Not impressed...

Not impressed with Gem Collector!

A few days ago I ordered a loose aaa tanzanite and a tiny paraiba tourmaline from the website. The order went through fine, but then I get an email telling me the tanzanite is not available. I phone them - hoping to choose a different stone - to be told that the paraiba's not in stock, either! And they've cancelled the order.

But they've still got my money.

I'm waiting to hear when I can expect my refund... I'm so disappointed, this was a big deal for me as I'd been promising myself a pendant to go with the ring I had made about 6 years ago... And this has really put me off ordering anything from Gem Collector if they can't even sort out their website. Showing stuff as available when it's not, and taking the money for it anyway... not good!

Anyone else had experience with GC? Will post again what happens... sigh.

Well, now they've just sent me an email saying my order has been dispatched!!! What? How? Does their left hand not know what their right hand's doing?

Am I going to get my items after all? The excitement's unbearable... watch this space!!!

So a packet has just arrived, containing the tanzanite but not the tourmaline!!! Talk about a mix-up. They told me both gems were unavailable. Oh well.

As for the tanzanite... it's very pretty, but not nearly as deep saturated blue in colour as the ring I want to match. It's more of a violet, pretty like I say, but not the blue I was after. More AA+ than AAA. I got the first stone from TJC and it's a fantastic colour despite being ungraded. But that was 5+ years ago. So I'll have a think about whether I keep it or not. It's so hard to tell the true colour of the stone on the website, even when there's a video...

They've refunded me for the missing tourmaline. Hurrah.

Ordered hundreds of stones from GC. Only had a problem once.

I ordered a stone that was showing as in stock - but when the stone was live on air, the presenter dropped it in the studio. The stone couldn't be found - so they couldn't send it.

May I ask why you bought from the website?

If you buy from the website, the prices are a lot more expensive than the live shows. The videos and pictures aren't too clear either - and if they have more than one of a particular stone in stock, there's no guarantees that you'll get the actual one shown in the video or photo (which could be why the colour wasn't as vivid as you saw).

If you buy from the live shows, they reduce the prices, you can see the stone clearly on air, and you get the stone showed on air.

The live shows are 1pm to 8pm each day.

Hi WifeSlashGoddess! Apologies for delay in replying, I'd stopped checking the thread. Thank you for the advice. I don't know why I ordered off the website really, it just sort of happened. I "secured" the tourmaline in a live online auction, and thought I might as well order the tanz I'd been looking at at the same time. But then apparently they'd sold the tourmaline to more than one person!!

I'm still not especially happy. I decided to send the tanz back. It appears that GC gave me a credit instead of the refund I asked for. They claim that Paypal "refused" the refund. So I'm still trying to sort out what's actually happened... :mysmilie_10: Not necessarily GC's fault, but I wish they'd be a bit more communicative!

Refund has now arrived. Thank you TGGC. :mysmilie_14:

Gem Collector problems with ordering

:mysmilie_13:

RubyRose said:

So a packet has just arrived, containing the tanzanite but not the tourmaline!!! Talk about a mix-up. They told me both gems were unavailable. Oh well.

As for the tanzanite... it's very pretty, but not nearly as deep saturated blue in colour as the ring I want to match. It's more of a violet, pretty like I say, but not the blue I was after. More AA+ than AAA. I got the first stone from TJC and it's a fantastic colour despite being ungraded. But that was 5+ years ago. So I'll have a think about whether I keep it or not. It's so hard to tell the true colour of the stone on the website, even when there's a video...

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Hi RubyRose, I sympathise, as I had a similar problem when ordering a piece of jewellery from the website. I ordered online with no problems, got a confirming e-mail, and then 2 days later got an e-mail to say that when the item was due to be picked for packing and posting, there were found to be none in stock! To make matters worse, I had a money-off voucher, which I could have used for something I really wanted - but "out of stock" - and there was nothing else I really wanted to buy. I tried again a couple of days later by phone, (as the item in question was STILL showing on the website), was assured by the callcentre that the item WAS available, placed my order....2 days later, yes you've guessed it, e-mail to say "not available when due to be picked". I did make a complaint to Gems, and pointed out that modern stock control systems have a facility whereby when someone orders the last of any particular item, it then flags up "sorry out of stock" if anyone else tries to order the item, and stops them going any further. But it seems that with Gems, this doesn't happen. This means that, in theory, you could place your order for any item seen online, only to find out a couple of days later that the last one has been sold! It would seem from what you say that it also can happen if you order during an auction! I cannot understand why they can't have a proper stock control system 'tweek' to their website - rocket science it 'ain't! Anyway, hope you get just the Tanzanite and Paraiba you want and have set your heart on.

History mystery - are you referring to gem collector or Gems tv?

Gems TV do over-subscibe too often - it's because their products sell in bulk within seconds. Their website, call centre and pre-ordering system tend to get a bit out of sync.

On gem collector though, it's very very rare. I've ordered over 250 stones from gem collector - and only had an issue once.

Most stones on gem collector are one-off pieces, so the stone the presenter shows on air is usually the stone you get. It's a much slower pace because it's a fairly niche channel and has far less viewers. It's also Web based only - so when someone purchases it, it immediately becomes unavailable to someone else.

The only times I've known issues on gem collector is on the rare occasion a presenter drops and loses a stone - or they've gone to pack an order and noticed the stone is scratched or faulty. Over subscribing on gem collector is very very rare.

Gems &Gem Collector items out of stock

:mysmilie_51:WifeSlashGoddess, I'm referring to both really - see first sentence of my post. RubyRose (who I replied to) was talking about item(s) out of stock on Gem Collector 'Live' auction and I was talking about similar happening with me when I ordered a piece of jewellery online (from Gems online store, not 'live' auction). The item I ordered online was most definitely not in any ongoing 'Live' on-air auction being played at the time - I can perhaps understand it happening when it's a 'Live' auction, because it's quite obvious that the on-screen computer can't keep up with the number of buyers who've bought, but this doesn't apply in my case. TJC's website is different - if you select an item from their online store and it's out of stock, a red message flags up at you, to say no more stock of that particular item available. It's not difficult to have a stock control system that does this - and being the large company that they are, Gems should have it as a matter of course. In the past, Gems had an enormous amount of problems with their website, it 'went down' regularly during 'Live' auctions, and although it has definitely improved over the past 6 months or so, there's still room for more improvement. However, in fairness, since writing this, Gems have contacted me with a £10 credit, so I must give them credit (no pun intended!) for listening to their customers.

WifeSlashGoddess said:

History mystery - are you referring to gem collector or Gems tv?

Gems TV do over-subscibe too often - it's because their products sell in bulk within seconds. Their website, call centre and pre-ordering system tend to get a bit out of sync.

On gem collector though, it's very very rare. I've ordered over 250 stones from gem collector - and only had an issue once.

Most stones on gem collector are one-off pieces, so the stone the presenter shows on air is usually the stone you get. It's a much slower pace because it's a fairly niche channel and has far less viewers. It's also Web based only - so when someone purchases it, it immediately becomes unavailable to someone else.

The only times I've known issues on gem collector is on the rare occasion a presenter drops and loses a stone - or they've gone to pack an order and noticed the stone is scratched or faulty. Over subscribing on gem collector is very very rare.

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