Paris Jewellers review
Should you buy your engagement ring or wedding ring from Paris Jewellers?
Paris Jewellers is firmly established as on of Canada’s foremost jewelry stores – since it was founded in 1985 it has grown to 23 locations across four provinces and employs over 230 people.
In its 32 years in business, Paris Jewellers has established itself as the jeweller with a focus on trying to create lifelong customers by delivering excellent value. Let’s see how well they’ve delivered on this!
In this Paris Jewellers review, we will primarily examine them from the point of view of buying a diamond engagement ring. However, the findings are equally relevant for any other type of jewellery
If you’d like to jump straight to the ‘value for money’ section and see how choosing one of my recommended retailers could save $1,100 compared to Paris Jewelers, click here.
Paris Jewellers engagement ring selection
Paris Jewellers offers a total of 347 ring styles of diamond engagement ring to choose from:
The rings are a mixture of cluster set diamond rings (where several smaller diamonds are placed close together to give the impression of a larger stone), while other rings have larger centre stones. A cluster of smaller stones generally costs less than one larger diamond, so cluster settings can be a good option for those with a tighter budget.
The majority of the engagement ring styles that Paris Jewellers sell are either solitaire or halo settings – two classic styles that have stood the test of time. The halo setting is a ring of small accent stones, typically pave diamonds, that encircle a larger centre stone. Halo settings can be the same shape as the centre stone, or they can be different, such as a cushion-cut halo around a round diamond.
The large number of ring styles available through Paris Jewellers means that they offer a wide range of diamond shapes – more than many other Canadian jewellers. The most common shape they offer is the round brilliant ie. the classic round diamond. It’s not only the most popular shape, but it’s also the shape that sparkles the most.
Overall, there’s an impressive range of engagement ring setting styles and diamond shapes on offer from Paris Jewellers, which means you should be able to find something that suits your taste.
Paris Jewellers diamond quality
Engagement rings are all about the diamond, and being able to choose a diamond that will sparkle brilliantly will make the difference between a truly stunning engagement ring and one that looks dull and unimpressive.
In this section, we’ll examine the quality of diamonds Paris Jewellers offers, as well as how transparent they are about the quality of the diamonds themselves.
One plus point of Paris Jewellers is that they allow customers to choose the diamond carat weight that fits their budget using the product filter on their website. While they offer carat weight from 0.02 carat to 3 carats, the common carat weights are nice round numbers – 0.25, 0.50 and 1.00:
While carat weight may be the biggest determinant of diamond price, the factor that determines how much a diamond sparkles is diamond ‘cut’. Diamond cut is a measure of how well the diamond has been formed and it is essential that a diamond has good proportions to reflect light; otherwise it will be dull, lifeless and unimpressive. If a diamond is too tall or too shallow, it won’t reflect much light:
Understanding the cut quality of a diamond is absolutely essential to be able to understand whether it will sparkle. If you don’t know the cut quality then you may very well be wasting your money.
Diamond is too shallow:
Light passes through the diamond and is lost, meaning the diamond looks dull and sparkles less than it should.
Diamond is too deep:
Light is bounced off the bottom facets at the wrong angle and is lost out of the side of the diamond, reducing sparkle.
Excellent / Ideal cut:
Light is reflected off the bottom facets and back through the table to your eye, meaning the diamond sparkles beautifully.
Paris Jewellers doesn’t show diamond cut grade information on their website but only if you want to know the cut grade of your chosen ring – a major red flag. Without this information, you have no idea whether your ring will sparkle beautifully, or be dull and unimpressive.
When I ask them why they don’t show the cut information in their website, they replied “We are starting to update the website with this information however not all rings have it listed at this time”. It can, however, be requested for individual rings if needed:
Many other jewellers show the diamond cut quality information on their website, which makes it much easier to understand if a diamond is going to sparkle well.
Two of the other ‘4Cs’ of diamonds are colour and clarity – important determinants of the quality of a diamond. Paris Jewellers don’t allow you to choose colour and clarity in their product filter, but they show it in their product detail:
H or I is an OK colour grade to choose, although it is slightly yellower than some people like.
However, the big issue here is that Paris Jewellers are offering diamonds with I2 clarity – a very low clarity grade.
I2 is the lowest score on the traditional clarity scale, and it means that flaws in the diamond are more visible, more numerous and pose a bigger durability risk, as we can see on the image below:
The inclusions are very noticeable with the naked eye – not great.
My personal recommendation to get the best value for money is to shop for G or H colour diamonds with VS2 or eye-clean S1 clarity. Diamonds with these specifications strike the best balance between value for money and beauty.
Paris Jewellers diamond grading labs
Diamonds are graded on four key factors – carat, colour, clarity and cut – and a host of smaller factors too. Diamonds which score higher are generally more expensive – an F colour diamond will be pricier than an H colour, if everything is the same.
It’s important therefore that diamond grading levels can be trusted – you don’t want to pay more for an F colour diamond if it is actually an H. This is why independent diamond testing labs are important.
An independent testing lab doesn’t have any incentive to say that a diamond is higher quality than it is, as they don’t make any more money if they do. In fact, if they bump up diamond quality grades, it may mean people trust them less, which might mean they make less money.
Paris Jewellers doesn’t show any information about diamond grading lab on their website but they do have some GIA-graded diamonds and Canadian diamonds which come with certificates for the diamonds. For diamond rings that are not GIA or Canadian – they have the ring appraised by a third party gemmologist on any item for a fee of $75. When I asked them why they don’t show this important information, they replied; “We are starting to update the website with this information however not all rings have it listed at this time”.
This is a red flag for Paris Jewellers for me – it is infinitely better that your diamond is always checked by an independent laboratory to ensure that you can trust the information given about the quality of the diamond.
