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[Engagement Ring!]Blue Nile vs. Local Jeweller
saint2e
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hello all,
I've recently been researching an Engagement Ring for my girlfriend, and was drawn to BlueNile.ca to do some research on what cuts, clarity and all that fun stuff mean, and what I can get for the price range I've got set aside.
So I built a ring on there and set out to determine what local jewellers and if they could offer me something similar.
Well, I found a ring at a reputable "local" place called "Spence Diamonds" (in the Toronto area) that was very similar, but more pricey and the diamond is of "lesser quality" based on the grading of Colour and Clarity than the one I had built at BlueNile.ca.
So I've got a deposit down at Spence seeing as how they seem to be the experts in the area, and I've received many good reviews of them, but I want to see what people thought of BlueNile.ca, as it seems like they are cheaper.
My major concern is that they're online and dealing with adjustments or horrible situations like the diamond coming loose/falling off will be more difficult to deal with.
Anyone out there used BlueNile.ca/.com before and what is your take on them?
I've recently been researching an Engagement Ring for my girlfriend, and was drawn to BlueNile.ca to do some research on what cuts, clarity and all that fun stuff mean, and what I can get for the price range I've got set aside.
So I built a ring on there and set out to determine what local jewellers and if they could offer me something similar.
Well, I found a ring at a reputable "local" place called "Spence Diamonds" (in the Toronto area) that was very similar, but more pricey and the diamond is of "lesser quality" based on the grading of Colour and Clarity than the one I had built at BlueNile.ca.
So I've got a deposit down at Spence seeing as how they seem to be the experts in the area, and I've received many good reviews of them, but I want to see what people thought of BlueNile.ca, as it seems like they are cheaper.
My major concern is that they're online and dealing with adjustments or horrible situations like the diamond coming loose/falling off will be more difficult to deal with.
Anyone out there used BlueNile.ca/.com before and what is your take on them?
saint2e on
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They resized my wife's engagement ring free of charge, but we had to mail it back in. I can't remember if they paid for shipping or not when it was resized. As far as getting the prongs tightened or whatever, it's easiest to just go to a local jeweler. I'm not sure what their warranty is as far as things coming loose, but their stuff is top quality and all my experiences with customer service have been great so I don't see how they could be any different than a regular jeweler in that respect.
Edit: pretty sure they have a 30-day return policy, so you can always buy it and get it independently appraised or whatever and see it for yourself without any risk.
There's insurance and delivery confirmation for a reason. Maybe Blue Nile isn't for the irrationally neurotic, but I had no problems receiving, returning, and recieving again my wife's $5,500 engagement ring. If Blue Nile didn't handle it well, they wouldn't have stayed in business very long.
I read this and looked at the prices and stopped looking in local stores. They treat you like crap, try to upsell you and the whole thing is a scam. I got the ring for my fiancee for about 50% of what I'd have paid in a local store. The ring didn't fit totally (I had the right size but it was a little loose) so she took it into a local jeweler and he fixed it up.
She loves it... and I wasn't even able to find any of that style in a store locally. So much less hassle.
Some local stores are great, and many that appear to be chains are really just local stores that give the impression of being big & fancy because they're competing with mall chain stores. They're good for some things, such as custom work, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with shopping online for a better price.
There's also nothing wrong with using the far better price from the online store to try to haggle with the local store.
If you're concerned about loss, get it insured; it's not too expensive.
I'd be surprised if you couldn't negotiate a local B&M jewelry store down to near BlueNile price levels. Jewelry stores are hurting particularly badly (at least they are where I live, and locally our economy and housing market is doing better than the nation as a whole). I'm talking about boutique stores or estate jewelers, not chains.
We bought both wedding rings and her engagement ring from bluenile. Very happy with the quality, so far no resizing needed, so can't comment there.
I'd say BN would be the best choice for buying on-line, and it's really up to you if you want to buy through a local shop or not. Like Hlubocky said, they'd be too worried, but I'd be fine with it since we've got the certificate & everything.
General ring advice:
If you have to pick one, go for quality over size. I can guarantee you and your finance will appreciate and get more compliments from a high quality stone than a big dull one.
In order of importance; Cut, Clairity (VVS1-VVS2), Color (stick with Colouress), Caret. There's more to look at too like the table dimensions, but going high on the C's is a good bet. Regardless of the stone or where you buy it, be sure you get a certificate. GIA is the prefered, at least down south here.
Just to echo MichaelLC about quality over size, cut is what makes the diamond sparkle. Getting a higher quality cut will have the effect of making the diamond look bigger than it really is. Also, a big diamond with a low color/clarity rating will just make the imperfections more noticable.
Push come to shove though, sounds like I'll be using BN. Now I need to pick between two Rings I've narrowed it down to on BN. The hard part commences.
My brother-in-law had them send him 3 loose diamonds around 2ct total when he was shopping for a ring!
Now there's a thought, as well. Propose with two rings, have her choose one, return the other.
