Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Fully bonded diamond:

Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
T

tinhtu

Rough_Rock
Joined
Nov 6, 2005
Messages
10
Do bonded jewelers really exist as I get the advice as follows?

This is what you get when you buy a bonded diamond:

1. All bonded diamonds come with a lifetime breakage policy. You bust the stone; the jeweler gives you a new one. (One bust per customer) This is a wonderful policy. Since treated stones tend to be brittle. No jeweler would give you this guarantee unless your diamond is 100% natural.


2. And you''re going to love this: all bonded stones come with a lifetime buy back policy. Translation, for the life of the diamond, you can take it back to the jewelers and get 100% of your money back on the diamond!! (Mountings and sales tax not included) How wonderful is this! If you''re not 100% satisfied for the life of your purchase you get your money back. Now you might ask, "How can a jeweler afford to do this?" How can he not? Great diamonds are in demand, very liquid and easy to resell. Any jeweler worth his salt will be glad to buy back a good diamond. If a jeweler doesn''t want to buy back your diamond, then there was probably something wrong with it in the first place.


3. All bonded diamonds come with an unconditional lifetime exchange policy. This is great! If your fiancee ever gets bored with her shape, your jeweler will allow even exchanges. (You have to pay for resetting fees.)


4. Bonded diamonds come with a lifetime trade-in policy with a fixed appreciation rate to keep up with inflation.


5. Bonded diamonds come with a market crash protection policy. If the diamond market ever crashes and your diamond depreciates, the jeweler will refund the difference between what you paid from the new market value.


6. All bonded stones are guaranteed to be natural and untreated.


Final Comments: If you can find a bonded jeweler, they are the way to go. Dishonest jewelers thrive knowing that it''s possible to take a bad diamond and make it look good. But looking good and staying looking good are two different things. That diamond needs to pop as much as the day you bought it as it will on your 25th wedding anniversary. With a bonded diamond, if the diamond doesn''t always meet your expectations or surpass it, you get your money back.


 
There is only 1 person who qualifies, and he has a criminal record.
Do a search here and on google and you will find that he is quite a warped character
 
Date: 11/9/2005 5:25:52 AM
Author: Garry H (Cut Nut)
There is only 1 person who qualifies, and he has a criminal record.
Do a search here and on google and you will find that he is quite a warped character
Click to expand...
Also I will quote a previous poster who said the only warp you need is warp speed to run away as fast as you can
emotion-18.gif
 
There are many retailers who offer parts or differing versions of "bonded diamonds". As far as I know, only one jeweler has the complete system, so it is marketing and not typical of the general retail industry.

Just consider that you probably will pay more for greater security when you make a diamond purchase. If everything is 100% guaranteed forever, there has to be a cost, right? There is no free lunch or a free diamond. No one can predict the inflation or increase in diamond value. What if they go down in value? No one is in control of these markets.

Just learn and become more sophisticated as a buyer. Don''t believe everything you hear or read. Shop well and you will always have a good deal. Paying too much up front, means you''ll never have a good deal..... It is rather simple.
 
The return policy you describe is extremely unusual. Any jeweler that offers it is offering something with quite a bit of added value. Since nothings for nothing, there must be an added cost involved.

As a consumer, one would need to weigh the price against the guaranty and decide whether it''s worth it. For anybody who thinks that they may want to upgrade their diamond some day, such a guaranty would be extremely valuable, and worth a considerable premium.
 
Dave- Knock Knock
Stan- who''s there?
Dave- Stan, IT''S A FREAKIN JOKE......

Stan is so serious- that''s why we love him!!!!
 
Dave

It''s actually not a joke. Several of the previous posters have indicated that they know of a vendor that offers such "bonded" diamonds, and have gone so far as to question the integrity of that vendor. My post was an attempt to introduce more rational and civil discourse.

It''s hard to understand how offering a better return policy than your competitors makes one dishonest. As long as the guaranty is honored, it is a significant value to the consumer.

Does anybody out there know of any instances in which this vendor has failed to honor his "bonding" guaranty. If so, please say so. If not, please say that too.

I have always enjoyed this forum when its message is a positive one. When discussions are initiated for the transparent purpose of smearing a competitor, I think that the forum is being misused.
 
I"m with Stan, this is a valid question and it comes up regularly.

