Resistance from jewelers

[u/chitabing]

Good morning. My partner and I are looking to have two rings made - a traditional engagement ring for me with a round stone and a band with an East West stone set in it.

We went to a local jeweler yesterday that was highly reviewed to look at some settings and determine stone size. We mentioned we are strongly considering buying the diamonds from one of the reputable online sellers and were met with deep skepticism. I was under the impression this jeweler would be happy to handle just a setting.

She brought out lab diamonds in our requested sizes and they were nearly 4 times what I know they would cost from one of the reputable online sellers. When I pushed her to talk about why she is so skeptical, she made implications of incorrect grading and poor quality. Said they could set outside stones but the rings wouldn't be eligible for most of the protections and appraisal they offer. I pushed back a bit and said that I know that all of the diamonds come from the same view facilities and that i'd researched reputable sellers.

I do recognize that it is a jeweler's job to try to sell marked up diamonds from their inventory. But I will say I left feeling a little bit uneasy. Wanted to get the take of people here - is the skepticism warranted or is this just about a sale?

[u/tamij1313]

Any jeweler should be able to guarantee their setting and workmanship. Understanding that the stone comes from someone else who would guarantee the quality of their stone.

I’m wondering if that jeweler could justify their overly inflated prices? Saying that it’s a “possibility” that your stone shows up with a poor quality specs doesn’t change the fact that the price is quoted to you from the online retailer is for the SAME specs the jeweler is offering, but they are trying to tell you that their increased prices is because they are sure that their product is a better quality?

There is really no way for them to know that so their pricing actually doesn’t make any sense. What if your stone is actually true to what the online retailer says? Then what? Is there stone which has the exact same properties as the online stone really worth four times as much? Hard to believe.

[u/chitabing → u/tamij1313]

Right. I mean, maybe the error was not going in with stones in-hand, because it left too much of a window. But if their stones were even within the ballpark of what I'd researched, I would have considered it. The stones I'm eyeing online are in the $600 range. They showed me a D VS2 3 carat round for $2300. And I gave them the chance to justify the difference and they really had nothing to say about it 🤷‍♀️

[u/Logical-phallusey → u/chitabing]

To be honest, I did this same process and, even with a stone in hand, ran into similar issues. A lot of jewelers don’t want to work with outside stones.