Not exactly the most romantic approach, but definitely gets her the ring she wants.
If you want to send the specs via PM, I'd be glad to offer my unprofessional opinion. I spent a lot of time on BN and a ring board looking at the different cuts, table depth, culet measurements, etc.
edit: they will return rings, thought they wouldn't.
The words Blood Diamond is not just the title of a movie. You do not want to find out someday you helped finance a war and that you're loved one is carrying the proof.
I vote for local store. A (good) local jeweler will sit down and actually work with you on a quality design. That's what we did. By "local jeweler" I do NOT mean Tiffany's or Kay's or Zales or whatever. I mean a truly local place. The quality, customer service (like annual ring maintenance), uniqueness of the design, and the fact that a local ring means you spent time and effort into making it are all worth it.
If you're unhappy with the stones at Spence, I believe you can buy loose diamonds on BN or elsewhere online. Not sure though. Any jeweler who doesn't suck will use any stone you bring in to make a ring. If they won't do that, go somewhere else.
PS. The added moral benefit of a local Canadian store is that they might sell Canadian diamonds (Polar brand is I think one of them) that are, of course, not "blood diamonds." Blue Nile buys diamonds in bulk from places, so the claim that they are morally clean is somewhat specious, at best. That's if you care, not everyone does.
Alternatively, you can go with a lab-grown diamond. They're identical to diamonds except that they aren't mined from the ground. If you go to a local jeweler, ask about "Chatham" brand gems. That's one that comes to mind. They're also somewhat cheaper, since they aren't artificially priced like diamonds.
I'm just going to recommend that you keep your options open until you actually decide on a ring. When my wife (of less than a month now, yay!) and I were ring shopping, we looked at BN, local chain and independent shops, and other places online. We even put in a few bids on eBay for rings that would obviously go for more than double our budget. As it turns out, we won an auction and have an engagement ring far nicer than what would would have gotten from BN or a local store. Yes, we did have our own appraisal done which was even more positive than the GIA certificate that came with the ring.
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
That's because Canadians only bleed maple syrup and ice!
Really though, you're right in that a good store can provide a much more custom piece, either with their rocks or bought from BN. just depends on what you're looking for. I got lucky since she just wanted a simpler ring, but one of my co-workers had some very cool custom rings made with Jewish/religious symbols woven in.
This is a little silly considering the false demand is what keeps all diamonds profitable. Whether it costs some babies their hands directly or indirectly.
I would say try getting something reasonably simple and set yourself a budget. That whole five months salary thing is just a silly line meant to convince people if they don't go massively in debt they obviously aren't in love, set your budget now and stick with it. If you win the lotto you can always buy her another ring, there is no two ring per wife rule.
If you do go local, you may be able to negotiate down if get the actual wedding bands there as well, your mileage may vary.
You piqued my curiosity so I looked into Chatham diamonds and I can't find what I'm looking for, which makes me suspicious they are not the same as diamonds mined from the ground. Why don't they rate them like other diamonds in terms of clarity? I can only assume Chatham diamonds are significantly inferior.
What are you looking for? Chatham I think produces colored diamonds (which are extremely rare in reality). There are others that do both colored and colorless, Chatham was the first that came to mind since I've seen their sapphires in person before. Apollo is the most famous, I think there was a huge Wired article about them. Genesis or Gemisis, something like that, is another. I'd assume they work with local jewelers who could then provide you with the rating.
EDIT: Just to clarify, a lab-grown diamond is the same as a diamond from the ground, chemically and physically. Diamond is just carbon smashed a certain way under high pressure, and it's been grown in labs for decades (primarily for scientific equipment).
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Oh and I paid cash, so no taxes as well! Score! I highly endorse anyone else in the same situation to see if you can find a local wholesaler.
Now comes the hard parts:
1) Paranoia of carrying around a $x,000 small item
2) Making the proposal perfect
Fun times ahead!
If you ever need to talk to someone, feel free to message me. Yes, that includes you.
They usually give you a small box to put it in, if that helps.
Hope all goes well - indeed, keep us updated :winky:
Five months? Are we talking pretax? Because, that is a crapton of money to spend on a ring. Where did you hear that?
I've heard this as well, and it's still crap in my opinion.
If the whole "diamond ring engagement" fad is a commercialized scam perpetrated by DeBeer's, then the "3 months salary" myth is just another load of crap to instill the pressure to SPEND SPEND SPEND.
Spend what you're comfortable spending. No more. Any woman who is worth marrying doesn't give a shit about how much you spend on her ring.
I ended up buying online at James Allen and it worked out better than I could have hoped for. The ring is beautiful. Sarah loves it. I got a great deal and all the perks of online shopping like free shipping and it it was shipped in this amazing gift box that is worth a lot too. the whole thing was almost too easy. James Allen is similar to Blue Nile. There are a few big online stores. They all have a slightly different style.
If you buy online, look at at least 2 places to compare prices and styles. You might as well buy from a place that has free shipping and free returns like James Allen does.