Hello Jellylegs, and welcome!
I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here, but I do find a lot of the comments on this forum to be very negative. I know that many people have had a bit of a nasty wake-up call on many of their treasured pieces of jewellery, and I'm not surprised they're mad as all hell about it, but I wonder if the lower-budget viewers are a bit scared to comment here because of all the negativity that seems to fly around.
I posted a thread a couple of weeks ago praising GemsTV which got no replies, but I will say here again that I am a fan of GemsTV because I don't buy anything over about £70 and they have plenty of very good quality stuff in my price bracket, especially in their clearance hours.
I'll also say I like watching Lynn Jinks because she's hilarious, even if I've not got any money for treats. I just love my jewellery so I flick regularly through most of the channels of an evening, but I keep coming back to GemsTV because it's the only one I might actually see something I can afford on (and no, I don't buy any of their paste stuff). I used to buy my jewellery off QVC but they're so expensive these days.
I hope you enjoy yourself on the forum, it's very entertaining and informative, and it is lovely to see what goodies others have treated themselves to: I love a good dose of envy to sharpen up my computer time!!!
If you watch TJC at the right times you will find their "lower budget" range is not only cheaper but of far superior quality. The other night they had a lovely Garnet and Diamond ring (and it was a sizeable Garnet) which was sold for £9.95!
Gems TV used to be excellent but sadly they've been going downhill for some time now and at a very rapid pace of late. The last time I purchased from them was Oct 2008 and I sent it all back because it was the quality of something you would find in a lucky bag! The last time I kept something from them was July 2008.
I've just had a quick count of all the Authenticity Cards I can find and previous to July 2008, I purchased and kept 65 items from Gems TV. I've purchased 54 items from Rocks TV (all cheaper items for wearing to work) and I've purchased 94 items from TJC! I'm sure there are more but even with that amount of pieces, I think I can speak from experience! It's probably hard for the newer buyers to understand why so many of us are "negative" about Gems TV but compared with the 'original' Gems TV they are a disgrace! All their ethics have flown out of the window, their prices have rocketed, their presenters have sunk to new levels of desperation and a large majority of what they sell is pure tat!
As for them continuing to say "we are the original and longest running jewellery channel" - well sorry but you are absolutely nothing like the original Gems TV!