As mentioned above, there is exactly one dealer. This is sort of like observing that there is only one ‘ultimate driving machine’. This is not a disparagement of BMW's or anyone elses fine products, just an observation of their advertising. 'Fully Bonded Diamonds' is a decent offer but it’s not nearly as fantastic as their advertising suggests. Make no bones about it, Fred's books are advertising. Since this subject comes up and since the 'How to buy a diamond' book that text in the original question is extracted from actually sells pretty well, let's look at a few of the highlights of bonded diamonds....

For starters, notice that in their terms and conditions that there is a 2% recurring annual fee to keep your bond active. Not that this is all that surprising or even unusual, since bonding is identical to insurance and it’s appropriate that a fee be involved but they do seem to imply in their marketing that this is all a free, or at least prepaid, service. Their bond covers:


Return privileges for life. This is a pretty cool offer. Who's life? Remember that this sort of deal will only last as long as the store making the offer. That's ok but remember that there is no underwriter. I know several dealers who offer this and I’m surprised there aren’t more. Customers love it. Costco comes to mind as a big dealer who makes this offer. A customer return outside of say 5-10 years clearly benefits the dealer anyway since they are buying into inventory at obsolete prices and a return in less than that is effectively the same as you lending them money at zero percent interest as long as they are selling you diamonds that they are willing to take back into inventory. If they get a rush of returns and they don’t have enough cash on hand to cover them, they can dump some of them back on their suppliers and, perhaps, take a small loss (there are some wholesalers who offer this program to the dealers so really all that is being given up in the case of a return is their original markup. It’s still a pretty good offer but I’m not sure I would suggest paying very much extra for it. It doesn’t seem like it would justify the higher prices and the 2% but it depends how much they like this sort of program. There is a restocking fee by the way.

Breakage guarantee. Yawn. Assuming you plan on buying a standard insurance policy to cover your other risks, like loss and theft, this is going to be better covered under your other policy anyway because of the restriction of only one replacement per client. As with the above, it’s a nice offer but I wouldn’t recommend that you put a very high value on it.

Guaranteed Quality. All stones sold by the store meet the stores quality requirements. Whoopie. Every store does this. Some have more exacting standards than others. The claim that all diamonds sold by others are deficient is clearly false. Same thing with the guarantee of natural origin. If they are going to claim that their standards are better, look at the standards and decide if you agree. There's no calories either.


Trade up. This is another pretty interesting offer. Most jewelers offer some version of this without the need for that nasty recurring fee but DCI does seem to have a pretty good program. As I understand it, you can trade in any undamaged stone for a new one as long as you pay the restocking fee, the fees to pull repair and reset, etc. for as long as you continue to pay the 2%. It’s not clear to me if you can have an outside jeweler do all that work or if you have to pay them whatever they want for that. That might be fun if it turns out that what you want is something they have for sale. They also allow you to ‘trade down’ which is pretty unusual for these programs and can occasionally be handy. For the right people, this might be worth some extra money but there is something a little odd about paying extra to be able to trade down and it’s worth considering how much extra you’re willing to pay to get this. The trade in occurs at what they call ‘market value’ but I’ve never been able to figure out what they mean by that. I kind of doubt that it is the same as their then current selling prices but, if it is, that’s a pretty slick deal. Most trade in programs are based on your actual selling price so this might be an interesting improvement on the program that most of them have.


Market Crash Insurance. I can't figure out what this is, what would trigger a valid claim or how they would process that claim if you had one. Is it a crash if you find similar stones for less elsewhere at a later date? Somehow I doubt it. If the diamond market truly crashes and people are using diamonds to pave their driveways, you can bet that the store, and a whole bunch of other stores, will be history and this guarantee is going to mean bupkis. Other than that scenerio, what's being insured against?

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver
 
Hi Neil,

I think your analysis represents the kind of thoughtful discussion we should be having here. Thank you for providing it.
 
Everything has a cost and a angle I know this. But, I haven''t a clue who is offering this but if someone would give me a link I would love to see it

My biggest pet peeve when I read on any of these "lifetime" guarantees is the meaning of lifetime! A business goes under and you can throw your lifetime privileges out the window. Very poor marketing tool I think.
 
My apologies- I did not realize the scope of the conversation.
 
Date: 11/9/2005 3:33:49 PM
Author: denverappraiser


I''m with Stan, this is a valid question and it comes up regularly.

