Ebay and Gemrock purchased Stones

I purchased some stones from both market places. All loise stones.Some certified, some not and I stuck with the favorites. Tourmaline, the new up and comer gemstone, pink and blue sapphires, rubies and just one certified Brazilian emerald. All were marketed as natural, untreated, AAA-AAAA TOP color and quality. 1st thing that bothered me was that at auction these stones were flying off the shelves at unbelievable prices compared to the buy it now store prices which were still extremely cheap. Pay attention to my use of the word cheap. So as a 1st time buyer of said quality ā€œnaturalā€ gemstones Iā€™d be quite excited to have the winning bid at such a steal of a deal. Okay do months go by and finally they all have arrived. One certified gorgeous looking blue green tourmaline arrived quite late and without its certificate. Upon speaking to the vendor I was informed that it would have cost me extra at the time of purchase to include the cert. Okay, very shady but whatever. I sent them all off to a lab. All were advertised as genuine, TOP, etc. There was no indication that any of the stone bought from at least 8 separate dealers from India, Sri Lanka, Phillipines, China, and Thailand were anything but the real deal. I went so far as to even ask specifics direct from the dealer and was assured everytime that i was getting best deal ever. So then the reports start coming in, which were not ā€œcheapā€. I sent the certificates of the 4 certified stones as well accompanying their stone. OMG. Every single stone came back synthetic. The certificates were even fraudulent. This was not an inexpensive venture buying and testing. Im out just over $1000. That still would have been a bargain if only the so called certified stones came back as genuine. My question is; how can these people be among the top sellers and most reliable on these sites for years even and continue to get away with fraud? Because of Covid and the exorbitant amount of time it took to receive the stones of course I had gone past their window to dispute my purchases and get a refund except for obe stone which i did get a refund for just under the wire. So Ebay- one refund out of 8 stones. I only bought 2 stones from Gemrock which i would love to share the names of the stores who were extremely shady from the start, like charging extra for the cert. but i donā€™t want to be suedā€¦ can they sue my for telling the truth publicly? IDK. Im not a lawyer. So all the stones come back as fake and fraud and Im quite past the time given to request a refund. Ebay didnā€™t even want my reported findings. They told me to contact the dealer direct and didnt want to deal with itā€¦There still isnā€™t a mark on their account or admittance anywhere that the buyer may not get what they purport to sell. After eating the lab fees and getting nowhere with the dealers or the two platforms from where I bought, what legal action can I take against these fraudulent people?? I had even been blocked from writing a review after reporting my finds. Obviously this isnā€™t right but what can I do? How can I get the word out and actually point fingers at the perpetrators of fraud which looks to be on an epic scale trucking millions of buyers i would imagine for such a long time. Shouldnt Ataayagems and the others be prosecuted for such a crime? Should Ebay and Gemrock for providing a platform for these criminals. Seriously this has to stop. Your input is greatly appreciated.

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If you paid with PayPal (not eBays NOW preferred method) you have 6 months guarantee)

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Really? 6 months? Letā€™s see March. April, May, good thing I always buy through PayPal then huh? I did not know that. Oh shite, less than a month to go. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. I assume that i take i picture of the reports and just submit to PayPal disputes? Cuz mailing anything in Canada can bankrupt a person.

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Im still going to have to eat the lab fees. Do actual detectives have to pay all these fees when they investigate. No fair.

Because many do what you did, expecting to get the ā€˜ā€˜dealā€™ā€™ of a life time, for a few dollars. Where you stand out, you admitted your error, and they say nothing at allā€¦
If youā€™d spent half of that 1000 on some test equipment of your own and learnt how to use it properly, youā€™d have picked up a bit more info en-route to know thats not how this works.
Sorry itā€™s happened to you, chances are, itā€™ll happen again, buying sight un seen from unknown dealers is risky, learn some more, buy some equipment of your own, study, study, study.

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You could always make them bad publicityā€¦that would save money to a lot of peopleā€¦:slight_smile:

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very true!!!

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Iā€™ve gotten some cheap small gemstones from ebay on the order of $10 apiece from a seller whose feedback was great. When I got them I took them to local jeweler who said they were synthetic. I liked the shape and color of one so got it set in a tiny marquise pinky ring. It matches the natural stone I have and who is going to ask if Iā€™m wearing a ring set with a crystal? I also got a small bright yellow synthetic, again, I like the color and am thinking of getting that one set as well. I do appreciate your honesty and forthrightness in describing your situation which I am sorry to hear about. Maybe others get similarly inexpensive stones and are satisfied with what at a glance passes for the real deal.

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I purchased some so called sapphires from Ebay. They were beautiful stones but too good to be true because they were cheap. I performed the scratch test on them and they tested 7.5 not a 9 which a sapphire should test. I wrote the seller with pictures of the scratch. They wrote back and said sorry and asked if I would still give them a favorable rating. Bottom line, if itā€™s too good to be true it probably isnā€™t . Iā€™ve had good luck with gemrocks auction.