After all, unlike independent grading labs, retailers do have an incentive to increase diamond quality scores, as it will mean that they can sell a diamond for a higher price. For this reason, I recommend that you always look for a diamond which has been graded by an independent authority – my usual recommendation is the GIA, although there are other good diamonds ‘labs’ too.
Paris Jewellers Service
Buying an engagement ring is a special purchase, and you want to have confidence that the retailer will not only treat you well during buying your ring, but also that they will stand behind their product after the purchase too.
Paris Jewellers offers a Jewellery Care Plan where you can choose from a 3 year or lifetime package to care your jewellery for free. There is an extra charge for these plans.
They also have a 30 day return policy; this is a good amount of time to decide whether or not the ring is not right for you. This is very generous compared to other retailers in Canada. Looking at reviews on Google, the reviews are spilt out by individual store. The Prince Albert store has a very impressive score of 4.8 from 255 reviews, indicating that people are very pleased with the service they have received from Paris Jewellers.
Paris Jewellers value for money
Buying a diamond ring is a big commitment – both financially and emotionally. So it’s important that you ensure sure that you are getting good value for money and aren’t spending more than you need to.
After all, if you’re buying an engagement ring, it’s likely that you will have a wedding to pay for soon.
To see how Paris Jewellers value for money compares, we’ll compare it to one of my recommendations for the best place to buy a diamond ring – James Allen.
James Allen is one of the largest privately held online diamond and bridal jewelry retailers in the world, and consistently offers high quality diamonds at extremely good prices.
When comparing, we’ll keep the ring style, diamond clarity, colour, carat as similar as possible. A good way to compare is looking at solitaire diamond rings as they are simple and timeless, without an ornate setting to make the comparison more complicated.
Looking at the Paris Jewellers selection, we’ll use the “Solitaire Engagement Ring With .75 Carat TW Of Diamonds In 14kt White Gold”.
This ring is a solitaire with a diamond with the following specs:
- 0.75 carat
- HI colour
- I2 Clarity
- Round Brilliant shape
On the Paris Jewellers site, it’s priced at $3,599, although your province’s taxes would need to be added to this:
The specs given on the Paris Jewellers website are below:
As we discussed Paris Jewellers don’t show information about cut quality and certification of the ring in their website, when I asked their customer service about this information over email, they replied; “As this style is not a Canadian diamond or certified GIA we do not have exact specifications on the exact stone. They will differ slightly for each one”.
If you live in Alberta, you will need to pay $180 in tax, bringing the total to $3,779.
If you live in Quebec, tax will be $539.28, which means the total will be $4,139.
If we look at this price compared to my recommended retailer – James Allen – the first thing to note is that James Allen don’t even offer I2 clarity diamonds. I1 is the lowest clarity grade they offer.
Allowing for this, we’ll compare the Paris Jewellers ring to a ring with the following specs:
- 0.8 carat centre diamond
- I1 clarity
- I colour
- Excellent cut
- GIA-certification
Crucially, we know that this diamond has been graded independently so we can trust the quality and we know it has the highest cut grade of ‘excellent’, so will sparkle well.
The ring is priced at $2,492:
The good news is that there is no import duty to be paid on this ring if you import from USA to Canada, but there will of course be your province’s sales taxes to pay. We’ve included a handy table for you to reference below.
Canadian Sales Tax By Province
| Province / Territory | Type | GST (%) | PST (%) | Total tax rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alberta | GST | 5% | 0% | 5% |
| British Columbia | GST + PST | 5% | 7% | 12% |
| Manitoba | GST + PST | 5% | 8% | 13% |
| New Brunswick | HST | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Newfoundland & Labrador | HST | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Northwest Territories | GST | 5% | 0% | 5% |
| Nova Scotia | HST | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Ninavut | GST | 5% | 0% | 5% |
| Ontario | HST | 5% | 8% | 13% |
| Prince Edward Island | HST | 5% | 10% | 15% |
| Quebec | GST + PST | 5% | 9.975% | 14.975% |
| Saskatchewan | GST + PST | 5% | 6% | 11% |
| Yukon | GST | 5% | 0% | 5% |
If we just take the price without sales tax though, the difference is over $1,100, plus the James Allen diamond has been independently graded as having an excellent cut:
This is obviously a significant difference in price! With the $1,100 you would save by shopping at James Allen instead of Paris Jewellers you could:
- Increase the carat weight of the diamond
- Increase the quality of the diamond
- Spend it on a really special proposal
- Put it towards your wedding cost
Or possibly all of this!
We have a guide to helping Canadian ring buyers buy from James Allen, and it’s definitely always worth clicking through to check out the prices at James Allen – they may be different on the day you look – so it’s important to see today’s prices for exactly what you’re looking for.
Paris Jewellers Review
Overall
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Ring selection
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Diamond quality
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Service quality
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Value for money
User Review
( votes)Do we recommend Paris Jewellers?
Paris Jewellers offer a huge range of diamond rings and the ability to visit them in one of their 23 stores is a benefit. The downside of having so many stores though is that they have a lot of overhead costs, and this is reflected in their high prices.
They also offer a very low clarity such as I2, where flaws in the diamond are usually more visible. The lack of transparency over the cut grading of their diamonds (which is the biggest factor that determines a diamond’s sparkle) and the lack of independent grading for many of their diamonds are other red flags. The biggest determinant of whether I can recommend a jeweller though is value for money, and Paris Jewellers really falls down here in our comparison test.
You can get a higher quality diamond for a lower price at my recommended retailer, which makes it a smarter choice for you.
Pros
- Wide selection of ring style
- 30 day return policy
- Financing option
Cons
- No diamond cut grading information
- Low clarity for most diamonds
- No independent grading visible on website
- Expensive prices