Buying Jewelry Online

Fine jewelry is available online for up to 50 % less than you'd pay retail. However, for making such a large investment it is necessary that you buy it from a trusted and reliable source. It is also important that you have done enough homework to make a smart buying decision. Some of the important things that you should consider while buying jewelry online are – 

• Does the website use https encryption in its shopping cart?
• Can you easily contact the website owners?
• Do they publish a fair exchange and returns policy?

In addition to these basics it is also important that you try and find out how long it will be before you are likely to receive your jewelry. On this point you should try and find out whether the vendor provides tracking thereby allowing you to check the status of your order. For precious gemstones that you obviously won’t get the opportunity to inspect you are taking an even bigger risk. If the gemstone is supplied with a GIA report the risk is somewhat reduced.

 

Given below is a set of instructions that you may follow while searching and buying jewelry online –

1. Improve your knowledge with how to measure quality in gold, diamonds or other items you may like to purchase. Understand the difference between carats and karats.
2. Enter the word "jewelry" in a search engine like Yahoo or Google. If desired, you can enter more specific words such as "rings," "gold", or "diamonds".
3. Search sites for information. Some sites offer jewelry manufacture by known companies while others have their own jewellers, which make the pieces for sale.
4. Carefully read the information on guarantees, secure ordering and returns. A piece of jewelry is a big investment, and you want to be sure your purchase is guaranteed and that your purchase price can be refunded if you wish to return the item.
5. Check to see if certificates are given, especially for diamonds.
6. If you are confident that the site is secure and reputed, browse the categories ("diamonds," "gold," "watches," "rings," and so on) or do a site search using the key word or words of the item you are looking for ("gold watch," "diamond ring," and so on).
7. If you find a piece, which interests you, you may have to click its image to make it larger in order to get a better look. While this is not necessarily a good substitute for seeing the piece in person, it will give you a fairly good idea of what the piece looks like.
8. When you order, give special attention to sizes and other options offered. (For example, do you want the diamond set in a yellow gold or white gold band?)

Protection while buying jewelry online

When you buy jewelry online, your level of protection depends upon the payment method you have provided. It is always important to carefully read the refunds and returns policy before making a purchase decision, especially more expensive gemstones. If trouble arises follow these steps:

 

• Contact the website and give them an opportunity to respond (3-5 days)
• Contact the website again and tell them you are going to call your bank for a chargeback.
• If the website does not respond contact your bank with details of the purchase and ask for a refund. You will need to state a suitable reason but the bank will have your interests and not the websites at heart. The website owners are then contacted and have around 3 days to dispute the claim. In majority cases they will be unsuccessful and your funds will be reimbursed.

In case of Paypal, you have the same options, however the process is a little slower and you will have to contact the Paypal disputes centre. In case of direct deposit or money order you will not have this kind of protection available.

Learning more about Jewelry

It is always important to learn more about jewelry and improve your knowledge in order to make ain informed purchase decision while buying jewelry online. Search the internet and you will find a lot of useful information that will help you in buying a right piece of jewelry for your unique needs.