As mentioned above, there is exactly one dealer. This is sort of like observing that there is only one ‘ultimate driving machine’. This is not a disparagement of BMW''s or anyone elses fine products, just an observation of their advertising. ''Fully Bonded Diamonds'' is a decent offer but it’s not nearly as fantastic as their advertising suggests. Make no bones about it, Fred''s books are advertising. Since this subject comes up and since the ''How to buy a diamond'' book that text in the original question is extracted from actually sells pretty well, let''s look at a few of the highlights of bonded diamonds....


For starters, notice that in their terms and conditions that there is a 2% recurring annual fee to keep your bond active. Not that this is all that surprising or even unusual, since bonding is identical to insurance and it’s appropriate that a fee be involved but they do seem to imply in their marketing that this is all a free, or at least prepaid, service. Their bond covers:




Return privileges for life. This is a pretty cool offer. Who''s life? Remember that this sort of deal will only last as long as the store making the offer. That''s ok but remember that there is no underwriter. I know several dealers who offer this and I’m surprised there aren’t more. Customers love it. Costco comes to mind as a big dealer who makes this offer. A customer return outside of say 5-10 years clearly benefits the dealer anyway since they are buying into inventory at obsolete prices and a return in less than that is effectively the same as you lending them money at zero percent interest as long as they are selling you diamonds that they are willing to take back into inventory. If they get a rush of returns and they don’t have enough cash on hand to cover them, they can dump some of them back on their suppliers and, perhaps, take a small loss (there are some wholesalers who offer this program to the dealers so really all that is being given up in the case of a return is their original markup. It’s still a pretty good offer but I’m not sure I would suggest paying very much extra for it. It doesn’t seem like it would justify the higher prices and the 2% but it depends how much they like this sort of program. There is a restocking fee by the way.

Breakage guarantee. Yawn. Assuming you plan on buying a standard insurance policy to cover your other risks, like loss and theft, this is going to be better covered under your other policy anyway because of the restriction of only one replacement per client. As with the above, it’s a nice offer but I wouldn’t recommend that you put a very high value on it.


Guaranteed Quality. All stones sold by the store meet the stores quality requirements. Whoopie. Every store does this. Some have more exacting standards than others. The claim that all diamonds sold by others are deficient is clearly false. Same thing with the guarantee of natural origin. If they are going to claim that their standards are better, look at the standards and decide if you agree. There''s no calories either.




Trade up. This is another pretty interesting offer. Most jewelers offer some version of this without the need for that nasty recurring fee but DCI does seem to have a pretty good program. As I understand it, you can trade in any undamaged stone for a new one as long as you pay the restocking fee, the fees to pull repair and reset, etc. for as long as you continue to pay the 2%. It’s not clear to me if you can have an outside jeweler do all that work or if you have to pay them whatever they want for that. That might be fun if it turns out that what you want is something they have for sale. They also allow you to ‘trade down’ which is pretty unusual for these programs and can occasionally be handy. For the right people, this might be worth some extra money but there is something a little odd about paying extra to be able to trade down and it’s worth considering how much extra you’re willing to pay to get this. The trade in occurs at what they call ‘market value’ but I’ve never been able to figure out what they mean by that. I kind of doubt that it is the same as their then current selling prices but, if it is, that’s a pretty slick deal. Most trade in programs are based on your actual selling price so this might be an interesting improvement on the program that most of them have.




Market Crash Insurance. I can''t figure out what this is, what would trigger a valid claim or how they would process that claim if you had one. Is it a crash if you find similar stones for less elsewhere at a later date? Somehow I doubt it. If the diamond market truly crashes and people are using diamonds to pave their driveways, you can bet that the store, and a whole bunch of other stores, will be history and this guarantee is going to mean bupkis. Other than that scenerio, what''s being insured against?

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ISA NAJA
Professional Appraisals in Denver
Click to expand...
Correct me if I''m wrong, but I seem to recall some conditional fine print that requires the diamond to be checked by them every six months to keep the "bonded" guarantees in place. Perhaps somebody can confirm this.
 
