There is - colour and clarity. Of which Jadeporia's barely has either of.
This is a good quality Type A Green Jadeite: It has plenty of colour and it is translucent in clarity.
This is Gemporia's Type A Green Jadeite: 'Barely-there' green and opaque.
Their 'Black' Jadeite is actually a VERY VERY dark green when looked at in good light, the Olmec Blue Jadeite is also a deep shade of Green - and the Dove 'Blue' Jadeite is, at best, off-white to light grey in colour.
They are VERY aware that people are sick to death of the stuff. People were complaining on the Gemporia Facebook page and the Jewellery Maker Facebook page. On another occasions, a presenter stood up for Dave Troth on Facebook saying that Dave had been targeted in some posts with some getting quite personal and insulting. Also, Dave Troth has personally been tagged in a number of complaints on Facebook too - and he had a kind of dig on-air about people complaining about it. There are also comments about never ending Jade on various Facebook jewellery groups - some of which Gemporia and Jewellery Maker presenters are in, and therefore, they also see the posts.
So, Gemporia are more than aware of it - but rather than doing something about it, they carry on regardless and have digs at the people complaining about it - to the point that they stopped people from commenting on their Facebook pages a few months ago after being bombarded with negative posts about refund times and endless Jadeite shows.
They're always dismissive of complaints and suggestions that they don't like. They have a habit of giving standard responses of "We'll raise it with the team", and blocking comments from being left on their Facebook page, or point blank insinuate that we're wrong - and they're right - such as the times when LOTS of people left comments on their Facebook page saying that they were sick of the long lectures before sales and that they just wanted to see the items and choose whether to buy or not. Gemporia responded to those posts with "Our customers like to be educated on Gemstones and find the information useful".
So the very people that tune in and buy from Gemporia were telling them they didn't want these lectures - but as always, Gemporia have carried on regardless, ignored customer feedback, and continued to do it their way.
Well, doing it their way appears to have lost them business I presume, based on the redundancies they made and based on Steve putting some of his own money into the business again.
Has that made them change the way they broadcast? Not one bit. They're still doing it their way, because they think they know better than the customers that keep them in business.
It is for that reason why I still have serious doubts as to whether they'll still be with us in 12 months time - because they continue to dismiss customers input and instead, they just carry on doing it their way.
People are sick of Gold tone jewellery - but they're still selling it.
People are sick of Jadeite - but they're still selling it.
People are sick of Dave, Jake and Toby giving us 30 minute lectures before they sell an item - but they continue to do it.
But they then blame their 'struggles' on import costs, materials, Brexit, etc. SOME of which will have had an impact on the business for sure - but they're seriously under-estimating just how much they're alienating their viewers / customers with never ending Jade, never ending 'plated / tone' Jewellery, never ending lectures, higher prices for lower quality jewellery, etc.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - they are digging their own grave.
Colin has been gone for two months now - yet barely anything has changed. They can no longer blame things on him. This continuation of how it was under Colin's watch, is now down to Steve, Jake or whoever is responsible for the main business decisions these days.
Good for the bank balance though!
