Helzberg Diamonds Review : Is Legit or Scam? 2024

Helzberg Diamonds is an American diamond and jewellery retailer that advertises as “Here’s to Love®”. The big question is whether this is just a marketing line, or whether Helzberg Diamonds really hold pieces that’ll communicate your love (when you are the giver), or that’ll make you feel loved (when you are receiver).

Yes, Helzberg Diamonds is legit. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money or credit card details. And you will receive any product you purchased from them without a problem.

What about their services; do Helzberg Diamonds offer sound services that we’ll expect from a modern diamond retailer (such as easy ordering, lifetime care warranty, easy returns, effective customer service, etc)? In the first place, is Helzberg Diamonds product real or not? Helzberg Diamonds is a legit diamond and jewellery retailer. It is not a scam because they will never steal your money. And you will definitely receive the product you ordered from the store. But is Helzberg Diamonds products genuine?

This Helzberg Diamonds review will examine Helzberg Diamonds in order to provide the information that’ll help you answer these questions and more.

Helzberg Diamonds review at a glance

• Established in 1915
• Currently owned by Berkshire Hathaway
• Its E-commerce website is helzberg.com
• Provide diamonds, engagement and wedding rings, jewellery and watches
• Ships to only locations in the U.S.
• Offers free standard shipping (and with a low minimum order requirement of $99+ orders)
• Offers free returns and exchanges
• Offers a generous 60 days return window (albeit, 30 days for watches)
• Offers a couple of financing plans (that include buy-now-pay later plans, leasing plans, and layaways)
• Customer support is available via email (help@helzberg.com), telephone (1-800-435-9237) and live chat

What is Helzberg Diamonds? – Background

Helzberg diamond is one of the oldest jewellery brands in the world. The brand was started by Morris Helzberg in Kansas in 1915. Sickness severely limited Morris’ contribution to the business, and he passed the business on to his son (Barnett Helzberg Sr.). Barnett will later also pass the business to his son (Barnett Helzberg Jr.). Helzberg continued as a family business until 1995 when Barnett Helzberg Jr. sold it to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway.

Though still going by the name Helzberg Diamonds, their product offering has expanded beyond diamonds to include gemstones, jewellery, watches and more. Helzberg Diamonds is one of the most recognizable jewellery chains in the US, as the brand has a robust store network that consists of over 210 stores in the country.

Though the company is an established brick and mortar diamond and jewelry retailer, expansion saw them join the online bandwagon, and they launched their e-commerce site in 1999. The official website of the brand is www.helzberg.com.

There was a time when the newest craze in town was to show your affection by sending your loved one an “I AM LOVED® button”. These were simply lapel buttons created by Helzberg Diamonds with the words I AM LOVED®. The promotion which was birthed from the engagement of Barnett Jr. to Shirley in 1967 moved the Company towards a love theme. In 2015, the love theme continued when the company was repositioned around the tagline – “Here’s to Love”.

Helzberg Diamonds also states that they list only conflict-free diamonds. Not only do the Company subscribe to the Kimberly Process, but they also have a strong social responsibility focus that has seen them given back to diamond mining communities.

Is Helzberg Diamonds legit?

Helzberg Diamonds is legitimate. It is not a scam store, as of writing this review. You don’t want to be ripped off. Therefore, you’ll want to steer clear of the many scam platforms online. Determining a legit store from the many scams is as difficult if you know what to look out for.

One of the first checks for legitimacy is legality. That is, most often than not, the legit store will be 100% legal. Helzberg Diamonds ticks this box, as the company is a fully registered company which is now owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company. In the least, this makes Helzberg Diamond 100% legal.

Another check of legitimacy is physical presence and visibility. Most often than not, the scam stores operate only virtually, with no physical trace. On the other hand, Helzberg is one of the most recognizable diamond and jewellery retailers around because of their robust store network.

Another check of legitimacy is the fulfilment of orders, and Helzberg Diamonds also ticks this box. Established in 1915, the brand has been operating for over a century; and a store that does not fulfil orders simply cannot exist for that long.

That said; for being 100% legal, for having a robust physical presence, and for having an operating record that span over a century, there is no doubt that Helzberg Diamonds is legit.

Is Helzberg Diamonds safe?

Yes, Helzberg Diamonds is also safe. An online store will collect information such as personal data and credit card details when you use it for your purchases. If such information leaks to unauthorized third parties, you’ll be exposed to online fraudsters. Thus, the ideal online retailer should not only be legit but also safe in ensuring the protection of customers’ sensitive data.

Helzberg Diamonds comes out as one such store. The store employs SSL technology; which channels all communication through a private network, as well as encrypting the data before relaying it through the channel. Thus, the sensitive data is not only shielded from eavesdroppers but also encoded such that only the company can read it. Thus, even if captured, sensitive data will not be compromised. That said; it’s safe to say that Helzberg Diamonds is safe.

