"Affordable Jewellery"

[TheManWithNoName]

Don't Gemporia claim to offer "affordable jewellery"?

Hattie's final sale was a hideous "Rhodium Flash Baroque Pearl Necklace".

The pearls were bleached.
The 'flash' was gold in colour so it was clearly gold flash rather than rhodium flash.

Final price: £499

For plated (or 'flash') metals and bleached pearls? Ludicrous.

Oh, and then conveniently missed the treatment details off the website description - they only showed on screen - so anyone buying from the web will be unaware that they're bleached pearls.

 

[user 17461]

Don't Gemporia claim to offer "affordable jewellery"?

Hattie's final sale was a hideous "Rhodium Flash Baroque Pearl Necklace".

The pearls were bleached.
The 'flash' was gold in colour so it was clearly gold flash rather than rhodium flash.

Final price: £499

For plated (or 'flash') metals and bleached pearls? Ludicrous.

Oh, and then conveniently missed the treatment details off the website description - they only showed on screen - so anyone buying from the web will be unaware that they're bleached pearls.

It's also very obvious that Gemporia's claims of wanting to educate viewers in the ins and outs of gemstone jewellery buying is a thing of the past.

Nobody with any prior knowledge of the gemstone world would touch that monstrosity with a bargepole. Especially at such a price.

Removing pertinent information about the item on the website is very, very naughty. Gemporia's current business practice seems to be "grab as much cash as possible right now", which doesn't strike me as their having a long term plan for the future

 

[AndyW]

Was it this one? (1)

Not my thing at all. I associate pearls with elegance. This is the jewellery equivalent of the Instagram fake face, false nails and hair extensions. Baroque pearls are better in singles, where a jeweller can use skill to incorporate one into a design. (2)

As to price, here's another from a UK jewellery site, almost identical for £369 (3). Once again, even on their much-vaunted "cut out the middle men"/"look how much retail is" bullsh1t, they can be beaten.

It's got to the point now where you have to routinely check online for meaning of words used by them, help with identifying "new" stones to see if they really are and check that the price is as good as claimed. All fine, we do it for most other things. When you now - probably - have to assume that a lack of "Treatment" details on an item means i t i s heavily processed and that it's not down to lazy, incompetent inventory management, TGGC across the Group has lost any distinctive identity.

 

[SnowMoon]

Was it this one? (1)

Not my thing at all. I associate pearls with elegance. This is the jewellery equivalent of the Instagram fake face, false nails and hair extensions. Baroque pearls are better in singles, where a jeweller can use skill to incorporate one into a design. (2)

As to price, here's another from a UK jewellery site, almost identical for £369 (3). Once again, even on their much-vaunted "cut out the middle men"/"look how much retail is" bullsh1t, they can be beaten.

It's got to the point now where you have to routinely check online for meaning of words used by them, help with identifying "new" stones to see if they really are and check that the price is as good as claimed. All fine, we do it for most other things. When you now - probably - have to assume that a lack of "Treatment" details on an item means i t i s heavily processed and that it's not down to lazy, incompetent inventory management, TGGC across the Group has lost any distinctive identity.

LOL. I have a necklace very similar to this "hideous" one. No worries I have said before I like big, lumpy, gnarly baroques. Mine is not gold flash though, just silver, hate plating. and I paid £149 about eight months ago.

 

[SnowMoon]

Just to add I also have bleached baroques. But I paid - if memory serves either £19.99 for a pair of huge white baroque silver earrings a year or so ago. I don't mind the bleaching if the pearl is okay and the price is good. as it does seem to give a rainbow type effect which I like. But, I will not pay the stupid prices they are asking now. They seem to be triple or quadruple the price.

 

[AndyW]

No offence intended SnowMoon. I like them too as one-offs. In some ways, at least they won't be sanded down to create the more "desirable" uniform shape. Not too keen on the multicoloured ones, though. In fact, here's mine, wrapped in an assay office hallmarked silver dragon with garnets and touches of gold tat

 

[user 17461]

LOL. I have a necklace very similar to this "hideous" one. No worries I have said before I like big, lumpy, gnarly baroques. Mine is not gold flash though, just silver, hate plating. and I paid £149 about eight months ago.

Sorry! I shouldn't have said "monstrosity"

 

[SnowMoon]

Sorry! I shouldn't have said "monstrosity"

No worries both. I know they are not to everybody's taste. I do like them though, so I am secure about it and far from offended.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

Was it this one? (1)

It wasn't that one - but it looked very similar. But yes, I agree with everything you've said.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

LOL. I have a necklace very similar to this "hideous" one. No worries I have said before I like big, lumpy, gnarly baroques. Mine is not gold flash though, just silver, hate plating. and I paid £149 about eight months ago.

It wasn't the pearls that made it hideous (although i'm not a fan of Baroque pearls tbh) - it was the so-called rhodium flash that was actually gold-flash, but so thin, the 'gold' looked yellow and really 'cheap' - all whilst charging £499 for it.

I don't know how they have the audacity to charge £500 for something that is 'flash'. Imagine paying all that money, only to find that the 'flash' has worn off after a month.

They like to price compare against Monica Vinader - but at least if you're paying that kind of money at Monica Vinader, they have a 5 year warranty - and if any plating wears off in that time, they'll replace it free of charge. That's the policy and they make that very clear.

Unlike Gemporia - who will give you a 6 month-warranty - and if (when) the plating comes off after that time, you're on your own - you're not getting any replacement or repair.

 

[TheManWithNoName]

No offence intended SnowMoon. I like them too as one-offs. In some ways, at least they won't be sanded down to create the more "desirable" uniform shape. Not too keen on the multicoloured ones, though. In fact, here's mine, wrapped in an assay office hallmarked silver dragon with garnets and touches of gold tat

View attachment 28526

That's actually really nice.

Based on some of their recent designs, if Gemporia had designed that, they'd claim they'd designed a dragon, but it would likely look more like a donkey with three eyes and a wooden leg.