Radiantman this discussion wasn''t about smearing a competitor, my apologies if it came across that way to you. Please run a search on the person in question, you will find lots of information and opinions, however you may not agree with them
2.gif
My concern, for what it''s worth as a consumer, is that this person keeps referring to warped diamonds, that every diamond is warped apart from a select few and therefore is worth diddly a short time after purchase. Also that these diamonds are very prone to chipping and cracking, so the poor purchaser is terrified that not only have they lost their money, but they are wearing a ticking timebomb on their finger which will break at any moment if they have bought it from anywhere else. It is my opinion that these forums need to point out just plain bad or untrue information, regardless of the source - it is a consumer''s forum and people need as much information as they can get, the good and the bad before making their choice. Personally I don''t think a good vendor needs to use scare tactics to sell his wares, there are too many great vendors out there who work very hard to maintain their good name to fall for this IMO.
 
Loreleli is correct.

Do some searches on google and include things like ''jail cell'' ''convicted felon'' along with local searches here on the forum for enough true tales to shock your pants off.
And this guy makes presentations to the trade at fairs and shows.
And you''all do not know about him?????

We have had many tales of business practices that he and his staff have practiced, along with scans of the most shocking diamonds that he has sold to unsuspecting people who he has convinced with his stories of warped diamonds that only exist because Sarin when used with USA programs measures crown height + girdle at valley + pavilon depth = total depth minus 1.75%.

He uses this to scare people off competitors diamonds, when in fact 1.75% is the average difference between the valley and the mains girdle thickness.
 
Radiantman, point taken & post busted
34.gif
 
Stan:

One of the facts that makes me very suspicious in this case is that this is not even bonding from a legal perspective. In constrution and related industries, or for sales of certain items (principally to goverments) it is not uncommon for a vendor to have to post bonding as part of the conditions to do the job or make the sale. A bond is a guarantee by a 3rd party that they will pay to make good on the conditions of the contract if the original vendor cannot complete the job or is not arround in the future to honor claims on the quality or warranty. The cost of the bond is included in the price that the customer pays. It does not happen much, but I have been personally involved in one job where the vendor could not meet their agreed upon contract - and the bonding company then stepped in, took over the work, and brought in another contractor to finish the work. I hear of similar cases every year or so (most recently the failure of a highway contractor delayed the reconstruction of HWY 12 in Wisconsin, and the bonding company stepped in and hired another contractor to finsih the job). I recall an example where the bonding company endid up picking up something like a 20 years warranty & service obligation for a major piece of equipment.

So, "Fully Bonded Diamonds" is not legally "bonded" at all unless they are supplying you with a 3rd party certificate from a company stating that they will make good, or pay off, the claimed actions (from a known and reliable bonding company). Personally, this is fraud from my part: Claiming something that does not exist.

In the end this is nothing more than a form of advertising. We can analyze the pro''s and con''s of the details but in the end the key to it working is the store being their in the future to honor the terms - and their willingness to honor them. Where is the guarantee in that? Given that they are lying about your purchase being "bonded" are you really going to trust that they will honor their claims 5 or 10 years from now?

I would rather put my chips on State Farm, Chub, or other major insurance companies being their than on any one store (or even a chain) being arround in a few years.

The history of "lifetime" guarantees and other return policies for diamonds is that they tend to expire the moment your diamond''s life is over (as eveidenced by a chip or crack). Why would I suspect that this offer is any different.

Perry
 
Unfortunately, my point about using pricescope for the purpose of smearing a competitor, appears to have fallen on some deaf ears, as a few further smears have followed my post. Disagreeing with someone else's opinion as to what specs make the best diamond is not dishonest. That is the case even if the person's opinion is different than the GIA, AGS, Garry Holloway or me.

I believe that my cut standards for radiant cuts are absolutely correct. That doesn't mean that everyone who disagrees with me is a thief.

Obviously the concept of "bonding" was developed for the purpose of selling diamonds. Some vendors compete principally on price. Others compete by offering service. Fred Cuellar apparently competes by offering an appealing return policy. All of these are honorable ways of doing business.

If there are loopholes in Fred Cuellar's return policy, it is fair game to point them out, just like it is legitimate to point out that the lowest price diamond is not always the best deal.

It is not legitimate to use a forum such as this for unseemly name calling.

From some of the posts here, it seems that Fred attempts to sell his diamonds by advising consumers that his are better, and encouraging consumers to rely on his expertise. Is that particularly unusual?

