Peoples Jewellers review

Peoples Jewellers offers many ranges of diamond carat that start from under 0.25 carat up to 1.15 carat. By far the most common carat weights are in the 0.50 carat – 1.00 range:

Peoples Jewellers won’t show any information about colour and clarity of their diamond on their product filter but they show this information on the product details section of their individual rings. It’s important to check this so that you know what diamond quality you are getting in your ring, for example:

Looking at the diamond details above, the colour and clarity are both lower than I would normally recommend you choose.

With colour, G or H are good grades to choose because the diamond will still look white, but won’t be priced as highly as higher colour grades like D and E. J colour, like in the diamond above, usually looks a little yellow, which most people don’t like.

The diamond has been graded I2 for clarity, which is very near the bottom of the diamond clarity scale:

I2 diamonds have visible flaws and imperfections that are easy to see with the naked eye. Inclusions and blemishes at this level impact transparency, beauty, and brilliance. Not only do the imperfections impede how light travels through the stone, they are an obvious distraction when looking at the diamond as you can see in the image below:

Peoples Jewellers also offers I3 clarity which is the very lowest clarity available: 

This might seem like a good deal – $3k for a 1 carat diamond, but I3 clarity diamonds are so low quality, most people don’t sell them as they are so negatively impacted by inclusions. My recommendation is you choose VS2 clarity – diamonds with these specifications strike the best balance between value for money and beauty.

While clarity determines how many inclusion or flaws that the diamond has, 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 therefore 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.

Unfortunately Peoples Jewellers don’t show diamond cut grade for the diamonds on their website. When I ask them about it through live chat, they said; “All of our diamonds are well cut or better, as to why that is not stated on our website, I’m sorry I don’t have answer to that”.

If you want to know the cut grade of your chosen ring, you can ask their customer service by sending them a link of the diamond you’re interested in.

The lack of information on cut quality is a significant red flag for Peoples Jewellers. Many other jewellers do include diamond cut quality on their websites – some retailers have it as one of the filters on their search tool.

Peoples 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.

Peoples Jewellers don’t show any information about diamond grading labs on their website, when I asked them about it through live chat, they said; “not all our diamonds are certified, we use GSI and GSL for most of our certifications, also each of our ring that is certified has its own certificate and too many to post individually.

While it is good that Peoples Jewellers do use GSI and GSL for some of their rings, it would be better if they offered this for all diamonds.

Retailers do have an incentive to increase diamond quality scores, as it will mean that they can sell a diamond for a higher price, so for 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 certification because they are the most strict, although there are other good diamonds ‘labs’ too.