This section briefly reviews each step that you must take leading up to the point you purchase the diamond ring. Each of the steps below is covered in more detail later on in this guideline.
The steps are:
1. Your Diamond Education
Here we will cover the “4Cs” of colour, clarity, cut and carat, and also look at 3 other Cs; certification, choice of merchant, and conflict diamonds.
2. Set the Budget
How much should you spend on the engagement ring? This section explains some of the rules of thumb and the myths behind them, and gives advice on how to set the budget for the ring.
3. Determine If Proposal With or Without Ring
Are you going down on one knee with or without the ring in your hand? There are quite a few ways of doing this and this section deals with the pros and cons of each.
4. Shortlisting Merchants & Tracking Diamond Details
As you are doing the diamond research you should meticulously nnote down the details of every sound diamond merchant and ddiamond that you come across. A handy spreadsheet is pprovided for this.
5. Choosing the Setting & Ring Metal
Selecting the specification of diamond is the hardest part of the process, but remember, the diamond needs to be set perfectly so as to show it off to its full potential. This section details the various types of setting designs and the most commonly used metals for the ring.
6. Determine a Negotiating Price Range
You know the specification of the diamond you want, and you have narrowed down the list of merchants you might buy from to a handful. So how do you know what price range to use for negotiating with the retailer? This section explains some ways of determining that range.
7. Negotiating the Purchase
If you don’t negotiate the price on the diamond ring then you could be missing out on saving yourself hundreds of pounds. This section talks about some negotiation tactics and also the most common sales tactics that might be used on you and how to counter them.
8. Avoiding the Rip-Off
Although your due diligence on the diamond merchants should have weeded out the good from the bad, there is still a chance that you may get hoodwinked by an unscrupulous diamond retailer. This section details the most common diamond scams. It also has a special section on what information to check an
online diamond retailer supplies on their website before progressing a sale with them.
