If there is one thing that I have learned in the five years I have been in the diamond business at Diamond Source of Virginia it is that most people appreciate honest, hard working business owners who’s main objective, other than to make a modest living, is to advise and educate the consumer about diamonds and the diamond buying process. We do not just sell diamonds we provide the necessary information, both on our web site and when talking to our clients on the phone, to help them make the best possible choice based on their shopping parameters as well as their life style and budget.
I talk with great people everyday that are convinced that they need a particular color or clarity in a diamond because of what they have been told by a jeweler or a friend and that information may cost them hundreds if not thousands of dollars more than is necessary and the diamond will not appear any more beautiful than going down in color and clarity and saving some money.
It does not happen very often, maybe once a year, but we will encounter a client who for a variety of reasons just won’t let us help them and we finally have to wish them the best of luck in their diamond search and send them on their way. This usually happens when they have a stead fast pre-conceived notion of what they “must’ have and their budget isn’t in sink with their expectations; they have seen a diamond in a jewelry store and were told it was a particular color and clarity but they failed to ask if it was a certified diamond by the GIA and what they were actually seeing under the sparkle lights in the store was a poorly cut diamond, or sometimes the client simply does too much research and is so confused by all of the varying opinions that are out there that they can not decipher good information from bad.
We had a client recently that sent us a photo of a ring that he wanted to duplicate. We always appreciate it when the client does some homework in advance and knows what they want the finished product to look like so we were thrilled. Unfortunately in this case the only thing that the client liked about the mounting was the actual mounting (the metal) itself. They wanted to change the shape of the stones, it was a three stone ring with the center being one shape and the sides being another shape, and the combination of diamonds were such that they would never fit together properly. Many customers do not understand the dynamics of a mounting in that in order for the mounting to be secure, functional and beautiful certain factors have to follow suit. For instance, you do not normally want to set a rounded diamond with flat edged side stones. They just don’t fit together properly. We tried desperately to convince them that what they were doing was not going to end up looking like the photo even going so far as to explain to them that the jeweler that we would be using had never done a ring with the combination of diamonds that they were requesting and that there was a reason for this but they were completely unbending and we finally just had to bow out.
We pride ourselves on selling high quality diamonds and putting together pieces that our clients will be proud of for years to come. Whether you have a $1,000 budget or $100,000 we want you to get the best diamond and mounting for the money and we won’t just sell a diamond or a mounting simply to make money. Believe me there are plenty of folks out there who will, we are just not one of them.
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