The Truth Behind James Allen: Know This Before You Buy

What a coincidence that you’ve found this James Allen review. You’ve saved up for an engagement ring and you’re ready to purchase but you’re not confident that many big box retailers are telling you the truth. After all, they all claim to have the best diamonds, the best shapes, the best quality, the best cut, and the best price. Someone is definitely lying — surely, no one can be the best at all of those things… or can they?

Enter James Allen. Here at Life Line Wedding, we’ll dive into the new-era of engagement rings at James Allen and see if they’re really worth the hype in our brutally honest James Allen review.

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Background Benefits of James Allen What Are The Downsides? How They Compare Against Other Retailers Pricing Comparison Shopping Experience Walkthrough Frequently Asked Questions Final Thoughts

Background

Since its inception in 2006, James Allen has changed the way people shop for rings and fine jewelry online. After just 16 years of being in business since the writing of this article, the founders of James Allen carry much more experience — over 60 years of combined experience to be exact. Furthermore, they’ve manufactured diamond rings for popular retailers like Tiffany & Co.

Related: Are Tiffany Engagement Rings Worth It?

If there is anything that recent years have taught us, it is that e-commerce is the future of shopping. With this in mind, Co-Founder & CEO of James Allen, Oded Edelman, aims to create the smoothest and most enjoyable consumer shopping experience possible with the new digital era.

“As the younger generation is reaching an age that they can afford fine jewelry, they also have an ingrained understanding that they can search and self-educate to find the best quality, selection and price.”

“This stands in sharp contrast to a few years ago when a consumer could only go to a few jewelry stores, see one or two diamonds in each of these stores, and end up purchasing one of the few they considered without the ability to understand what they’re seeing in the store.”

– Co-Founder & CEO of James Allen, Oded Edelman

Without a doubt, James Allen is focused on revamping their 1-to-1 personalization with each unique visitor on their website. This brings visitors a smooth and seamless process to buy an engagement ring, which can otherwise be a daunting task. Edelman makes customer experience a priority by mentioning,

“We are constantly refining the features and functionality of our website based on how consumers are interacting with the website.”

You can expect all diamonds from James Allen to be:

• Lab certified

• Examined by a gemologist

• Have lifetime warranty

• Conflict free diamonds

Now that we understand some background on James Allen and their priorities, let’s move onto their benefits.

Benefits of James Allen

Digital Experience

Let’s start with their digital experience and how it compares to a brick and mortar experience. Most people’s immediate thought is not being able to see or try on the diamond engagement rings in person.

With the rapid growth in augmented and virtual reality, shoppers will be able to try on a wide variety of James Allen rings from the comfort of their homes. In the next couple of years or so with the current rate of technological advancements, virtually trying on a new ring will look and feel exactly as if you were trying on the real thing.

Related: 10 Stunning James Allen Eternity Rings

Rather than having to drive a few miles to your nearest jewelry store that may not have their full inventory available in store, you can instead browse a much larger selection of wedding rings with a few simple clicks.

These advancements allow digital stores to be multiple steps ahead brick and mortar stores as they would find it increasingly difficult to compete on quality, selection, and price.

Pricing

On that note, James Allen is able to offer specialty rings at a much lower cost than a physical brick and mortar store. Your physical local jeweler needs to markup their prices to factor in rent, electricity, security, payroll, cleaning, and more. These costs are passed on to the customer when they come in to purchase an engagement ring, which means a much more expensive ring for you.

In addition, traditional brick and mortar stores use a multi-tier distribution model which also increases costs since this makes it very difficult for them to customize a product as it is already in their store.

Related: Clean Origin Review – Are They Trustworthy?

On the contrary, James Allen’s business model uses a centralized fulfillment model which makes customizing your own engagement ring very feasible and affordable, almost like a plug-and-play.

Diamond Display Technology

Now this is something that truly sets them apart from other online jewelry retailers and brick and mortar stores. This proprietary technology allows shoppers to magnify and closely examine the diamond ring and shape in a complete 360° fashion.

Customers are able to see the cut and quality of the diamond ring themselves as opposed to relying on a certificate or a sales associate. If you’re in the market for your perfect ring, it’s likely you’ve seen multiple static images and single-angle closeups, but keep in mind that these are subjective to the pixels on your screen which can be affected if you have a night-shift mode or screen protector on. As a result, you don’t quite feel like you can really see the entire diamond ring.

