TheManWithNoName
Registered Shopper
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2023
- Messages
- 2,094
Long first post alert...... Sorry!
I have (had) been a Gemporia customer for many years - buying from their main Gems TV channel, Gem Collector, Jewellery Maker and Lifestyle on a regular basis.
They have pretty much lost all of my custom now for various reasons (severe price increases, lower quality stones, incorrect treatments listed on authenticity cards, boring speeches before selling, claims that are bordering on the ridiculous, shrieking annoying presenters and / or presenters that are out of their depth, misleading customers, an out of court settlement in the past - and, the final nail in the coffin - the ludicrously long refund times).
Another massive alarm bell for me is concern as to whether they're going to be around for much longer? I don't want to risk placing orders only to find that they suddenly vanish one day - just like Price Drop TV did years ago.
It is clear that something is going on again at Gemporia at the moment. Lifestyle is closing down - and it looks very much like staff are being made redundant too (it seems that some are voluntary - and the rest 'forced'). There's a lot of other things that have really waved red flags at me over the last couple of years too.
1. Their 'Price Pledge' policy seems to have more and more caveats now. At one point, Price Pledges were granted without hesitation. Even if you phoned up for a price pledge on one item, if another had sold in the same hour at a lower price, but you were unaware, they'd tell you and give you account credit for it - whereas these days, they specifically ask for product codes of items you want to price pledge. If there was a second item in the hour that had sold for cheaper, but you hadn't realised, they no longer 'volunteer' to tell you and give you the credit. There are also too many exclusions now. Specific hours that we're told are 'clearance hours' with no price pledges in play - including one show in January where they sold an item for MORE than it had previously sold for in this supposed 'Clearance Hour'. So they'll happily take more money from you in a 'clearance hour' - but they won't give you any back in the form of a price pledge credit. Sales, etc are also exempt from the price pledge policy now - whereas I'm sure that years ago, the price pledge policy was honoured regardless.
2. Loooooooooong delays with refunds: The law says 14 days - but Gemporia are now taking up to, and in excess of 30 days - to the point where I'd actually completed three split pay payments and paid for an item in full whilst I was waiting for my refund. Despite it being pointed out that they legally have to refund within 14 days, they insist that their T & C's can say otherwise. I have reported this to Trading Standards along with my evidence - so I'll see what the outcome of that is.
3. Reselling returned items before refunding customers: I have seen numerous examples now of items that have been returned, being put back on sale, before they refund the customers that sent those items back. I know for a fact that I bought an item from one of their channels that was a 'one-off' - I literally had the only item available. However, I decided to return it. Within a week of returning it, it was back on sale, on the same channel, for the same price that I bought not for - but it wasn't refunded to me until TWO WEEKS later! This has happened on a few occasions - I've returned items, and they've been re-sold by Gemporia before I've been refunded by Gemporia. I may be sceptical - but this, combined with the amount of time it now takes them to refund, gives the impression that they're trying to re-sell items again (and therefore getting the money in again) before refunding the returnee. That gives me suspicion that they could have cash flow problems (perhaps they spent all their money on Jade?.........)
4. Staff leaving / Redundancies? It seems that Gemporia are making staff redundant - yet again. I think this is the 4th round over the past few years? Its certainly at least three because Katie Ho, Nick Davies (although we still see him, he was made redundant by Gemporia and then re-employed over at Primal Living shortly afterwards), and some of the old 'The Lounge' presenters all left around 4 years ago. Then during Covid, more redundancies were made - with Victoria Norris, Vicky Carr, Rod Jinks, etc leaving. Now Rosie, Ruth, Satnam the camera guy, and a few other producers, etc are leaving too. It seems that Gemporia have ditched their repair and re-sizing departments too - so presumably those staff are going too. I'm sure there was a batch of redundancies before all those though, maybe 5 or so years ago, when the likes of Lara De-Leuw, and some of the old Rocks TV presenters all went at the same time. 3 or 4 lots of redundancies in not far off as many years makes me suspect they were losing money - and continue to lose money.
5. The reduction of Jewellery Maker hours. Gemporia bought the struggling Company back off Immediate Media - and rather than solving the problems that immediate media created, Gemporia added to them and made the channel even worse - to the point where I suspect they lost a lot of customers, which resulted in a loss of broadcasting hours (and, more presenters being made redundant - such as Hannah Stuart, etc).
6. Huge price increases. Gem Collector prices have increased significantly I've noticed. Stones that I could once buy for £10 or so, are now going for around £30 for similar carat weights, etc. Jewellery Maker has gone the same way. They once used to sell affordable strands and cabochons for crafters - now, they're selling VERY expensive strands of pearls and jade - some for £300, £400. Are they seriously expecting jewellery makers / hobbyists to buy those strands at those prices to make jewellery, and expect those jewellery makers to sell their work on at profit? Not a chance. Gems TV are now also selling some silver jewellery that is more expensive than gold jewellery.
7. Lower quality at higher prices. LOTS of "drenched in gold" Silver aka 'gold tone', Midas, etc now - instead of just 925 Sterling Silver on its own. Platinum plating. filled Rubies. dyed Lapis Lazuli, filled Amazonite (seriously? - Amazonite is cheap enough to buy in its 'natural' state - as is Lapis), coated Topaz, etc. It makes me wonder if the 'tone' and 'plating' is possibly because they could be buying and using recycled, melted down, Silver instead of 'new' Silver?
