Thoughts on the channel

[wickerman]

Hi all

First time poster, have been reading the site for a while...

I found Rocks & Co the weekend before last, after about 5 minutes of being tuned in, saw a green amethyst and marcasite pendant for £34.95 inc delivery, so rang on my mobile and bought it. It was delivered last Wednesday, and I've got no complaints whatsoever, so much so I've made two further web orders.

Pre TJC I used to keep an eye on Gems TV, but since TJC came along and Gems changed their graphics etc, I found Gems to be look a "grubby" channel in comparison (ie flick from TJC to Gems, and the jewellery just doesn't look as good).

However, I think Rocks & Co has found the perfect blend (which I notice TJC seems to be moving towards now, with fewer and fewer high hundreds value pieces, and more sub £100 stuff) - they don't hang around trying to sell stuff nobody wants for 10/15 minutes or more, have great lighting, and the jewellery genuinely seems to be great quality and most importantly phenomenal value! It *almost* seems too good to be true.

I prefer TJC's presenters in the main, but I hope given time the presenters on Rocks will learn their trade; I'm no conoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, but I get the feeling I'd have more chance of naming a gemstone than *some* of the presenters on Rocks.

One thing I love (which I know will change once anyone working for the channel reads this) is the fact they've left the following page up:

http://www.rocksandco.com/jewellery/order-code.html

"No falling auctions, no gimmicks, just great value on jewellery" it says proudly.

I have no idea how long this channel's been around, but there's definitely a chance I'd flicked through before, seen it wasn't falling price, and just ignored it (which when I think about it is very worrying that I *need* to feel I'm getting a bargain!).

On a serious note, I am extremely pleased to say that I emailed customer services last night with a pretty serious issue/flaw relating to the Data Protection Act which I discovered with their website, and this morning the problem is resolved.

Cheers

WM

 

[jacqualina]

Welcome to the forum wickerman. Rocks&co have not been around for long and are still having some teething problems, but their CS is very good and they are doing their best to iron them all out.
I agree with you, their jewellery is great, have had quite a few orders from them and have been really pleased with nearly everything.

 

[rebeccab]

Im waiting for my first order to be deivered and i cant wait, ive read lots of good comments about the quality of the jewellery on here, and tbh i used to be an avid gtv addict but no more, rocks and co is my new vice :30:

 

[SUPERCOOLWILLOW]

hi wickerman and a massive warm welcome

 

[Klosblue]

Hi Wickerman and a big Welcome from me too.

I love Rocks and Co and between me and my husband buying I have a fair few pieces all of which I love. When the channel first started I was so disappointed and just couldn't watch - fixed price and boring!! I'm delighted to say that the folks at R & C obviously listen to what people want and were not too big to change the format and I'm sure they're really glad they did! They do appear to care, have a great selection at good prices and of course they've got John Scott!

Like you, I find Gems TV a bit "grubby" nowadays. Very disappointing as I've spent a fortune there but unfortunately IMHO the quality has deteriorated, they don't give a toss about their customers particularly the web buyers and some of the presenters .........!!

Let us know what you buy and post the link so we can all have a wee look - we're a nosey bunch here you know!!

 

[wickerman]

Hi All

Thanks ever so much for the warm welcome, it's very much appreciated.

Well my second order arrived today about 20 minutes after my first post (ordered on Friday evening).

I will post some pics tomorrow (I'm keeping these for Christmas so I need to be covert with this operation!) but because you've made me feel so welcome, I can't resist sending another post tonight (this one!).

I bought 2 rings, one white opal and marcasite (my wife loves marcasite!), and a moldavite (and diamond) white gold ring which I just liked the look of! The fact it came from outer space closed the deal. :9:

I also bought a lapis lazuli necklace (which came in an earring box as per a previous post) and finally a white gold chain. For those interested, the total price including delivery was just over 85 quid.

With my second web order I got a *bit* hacked off due to one of the issues raised in a post of last week I think - the 24 hour item expiry thing. I went to check out just (ie about 2 minutes) before the 24 hours was up, then after I entered my credit card details and the screen came back to confirm my order, the first item had been removed! as it expired!! It was a really nice morganite and diamond white gold ring for 35 quid, so I ended up paying £5.95 delivery for one ring, which I really didn't want to do!

I've been giving it some thought, though, and having read Gavin's response, I totally understand why they do what they do.

My only suggestion would be that if you buy two products on a Monday, say at 1pm and 8pm, the items from that day BOTH stay in the basket until 7:59:59pm and then BOTH expire at 8pm on the Tuesday - in my case that would have meant I could have held out for another few hours (which I may as well have done anyway as it happens) and potentially bought some more stuff.

