in depth reviews

James Allen Diamonds & Rings: Site Review

by The Plunge
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Best Overall
Best Overall Diamond Ring Site: James Allen

Best Overall Diamond Ring Site: James Allen

You might think that the best diamond and ring stores must have been around for generations and offer nationwide stores. You’d be wrong. James Allen, launched in 2006, dazzles with its 300,000+ diamonds, competitive prices, and perks you won’t find everywhere including 360-degree video views, conflict-free diamonds, 24/7 support, free shipping, 30-day money-back guarantee, and a lifetime warranty.  In the process, they’ve changed the game forever.

The Plunge Report:

Features:

  •  300,000+ certified conflict-free diamonds
  •  360° HD views
  •  24/7 diamond experts
  •  Free resizing
  •  Lifetime warranty
  •  Free shipping worldwide
  •  30-day returns with 100% money-back guarantee

Pros: Huge selection, competitive prices, intuitive interface, 360-degree video views, conflict-free diamonds, 24/7 support, free ring resizing, free shipping, 30-day money-back guarantee, lifetime warranty.

Cons: Very few brick and mortar stores, not the best place for antique/vintage rings.

In This Article

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In recent years a handful of sites — with James Allen topping the list – have become synonymous with engagement rings. The company appears on the first page of Google searches whether you’re looking for loose diamonds or engagement rings, and they offer several innovative features, like 360-degree videos, which can help shoppers see products better — including flaws in diamonds. Ultimately, ring buyers have three simple questions: Are James Allen diamonds any good, will their prices save me money on a ring, and can I trust them (especially since they sell online)? 

To answer those (and other) questions, we examined their diamond and ring selection, pricing, special features, customer support, and return policy. 

The History of James Allen 

JamesAllen.com was founded in 2006 by Oded Edelman, James Allen Schultz, Michele Sigler and Dean Lederman. Plot twist: James actually purchased Michele’s ring from an online auction site. Once he realized what a great deal he found, they started to dream about creating an online retail location for customers to purchase high-quality jewelry for the best prices and with excellent customer service. In August 2017, James Allen joined Signet Jewelers Ltd (they also own Zales, Kay Jewelers, and Jared) and, in November 2018, the first retail store opened in Georgetown, DC. The company now has a showroom in New York City, too (see “locations”).

Who Is James Allen Best For?

Consumers who want a large selection to choose from and competitive prices — especially when buying loose diamonds. The company manages only a few IRL shops — so not ideal for shoppers who need hand-holding or convincing.

Selection of Diamonds & Rings at James Allen

Shoppers can look for just a loose diamond to start or dive in to the whole ring at once. You’ll find colorless and fancy colored diamonds (a growing niche in engagement rings), plus gems like rubies and emeralds. Visitors to the site can play with interactive sliders to see how criteria like price, cut, clarity, color, carats (and more) affect selection — and how many carats you can get for, say, $1,000 vs $5,000 vs $8,000. Or more.

Prices at James Allen

The company is known for its low prices. A recent search for ring settings revealed the following:

Settings:

  • 92 results below $1,000
  • 648 results below $10,000

Diamonds:

  • 22,000+ under $1,000 
  • 44,000+ under $2,000
  • 51,000 + under $3,000
  • 55,000 + under $4,000
  • 57,000 + under $5,000

At press time, the least expensive diamond we could find on the site was $270, while the priciest was $387,640.

James Allen range

James Allen also has a price-match policy for most of its loose diamond inventory, so if you find a better deal on a diamond with the same grading characteristics, they will review it to make sure you are getting the best discount. At press time, the site had more than 300,000 loose diamonds to choose from, including earth-created and lab-created diamonds. 

Special Features

360-degree videos

All of their loose diamonds and rings are clearly shown onscreen in 360-degree HD magnified videos. Having tested out the site and 360-degree system, I can tell you that there’s something weirdly satisfying about twirling around the stones to see every angle. Also, having worked in diamonds for nearly five years, I can also attest to the fact that some flaws or impurities in the diamonds (most often referred to as inclusions or occlusions) are immediately visible while others are a bit harder to spot.

 

Brick & Mortar Stores

If you need to talk to a salesperson in person, James Allen is probably not for you.  That said, there are stores in Washington DC and New York City. The DC location features a large table full of top-selling designs to try on, as well as various center stone shapes and sizes to help customers visualize their dream ring. 

