Yet another presenter leaving Gemporia - Rae Carpenter

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historymystery

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Feb 16, 2015
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Just heard Rae Carpenter mention on-air that this is her last week at Gems. How many more established presenters can this channel lose? Over the past year or so, Steve Bennett has lost a lot of experienced and very well-liked presenters, closed the US channel (yet again) and 'shrunk' the number of channels in the UK operation (closing the Diamond channel that he was so vocal about when it opened, but which resembled a train wreck when it operated). He is now left with a seemingly ever- diminishing number of experienced presenters and too many presenters with little or no charisma, in my view, and shows that are increasingly 'shouty' and hard-sell. And I notice they are now selling perfume and candles!

I think the writing's on the wall for this channel. Bye, Steve.
 
I will be sad if the channel closes as I have had some lovely things from them. However, the selling of candles and perfume does not appeal to me at all.

Every time lately when I switch on, there is the presenter and an 'expert'. God, they drone on and on, before getting around to selling anything, by which time I have lost the will to live and switched off. I am sure they talk for around half an hour before getting down to the business of selling.

There appears to be endless 'adverts' for different things too and it is quite unusual for me to switch on and see a gem anywhere. Then when an item is eventually on air, it is shown in the light box (if that is the correct description), and not on the finger or real life so to speak. I want to see the item as it is and how it will look when I receive it. I did email the channel but, of course, nothing changes.

I think their website is terrible too.
 
It is sad but the channel is not as good as it once was.When Jewellery Maker(which in itself has undergone a change for the worse in my opinion) was sold off that made me wonder what was going on.The sales pitch has become very pushy of late.People such as Angeline mean an instant turn over for me.In fact a few other pushy ,shouty ,in your face mares have the same effect.After years of custom on this channel (as Gems tv) I'm about ready to say 'bye'.Why if they have all these contacts in the gem world are they selling flaming candles and perfume?He tried all that on that charity channel that went t!ts up.Well you never know could be make up and clothes next!!
 
Anna & Petespants, I agree with every point you've mentioned. The 'experts' - at least one of whom seems to have been shoved on-air because he's good-looking and popular with the ladies (we've been told how many have written in about him) - go on for far too long, and saying "these prices are too low", "how are we doing this?" only works a couple of times, after that it becomes tiresome and just plain irritating, and you think why are they here, if only to repeat a load of gush? As Petespants says, they have always maintained before that genuine gemstones set in precious metals are their reason for existence - so why the candles and perfume? There's no world shortage of either, is there? The only reason I can think of is that their jewellery is not selling so well, and that's probably because it's nowhere near such good value as it used to be, nor is the quality as good. Steve Bennett lost his way with this channel a long while ago, in my opinion, and it is creaking badly.
 
I also dislike the length of time the 'manager's special' takes - it can be around 15 minutes of dull.

I haven't seen anything lately to tempt me at all. I tend to buy the silver items, and to be fair to Gems, have a couple of really lovely sapphire bracelets I purchased about 2 years ago - they, and some sapphire rings, are my favourite items from them. I haven't seen anything like that since, they may well have them, but I just don't stay watching long now. And Adina......don't get me started!
 
No, let's not go there with Adina, except to say has she ever finished a sentence yet - and watch 'they' don't poke your eyes out!!:mysmilie_17:
I also dislike the length of time the 'manager's special' takes - it can be around 15 minutes of dull.

I haven't seen anything lately to tempt me at all. I tend to buy the silver items, and to be fair to Gems, have a couple of really lovely sapphire bracelets I purchased about 2 years ago - they, and some sapphire rings, are my favourite items from them. I haven't seen anything like that since, they may well have them, but I just don't stay watching long now. And Adina......don't get me started!
 
Adina, wiggle giggle play with hair which always seem to look like she has playing in a wind tunnel. Breathless, I sometimes wonder if she cannot finish sentences because she is asthmatic and run of of breath?

A friend likes to watch usually during the day, I see at the weekends if at her place. Talk for 15 minutes at lease before actually starting to sell something, endless ad breaks of the same thing over and over and over. I get the idea they only have like 5 things to sell an hour as they talk so much in-between. The same items appearing again and again each week, when they said the week before it was the last of the stock.

I have some lovely pieces bought years back which I still wear, those days long gone.
 
Totally agree with all the comments and would add that in regard to silver jewellery the prices even for old stock seem to have increased and the new stock is significantly more expensive and over hyped with the results that those who know gemstones are returning them as they are either too pale or the same colour as they purchased previously with a much higher price tag. The hammy over acting and the harder and harder sell is a no no for me and i did note recently that a turquoise necklace was sold at 29.99 and it was reconstituted which is very low value, i can purchase a strand for 1.63 retail price, whilst i am not against a business making profit in my opinion that is really shameful,treading a very fine line and possibly alienating regular longstanding customers many of whom according to the feefo reviews will no longer buy due to reduced gram weight in the gold items and i have noticed lately in the silver rings,starting to look cheap and nasty.As for that David so called expert, he is just really irritating, especially given that i rarely watch and without volume,he seems to be on all the times, it all smacks of desperation.
 