I'm a web developer by trade, so I do understand why the guys in the web team at Rocks want to keep it simple (I would too if I worked there) but I THINK the logic I'm suggesting would be fairly straightforward to implement, and would give genuine buyers a bit more leeway, but would still ensure that timewasters wouldn't get to keep items in their basket indefinitely.

WM

 

[Klosblue]

Hi All
My only suggestion would be that if you buy two products on a Monday, say at 1pm and 8pm, the items from that day BOTH stay in the basket until 7:59:59pm and then BOTH expire at 8pm on the Tuesday - in my case that would have meant I could have held out for another few hours (which I may as well have done anyway as it happens) and potentially bought some more stuff.WM

Now that's a great idea!

 

[wickerman]

I've just gone and bought a bracelet. I like this Geri Halliwell lookalike, Sharon, I get the feeling she's completely bonkers, in a good way. She says absurd things and laughs almost maniacally, and even ran off set the other day to get her mobile phone.

Top, top notch.

PLUS she gave me a shout out when I bought. Now either they like saying my name OR I'm the only person that seems to buy whenever I'm watching because no-one else ever gets a mention!!!

[However, a note about the online system here - I clicked "bid now" before the price "crashed" and it put it in my basket at the full price, even after it crashed. When I went to check out, the price was still full price. So I removed it and re-added it. Presumably it would have charged me the right price, but I wasn't willing to take the chance. Something else to sort out!!]

You may be able to tell (and I am not joking) - I am close to being addicted to this channel.

 

[rocks&co helper]

Auction prices for web orders

I can see why this concerned you.

We've done some tests to double check that everything is working properly and I promise that when you check out the price will fall to the auction's final price and that is the amount you will be charged.

We will look into trying to get this changed in the future so that customers can see the price they are buying at, whilst they are buying it.

Rocks & co Helper

 

[Pimms]

Hello Wickerman and welcome to the forum - great posts!

You will need to double check your orders to make sure the price you paid is in fact the price the item went for. I've had some lovely items from Rocks and co and am really pleased with the service and the way they've dealt with some problems, but I did find a couple of times that the price on the order wasn't the price showing up on my account page on the website. I'm waiting for my cc bill for this month to make sure that I was charged the right amount or have had refunds where appropriate.


Rocks - it would really help if we could see our returns on-line too, not just our orders, so we didn't have to check with the cc companies to find out a) if the items got back to you safely and b) whether the money was on its way back to our accounts. Any chance of that?

 

[rocks&co helper]

Great question Pimms

I'll try and find out for you...

Rocks & Co helper

 

[wickerman]

I've got another web order on the go, and I notice some text has now been added advising us to refresh the page after the auction ends to update the price to the closing price.

Tell you what, they're lucky that they've got customers like us who are willing to provide them with the feedback we're giving them to improve their system, free of charge! I worked for a company once who paid through the nose for this kind of testing/feedback on their new system!

I just hope they remember us when they make it big...

 

[Gemstone Gav]

Hello Everyone:

Just thought I’d chime in on some of your queries to let you know we really listen.

Wickerman: Thanks for the feedback and the follow-up post. Please rest assured you are charged the auction closing price regardless of the price you see when you put an auction item in your basket. Based on your feedback, we've added the following beneath every auction item in your basket:

TO SEE THE AUCTION CLOSING PRICE FOR THIS ITEM, PLEASE REFRESH THIS PAGE AFTER THE AUCTION HAS ENDED. DUE TO A LAG IN DATA EXCHANGE, YOU MAY NEED TO REFRESH SEVERAL TIMES BEFORE THE CORRECT PRICE APPEARS. REGARDLESS, YOU WILL BE CHARGED THE PRICE AT WHICH THE AUCTION ENDED.

Pimms: Thanks for your great suggestion, we’re taking all feedback to heart.

Thanks again to everyone for you patronage, kind words and feedback. We are lucky to have customers like you and we do honestly appreciate your help.

Best Wishes,

Gav

 

[Oops-a-daisy!]

A warm welcome to the forum from me too Wickerman. Hope we get to see some pics of your purchases sometime soon.

I think Pimms suggestion is a good one. I'd like to see an online account history showing both web and phone orders as well as the status of refunds. At the moment only the web orders are listed.

I was overcharged on a ring by over £500 (eek)! Luckily I'd bought it online and had proof of the purchase price. This would be more difficult to prove with telephone orders, where you don't even get a confirmation email.