How Reputable is Brian Gavin Diamonds?
Hi Danny, I spent most of this past weekend wandering from jewelry store to jewelry store with my GF, trying to determine what setting style she prefers. None of the local stores seem to carry diamonds anywhere near the cut quality offered by BGD, and I happened to mention this to one of the jewelers, who then did a great job of planting a little seed that seems to be growing in the back of my mind, he asked me “How do you know you’ll get the diamond which you ordered? And how do you know they’ll honor their return policy?” Ugh, answers please. – Sleepless in Seattle.
Why most jewelry stores don’t offer return policies:
I’m always amused when the best argument that a traditional brick and mortar jeweler can come up with as a reason not to buy a higher quality diamond than they can offer, at a price which is better than they could offer, is that “you” might not receive the diamond which you ordered, and that you might not get your money back if you don’t like it for some reason… especially since the majority of retail jewelry stores don’t offer any sort of inspection period, or return policy whatsoever.
And based upon the experiences I’ve had while shopping for diamonds here in Houston, just to get a feel for what the diamond public is likely to experience, the majority of retail jewelry stores offer very little in the way of diamond grading education, tutorials, nor do they take the time to truly educate their clients about the characteristics of the diamonds which they might be considering.
On the flip side of the coin, diamond dealers like Brian Gavin offer diamond details pages which provide a clarity photograph of the diamond, a high resolution video, a high resolution copy of the diamond grading report, as well as images of the diamond as seen through the various reflector scopes that we use to grade optical symmetry. Just try to get that type of diamond grading detail from the average jewelry store… the odds are that they’ll simply glaze over and mumble something about Hearts and Arrows patterns being smoke and mirrors, which seems to be an equally popular urban legend among retail jewelry store clerks.
How Brian Gavin assures your complete satisfaction:
It goes without saying that we take the complete satisfaction of our clients very seriously at Brian Gavin Diamonds, and therefore we make every effort to ensure that the order process is as smooth as possible. The truth is that we can say whatever we think sounds good in an attempt to appease your concerns about buying a diamond online, but the reality is that those of us who conduct business on the internet live in a glass house, where every transaction has the potential to be scrutinized by the public if something goes wrong and our client decides to make the issue public.
One of the nice things is that all of our Brian Gavin Signature and Brian Gavin Blue diamonds are inscribed on the girdle edge with our logo and the number from the corresponding diamond grading report; therefore it is extremely easy to confirm that the diamond which you order is the diamond that you receive… it is also one of the ways which we verify the diamond prior to shipping it to you. And if we lacked the integrity to honor our return policy, there would be complaints indicating as much on our iVouch page.