Secure Shipment

Worried about buying something that pricey online? Us too. Wisely, all shipments are signature required and fully insured during transit. Plus, there’s a 30-day return window. Too bad this doesn’t apply to relationships too.

Free Resizing in Year One
James Allen (like many local Jared stores within the US) will also cover the first resize within one year for free. But there are special terms, so it’s best to contact customer service to make sure your items and ring size needs are eligible.

Shared Screens
The customer service team can share a screen with customers to discuss loose diamonds, gemstones and settings. Simply click on “Diamond Inspection” while looking at a loose stone and ask for the diamond consultation feature. 

Customer Service/Support 

Happily, there was zero pressure to purchase. In fact, the customer service peeps I hung out with on the site were extremely patient even when I tried to tease them slightly. Help is available 24/7 through chat, phone or email. All advice is non-commissioned. So you can’t blame the salesperson if you feel you spent too much.

What are the financing options/rates?

According to co-founder and Chief Customer Officer Schultz: “US customers are welcome to apply for financing through TD bank and the application is at the bottom of our site. One option is no interest on a purchase of at least $1,000 paid within 6 months. The second option is to pay in 24 monthly installments with 9.9% APR on a purchase of at least $2000.00.”

Worried that you’re not eligible for their financing options? You can also propose (pun intentional) a different payment plan to them. “We are happy to discuss alternative payment methods with anyone not eligible for our financing options,” Schultz added. 

What’s the return policy?

30 days and that starts from the time of shipment. Ah. So, if your ring gets lost in transit you might want to immediately notify customer service and ask if they’ll extend the return policy slightly.

Our Step-by-Step Review of the Site

Come to the JamesAllen.com homepage, and you will see a lot of smiling women (see all images below with humans).

James Allen header image

The options are made super clear:

  1. Shop Engagement Rings
  2. Shop Diamonds
  3. Shop Fine Jewelry

They know you don’t want to dawdle. During a mid-Coronavirus visit in March, the homepage changed and suddenly the emphasis was on “Engagement Rings & Chill, Safely.” The inscription on the ring: “Stay home with me.” Cute. Maybe too cute?

Chances are you fall into one of two camps: Either you know exactly what to get your bride or you are looking at everything for clues on what to get her. Experimental types can click or scroll down the page “Design Your Own Engagement Ring.” 

 

 

I safely scrolled past sections dedicated to “Designer Collections,” “Wedding & Anniversary” and “Fine Jewelry.” 

Until I got to their best sellers in classic and updated variations. 

 I clicked on that Bezel Set Pavé Engagement ring at center stage. 

 The ring has a 14K white gold bezel setting; the beautiful white color shows off the center stone. A bezel setting means that the gold entirely circles the stone, unlike prong settings that hold the diamond in four to six places.  

Suddenly an offer popped up.

 

$100 seems like a generous discount, but bear in mind that you have to spend at least $1,000 and you’re asked whether you’re a man or woman, so you’re opting in to some kind of marketing thing. 

Below is the Swiss-army-knife of a main screen and all its interactive criteria filters. You choose the diamond and the setting separately, and in any order you like. This is the screen you will be coming back to time and again. Every time you make an adjustment to things like color, clarity, cut, shape and price, the site updates the search results—you’ll be looking at tens of thousands of diamonds until you narrow down your criteria further. 

You can also choose from “Earth-Created Diamonds,” a cutesy way of saying that these are the real deal, not fabricated in some office. But there are also options for “Lab-Created Diamonds,” which often cost less and look as stunning as diamonds that come from mines. There are many reasons why someone chooses one or the other; see our story on lab-grown vs other alternatives.

In fact, James Allen has a substantial “education” section. Categories include loose diamonds, engagement rings, natural gemstones, wedding rings and fine jewelry.

Education Center James Allen

Back to the diamond search. Most people start with a shape: classic round, cushion, pear, etc Those are all extremely popular right now. Here’s a closeup of the options.

James Allen options

So let’s go with pear shape. Next up, you get to choose a color. I went with “D-H,” which is a range of superior colors (pure white is the ideal option when choosing a colorless stone). I appreciated that I could click to see how the various letter grades look (I clicked on “H” below).

James Allen Diamond Color

My next stop: clarity. Interestingly, there’s an FL option which is for flawless, meaning there are no visible (or existing) flaws. Also worth noting: VVS1 and VVS2 are pretty close to perfection, but you might notice the light hitting the facets (edges) differently depending on where the flaws are. An explanatory pop up helped me some more, allowing me to click on various options to see examples of flaws (see illo below).

