Buying jewellery online has taken off over the last 5 years, local jewellery stores and big chain stores are having trouble surviving. There are still many buyers who are uncomfortable buying online, and that is understandable. I have been buying jewellery online for 8 years and have some advice.
Traditionally, people have been uneasy purchasing anything online fear of someone stealing their credit card information. While nothing is 100% foolproof, the internet can be as secure as using your credit card at local stores. There are some precautions that should be taken of coarse, you must make surethe site you are purchasing from is protected (most are) and you could join a site such as paypal that offers protection and ease of use for your credit card transactions online.
Paypal is the best known, it is owned by Ebay and has a very good reputation for security, but I’m certain if you looked around, you could come up with others.
When its time to pay for your purchases, there are certain things to avoid, the biggest is sending cash or money orders.
There are many businesses that will send or “wire” cash anywhere for a small fee, never do this, you have absolutely NO protection, just don’t do it. I have purchased literally thousands of pieces of jewellery online and yes, I have been burned a few times, but I’ve learned.
I use Paypal when possible or my credit card, because I have the same coverage with my credit card company if there is fraud involved, and it does happen. But, if you run into trouble, you can get your money back through your credit card company.
Once you are comfortable with the payment part of your purchase, now comes the most difficult part, finding a trustworthy online seller. There are literally thousands of jewellery websites online as well as the big department stores, Walmart, Costco, Sears…etc…etc…and of coarse auction sites like Ebay, Bidz and many others.
Due to lower costs you can definitely get premium deals when you buy gold jewellery online, it’s much less expensive than your local jewellery store. You do give up some things, such as service, online stores don’t compare to talking with your local jeweller, but, if you know what you want, that won’t really be a problem.
The key is research, take the time to look around, find what you want, find a number of different sellers and do some comparing, just like you would do at your local malls.
A very important thing you must to do is learn the “lingo” so you know exactly what is being described, an example is Gold, described as 14K or 14K/20.
The first one 14K is Solid 14K Gold, the second one 14K/20 is 14K Gold Plated – 20ml, there’s a very big difference – if you are not sure ASK, don’t be afraid to ask before you buy don’t wait until after the transaction is completed. While most honest jewellers or sellers online accept returns, there are always conditions, usually a time limit, 7 – 30 days and you must pay to send the item back. Depending on the location of the seller, that could get expensive, plus, they rarely refund the original shipping cost…so you are out of pocket both shipping fees and you still don’t have your item.
If you buy wedding rings for example, with shipping cost and return shipping cost sometimes it would be better just to sell it to cash for gold rather than send it back. Ok, so that’s a little humour,however, while that might be an exaggeration, I’m sure you get my point…don’t lose your money buying and sending back items, do your homework.
There are other considerations, quality of the jewellery is very important, you can learn much from the descriptions given by the seller. The descriptions, go back to understanding the jewellery language. Even little things, like understanding gold weights, that will give you a very good idea of how heavy a ring will be when you buy it, you can’t always tell by onlinepictures if it’s a “thin” ring or a “heavier” band.
I find you can have fun purchasing online if you take the necessary precautions and do a little research online. I’ve been buying jewellery online since around 2001 and I have many tips and recommendations. I’ll put a few more together in my next posting.
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