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I bought my wife's ring from Blue Nile - www.bluenile.com - and would absolutely recommend them. They made it very easy to get what I wanted, and did a good job

I bought my wife's ring from Blue Nile - www.bluenile.com - and would absolutely recommend them. They made it very easy to get what I wanted, and did a good job of educating me on what options were available to me. It's entirely an online operation, so it's very easy to browse their inventory over a long period of time and research any ?'s you might have somewhere else (if you don't trust their shopping guides). It's the antithesis of what I experienced at a couple of brick and mortar stores, where salesmen were pushy, unwilling to answer ?'s about their product, and at one point actually told me "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" when I asked about a ring of lesser quality than what I wound up buying. I don't plan on making it a habit to buy jewelry that expensive again, but if I did, I'd use Blue Nile in a heartbeat. Also, they did probably the coolest thing I've seen with shipping. I had the ring shipped to my office address, and spent much of its arrival date refreshing the tracking page. Almost immediately after I saw that our shipping department had "signed" for it, my phone rang. Someone from Blue Nile called to say that someone other than me (the name of someone in our mail department) had signed for the package, and they wanted to make sure it was in the right place. I didn't pay anything extra for this service, but it was a really nice touch and I've told that story to everyone I've recommended the company to.

jseliger 14y ago
Interesting. Thanks! This is precisely the sort of thing I was looking for.
Benferhat 14y ago
How would you rate their prices?
- bartonfink 14y ago
  I'm not particularly savvy to diamond prices, so all I can offer is my limited experience from 2008 when I was in the market. Further, diamonds aren't really fungible, so it's hard to compare pricing as you're really never going to buy the same diamond in two different contexts. That said, I'll provide the details of my own experience and let you decide whether Blue Nile's prices qualify as "good". I got a "perfect" (D color, brilliant cut, flawless clarity) 0.5 carat diamond in a platinum band for about $4500 all inclusive. Looking at 3 brick and mortar stores, I did not find a single ring that compared in quality with what I bought from Blue Nile. Most retailers seem to cater towards larger diamonds, and I didn't want one of those - diamonds exhibit a serious iceberg effect, and a "larger" diamond doesn't always appear substantially larger when mounted in a ring. Based on what I did see, I expect a comparable ring from a brick and mortar store would be around double the cost and significantly harder to find. I did not check other online retailers. Also, for what it's worth, I did not involve my wife in the ring-buying decision, favoring the element of surprise (I got her ring size by pretending to talk in my sleep for two months before the purchase and asking her nonsensical ?'s). Blue Nile's interface would be exceptional for involving a significant other, though - you can check pictures of an individual diamond as it would appear mounted in various rings, and I believe you could upload a photo of a hand to see how it would look when worn (I didn't do that - element of surprise and all). If it's not obvious enough from my posts so far, I'm a big fan of the company and would encourage anyone out there who's looking for a diamond to check Blue Nile. # EDIT - Noticed the caveat about pregnancy. Blue Nile will also resize their rings for free provided you ship it back to them.
  - semiquaver 14y ago
    +1 for Blue Nile. I couldn't think of a way to figure out her ring size while maintaining the element of surprise, so their free resizing was really useful (they send you a sizing kit with every order). The overall price was also very competitive.
logn 14y ago
Yes, I recommend Blue Nile too. Before you complete the order, give them a phone call. The operator I reached offered me some very good advice on choosing between two similar diamonds. They had the same price approximately and same ratings, but the dimensions were different and she explained which was more aesthetically pleasing. They do publish the dimensions, but as someone who knows nothing about jewelry I didn't know what to make of them. They offer engraving too which is a nice touch. Very nice experience overall. And not a bad startup idea on their part either.
logn 14y ago
Yes, I recommend Blue Nile too. Before you complete the order, give them a phone call. The operator I reached offered me some very good advice on choosing between two similar diamonds. They had the same price approximately and same ratings, but the dimensions were different and she explained which was more aesthetically pleasing. They offer engraving too which is a nice touch. Very nice experience overall. And not a bad startup idea on their part either.

jseliger 14y ago

Interesting. Thanks! This is precisely the sort of thing I was looking for.

Benferhat 14y ago

How would you rate their prices?

bartonfink 14y ago
I'm not particularly savvy to diamond prices, so all I can offer is my limited experience from 2008 when I was in the market. Further, diamonds aren't really fungible, so it's hard to compare pricing as you're really never going to buy the same diamond in two different contexts. That said, I'll provide the details of my own experience and let you decide whether Blue Nile's prices qualify as "good". I got a "perfect" (D color, brilliant cut, flawless clarity) 0.5 carat diamond in a platinum band for about $4500 all inclusive. Looking at 3 brick and mortar stores, I did not find a single ring that compared in quality with what I bought from Blue Nile. Most retailers seem to cater towards larger diamonds, and I didn't want one of those - diamonds exhibit a serious iceberg effect, and a "larger" diamond doesn't always appear substantially larger when mounted in a ring. Based on what I did see, I expect a comparable ring from a brick and mortar store would be around double the cost and significantly harder to find. I did not check other online retailers. Also, for what it's worth, I did not involve my wife in the ring-buying decision, favoring the element of surprise (I got her ring size by pretending to talk in my sleep for two months before the purchase and asking her nonsensical ?'s). Blue Nile's interface would be exceptional for involving a significant other, though - you can check pictures of an individual diamond as it would appear mounted in various rings, and I believe you could upload a photo of a hand to see how it would look when worn (I didn't do that - element of surprise and all). If it's not obvious enough from my posts so far, I'm a big fan of the company and would encourage anyone out there who's looking for a diamond to check Blue Nile. # EDIT - Noticed the caveat about pregnancy. Blue Nile will also resize their rings for free provided you ship it back to them.
- semiquaver 14y ago
  +1 for Blue Nile. I couldn't think of a way to figure out her ring size while maintaining the element of surprise, so their free resizing was really useful (they send you a sizing kit with every order). The overall price was also very competitive.

logn 14y ago

Yes, I recommend Blue Nile too. Before you complete the order, give them a phone call. The operator I reached offered me some very good advice on choosing between two similar diamonds. They had the same price approximately and same ratings, but the dimensions were different and she explained which was more aesthetically pleasing. They do publish the dimensions, but as someone who knows nothing about jewelry I didn't know what to make of them. They offer engraving too which is a nice touch. Very nice experience overall. And not a bad startup idea on their part either.

logn 14y ago

Yes, I recommend Blue Nile too. Before you complete the order, give them a phone call. The operator I reached offered me some very good advice on choosing between two similar diamonds. They had the same price approximately and same ratings, but the dimensions were different and she explained which was more aesthetically pleasing. They offer engraving too which is a nice touch. Very nice experience overall. And not a bad startup idea on their part either.