I have (had) been a Gemporia customer for many years - buying from their main Gems TV channel, Gem Collector, Jewellery Maker and Lifestyle on a regular basis.
They have pretty much lost all of my custom now for various reasons (severe price increases, lower quality stones, incorrect treatments listed on authenticity cards, boring speeches before selling, claims that are bordering on the ridiculous, shrieking annoying presenters and / or presenters that are out of their depth, misleading customers, an out of court settlement in the past - and, the final nail in the coffin - the ludicrously long refund times).
Another massive alarm bell for me is concern as to whether they're going to be around for much longer? I don't want to risk placing orders only to find that they suddenly vanish one day - just like Price Drop TV did years ago.
It is clear that something is going on again at Gemporia at the moment. Lifestyle is closing down - and it looks very much like staff are being made redundant too (it seems that some are voluntary - and the rest 'forced'). There's a lot of other things that have really waved red flags at me over the last couple of years too.
1. Their 'Price Pledge' policy seems to have more and more caveats now. At one point, Price Pledges were granted without hesitation. Even if you phoned up for a price pledge on one item, if another had sold in the same hour at a lower price, but you were unaware, they'd tell you and give you account credit for it - whereas these days, they specifically ask for product codes of items you want to price pledge. If there was a second item in the hour that had sold for cheaper, but you hadn't realised, they no longer 'volunteer' to tell you and give you the credit. There are also too many exclusions now. Specific hours that we're told are 'clearance hours' with no price pledges in play - including one show in January where they sold an item for MORE than it had previously sold for in this supposed 'Clearance Hour'. So they'll happily take more money from you in a 'clearance hour' - but they won't give you any back in the form of a price pledge credit. Sales, etc are also exempt from the price pledge policy now - whereas I'm sure that years ago, the price pledge policy was honoured regardless.
2. Loooooooooong delays with refunds: The law says 14 days - but Gemporia are now taking up to, and in excess of 30 days - to the point where I'd actually completed three split pay payments and paid for an item in full whilst I was waiting for my refund. Despite it being pointed out that they legally have to refund within 14 days, they insist that their T & C's can say otherwise. I have reported this to Trading Standards along with my evidence - so I'll see what the outcome of that is.
3. Reselling returned items before refunding customers: I have seen numerous examples now of items that have been returned, being put back on sale, before they refund the customers that sent those items back. I know for a fact that I bought an item from one of their channels that was a 'one-off' - I literally had the only item available. However, I decided to return it. Within a week of returning it, it was back on sale, on the same channel, for the same price that I bought not for - but it wasn't refunded to me until TWO WEEKS later! This has happened on a few occasions - I've returned items, and they've been re-sold by Gemporia before I've been refunded by Gemporia. I may be sceptical - but this, combined with the amount of time it now takes them to refund, gives the impression that they're trying to re-sell items again (and therefore getting the money in again) before refunding the returnee. That gives me suspicion that they could have cash flow problems (perhaps they spent all their money on Jade?.........)
4. Staff leaving / Redundancies? It seems that Gemporia are making staff redundant - yet again. I think this is the 4th round over the past few years? Its certainly at least three because Katie Ho, Nick Davies (although we still see him, he was made redundant by Gemporia and then re-employed over at Primal Living shortly afterwards), and some of the old 'The Lounge' presenters all left around 4 years ago. Then during Covid, more redundancies were made - with Victoria Norris, Vicky Carr, Rod Jinks, etc leaving. Now Rosie, Ruth, Satnam the camera guy, and a few other producers, etc are leaving too. It seems that Gemporia have ditched their repair and re-sizing departments too - so presumably those staff are going too. I'm sure there was a batch of redundancies before all those though, maybe 5 or so years ago, when the likes of Lara De-Leuw, and some of the old Rocks TV presenters all went at the same time. 3 or 4 lots of redundancies in not far off as many years makes me suspect they were losing money - and continue to lose money.
5. The reduction of Jewellery Maker hours. Gemporia bought the struggling Company back off Immediate Media - and rather than solving the problems that immediate media created, Gemporia added to them and made the channel even worse - to the point where I suspect they lost a lot of customers, which resulted in a loss of broadcasting hours (and, more presenters being made redundant - such as Hannah Stuart, etc).
6. Huge price increases. Gem Collector prices have increased significantly I've noticed. Stones that I could once buy for £10 or so, are now going for around £30 for similar carat weights, etc. Jewellery Maker has gone the same way. They once used to sell affordable strands and cabochons for crafters - now, they're selling VERY expensive strands of pearls and jade - some for £300, £400. Are they seriously expecting jewellery makers / hobbyists to buy those strands at those prices to make jewellery, and expect those jewellery makers to sell their work on at profit? Not a chance. Gems TV are now also selling some silver jewellery that is more expensive than gold jewellery.
7. Lower quality at higher prices. LOTS of "drenched in gold" Silver aka 'gold tone', Midas, etc now - instead of just 925 Sterling Silver on its own. Platinum plating. filled Rubies. dyed Lapis Lazuli, filled Amazonite (seriously? - Amazonite is cheap enough to buy in its 'natural' state - as is Lapis), coated Topaz, etc. It makes me wonder if the 'tone' and 'plating' is possibly because they could be buying and using recycled, melted down, Silver instead of 'new' Silver?