James Allen’s Diamond Display Technology aims to fill that gap by bringing shoppers the most true-to-life visuals of your diamond(s) as possible without having to leave the comfort of your house.

Still in the early stages of deciding for a ring? We have a directory to kick start your wedding game. Probably a good idea to check it out… or don’t. We can’t force you.

What Are The Downsides?

The truth is, not everything is sunshine and rainbows at James Allen. Although we’re a big fan of the store, we’ve curated some common complaints and issues other shoppers have had.

Delayed Shipping

A custom-made engagement ring can come at some timely costs. Since James Allen rings are handcrafted when you place your order, we noticed it can take about 1-3 weeks to arrive at your door.

From our experiences, we were able to get our engagement ring within 2 weeks but have heard complaints from some readers and other customers that delivery can take longer than promised.

To avoid this from happening, we strongly recommend you place your order no less than a month before you plan to propose. This way you can get your James Allen ring, inspect the diamond, and you’ll still have 30 days to return if you’re not satisfied with the result.

Note: According to their website, any loose diamond purchased from their site can be exchanged at 100% credit for any replacement diamond of at least 2x or greater value.

No Free International Return Shipping

James Allen offers free return shipping for customers based in US and Canada. Unfortunately if you don’t reside in either of those countries, you’re out of luck (for now at least). Customers in all other countries must bare the responsibility of paying for the return shipping label. The price of the return depends on the value of the item purchased.

No Reservations

On their website, we were not able to find any way to reserve a diamond. This means that if you see one you really like, you have to be ready to purchase it quickly since their inventory does not last very long.

Just to make sure, we contacted customer service when we found a lab diamond we really liked to put it on hold which the customer service team said they don’t do reservations. And just as we expected, a few days later, the ring was already gone.

Thankfully, they carries a large selection of lab diamonds, oval diamond, single diamond, round diamonds, and so much more. So it was quite easy to find a similar diamond we really liked.

Not sure if you need both an engagement and a wedding ring? Check out our guide here to see if you really need both

How They Compare Against Other Retailers

James Allen has changed the game for the online diamond industry. Here are a few of the features of James Allen and how they compare against other retailers.

Related: Best Engagement Rings Over $50000

Customer Service

Right off the bat, we found their customer service to be second-to-none. Typically, we find with many jewellers that buying an engagement ring online is more complicated than it really should be. But getting in contact with their team through James Allen’s website was super easy for us.

We sent them a bunch of questions on how to use their website and they were really nice to explain everything in detail for us. When we tried this with other online retailers, we didn’t hear back from their customer service team despite sending numerous follow-up messages.

Overall, the James Allen experience was very fluid and easy-to-follow.

Customizability

Comparing with other online diamond retailers when it comes to making your own engagement rings, James Allen stands at the top of the leaderboard.

You can change a lot of aspects of your engagement ring settings from the diamond quality, the shape of the center diamond, and/or the diamond’s appearance — all to bring you the perfect diamond. Although that may not sound like a lot, believe it or not but many jewellers have a fixed selection that you would have to pick from. Referring back to their centralized fulfillment model, it’s no wonder why they’re the pioneer of online diamond sales.

Visual Experience

Despite not being able to see the James Allen diamonds in person, they actually offer a very close true-to-life alternative. Their 360-degree HD videos are what some call the next best thing, which is a clear-cut image for every diamond in their collection.

In addition, they also offer a SuperZoom feature which allows viewers to examine and compare diamonds at 40x magnification. In fact, we would argue that this SuperZoom feature is better than what you would see in store.

You are able to view the high quality jewelry in extraordinary detail and check for any flaws. Although you do want to keep in mind that since the image is magnified 40x, you most likely won’t be able to see any flaws in its actual size.

In addition, James Allen offers a Virtual Ring Try On experience. This is another added benefit to shopping online when you can’t see the rings in-store. All you need is a smartphone to use this feature.

Pricing Comparison

When you’re not able to see the diamond in person, you might feel like you want to opt for the more expensive diamond to be safe. But all this mean is you end up paying more. And before we get into comparing prices, it’s important we understand the following.

Given their previously mentioned 360-degree HD videos, the diamond buying process is much more simpler and you get more bang for your buck. As you’re able to clearly see the diamonds in more detail, you can instead look for more budget-friendly diamonds that appeal to the eyes.

Take a look at the images above. The diamond on the left is 0.97 carat, a color of G, a clarity of VS2, and an overall excellent cut. As a result, it costs a bit over $6,000. Thankfully, the HD video allows us to see the many black flaws scattered throughout the diamond. You most likely would’ve missed this with your naked eye – we sure would’ve.

