While traveling on a tour in Europe with Tafalgar Tours we stopped in Amsterdam. The tour guide told us that we will visit a diamond wholesaler where we could get great bargains on diamonds. All during the tour the people at Coster kept telling us that they are wholesellers and the get the raw diamonds and cut them thus they have the best prices in the world. Coster repeatedly told us that buying from them is buying at wholesale prices.
We purchased several loose diamonds from them to bring back and make into jewelry back home. After a few years we decided to make the diamonds into jewelry for a special occasion. When our jeweler created the jewelry and then appraised it much to our surprise the appraisal for the jewelry, diamonds and white gold was almost 1/2 of what we paid for the diamonds alone. This amazed us as how can diamonds loose value over the years.
We confirmed that the diamonds appraisal were the same quality and clarity that Coster had on their sales slip and also confirmed by e-mail. We also went online to check loose diamond prices at the current market price. Again, the value of the stones we purchased were almost half of what we paid for them in 2000. When we contacted Coster to ask them how diamonds can loose half their value over the period of several years when we were supposed to purchase them at wholesale prices. Their response was "The purchase you made on the 25-08 was a proper business transaction and fair deal agreed by you." We tried to give them an out by saying that maybe there was a clerical error for what must have been an overcharge and that we would like some kind of refund.
They blew us off and did not even try to work with us to resolve this. They suckered us into a purchase and then said to bad. They are into cheating the consumer for a fast buck knowing that you can not do anything since you are out of their country in one day.
What we also found out is that our tour guide got a large kickback from Coster for our sale as he would with any sales made from his tour bus.
When you travel:
Do not buy expensive items without checking the internet first.
Do not buy from coster
Do not travel on trafalgar tours
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