Sad to hear about Rae. She was one of my favourites. I agree with all that has been said. I dont watch much now. I like Jim even though hes like an excited school boy, he doesnt give it the hard sell. I quite like Ellis but the rest you can keep. Gone are the days when they had shows packed full of good things. I think the guests are brought on to pad out the show and when they have an hour of one gem, it takes about 20 minutes before it gets started. It will be a shame if it folds but it certainly needs some sorting. Another bugbear of mine is when they hand over to the next presenter who is the gorgeous ......... ugh. Its so false.
 
When I saw Rae's last shows on Saturday and Sunday, she said that the shifts she works continuously have involved her in really early morning starts, i.e. 2 am!! Wouldn't you think that if Steve Bennett really valued his presenters, he would insist that the unsocial shifts be shared out? And yet we have Angeline, who is so full of herself, and Lynn (who I do like, although she's a bit too OTT at times) who ONLY do the day shifts or early evening ones? Lynn's on maternity leave at present so she's out of the picture and I wonder if she'll be back, as this is a sinking ship. You should look after your staff if you want them to stay, and it's pretty obvious that Lynn & Rod, Adina the Shrieker, and Angeline & Nick have some sort of "special" arrangement there, where they get to do only the 'social' hours. This is fine as far as it goes, but allowing these people to always have the daytime shifts is allowing the tail to wag the dog, and ignores presenters like Rae, who are also long-term employees! So unfair. Vicki is pretty hysterical, Ruth you never see on the main channel, they've shunted her off to the other channel, and the only other one who has any depth of personality is Jim, and he gets the crap hours as well. I absolutely agree that the price of the jewellery has escalated - I haven't bought from them for a long while, and it's sad, as I have some lovely pieces I bought years back. I don't mind the guests, if it's once in a while and they have something interesting to tell us, but I hate that they just waffle and mouth platitudes - you could have somebody off the street to do that. I want some gem knowledge, not crapspeak, please.

Sad to hear about Rae. She was one of my favourites. I agree with all that has been said. I dont watch much now. I like Jim even though hes like an excited school boy, he doesnt give it the hard sell. I quite like Ellis but the rest you can keep. Gone are the days when they had shows packed full of good things. I think the guests are brought on to pad out the show and when they have an hour of one gem, it takes about 20 minutes before it gets started. It will be a shame if it folds but it certainly needs some sorting. Another bugbear of mine is when they hand over to the next presenter who is the gorgeous ......... ugh. Its so false.
 
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Lol! Oh donna, you do make me laugh - this is such an apt description of her and that ruddy hair that she constantly twists around her fingers! And the splayed fingers pushed at us remind me of Freddy Kruger.
Adina, wiggle giggle play with hair which always seem to look like she has playing in a wind tunnel. Breathless, I sometimes wonder if she cannot finish sentences because she is asthmatic and run of of breath?

A friend likes to watch usually during the day, I see at the weekends if at her place. Talk for 15 minutes at lease before actually starting to sell something, endless ad breaks of the same thing over and over and over. I get the idea they only have like 5 things to sell an hour as they talk so much in-between. The same items appearing again and again each week, when they said the week before it was the last of the stock.

I have some lovely pieces bought years back which I still wear, those days long gone.
 
In my opinion, the worse the products (a channel offers) get, the more desperate (shouty) the presenters tend to be... to try and offload it.
 
Completely agree. Bought most items 3 to 4 years ago. Two recent purchases have been from "old" stock and great. I've posted on Feefo that the g weight of the gold items has plummeted. Some reviews of Thomas Rae 18k & Lorique are quite disturbing (for those of us who bought in the earlier years). One customer posted that they were refused a ring resize because there wasn't enough gold in the band - on a Lorique! I now ALWAYS look at the setting & g weight to get an idea of how thin the band will be. You can't set a 10x8 gem with accent stones in 1.59g of metal & expect people to be happy - especially as the declared weight is an average across all sizes!

To see Steve B present an item recently almost entirely using the VT in the light box was a shock to me. It just said "we're hiding something". There is also far too much coated or reconstituted stock now, which is fine but I decided ages ago that those two treatments were not for me. And don't get me started on their diamonds. I have some good I3 pieces with SGL certs but I won't touch anything with diamonds now. Setting I3, I-J, single cut diamonds in anything is no different to buying takes in my view.

As for presenters, well when Scott left I thought something was up. I liked Rae a lot too. Ellis is absolutely fine. I can't handle Adina, Rosie or Kate so watch more Lounge - sorry - Outlet now.
 

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