour mood...He told me they had returned it back to the sender that very morning! I was sooooo upset I started crying as soon as we came into the car! I was swearing the wonderful people at Dirt Cheap Diamonds up and down (Sorry!!!)...My mother was coming over from Norway for Christmas, and we really wanted to surprise her with the engagement, and now the plans were all falling apart.
My boyfriend told me we would have to stop off in Niagara Falls to get something to eat, and see if the light show would be something to take my mother to see. I wasn''t really in the mood, but thought it best he didn''t drive home without any food...
After dinner, we went out to the falls, and he looked at me and said "Should I put you out of your agony?"
Then he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!
I was all tears, and full of relief!
Now, to the ring!
The stone sparkles like CRAZY!!! I went into a jewellery store here in Toronto and pretended to be interested in an upgrade - to compare the stones they had...The girl in the store told me to forget about the upgrade - she had a 1.5ct princess cut, but said it was "only" a good cut, and was not nearly as beautiful as the one I have! She asked all the sales people in the store to come and look at my wonderful, sparkly princess cut! They were all stunned when I said it was a "G" - they all said it looks completely colourless.
In another store the sales lady grumpily told me it looked very big for a 1.16 - I told her maybe it was because it has better spread than the commercial cuts, since it is not as deep. Then she told me it must be a bad cut then, because it would be too shallow...well, it''s 72.1% - not at all shallow!..
As soon as I got it I took it to Harold Weinstein - known to be a very strict appraiser here in Toronto, and they confirmed the GIA cert, but added that the culet was a tiny bit off center (she said it probably wasn''t enough for GIA to remark, that they may not even have seen it - hence the VG symmetry). Other than that, the cert matched perfectly.
And when I asked her about the high appraisal amount, she told me she never gives inflated appraisals, and that in the Canadian market, if I paid anything less than the appraised amount I had done well. When I told her that DCD had sent an appraisal with the ring that was $1500 LESS than theirs, she was VERY surprised! She said it''s very normal for a vendor to give an inflated appraisal, but that in this case they had been very modest...
I see all rainbow colours in this stone - sometimes I look down and there''s this amazing deep red coming from the pavillion or the crown, and I am just taken aback!
So, all in all - huge thank you''s to Josh, Jim and Jennifer at DCD - I know I was a pest, but we were soooo nervous about buying a diamond on the internet, and we totally shouldn''t have!
Jim - what they say about you is true - you are one of the lastfew HONEST salespeople!
Dave Atlas - you were so generous with your time!! Even wrote me back on a Sunday! You''re a great asset to consumers out here...
Martin Fuller - sorry it wasn''t feasible to have the diamonds sent to you for inspection, but many many thanks for being so kind and helpful!
And thanks to everyone else here on Pricescope for caring! (Barry, you could probably do with some manners, though!)
And here are some pictures of my ring (Phew, finally...eh....):
My fiancee and I had been looking for my princess cut engagement ring for some months, and wherever we looked, we always got back to DCD. Their prices were unbeatable, and the reviews always positive.
We (I) had settled on one stone, but by the time I got in touch with Josh, it had already been sold. So he suggested 2 other alternatives. One was in their Signature Series, and another was at the vendor''s.
Since we are located in Toronto, we wanted to have the stone shipped to Martin Fuller for examination, since he had been very helpful in my e-mail enquiries, as well as having an impeccable reputation!
But since I couldn''t make up my mind about the two different stones, Josh discussed it with Jim (the owner)and they said it would be hard to have 2 stones sent to an appraiser without me being there.
So they had the one stone sent in to their office so they could run a sarin and take some pictures for me and compare the two visually. I talked extensively with both Josh and Jim (hassled them is probably more like it..
I had actually written a post here on Pricescope about my princess ideal scope image, and was so nervous when I read the replies...Many suggested it would be a total "dud" because there was more leakage on one side than the other. Some suggested it was because the pavillion has an excessive bulge on one side, which would make the stone have a dull patch on one quadrant.