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Iā€™m afraid that the saying ā€œItā€™s too good to be trueā€ comes to the fore here. Iā€™m sorry this happened to you. The only rough I buy online is synthetic so I know what Iā€™m getting. On of the great sadnesses surrounding our technological advances is that we can produce such accurate fakes.
My advice would be to use fora like these to sort out the genuine suppliers who care about their products and thrive on their reputation. Iā€™m not a dealer, just a simple facetor, so Iā€™m not trying to feather my own nest. I can recommend Joe Henley in the US and stonesgemsjewels in the UK. There are of course others too. What I do know is that they sell the absolute genuine article that are superb quality (or inform you honestly if not) and all stones are ethically sourced. SGJ is a friend of mine and an unbelievable cutter so he knows what heā€™s talking about and this is his passion. Enough of the plugs but we live in a world that has many dishonest people in it, the trick is to find the oases of goodā€™uns. Happy hunting.

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I have sold about a million items on eBay, yes, ONE MILLION! (look up Skyjems on eBay, about 100k feedback on 365k items, and most people donā€™t leave feedback)

My advice: Itā€™s best to just stay away from eBay, they have been terrible with vetting sellers for ten years and I think that 90% of what is being sold as natural gems are not. Donā€™t bother with ā€˜fighting itā€™, they didnā€™t care when I was calling/emailing and they were getting fees of about $35k USD/month from me at one point, they give zero shits about you. :frowning:

Gemrock: Stick with experienced sellers with high feedback whom you have the ability to easily return goods to.

You may get less ā€˜dealsā€™ but you are a lot less likely to get fleeced.

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There was a time back in the 90ā€™s and early 2000s when Ebay first started you would have to engage in bidding to get an item. There were routines that let you place a final bid just as it closed. I won several bids on rough that turned out to be really good deals. One was a color change sapphire that cut a clean 1.5 ct stone. Cost me $15. But now I wouldnā€™t buy anything on Ebay if you threatened me.

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I feel your pain friend.
While I havenā€™t been ripped off for any great amounts, I certainly have been fleeced a few times. Luckily eBay dispute mechanism worked. However, during Covid-19 it has been impossible to speak to a human at eBay until only recently. I went back and forth between eBay (via email) and a Seller many times, repeating myself multiple times. Super Frustrating.
Definitely contact PayPal. Even if you are beyond the prescribed time period, you have nothing to lose by making your complaint. The Pandemic may provide an extension under certain situations.
And finally, there are reputable dealers in Canada which can save you tons. And there are a couple on eBay that I have come to trust 100%. But Iā€™m going to stick to a Canadian dealer and specific others that I know and trust from now on. eBay just isnā€™t worth the Risk or the Wait IMO for the vast majority of ā€œgemā€ purchases.

I would suggest you write to Gemrock, they are an online business but do have a ā€˜shopfrontā€™ here on the Gold Coast in Australia. I believe all vendors have to post a security bond prior to becoming a online seller.

I donā€™t know the people behind the business personally, but theyā€™ve been involved in the Gem and Opal business for many years and have their own mines.

I would hope they take an interest in your experience.

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Im so sorry this has happened to you. My experiences were a bit different. Two bracelets tested natural rubies in 2000. Took it for reappraisal at another store in another state, and their response was synthetic with glass filled diamonds. Sent them to the GIA lab, and both were verified natural. Unless you have a lab with you when purchasing, I guess thatā€™s the only way to tell. These gemologists, three of them, also tested another ruby ring synthetic and it was natural, by GIA lab. Bought a ā€œnaturalā€ ruby ring from a dealer on Ebay that has sold almost 100,000 items. Sent it to GIA during COVID, and it came back glass filled. Called the seller, and he reimbursed my money, but not the cost of the GIA lab. His identity is sflmaven. I cannot do anything about leaving a negative, as he guaranteed the stone to be natural and Ebay closed the listing to it, but I can buy another piece and leave negative feedback, which I might doā€¦

Been there done thatā€¦unfortunately. I have reconciled myself that I got some good practice in testing the gems myself. For way less than $1k, I got filters, a spectroscope, and a diffraction meter to test my gems. Then I did some research on different lab certification.
Bottom line I get what I pay for.
That said, I can still set some pretty neat synthetic stones and recoup more than the cost. Who wants to walk around in jeans with a $5k stone anyways? And the few real stonesā€¦I keep for myself.
Lemons out of lemonade my friend!

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Hello

I am sorry to hear that your experience with Gem Rock Auctions was not up to standard. We take acusations of our sellers selling fake stones very seriously and we will be launching an investiagting immediatly.

Can you please contact us at info@gemrockauctions.com and include the items your purchase along with the gemstone certificates that you had made.

Regards
Iris

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Iā€™ve always suspected those cheap stones were fake. Iā€™m sorry you had that experience, but thanks for sharing your experience. Give them bad publicity. Give them bad reviews on their eBay stores. Save someone else from getting cheated. Iā€™ve never heard of anyone getting sued for rating anything in an online store.

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6??? Not 3 month?

Iā€™m three steps below an amateur faceter just practicing on Zircon from eBay so not spending big dollars on stones that are obviously real but are not good enough for spending hours on - not sure where Iā€™ll go from here but Iā€™m learning and thatā€™s why I buy this material from India.