If, in the opinion of anyone here, any particular representation by Fred Cuellar is incorrect, then this forum could provide a valuable service by explaining the claim and opening it up for discussion. I, for one, do not have any idea what a "warped" diamond is, so simply saying that Fred Cuellar is dishonest because he calls other people's diamonds "warped," doesn't add either to my education or that of any consumer seeking wisdom from this forum.
 
RADIANTMAN, if you do a search for warped diamonds you will see the information on Mr Cuellar's theories, as it has been posted before.
 
One article about his legal troubles:

here

Another:

here
 
Date: 11/10/2005 2:27:43 PM
Author: RADIANTMAN
Unfortunately, my point about using pricescope for the purpose of smearing a competitor, appears to have fallen on some deaf ears, as a few further smears have followed my post. Disagreeing with someone else''s opinion as to what specs make the best diamond is not dishonest. That is the case even if the person''s opinion is different than the GIA, AGS, Garry Holloway or me.

I believe that my cut standards for radiant cuts are absolutely correct. That doesn''t mean that everyone who disagrees with me is a thief.

Obviously the concept of ''bonding'' was developed for the purpose of selling diamonds. Some vendors compete principally on price. Others compete by offering service. Fred Cuellar apparently competes by offering an appealing return policy. All of these are honorable ways of doing business.

If there are loopholes in Fred Cuellar''s return policy, it is fair game to point them out, just like it is legitimate to point out that the lowest price diamond is not always the best deal.

It is not legitimate to use a forum such as this for unseemly name calling.

From some of the posts here, it seems that Fred attempts to sell his diamonds by advising consumers that his are better, and encouraging consumers to rely on his expertise. Is that particularly unusual?

If, in the opinion of anyone here, any particular representation by Fred Cuellar is incorrect, then this forum could provide a valuable service by explaining the claim and opening it up for discussion. I, for one, do not have any idea what a ''warped'' diamond is, so simply saying that Fred Cuellar is dishonest because he calls other people''s diamonds ''warped,'' doesn''t add either to my education or that of any consumer seeking wisdom from this forum.
Click to expand...
Stan look up some of the consumers stories.
There is one example of one of the worst ever round diamonds conceivable offered as a superior alternative - it would be great if someone could find the thread???
The girdle on the Sarin printout had a wave as big as the Boxing Day Tsunami.

Remeber I am not a competing vendor Stan.
It is not about sour grapes - this is about consumer advocacy and protection.
 
Date: 11/9/2005 3:29:21 PM
Author: RADIANTMAN
Dave


It''s actually not a joke. Several of the previous posters have indicated that they know of a vendor that offers such ''bonded'' diamonds, and have gone so far as to question the integrity of that vendor. My post was an attempt to introduce more rational and civil discourse.


It''s hard to understand how offering a better return policy than your competitors makes one dishonest. As long as the guaranty is honored, it is a significant value to the consumer.


Does anybody out there know of any instances in which this vendor has failed to honor his ''bonding'' guaranty. If so, please say so. If not, please say that too.


I have always enjoyed this forum when its message is a positive one. When discussions are initiated for the transparent purpose of smearing a competitor, I think that the forum is being misused.
Click to expand...


Stan,

They are talking about Fred Cuellar who wrote a book on how to buy a diamond that was a very thinly disguised effort to tell every one who read the book that he is the only honest jeweler/diamond vendor on the planet. He gets massive PR and TV time and he does have a criminal record for defrauding investors in his diamond business. It is little wonder why many people intensely dislike him.

If someone contacts him with questions about a stone that he is not selling it is always a badly warped stone not worthy of consideration. ALWAYS. But! He will always "just happen" to have one in the appropriate size, color and clarity that is acceptable.

He has earned his reputation one dirty trick at a time, you can not expect the jewelers he has hurt not to voice their opinions. He makes it sound as if any jeweler not bonded is somehow dishonest, but there is no bonding program or licensing agency to grant bonded status to jewelers. Who is trying to smear? I think it may be a two way street.

Wink
 
As usual, miss a few hours and enter into a conversation and your point will have been made, usually better than you made it.

I see I should have read further as many provided the same information I have.

Wink
 
Date: 11/11/2005 1:55:28 AM
Author: Wink



If someone contacts him with questions about a stone that he is not selling it is always a badly warped stone not worthy of consideration. ALWAYS. But! He will always ''just happen'' to have one in the appropriate size, color and clarity that is acceptable.
Click to expand...

