November 17, 2011
Whiteflash is truly outstanding, it leaves you wondering, what if the rest of the business world was like this? My experience buying an engagement ring started out the same as many others, visiting the usual Toronto area brick & mortar jewelry stores. After visits to many different retailers I was frustrated with the inability to view multiple diamonds at once. I was uncomfortable with how hard they were pushing J-I color stones, when I was looking for an H or higher color stone. After being told multiple times by the salesman at the best of the lot that no one can tell the difference between an I color and a D color stone (despite the fact that the only D color stone they had was .2 carat, pretty hard to see color in a stone that small), I finally told the salesman that I was not going to buy anything that was not at least an H. It was then he finally narrowed his search to H or higher and we found 2 diamonds available across the entire network of stores (Canada's biggest jewelry retailer, with the annoying radio ad). I went home and began to search for diamonds online to compare prices. I can't remember exactly what I typed in to google, because I can't replicate it, but one of the first three results was pricescope.com and the rest fell into place as it has for so many others. The holloway cut adviser was the first tool that I found very useful, however it didn't exclude the diamond I had placed a deposit on since it scored very well on the HCA. The real gems were the forums where my education on diamonds began in earnest. Luckily when I went back into the B&M store three days later armed with the knowledge of what good arrows should look like, I quickly realized how poor their cut quality actually was & I took the refund of my deposit. The pricescope forums lead me to visit the online sites of the three top tier companies recommended there, and it was the wide selection of settings & the glowing reviews of their customer service that had me leaning towards Whiteflash above the two others. They didn't disappoint. I registered as a member on the Whiteflash website on November 6th. I was stunned at the ease with which I could view pictures of multiple diamonds, their Ideal scope, arrows & hearts images. When I checked my email in the morning on November 7th, I had received an email from Victoria welcoming me to the site. I responded with an email that listed 5 diamonds (by AGS number) I was interested in and if she would be kind enough to call me with a gemologist to discuss them. Two hours later I received a call from Bob, one of their graduate gemologists. He assured me that all of the diamonds I had selected were excellent stones, and that if it were his choice he would go with the one that had the least color, an F color stone, VS1 clarity in this case. I placed the order that day & received the order confirmation a few hours later, I promptly went to the bank and wired the money. That night I was reviewing my list of 5 diamonds and realized that a stone that was slightly bigger with a slightly better ideal scope image and a slightly better hearts image on my list was only a $100 more. I contacted Victoria and asked her to make the change, she did: promptly and efficiently. Over the next week I exchanged 30 emails with the team at Whiteflash; Victoria, Randi, Vera, Alan & Becca, reviewing the pictures of the finished product in detail and asking for further shots from different angles. All of them were warm & a pleasure to deal with, so different than my experience in the B&M stores. We discussed everything from the stone to the setting, the pictures, mounting, engraving & Alan over the phone helping me get the fedex shipment through Canadian border services at the very end (fedex's mistake), all of it done very professionally on their end. I received my diamond the morning of November 15th, 5 business days after placing the order. The pictures they had sent via email had me very excited, but honestly, they did not do the actual finished product justice. The ring is simply amazing, it is the finest piece of jewelry I have seen during this entire process, the stone is blinding, brilliant and shows a great deal larger than it's .717 carat weight. The setting (iris style) is spectacular, lucid, and lovely. The quality of their mounting skills is unparalled in my opinion. Every single recommendation I give on engagement ring purchases from this day forward will point in one direction only: Whiteflash.com. Thank you very kindly Whiteflash, I will let you know how the presentation goes, but she is going to love it, I know it already.
Sandeep S, Canada