Now look at the diamond on the right. This diamond is $1,000 cheaper and is a bit over 1 carat. The clarity grade here is lower at SI1, but not many flaws are visible even at 20x zoom. So this diamond on the right costs less and looks better. This goes to show you that you would have never known this without the real photos.

Now that we understand how diamonds can be priced, we can walk through how James Allen Rings stack up against other online retailers.

In this example, we’ll be comparing James Allen against Blue Nile.

Our parameters are the following:

• Diamond shape: Round

• Any price point (for comparison)

• 1.00 Carat

• Color ranging from G to D

• Clarity ranging from VVS2 to FL

• Cut ranging from Ideal to TrueHearts*

  *TrueHearts is James Allen’s trademark highest quality polished cut. The Blue Nile equivalent is called Astor Ideal

James Allen 1.00 Carat G VVS2 Ideal Cut Round Diamond: Starting at $6,190

Blue Nile 1.00 Carat G VVS2 Ideal Cut Round Diamond: Starting at $6,825

So as you can see see here, James Allen starts at $635 cheaper. They both offer a LOT of diamonds so it’s difficult to do a perfect 1:1 comparison on all diamonds, but this should give you a clear starting point. And if you account for James Allen’s added visual studio, we’d say that James Allen really gets you the most bang for your buck.

James Allen vs. Costco

We can’t say we’re not surprised that Costco sells their own ring. Especially when you consider that Costco isn’t the first place you think of when you think of jewelry. The quality of rings at Costco along with their inventory is very comprehensive and plentiful. The caveat is that their rings are sold as-is. There is no customizability and as a result, there’s no unique value to having a ring from Costco.

Related: Are Costco Engagement Rings Any Good?

On top of that, their customer service for rings is non-existent. Costco doesn’t typically employ knowledgeable jewelers — you’re lucky if you get an employee that just got off break 10 minutes ago working the free samples stand earlier in the day. No hate though… Costco’s free samples are the best.

James Allen vs. Tiffany & Co.

There is no doubt that Tiffany has earned their reputation over the years for having high quality wedding bands and diamond. However, this comes at a costly price to the consumer. When you factor in that Tiffany has to pay for their brick and mortar store, the electricity bill, employee wages, and more, then you should expect to pay a premium for the quality you’re getting.

Related: Best Tiffany & Co. Alternatives

Now if you’re looking at a comparable diamond on James Allen, you can expect that same diamond to be much more affordable. When you factor in the visual studio and closeups that James Allen offers on their diamonds online, many would argue that it is exactly like viewing the diamond in person.

Shopping Experience Walkthrough

The great part about buying from James Allen is that every diamond ring is custom made by you, which makes it very personable and unique.

However, you do need a basic understanding of what we call the 4Cs of diamonds – Cut, Clarity, Carat, and Color. When you customize your ring, they do a great job of walking you step-by-step through the entire process.

Check out our in-depth guide on What Are The 4C’s And Why They’re So Important.

If you select your stone first, you’ll choose from the following:

• Earth-mined diamonds

• Colored diamonds

• Lab created diamonds

• Gemstones (rubies, emeralds, sapphires)

If you decide to go down the diamond route, you can set your preferences with the 4Cs we mentioned earlier. You can fine tune the criteria with your budget and even add filters like lab certificates and symmetry.

After that, you’ll pick the setting for your diamond. James Allen carries over 600 different settings including (but not limited to) white gold, platinum, rose gold, and yellow gold.

Once you’ve selected both the diamond and the setting, you’ll get a preview of the entire ring along with the price.

They also offer free engravings on most rings to add a personal touch to an already unique and special ring.

You’ll also be given an estimated shipping date, which as we’ve mentioned before can range from anywhere between 1-3 weeks depending on the style of the ring.

Already got your ring but it’s getting dull? Check out our guide for Easy Ways To Clean Your Ring At Home Professionally before your ring gets dirty beyond repair (gross)

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Thoughts

Long before the creation of this site, we’ve always sent close family and friends to James Allen.

The reasons have always been simple – they offer the most affordable pricing, great quality, large selection, customizability, and plenty of post-purchase care (great customer service team and warranties). Not to mention how their shopping experience is quite fun to go through.

Still not sure if James Allen is right for you? Check out our guide for the Best Places To Buy Engagement Rings Online