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The Case Of The Missing Diamond & The Problem With Buying Diamonds From A "Drop Shipper".
We have blogged here and elswhere many times in the past, regarding the perils of purchasing a loose diamond from an internet store who does not physically own or view the diamond in person before you receive it.
Diamond "drop-shipping", is where an internet website selling diamonds, showcases many thousands of diamonds they do not own or have in their physical possession.
The diamonds are comprised from lists of wholesale diamond databases supplied to these vendors by the respective manufacturers who do not deal directly with the public.
When a diamond is sold via the website, the stone is shipped out directly from the manufacturer to the customer, without passing through the hands of the middleman (drop-shipper) first.
I have previously pointed out why buying diamonds this way (to the tune of thousands of dollars) is a recipe for absolute disaster, since the diamond vendor is clueless about the quality of the diamond he has never seen and cannot possibly vouch for the stone in confidence, based upon the limited info. (diamond grading report) provided to him by the manufacturer.
Certainly, if you wish to know actual details regarding the look, brilliancy, inclusions, etc. of the diamond, you are literally on your own.
Indeed, there are only a handful of companies selling diamonds on the internet, who actually have the ability and inclination to personally inspect every single diamond they sell, even when it is one outside of their own manufacture.
Well, here is another reason to be careful when purchasing a loose diamond from a website that acts as a middleman to sell a diamond they have never seen.
The case of the missing diamond.
A very upset customer posted today on the popular diamond discussion forum, Pricescope, regarding her experience with a diamond "drop shipper" who was supposed to ship two diamonds (which she paid for) but only sent one!
She writes: " remember my thread about me buying my 2 stones from BlueNile from my Blue Amex. Anyway got the package today and it only contain one stone but 2 cert. from GIA. I call their customer service and hopefully they will call me back soon . Okay , i'm freaking out and piss at the service don't they check before shipping it out? We talking about diamonds for god sake. "
Well, unfortunately, the answer is no, they do not "check" before they ship out, simply because they do not do the shipping. In fact, they never saw the diamonds which were not of their own manufacture and were never in their physical possession in the first place.
Sure enough, she posts a bit later with the following update:
"Got a call from Mike at Blue Nile after i call them to follow up, he told me to look everywhere in the box, vendor said it might be pack in a little plastic bag or sometime wrap up in a piece of paper or bubble wraps. I told him my package have no bubbles wrap no little plastic bag or piece of paper, i also told him that i only get one plastic pouch that the GIA cert. supposed to come with. So he ask me to wait and will get back in 1 hr or so.
Bingo!
Blue Nile proceeded to call the wholesaler (who actually shipped the diamond (s) to the customer) in order to find out what happened to the missing stone. Wholesaler responds by saying they are pretty sure the second diamond was included in the package and asks Blue Nile to request that the customer "look a bit harder".
Customer is confident that only one diamond was shipped and no other.
Major Problem!
Now the reality is that mistakes do happen and Blue Nile is a reputable company. Hopefully, they will get to the bottom of this and make sure the customer gets the second diamond she paid for.
However, the bigger problem (and one that the customer was clearly unaware of, by the way she posted..) is that Blue Nile never actually inspected the two diamonds they sold this woman.
They therefore had no way of discussing the quality or beauty of the diamond with any authority.
Obviously, they also have no idea how many diamonds were actually shipped with the package.
Sure, they offer return polices and are backed by an honest reputation. However, it is still important for customers to be informed and aware of the way they are purchasing diamonds over the Internet.
To be clear, many loose diamonds are sold over the Internet every single day by honest and reputable companies who never get to see the stone. These companies offer return polices and customer service guarantees which are designed to foster trust and quality assurance. Additionally, there is nothing inherently wrong with acting as a middleman to sell wholesale diamonds at a profit. This is called capitalism; everyone does it and many of these companies are completely honest and reputable.
Still, it is important to realize that Diamonds are not all created equal.
It is important and crucial to inspect a diamond for its structural integrity, cut precision, quality and beauty/light performance, before making a purchase of this magnitude.
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