One thing about FC shop is FAST e-mail response. This makes it very easy to check the statement above...
14.gif


Perhaps this is valid business practice, but the very thought is not a pleasant one, not in the very least.
 
All right, I give up. My posts have not been intended as a defense of Fred Cuellar - though I believe that he is as entitled to adopt and promote his own standards of cut as anyone - it's just a form of branding. The point I have been trying to make is that substantive arguments are more useful than personal ones. Whatever skeletons Fred Cuellar may have in his background have nothing to do with whether his return policy is a good deal (assuming he honors it), or whether his opinions about cut are consistent with the mainstream trade, and dissing the other guy's diamond is hardly an unusual practice in our trade.

Garry - in one of your posts, you describe a specific claim that Fred makes that you feel is wrong, and you explain why. That is the kind of discussion which I feel is valuable. It's much more pursuasive than calling him names. If the information he presents in his book is wrong, it can and should be refuted in a discussion focused on the merits, not by way of personal attack (even if the attack is based on public record).

Wink - I understand the urge to respond tit-for-tat to someone who you feel uses "dirty tricks" to further his business. I'm just suggesting that the response should be based on substance, not inuendo. Since it seems clear that all of you feel that there is plenty of substance to discuss, why is the inuendo necessary?

Finally, my original point was that the opening post seemed to me to be a transparent attempt to elicit anti Fred Cuellar responses. If it was actually posted by a consumer curious about "bonded diamonds" then I am wrong and I apologize. If the post was a plant for the purpose of answering a question that had not been asked, then it is, in my opinion, a misuse of this forum.

With that - let's all move on to discussing more positive things. As David (diamonds by Lauren) correctly says, I'm getting much too serious. From now on I'll restrict my pompous lectures on civility to my children and limit my posts here to providing sagely wisdom about radiant cuts.
 
Stan, I agree with you. At first, I don''t understand why some posters are so concerned with disparaging DCI and Fred Cuellar. But the only conclusion I can come to is that he hurts their business and want to "fight back". And then I think the ones who fight the hardest may be the ones that may have had the most to lose as more customers read his books and follow his advice. Maybe some disagree with his cut recommendations or think they are too stringent. Maybe some think that his "bonded" diamonds are a joke, but I certainly don''t see others offering the level of customer protection that he does with his "bonded" return policy.

I am biased, but only biased from my positive experiences dealing with Fred and DCI.

Here''s my experience with DCI and Fred: I had a good friend purchase a diamond from Fred and was very happy, so when I was in the market, I read his book and then met with Fred personally in Houston. Fred''s an extremely nice guy and took a lot of time answering my questions about what I was looking for and showing me an array of diamonds. I eventually put down a deposit for him to search for a stone with my specifications. As fate would have it, my situation changed after a few months and I no longer was in the market. I called Fred, told him my situation, and his response was "Don''t worry ... I''ll refund your deposit ..." and he did.

A year or two later, when I was looking for an engagement ring for my fiance, I again called Fred. He found the perfect stone and made a beautiful custom setting all for a great price. My experience with the cut of this stone is that it is THE most brilliant diamond I have seen. I love going to look at diamonds with my wife and revelling in the sight of how much more brilliant her''s is. His cut was AMAZING. As for the "bonding" policy, I don''t have to pay 2% per year as stated above (maybe that''s a new policy), I just have Fred check it out once a year. It''s nice to know that my wife can trade up or down and get the full market price of her diamond ... INCLUDING APPRECIATION.

We recently had DCI upgrade my wife''s setting and had a wonderful experience with them again.

So, my years of experience with DCI have been positive ... and, of course, that''s not to say that some of the jewelers posting here aren''t ... I''m sure that most are great. But it makes me wonder when someone throws out baseless attacks against someone who''s only advice is to ask the jewelers the right questions and make sure you get all of the information before buying.

And please ... don''t throw out the old story of Fred''s investment deal gone bad in 98. At least read the entire article for his side of the story, and know that he won his case on appeal.
 

A very interesting thread.


I’m a simple consumer and presently deeply involved with the purchase of a diamond and setting.


I have absolutely no links with any dealer, jeweler or supplier of any kind, other than were my somewhat educated decisions have taken me so far.


I bought a copy of Fred’s book back in November.


He scared me.


I was not comfortable with buying at a local B&M store but Fred scared me regarding buying online.


