The Diamond Pro has over 50 years of combined experience helping consumers get the most value on their diamond purchase!
So who are The Diamond Pros? Here’s a brief intro about who we are and why we do what we do. If you want to read a bit more about each of us personally, you can check out our bios below.
Ira and I both grew up professionally in the diamond industry. We worked together at one of the largest diamond manufacturers in the world. During that time, we both learned all the facets of the diamond industry that affect what the end product to the consumer is and how much it costs. From studying everything there is to know about Diamonds in Israel, purchasing large batches of diamonds in India, and selling diamonds to wholesalers and retailers around the United States and internationally, we’ve seen it all.
We both left the industry feeling disillusioned. While we both worked very hard, our hearts just weren’t in it. Finding ways to maximize profitability and move dead inventory may have been great for our company, but it didn’t make us feel too great about what the end consumer was buying. Twenty years of this left us with a bad taste in our mouths.
Some time after we both left the company, Ira reached out to me in 2010 with his idea for taking our knowledge and helping consumers avoid all the tricks diamond professionals use to make more money off of them. And so The Diamond Pro (then Truth About Diamonds) was born.
Well, we certainly did something right. Something about our message has clearly resonated with our readers, the diamond buying consumers. Our readership has grown tremendously and with that, we have needed to increase our ranks.
Our team of consultants have all been carefully hired, trained and mentored by myself. We have gone to great lengths to ensure that every member of the team is truly an expert before they begin helping our readers.
Most “consultants” for diamond companies train their team members for one to two months and have a high turnover rate. Our team members have daily training for six months before they begin to answer emails. Even then, Annie or myself still go over each and every email for another few months until we are absolutely sure you are in good hands.
We also have a great work environment and foster personal relationships as well. This has helped create a company with almost no turnover (the fantastic Katy earned her degree in architecture and moved on to pursue her dreams). This means that the consultant working with you has helped thousands of readers. They’ve seen it all and know all the angles.
Editorial Guidelines
The Diamond Pro’s goal is to provide accurate information that helps people get the best diamonds and jewelry at a competitive price. The most difficult type of article to produce is a review. In these articles we are using our expertise and general experience in the diamond industry as well as our specific experiences with that retailer. It is important that we judge retailers based on a uniform set of guidelines.
Here are the guidelines we use to ensure that we are giving you accurate information with as little bias as possible.
Secret Shopping Brick and Mortar Retailers
The bulk of our reviews were written about physical retail locations. Every review we’ve done is a result of secret shopping trips to that retailer. A few notes on how we secret shop to ensure accurate information:
- 95%+ of our secret shopping trips involved multiple diamond pros. For example, Jenny and I would go on a secret shopping trip.
- We would not reveal ourselves to be knowledgeable about diamonds or that we are there in a professional capacity. We pretend to be a couple looking to purchase a product.
- We do not direct the salespeople towards certain products or qualities. Other than basic personal information (budget, size expectations, setting style), we allow the salesperson to recommend products to us.
- When possible, our reviews are based on multiple secret shopping visits. This mainly applies to larger chains with multiple locations.
When secret shopping, these are the primary areas we focus on. We try to be as consistent as possible, but we do use common sense. For example, when going into a luxury retailer with average products costing more than $100,000, we expect the experience to be better than the experience in a store where they sell $2,000 products.
The Experience
We are looking at how the shopping experience makes us feel:
- The overall ambiance of the retail location. Do you feel like it’s an appropriate place to purchase such an expensive item? Do you feel comfortable and catered to?
- Are the salespeople attentive? Is it hard to get help? Conversely, do they suffocate you so you can’t shop at your own pace?
- Are the salespeople knowledgeable? Do they provide correct and applicable information about the products? Do they try to deceive or misguide you?
The Product
Here we look at the quality and quantity of a retailer’s product offering:
- Do they have ample inventory to provide consumers with what they want (as opposed to trying to sell them something that isn’t perfect, but that is what the retailer has in stock)?
- Is the quality of the diamond what they claim it is? Do they use GIA or AGS certification?
- Is the quality in the range that we recommend to our readers in order to get the best bang for their buck? Or do they only have qualities that are too low or too high?
The Value
Is the retailer charging what we feel is a fair price for their product?
- First we compare the retailer’s products to similar products from our recommended vendors. Are they more expensive? If so, by how much?
- Then we take the experience into account. If the retailer is providing a unique experience when shopping, does that justify the premium they are charging? This is going to be subjective, but we work hard to remove bias as much as possible.
We do not need to convert every single reader into a sale. We believe that if we provide accurate information and partner with the companies we feel offer the best value to you, the consumer, we’ll do fine. There is no need to “bash the competition” unnecessarily. If you look at our list of reviews, you will see that we give several retailers high ratings despite not earning one penny from them.
And here is our team:
Chief Diamond Pro & CEO
Michael is the manager of day to day operations of The Diamond Pro. He and Ira met while they were both traveling salesmen at Leo Schachter diamonds (Ira based in Israel and Michael based in New York at the time).
At Leo Schacher, Michael’s specialty was larger certified fancy-shape diamonds (i.e., non-round) Following Michael’s employment at Leo Schacter, he moved on to another world-renowned diamond manufacturer, Moshe Namdar, Inc. Full bio is available here.
Resident Diamond Pro
Annie has been a part of our team since 2013. Michael took her under his wing and trained her intensively side-by-side for a full year.
Annie has already helped thousands of readers of our site who love her clear and frank advice. Read full bio here.
Resident Diamond Pro
Joy has been a part of our team since 2015. She joined the team after completing a stint working as a customer service representative for an online diamond retailer.
Joy has already helped hundreds of readers who appreciate her experience and crystal clear advice. Read full bio here.
Resident Diamond Pro
Jenny has been with us since early 2015. An accomplished violinist, a speaker of many languages, a seasoned traveller, and a historian, Jenny most of all enjoys working with people and helping to make their lives better.
If Jenny responds to your emails, you know she’ll be taking great care of you. Read full bio here.
Resident Diamond Pro
Veronika joined us at the beginning of 2017. Since she studied HR and always loved communicating with people, she was a perfect fit into our team.
Veronika is ready to answer all your questions and give you as much time as necessary. . Read full bio here.
Founder
Ira created the website back in the summer of 2009. Originally, the site was called TruthAboutDiamonds.com (the name change happened in early 2014). Ira and Mike worked together at Leo Schachter diamonds, traveling all over the US selling diamonds – often together.
At Leo Schachter, Ira’s specialty was small round diamonds (generally under 0.70ct). Since 2014, Ira has taken a step back as Michael has taken over management at The Diamond Pro. Read full bio here.
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. James Allen will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free International Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisals
- One free resizing within 60 days of purchase
- Free ring inscriptions
- Best-in-class high quality imagery of all diamonds in stock
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Best-in-class packaging
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. Blue Nile will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisal
- One free resizing within the first year of purchase
- High quality images of about half of their diamonds
- 24/7 Customer Service
- 100% credit towards future upgrades (must be at least double in value)
- Best in class fulfillment
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