Inclusions James Allen

To be honest, most people would be hard pressed to see some of the flaws in even a G SI1 stone (G for color, SI1 for clarity, see our guide to the 4Cs), which could be easily graded as excellent. 

Shall we choose a cut? I’ll play with carat size and price in a bit, but even at this point, there are still a whopping 22,467 diamonds that match our criteria. End every one offers 360-degree videos. I chose a large 1.50 carat pear shape, because life is a popularity contest and bigger really is sometimes better, but especially on Instagram.

Zoom in James Allen

 

As soon as I selected a diamond, I clicked on the super zoom diamond display function.  

 

It’s actually fun. Moving around and zooming in or out is like playing around with a jewelry loupe, only the computer does all the work. It’s worth noting there’s a GIA stamp, too, which means that this stone is certified by the Gemological Institute of America and comes with a certificate. That’s a bit of reassurance you’ll be getting a quality stone. Note: They also offer AGS (American Gem Society) and IGI (International Gemological Institute) certified diamonds.

The price, however, is not so fun: $8,740 without even the setting, for a 1.52 Carat E-SI1 pear-shape diamond. It’s formidable in terms of color and clarity. But I needed to talk to an expert. So I filled out this little pop-up form…

 

… and I didn’t have to wait long ‘til Alexis, a customer service rep, showed up to help me out. I typed in some random questions that might be asked by a total beginner.

 

Alexis immediately got to work drawing, literally, on her side of the screen. She also mentioned something called “the bow-tie effect” (she’s referring to an unsightly phenomenon when light passes through a certain kind of diamond to create what looks like a black bow-tie effect).

She showed me the region in question.

She literally drew a bow-tie for me to help explain what she was referring to.

And then she very patiently explained what she meant by depth.

I cannot tell a lie. I intentionally tried to be annoying to see if Alexis would lose her cool. Nope. She was delightful and helpful throughout. She also seemed to know a lot about diamonds, so is she a gemologist? 

 

Nope. She’s just an extremely knowledgeable customer service rep at JamesAllen.com who seemed to know everything there is to know about diamonds (she took a month-long diamond course taught by a trained gemologist). If I wanted to buy my ring from Alexis, could we find each other again easily? Sort of. As she explained: The next time I engage with a different customer service rep, I could put in a request to speak with her. 

Alexis explained that the return policy works in Canada as well. So now that I’ve chosen my diamond, what should I do with it?

Interesting. I can add my diamond to a ring (or a pendant) or simply add my diamond to my cart. But since we’re here to create an engagement ring, I did just that.

Voila: Lots more choices. Do I want my ring to be a solitaire, meaning a single diamond shining like a beacon on my finger? Or would I like different stones or settings? And what color gold should I choose? Or maybe I should go for platinum instead? 

The basic price for settings is not bad. This one was $750.

 

I went with this one since it has the right amount of sparkle and won’t distract from the center stone.

I could also see how it looks on the finger — virtually — using several different complexions by clicking on the photos on the left side of the screen.  

I scrolled down and went over all the specs. Yup. Still loving this ring.

Zoom in James Allen

The details included the number of diamonds (6), the shapes it can be set with (pretty much all of them), the band width, and even reviews from other shoppers (some of which include photos of the ring on their hand).

One of the last steps: a helpful ring-sizing chart. You can use it in several different ways from using a ring you already know fits to measuring your finger or even requesting a free ring sizer (sorry, no free rings).

Other options: I could add a 20-character inscription, save to a wish list, email the ring info (they call it “drop a hint”), go back and change my order, ask a question in the reviews area, and/or set up interest-free monthly payments. I was also told when the ring would arrive—and it’s free shipping.

One of the last screens encapsulates what you get in an order. It’s not mind-blowingly gorgeous, but it’s worth noting that you get the red box, free FedEx, 30-day returns (US only), and a lifetime warranty. 

James Allen box

Bottom line: 

I love the way the website lays everything out, the no-pressure experience, and the customer service. While I didn’t actually design the ring of my dreams, I was able to pull together a popular option that was within my imaginary price range. I’m impressed with JamesAllen.com and highly recommend the shopping experience. I can’t speak to the finished ring but would love to hear your feedback if you’ve bought a ring on the site. 

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