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Has anyone upgraded their sapphire ring from NSC?

G

goldenpig

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 29, 2013
Messages
3
Few years ago, my husband bought me a sapphire ring. I wanted the natural untreated sapphire so we chose NSC. They seemed reputable. The sapphire was expensive! It was a little over a Karat (1.12) and we paid $3200 for it. When i received the ring I was quite disappointed at how small it actually looked! However NSC were willing to take the sapphire back as long as I come back to them for upgrade. I just sent them the ring and I am in the process of upgrading the stone to a bigger one! Does anyone have any experience with them good or bad?

Thanks!
 
I know of no other stories similar to yours. Do let us know how the whole thing goes.
 
So far I am having a bizarre experience with them... After researching online for NSC reviews, I ended up in this forum for help!
I have been in touch with Livia Brode since beginning of the Dec. 2012 regarding this upgrade... When I checked their website to look at bigger stones, they were marked 20% off for the Holiday promotions! I remember during the conversation with her via online chat, if she can honor the 20% promotional discount if I ended up proceeding with the upgrade after the promotion is over! She promised that she would... Well, today, I get an email from her that she received my sapphire ring which is to be inspected and be traded in for an upgrade. I reminded her of our conversation about her honoring the discount although the promotion time has obviously expired!
She tells me she will give 15% off but not 20%! And I reminded her the reason I took my time was because I was relying on her honoring the 20% discount; she said I was mistaken and incorrect since they never have 20% discount and it has always been 15%! Then she added the chat conversation is listed on our email and it was! I read the line by line and there is no mention of me asking her to honor 20% discount and her promising me that she would honor that! I am not here to argue about 5% discount discrepancy but I felt like I was in a twilight zone! And that chat record does not have any of this but everything else we chat about! But I know that conversation about promotional discount took place during out chat!!! Now, Livia says she will send my ring back to me! I am not sure if I can trust NSC... I thought they were very reputable and stands by what they claim!

Does anyone else have any experience with them? good or bad?
 
Wow! Thanks! I am glad that I did research and ended up in this forum!
My gut was telling me something is not right! I think I was right on the nail!
I am going to get the sapphire ring back from NSC and take the business somewhere else! Also get my stone GIA certified to see if it is really natural and untreated!
 
I am sorry to read of your recent unsatisfactory experience with NSC. Do note that sapphire prices have gone up significantly since the British royal wedding so it might come as a bit of a surprise when you shop around. Also, when it comes to gemstones, I have not heard of vendors accepting trade-ins. Although NSC may not have the greatest customer service and prices, I doubt the stone you purchased is anything but an unheated natural sapphire.
 
If in your chat record there is no mention of the promotion being available to the upgrade then perhaps you had that discussion on the phone? I did not visit NSC website that season so I don't know what the promotion was, but the ones that I can remember were all 15%. I will say that I think it very nice that they were willing to extend the 15% discount to your upgrade. Perhaps Livia is returning your ring because you have given her the impression that you do not wish to proceed, and so as it is your ring she is returning it. If you do not pursue the upgrade then I hope you enjoy the ring you have for many more years. It sounds like you were very happy with it before this.
 
All the emails and promotional emails I have received for them, are for 15% off.

To answer your question, I have been a customer of theirs for 7 years now. I have had nothing but excellent service with them.

I have upgraded two of my Padparadscha sapphire stones, to larger ones. They have been certified, upon my request.


Linda
 
I purchased a loose stone from NSC in the beginning of December and it was 15%. I'd been watching it for a while and have never seen a 20% there.
 
Well, I haven't bought anything from them though I ordered a few of their stones a while ago and returned them. I didn't have any problem at all with them but then again my transaction was a fairly routine one and didn't involve anything like your situation.

It looks like the kerfuffle has prompted you to broaden your search which isn't a bad thing!
 
Hi
I had purchased a sapphire for viewing @ NSC, for viewing, and I returned it for a refund, which I received immediately. I paid cash, and of course received cash back without issue.
Coincidentally, Livia also handled my affairs and I found her to be honorable.
Saying this, I know that exceptions sometimes do occur, and others can have varied experiences.
But in your instance, I do know that NSC did have a 15% sale for the Holidays, and have never seen 20%
Sometimes with numbers flying all over the place, things can get lost in translation, but imho, I would say that the previous Sale you saw was for 15%, and that Livia and NSC extending that discount to you is admirable.
 
I do believe now that Livia Brode fromNSC is correct! I was wrong about the 20%!
I had email exchanges with her and she sent me the promotional post that went out online!
I do apologize!...

Also, they did took my sapphire ring back after the inspection, they are giving me 100% purchased value- 10% restocking fee toward upgrade sapphire!
I think this is more than fair since I had the ring more than four years!
So I have no reason now to take the business else where because they did not do anything wrong! And Livia Brode had confirmed our conversation about honoring their promotional sale discount on a later time; I was not going crazy!

So thank you for all the posts here!
Although I read some horrible experiences from others of NSC, I can not say the same thing thus far they exceeded my expectation!

Let you know how the upgrade ring looks like!

Thank you!
 
Sounds good.
Glad you got it worked out.
Advise to take your time choosing your replacement ;-)
 
Sorry to be the cynic, but its amazing how things resolve themselves when things go public, dontcha think? :roll:
 
Not really. A lot of us have never had a problem with NSC. :bigsmile:

Linda
 
I guess this was resolved by the OP going public, but not because the publicity made a vendor capitulate. Rather, the OP received much counsel the brought her to realize that she was mistaken. That, plus the fact that the vendor was offering an upgrade policy and extending a discount to it to boot is nice to see, especially since, as Chrono noted, upgrades in colored stones is unusual.

On a slightly side note I want to say that I added a link to NSC to the recommended vendors list quite some time ago with an explanation that there ARE some PS members of long standing who have had good experiences with them, and their voices are as valid as other people's. I had also added Robert Genis's site and Dutton as well. Yet they seem to have been edited out by subsequent list updaters. I do not think this is right. It is fine to make such changes if one says one is doing it, and why. Such was not the case. End threadjack.
 
VL: you make some good points. As far as the vendor thread, they should not have been edited out. I think what happens is that subsequent posters to the thread may not realize that they don't have the most up to date list when they copy and paste. Would you be willing to add them back in, or would you like me to?
 
Thanks Minous, I will return them to the list without fanfare. There is another vendor dismayingly missing from there who I have been meaning to add anyway
 
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