I felt that I wanted to buy the stone separately from the setting and Fred scared me with his reference to “torquing” and diamond switching etc.


Fred’s book spends far too much time noting the negative side of the industry and relives the nightmares of many in times gone buy.


As a consumer, I want to be enlightened to the dangers and pitfalls, but I still wish to enjoy the experience of making this once-in-a-lifetime purchase. For me, Fred’s book turned my excitement into horror, at least until I discovered other avenues of information.


For me, Joe Blow, these forums are ideal. I get to read other points-of-view - some pc, some not so pc- and draw my OWN conclusions.


The world is full of people who shoot from the hip and others who wish to maintain decorum, even through the most heated of situations. This is what makes the word go around and I want this variety and colour reflected in any given discussion.


I also note from Fred’s book that the price tables seem rather inflated. Now if I put this together with all the horror stories; the dangers of dealing with all the cowboy jewelers and diamond dealers out there, the fact that I can’t seem to locate any other bonded dealers and noting that he provides plenty of contact information throughout, then to me, the book simply says, “go to Fred”.


As a consumer residing in Asia, who had to pay a fair amount for this book, I do not feel it very ethical to be sold marketing material, especially when under the false impression that I was to be reading independent and impartial consumer advice.


My 2 cents.





 
mythom, this is quite an old thread, I am glad you had such a good experience with Fred Cuellar, however if you start reading back for a while through many old threads you will see why he elicits controversy here as with much of his information is based upon his warped diamonds theory which makes no sense - do a search and you will find his mathematics and theorys. If you stick around here long enough, you will see that this is a tightly run forum and " baseless attacks" as you put it aren''t permitted, opinionated discussion is allowed and any vendor is fair game for good and bad.
 
Date: 1/29/2006 7:23:15 PM
Author: mthom
Stan, I agree with you. At first, I don''t understand why some posters are so concerned with disparaging DCI and Fred Cuellar. But the only conclusion I can come to is that he hurts their business and want to ''fight back''. And then I think the ones who fight the hardest may be the ones that may have had the most to lose as more customers read his books and follow his advice. Maybe some disagree with his cut recommendations or think they are too stringent. Maybe some think that his ''bonded'' diamonds are a joke, but I certainly don''t see others offering the level of customer protection that he does with his ''bonded'' return policy.

I am biased, but only biased from my positive experiences dealing with Fred and DCI.

Here''s my experience with DCI and Fred: I had a good friend purchase a diamond from Fred and was very happy, so when I was in the market, I read his book and then met with Fred personally in Houston. Fred''s an extremely nice guy and took a lot of time answering my questions about what I was looking for and showing me an array of diamonds. I eventually put down a deposit for him to search for a stone with my specifications. As fate would have it, my situation changed after a few months and I no longer was in the market. I called Fred, told him my situation, and his response was ''Don''t worry ... I''ll refund your deposit ...'' and he did.

A year or two later, when I was looking for an engagement ring for my fiance, I again called Fred. He found the perfect stone and made a beautiful custom setting all for a great price. My experience with the cut of this stone is that it is THE most brilliant diamond I have seen. I love going to look at diamonds with my wife and revelling in the sight of how much more brilliant her''s is. His cut was AMAZING. As for the ''bonding'' policy, I don''t have to pay 2% per year as stated above (maybe that''s a new policy), I just have Fred check it out once a year. It''s nice to know that my wife can trade up or down and get the full market price of her diamond ... INCLUDING APPRECIATION.

We recently had DCI upgrade my wife''s setting and had a wonderful experience with them again.

So, my years of experience with DCI have been positive ... and, of course, that''s not to say that some of the jewelers posting here aren''t ... I''m sure that most are great. But it makes me wonder when someone throws out baseless attacks against someone who''s only advice is to ask the jewelers the right questions and make sure you get all of the information before buying.

And please ... don''t throw out the old story of Fred''s investment deal gone bad in 98. At least read the entire article for his side of the story, and know that he won his case on appeal.
Click to expand...
Michael,

You put down a deposit for FC to locate a diamond for you? How much of a deposit does FC require to perform a diamond search? Is this part of the "bonded" process?

I guess the important thing is that you found a diamond that pleases you and your fiancee''. Would you mind posting the stone''s specs (measurements, angles, etc.)?

Regards,
Bill
 
Status
Not open for further replies. Please create a new topic or request for this thread to be opened.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP
Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top