Direct Shopping Network
1239 South Glendale Ave.
Glendale, CA 91205
After watching DSN for several days, I registered and received a customer number. After several more days of casual watching, I purchased a mans ring during a "closeout" sale. It was featured as a 25 gram 14K yellow gold ring with a 2 1/2 carat mandarin garnet. I called in, bought the ring and provided my CC information for billing. I confirmed the ring was 25 grams weight. Not remembering whether the ring was 14 or 18 karat as the transaction happened very quickly, I called back and confirmed that it was 14k and was indeed 25 grams. (This is about what I could have my jeweler cast and finish the ring for.)
In the meantime while waiting for the mans ring, I made the mistake of purchasing another ring for my wife. Each ring was over $500. More about this later.
I purchased the ring on Feb. 2nd which they show on their invoice as the ship date. It was billed to my credit card on Feb. 9th which they show on their invoice as the invoice date. I received the ring on the 22nd of the month although they say you'll receive purchases in 15 days. I opened the box with great anticipation and pulled the ring from the box. It looked like the ring I bought but seemed somewhat light. I put it on the scale and it only weighed 13.2 grams with the stone. I immediately called their customer service number and got the answering machine, and left a message. Two days later I had not received a response so called and left a somewhat firmer message. That evening a girl called and I explained that the ring only weighed slightly over half of what had been offered and purchased. Her response was "send it back". I explained that I didn't want to return it for refund, that I expected them to deliver what I had purchased. Again her response was "send it back". That is the only solution she had for my problem so I demanded to speak to someone in management.
She promptly put me on hold... And left me there for ten minutes. Finally she returned and told me a supervisor would call me within 30 minutes. Four hours later she had not called. Four days later she had not called. Since they have no website and only the customer service number, I typed a three page letter to Owners/Management detailing the problem and acceptable solutions and faxed it to them. No response. I then left a much stronger message on their answering machine. Someone else called me that evening. Her solution, "send it back with a letter describing the problem". Right!
Now I'm waiting on the second purchase.in the meantime I have read the complaints against DSN and have decided to NOT send the first ring back figuring a bird in the hand (though a small one) was better than the hassle of trying to get a refund out of these people. After two weeks, no ring. After three weeks, no ring. Finally it arrived 34 days after I purchased it (their promise is within 15 days).
The ring I saw on their broadcast was an attractive 2 carat blue star sapphire mounted in 18k white gold with 1/2 carat of diamonds. The ring I received was white gold and I'll assume the diamonds might total half carat. BUT, as to the star sapphire, I could not believe it. Not only was it not a star sapphire, it was barely mounted on the ring. What I received was a very low grade cabochon sapphire riddled with internal inclusions. Even under a high intensity single source light I could detect no hint of a star. Imagine my dismay considering I had just purchased a 15.67 carat blue cabochon sapphire from Thailand for only $25.50 including shipping and a 7.22 carat blue star sapphire for only $11.53.
As I examined the sapphire, I discovered the prongs holding the stone were more wire than prong. Three were slightly bent in toward the stone. The forth was bent way over to touch the stone and there was a gap between the stone and the base of the prong of some 2mm. The sapphire that I received was not even large enough to fit in the mounting. The real problem with this purchase is I bought it at auction and according to their policy, have no right of return on this item. Had it been as shown and represented, I would have no cause to want to return it. As it is, I'm stuck with a piece of trash that I'll now be embarrassed to give to my wife as her birthday present.
As I have experienced the above six week ordeal, I have watched this program very carefully and observed many things that I should have caught in the first place. One, they NEVER tell you the grading of a gemstone unless it is flawless... At least by their standard. Two, they will try to convince you that flaws, included crystals, color banding, low color saturation etc. Are desirable features when in fact all these diminish the value of a gemstone considerably. They move sales of merchandise along very swiftly so you have very little time to evaluate the gemstone. They have potential customers stacked up on line with their numerous sales people and have them competing for offered items so there is little time to really see what you are buying.
Should you ever be inclined to watch their television show, please notice the following. You have Blue, the fatherly professorial educator that explains in detail about the gemstones while convincing you that imperfections in the stones make them desirable. (If he owns 22 gemstone mines, why is he a pitchman for a second rate jewelry marketing program?) Then you have Art, the Richard Lewis "Everything bad happens to me" type. He moans on and on about anything to distract you while apparently cutting the prices Blue sets for the items they are selling and pushing everything along faster and faster. I believe he's the sharpest fox in the henhouse. Then you have Jeremy who laughs, giggles, fumbles and bumbles around like the village idiot while pushing whatever he's been assigned to sell for his show.
The entire thrust of their pitch is their companies integrity, honesty, desire to educate the public and provide quality gemstones and jewelry at the lowest prices available. I have yet to experience any of the projected character traits from this organization. You may imagine my chagrin as I listen to this line of "BS" while looking at over a thousand dollars worth of merchandise that is nowhere close to what they offered and I purchased.
You will also notice that when running an auction and they have the countdown clock running, they cannot register bids. I finally figured that one out. They start the clock when they have reached, or nearly reached their target price on a single, "only one left" item.in fact, every sales agent is selling one to any customer they have online at the time. When the clock expires, the item is whisk from display leaving everyone that made a final bid price feeling that they are the "one" who had the high bid and won the item. The other fact is the shipping and handling charge Of $19.95 which is non-refundable. If they sell a thousand items in an evening and half of them are returned, they will still have made $8000 as they only spent $3.95 to ship your item priority mail... When they finally get around to it. As to billing vs. Returns and refunds, you will notice that they only offer shipping within 15 days (the fact is that my items arrived in three and five weeks respectively).in the meantime, your credit card has been billed and you are stuck with the charges and the ordeal of getting your refund or trying to get it rectified through the CC company as a disputed claim.in the meantime, you have either paid for the item or incurred finance charges if you do not pay a zero balance every month, an additional expense to you in addition to the loss of shipping charges and the inconvenience of having to return inferior quality merchandise.
These are both my experiences and observations. All I can say is CAVIAT EMPTOR... Let the buyer beware. If anyone with DSN would care to respond, I would sincerely love to hear from you.
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