I frantically wrote to Dave Atlas (the BEST source of information out there for consumers buying fancy shapes!..
He told me to wait till I saw the stone, since a pattern like the one on my ideal scope picture could actually ADD to the scintillation (which I definetely think is the case with mine!!).
So, I asked Jennifer at the office to make sure the setter would send the ring to a FedEx location in Buffalo so it was there on the 18.th of December, since thay was the only time we could pick it up. But since the jeweller was very efficient, he sent it too early, and it was there already on the 9.th. Since FedEx only hold packages for 5 days I was VERY nervous, but Jennifer called them and made sure they would hold it till we got there.
So on the 18.th we made the trip across - except they wouldn''t let me in to the US since I have a Norwegian passport (SEE, Barry (from Superbcert) - I am NORWEGIAN, not TEXAN!
My then boyfriend had to leave me on a Tim Horton''s on the Canadian side, while he went to pick it up.
After 2 hours he came back and looked to be in a really sour mood...He told me they had returned it back to the sender that very morning! I was sooooo upset I started crying as soon as we came into the car! I was swearing the wonderful people at Dirt Cheap Diamonds up and down (Sorry!!!)...My mother was coming over from Norway for Christmas, and we really wanted to surprise her with the engagement, and now the plans were all falling apart.
My boyfriend told me we would have to stop off in Niagara Falls to get something to eat, and see if the light show would be something to take my mother to see. I wasn''t really in the mood, but thought it best he didn''t drive home without any food...
After dinner, we went out to the falls, and he looked at me and said "Should I put you out of your agony?"
Then he dropped down on one knee and asked me to marry him!!
I was all tears, and full of relief!
Now, to the ring!
The stone sparkles like CRAZY!!! I went into a jewellery store here in Toronto and pretended to be interested in an upgrade - to compare the stones they had...The girl in the store told me to forget about the upgrade - she had a 1.5ct princess cut, but said it was "only" a good cut, and was not nearly as beautiful as the one I have! She asked all the sales people in the store to come and look at my wonderful, sparkly princess cut! They were all stunned when I said it was a "G" - they all said it looks completely colourless.
In another store the sales lady grumpily told me it looked very big for a 1.16 - I told her maybe it was because it has better spread than the commercial cuts, since it is not as deep. Then she told me it must be a bad cut then, because it would be too shallow...well, it''s 72.1% - not at all shallow!..
As soon as I got it I took it to Harold Weinstein - known to be a very strict appraiser here in Toronto, and they confirmed the GIA cert, but added that the culet was a tiny bit off center (she said it probably wasn''t enough for GIA to remark, that they may not even have seen it - hence the VG symmetry). Other than that, the cert matched perfectly.
And when I asked her about the high appraisal amount, she told me she never gives inflated appraisals, and that in the Canadian market, if I paid anything less than the appraised amount I had done well. When I told her that DCD had sent an appraisal with the ring that was $1500 LESS than theirs, she was VERY surprised! She said it''s very normal for a vendor to give an inflated appraisal, but that in this case they had been very modest...
I see all rainbow colours in this stone - sometimes I look down and there''s this amazing deep red coming from the pavillion or the crown, and I am just taken aback!
So, all in all - huge thank you''s to Josh, Jim and Jennifer at DCD - I know I was a pest, but we were soooo nervous about buying a diamond on the internet, and we totally shouldn''t have!
Jim - what they say about you is true - you are one of the lastfew HONEST salespeople!
Dave Atlas - you were so generous with your time!! Even wrote me back on a Sunday! You''re a great asset to consumers out here...
Martin Fuller - sorry it wasn''t feasible to have the diamonds sent to you for inspection, but many many thanks for being so kind and helpful!
And thanks to everyone else here on Pricescope for caring! (Barry, you could probably do with some manners, though!)
And here are some pictures of my ring (Phew, finally...eh....):
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