Yes they used FEDEX- As I knew they have to charge you with custom duties. The thing is its like nearly 10% because they had "administration fees". Of course the official Swiss VAT is 8%, then depends how much is your item because the admin fee is static amount- like 30chf for example.
Ok bluenile always gives 10% "discount" (its advertise if you have amex if you have x, y, or with numerous "discount codes" found online).
But: the Diamond ring I got from bluenile was made...in India!!!!!
So bluenile is just like big corporates who makes in cheap countries and then sell online.
For having spent 2 months in India, I definitely suggest you "cut the middle man" and look for the most expansive indian jewellers (for trust issues) and see the price difference... For example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanishq . Although I just looked their online shops, it does not seems to have much choice as it was there.
I'll start looking for an engagement ring very soon in Zurich, but... I have no idea of where to go.
Unfortunately my girlfriend is studying in an area that's not very safe (nope, not in Switzerland!), so diamonds and other fancy/catchy things are out of the question. I want her to use the ring without endangering herself, so I'd like something nice but discreet that would never call attention upon herself. This means that it can't be terribly expensive either - a few hundred or so at most. It would preferably have to be ready for pickup in less than two weeks.
Any suggestions of places in Zurich that might have what I'm looking for? I don't want to go into random jewelers that only sell extremely fancy stuff, wasting their time and looking like a cheapskates fool!
In the olden days in Germany the lady received her wedding ring on the engagement day. She wore it on her left hand ring finger, and when she married she moved it during the service to her right hand ring finger.
Wouldn't that solve your problem? I suspect they still do this today as I see very few women wearing engagement rings.
Do people really STILL get engaged??? How quaint. Thought this tradition had died out as most of the people I know just live together and only marry if and when they decide to have children.
I can speak with very recent experience as I asked my girlfriend to marry me last weekend!!
I went back over to my lovely juwelers in Brighton to buy her ring. I chose the stone from their selection and had it set in a platinum ring. All custom work with a nice new stone that I know has never adorned anyone elses finger. The stone is a certificated 1.20ct brilliant cut diamond with exceptional scores on the other 6 values that I shall not bore you all with on here.
Without being crude, it also works financially as the cost of any flight is saved in the tax exchange.
However I'd like to have an engagement ring *and* a wedding ring... Where I come from the engagement ring is usually chosen by the gentleman, but the wedding rings are chosen by both - and I would like to do that as well.
I wasn't joking about moving the ring on marriage. Check it out where you work, but in German speaking areas I know they wear the wedding ring on the right hand, ring finger.
I now live in the village where Swisscom is headquarted. I used to live in the city where BMW has their headquarters. I was born in the city with the lord mayor. So it's all either here or there.
They do also have smaller budjet ones. I would have recommended tacori, but the gold price is high at the moment and if you buy from the internet it mostly is joined with the current asking price for gold, but on the other hand the dollar is low.
don't know about Switzerland, but in London there's Hatton Gardens where they often supply the high street shops which reduces prices significantly.
Also you can choose the stones and setting/metal of the ring and so can save loads on getting stones that look good but are also not rare (Why would you want to give a flawless stone that will look the same as one with small flaws invisible to the naked eye and cost twice as much?)
Got the ring I wanted (trinity 0.75 carat total) for about half of what high street shops wanted to charge me for it (less than £1k) and everyone (including fiance!) is happy
Hi Buddy, here's my first post on the forum. I'll write an intro later.
I went around looking for an engagement ring in Hatton Gardens, London, plus Tiffany's and Boodles, in the autumn of 2010. That taught me a whole lot about the market, the different qualities of a diamond, and the prices. I then came across a webiste, "The Diamond Factory", which I was initially quite skeptical about. The prices seemed too good to be true. I ended up phoning them, and it turns out they have a real life office in Hatton Gdns, so they're definitely legit. I even went to visit them, just to see. In the end, I got a much cheaper ring off them than what I'd scouted in the shops, and you can get exactly the spec you want.
Ok. Diamond solitaires as engagement rings are an Anglo-American tradition and really just got big when DeBeers at the beginning of the 20th century found huge diamond reserves in South Africa and needed a market for them. They started to promote diamonds as the ultimative stone for the occasion. So it is not that traditional - or only in the US sense where everything older than ten years is "traditional".
I remember my English teacher telling us about it and I never heard of a diamond engagement ring before. But thanks to hollywood, wedding bands have changed. But the "iceberg" type of engagement ring is still pretty uncommon here - and that includes entire central Europe. I grew up in a city of roughly 100k inhabitants in Germany and when we planned to marry, I checked out jewellers there. They were surprised to see a 20something asking for a solitaire ring and had nothing on stock that would qualify as "big enough". I'd personally still spend more on the actual wedding band instead and buy something you really love as you will hopefully wear it for a really long time...
The engagement ring is also an latina tradition and is quite common throughout Southern Europe, but it doesn't necessarily have to have precious stones.
It wasn't about the value of the ring (people afforded what they could, even the poorer ones) but more about the statement that the young lady was "promised to be married"
Sure. As Ittingen posted before: In German traditions, you would buy the wedding rings when you get engaged - normally bands without stones but this has changed a lot over the past twenty years - and only the hand on which the lady wears the ring gives away if the wedding already happened or not.