To be fair, the pear-shaped one was very blue, closer to a dark Australian parti sapphire. Nice thing, actually, in its own right but not London Blue, as you say. I also couldn't understand the pricing of both, side by side - that really took me aback. The rectangle one was as included and bottle green as the stock image suggests and considerably smaller.
I remember the occasional viewer questioning things like this with Alex, and also questions like "why are these cheaper on Gems TV despite them being set into jewellery on there" - and you could tell he looked slightly awkward and got around it by saying things like "It depends when we bought them, the quality of the cut, the saturation of the colour, etc - you can't just say well if a 1ct stone is £100, this 0.5ct stone should be £50", etc. He'd try to suggest that one may have been bought 5 years ago, and the other one 5 months ago, etc.
Which is nonsense really because when they sell quantities of more than one, they have a 'studio sample' in a bag - with the rest kept in the vault. I suspect that the 'studio sample' is the best from the bundle and cherry picked for that reason. They once used to deny having a 'studio sample' - But I know for a fact that they do (plus i'm sure I've spotted one of the bags slip into view on screen with a label on it clearly saying 'studio sample')
If the camera operator used one of the vault stones, rather than the 'studio sample', then it probably results in things like this happening.
I've bought stones before that have looked full of colour on screen, but when mine has arrived, its wishy-washy in colour.
They claim not to cherry pick - but it's clear that they do. You have to look at the 'secret santa' bags (or whatever they rename them to at various points of the year). Four items of jewellery for £20. They ALWAYS show bags on screen that contain, for example, a nice silver chain, a fairly decent looking ring with something like Kyanite in it, a pair of earrings with something like Ametrine in, and a bracelet with something like a Garnet set into it. The value ALWAYS looks more than £20 worth of jewellery.
When yours arrives, it contains something like a cheap stretchy chip bracelet, a ring with a cheap stone such as Smokey Quartz, a pair of earrings with either tiny stones or a bigger 'cheap' stone such as Moonstone, and a silver chain. It always looks exactly £20 or less worth of jewellery.
I'm sure people think that they're going to get a bargain - jewellery worth something like £50, for just £20 (and the way it's presented on screen, it looks like they try to give that impression too).
They also trip themselves up by saying that "the bags are put together at random - nobody knows what you'll get" - but then in their next breath, they say "Don't buy 4 bags, pick your favourite 4 items and then send 3 bags back because we'll know"
Well, if they're put together at random, how will they know if people have swapped a ring or a pair of earrings in order to get 4 items that they like?...............
They think we're idiots.
On the subject of things being picked at randoms - it'll soon be time for those "spin the wheel" things where they supposedly spin the wheel at random to take a 'random' amount off the price. Again, that's not at random either! It's all pre-selected. If it was done at random, you'd see things like 50% being knocked off a gold ring when its already at £80, or.................... £10 being knocked off an item that is at £12. They never happen? I wonder why.........
Instead, they'll do a 'random spin' and knock £10 off a candle that's being displayed at £30 - to take it down to £20. ITS USUAL BLOODY PRICE!
How do they get away with this crap?
