Peoples Jewellers review
Should you buy your engagement ring or wedding ring from Peoples Jewellers?
Peoples Jewellers has a rich history, having been founded in 1919 and now its grown into one of Canada’s largest jewellery chains, with nearly 150 locations country-wide from the Maritimes to British Columbia.
For any business to survive that long, it must be doing something right.
In this Peoples 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 $868 compared to Peoples Jewellers, click here.
Peoples Jewellers ring selection
Peoples Jewellers offers an incredible 2,714 ring styles of diamond engagement ring to choose from:
The majority of the engagement ring styles that Peoples Jewellers sell are bridal sets and either solitaire or halo settings – two classic styles that have stood the test of time. Solitaire settings are generally less expensive settings than other styles and are great for keeping the focus on the centre stone, while halo settings can make your ring stone look larger and impressive.
The large number of ring styles available through Peoples Jewellers means that they offer a wide range of diamond shapes – more than many other Canadian jeweller:
Overall, there’s an impressive range of engagement ring setting styles and diamond shapes on offer from Peoples Jewellers, which means you should be able to find something that suits your taste.
Peoples 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 that Peoples offers, as well as how transparent they are about the quality of the diamonds themselves.
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:
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.
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.
Peoples 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.
Peoples Jewellers has nearly 150 locations from the Maritimes to British Columbia, which means you have option to visit a store to see a design you like in person and try it on.
Peoples Jewellers offers free inspection and cleaning for all your jewellery – whether you purchased it at Peoples or not, which is a good service.
Returns-wise, if you feel the ring isn’t right for you they will give you a full refund or an exchange within 30 days, which is better than a lot of jewellers. Looking at reviews on Google, the reviews are split out by individual store. The Duffering Mall store in Toronto received a score of 3.9 from 54 reviews, indicating that people received OK service from this store, but weren’t blown away:
Peoples 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 Peoples Jewellers value for money compares, we’ll compare it to one of my recommended diamond ring retailers – James Allen.
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.
A good ring to compare is the “1.00 CT. Diamond Solitaire Crown Royal Engagement Ring in 14K White Gold (J/I2).
This ring is a solitaire setting with the following specs:
- 1 carat
- J colour
- I2 Clarity
As we discussed, Peoples Jewellers don’t show any information about cut grade and certification on their website so I asked them through live chat and they said; “These diamonds are at least a good cut”, “I am not even sure that one is certified as we usually state that it is certified on the description”:
The ring is priced at $4,319:
However, this price doesn’t include the province-specific sales tax for example:
If you are in Alberta, sales tax will be $215.96, bringing the total to $4,535.16.
However, if you are in Quebec, tax will be $646.80 which will mean the ring costs $4,966.
Important:
The amount of tax you pay depends on which province you live in and can vary from 5% -15% GST/PST/HST.
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 look at the Peoples Jeweller price compared to my recommended retailer James Allen, one thing we need to acknowledge is that James Allen doesn’t sell diamonds with I2 clarity, so the closest we can get is I1 clarity.
The other thing is that I am not comfortable recommending a diamond with a ‘good’ cut grade, so I have chosen to compare to a diamond that has been graded ‘Excellent’ for cut quality.
This is $868 less expensive than the Peoples price, despite having a higher clarity grade, higher cut quality grade and having been independently graded by GIA:
This is obviously a significant difference in price!
We have a specific guide to buying from James Allen if you’re in Canada, and with the $868 you would save by shopping at James Allen instead of Peoples 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!
The prices at James Allen may be different on the day you look – maybe higher, maybe lower – it’s worth clicking through to see today’s prices for exactly what you’re looking for.
Peoples Jeweller 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 Peoples Jewellers?
Peoples Jewellers offer a huge range of diamond rings and the ability to visit them in one of their 150 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.
Returns-wise, if you feel the ring isn’t right for you they will give you a full refund or an exchange within 30 days, which is better than a lot of jewellers.
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 red flags.
The biggest determinant of whether I can recommend a jeweller though is value for money, and Peoples 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
- Huge range of diamond rings
- Ability to visit local stores to view rings in person
- 30 days return policy
Cons
- No diamond cut quality information
- Low clarity for most diamonds
- No independent grading for many of their diamond
- Expensive price for low clarity grading