Ok, I Admit Defeat

[AndyW]

Summer Sale on, apparently. An hour of coated topaz.

An SI graded topaz pendant in 1.32g of 9k yellow gold. Sale price? £99.

I bought a Santa Maria aquamarine ring set in 3.79g of 9k yellow gold from R&C yesterday. Price? £99.

I don't understand Gems anymore.

 

[missmarple]

Yes, absolutely crazy prices, cant believe anyone is buying at these prices, some of the sarah bennett collection were being sold at up to 99 pounds, virtually all the stones were heated, waxed or had some form of treatment, personally wouldnt touch them with a barge pole, they are getting complaints of too many yellow gold, so called high end jewellery shows, little of any new designs, or in white gold or silver, i think they are hell bent on clawing money back one way or the other and dont care how they go about it.

 

[Anna]

I was wondering whether it was just me thinking that their prices had gone up.

I don't like what I have seen of the Sarah Bennett collection - not to my taste, and some quite ugly pieces in my opinion.

 

[historymystery]

Anna, I've not understood them for ages now - they've completely lost the plot. I've just posted on another thread about their so-called "sale" presented by Angeline this morning. The whole thing is so devious - it isn't a sale at all, just a play on words and a con, in my opinion. There's Angeline, pretending that viewers are 'flooding' in, sending messages to say how 'wonderful' the sale is, and spouting the mantra of 'be quick, they're flying out' - and when you look on the website, each item is still in stock! She really does need to go back to Drama School for some revision, because she's not fooling anyone. I agree totally with what's been said about the Sarah Bennett range - all gold plated metal and treated stones. These SB pieces used to sell for about £29.99 in solid silver, now they are asking £100 for cheap-looking gold plate. I foresee complaints and more complaints, and from what I've seen of Angeline's "sale" hour, they'll be one from me to the ASA. Strategy seems to be make as much money as they can, before it goes belly-up. I voted with my feet ages ago, and my guess is a lot of others have done likewise.

Summer Sale on, apparently. An hour of coated topaz.

An SI graded topaz pendant in 1.32g of 9k yellow gold. Sale price? £99.

I bought a Santa Maria aquamarine ring set in 3.79g of 9k yellow gold from R&C yesterday. Price? £99.

I don't understand Gems anymore.

 

[missmarple]

Well, call me silly but i fail to see how a coated topaz can be graded as si, to me its just a treated stone and i do think that the few comments i have heard from some of the presenters, plus are sailing very close to the wind. I happen to like chunky jewellery and by that i mean something with substantial amount of silver in it, not something that is akin to cheese wire but have always thought the sarah bennett stuff was poor value for money, everything filled and treated some of the reviews are already in the negative,not surprised. Problem is i think some of the customers are fooled by the presentations and dont do any homework, i mean it takes a couple of minutes on the internet to find some of whats said is absolute hogwash, i am afraid the only way is down for gems,surely we cant be the only ones that notice these things.

 

[AndyW]

I agree. If they're coating a stone, why bother with the rating. Coating isn't one of my "acceptable" treatments but that's a personal thing. I do understand why the "mystic" types of coating you can get anywhere are attractive but Gemporia's "Lost Hues" collection is about a single, quite flat colour. And to say that their red one is like rubellite is a joke.

As for the treatments on the SB collection, I saw another code creep in. One stone had "HW". This isn't in their library. It could be "Heated Waxed" but they already have "IH" for that.

 

[historymystery]

Glad it's not just" me thinking that, missm! They ARE sailing close to the wind, and Angeline was definitely borderline yesterday. OK, the sale promo poster behind her head did say that it was under £100 easy pay, but nevertheless her actual words were that the item was "under £xxx". And I only watched for about 10 minutes! In my book, this is totally wrong, and deliberately misleading - they should have to make clear that the amount is each easy-pay instalment, not the full price of the item.

Well, call me silly but i fail to see how a coated topaz can be graded as si, to me its just a treated stone and i do think that the few comments i have heard from some of the presenters, plus are sailing very close to the wind. I happen to like chunky jewellery and by that i mean something with substantial amount of silver in it, not something that is akin to cheese wire but have always thought the sarah bennett stuff was poor value for money, everything filled and treated some of the reviews are already in the negative,not surprised. Problem is i think some of the customers are fooled by the presentations and dont do any homework, i mean it takes a couple of minutes on the internet to find some of whats said is absolute hogwash, i am afraid the only way is down for gems,surely we cant be the only ones that notice these things.

 

[adam82uk]

i just wish they get on with it and show us the prices.

 

[Anna]

i just wish they get on with it and show us the prices.

Oh God yes, stop faffing around and just sell the blooming thing.

 

[historymystery]

The worst is when they have a guest on - such as the everlasting David Troth! The same old platitudes all the time, can't believe the price, this is crazy what we're doing, people are multi-buying - oh heck, you could repeat it with them. All we want to know are the facts about the stones and the item of jewellery - and the price. - That's it, finito. Instead of which they feel obliged to give us this 'ham' acting performance.

i just wish they get on with it and show us the prices.