Websites Similar to Helzberg Diamonds:

• Kay.com
• Zales.com
• BlueNile.com
• Tiffany.com

Products

Product Range

The ideal jeweller should have a wide product range; so that you can conveniently get all your related items in one place. For example, when shopping your engagement ring, you wouldn’t want to buy the diamond in one store and hop to another store to get the setting. Though this is often done, it is not super convenient; and it is only done because of not finding all the desired pieces in one place.

Helzberg Diamonds does relatively well in this regards. Though their name may suggest otherwise, their product offering has grown beyond a few diamonds, and they now offer a whole lot more. Their product categories and the items you can get in each category are as follows:

Engagement Rings

You’ll have a lot to choose from when shopping engagement rings in Helzberg Diamonds. For convenience, you can choose from their pre-set engagement rings collection; alternatively, you may choose to create your own engagement ring.

• Pre-set Engagement Rings

When choosing from the pre-set rings; you can shop by style, by shape or by metal. When shopping by style, you’ll find all the popular engagement ring styles; from the simple solitaire rings to Halo, Vintage, Three-stone, and side stone. When shopping by Shape, you’ll find the mounted diamonds in all the popular cuts – round, pear, oval, radiant, cushion, princess, emerald, marquise, and Asscher. When shopping by metal, you’ll find the ring settings in White Gold, Rose Gold, Yellow Gold, and Platinum

Another section you’ll find in the engagement ring category is “Featured Collection” where you can shop: new arrivals, a carefully curated selection of “Top 25 Engagement Rings”, Lab Grown Diamonds, Gemstone Engagement Rings, and branded engagement rings.

Helzberg is one of the few jewellers in the industry that have a collection of lab-grown diamonds. These diamonds are created in the lab using technology that replicates the conditions of natural diamond formation. Thus, lab-grown diamonds are obtained without the devastating effects of mining. However, these beauties have identical chemical make-up with the naturally formed and traditionally mined diamonds that even an expert gemologist cannot tell one from the other. In Helzberg Diamonds, you’ll find dozens of engagement rings with these eco-friendly diamonds, which they call the “Light Heart” collection.

As mentioned earlier, Helzberg Diamond is more than diamonds, so you can also get gemstone engagement rings, in which the mounted stone includes Moissanite, Morganite, Aquamarine, Sapphire, Ruby, and more. These fancy coloured gemstones are available in various shades of Rose, Pink, Red, Yellow, Blue, and more.

Some of the brands you’ll find when shopping branded engagement rings in Helzberg diamonds are Truly ZacPosen, Monique Lhuillier, Royal Asscher, Masterpiece, Radiant Star, Shades of Love, ALTR, Charles & Colvard, and more.

• Create Your Own Ring

Given the problems of the pre-set rings (such as loving the diamond but not the setting, or loving the setting but not the diamond), almost every jeweller is offering the Build your Ring service, where you can choose the setting as well as the quality of the mounted diamond. As usual, you can: start with a diamond, start with a setting, or start with a gemstone.

It should be mentioned that creating your own engagement ring, while you can choose the clarity, colour and carat, you cannot choose the cut. This was disappointing because the cut largely determines the optical performance of the stone. Not being able to choose this all-important quality spec means that there’s no way of telling the cut quality of the stones that you’ll get.

Wedding Rings

For the beautiful bands that you’ll exchange vows with, you can shop from the women rings section or the men’s rings section. You can also choose to shop by metal, and you’ll have White Gold, Rose Gold, Yellow Gold, and Platinum.

In the “featured collection”, you will find a curated collection of Top 25 women rings, Top 25 Men’s rings, and a slew of wedding gifts (for the bride, for the groom, for bridesmaids, and for groomsmen).

Jewellery

You’ll be able to shop by category, which will open up Rings, Earrings, Necklaces and Pendants, Bracelets, and Watches. In each of these sub-categories, you’ll find a variety of product types. For example, for earrings, you’ll find studs, hoops, dangle earrings, and more.

Also, Helzberg groups together related jewellery; and when you’re shopping jewellery by collection you’ll find diamond jewellery, Lab has grown diamond jewellery, gemstone jewellery, pearl jewellery, gold jewellery, silver jewellery. You can also shop by brand; and some of the designer jewellery you’ll find are from Effy, Enchanted Disney, Sirena, and more.

Inventory Size

It’s not enough that the ideal diamond and jewellery store offers a variety of products; the store should also be able to offer a large inventory of each product type. For example, it’s not enough that a store also holds diamonds; if it has only a couple of stones in its inventory, you’re not very likely to find something that you like or that matches your budget.

In terms of inventory size, Helzberg Diamonds does so-so. Given that the company has diamonds in its branding, let’s start from their diamond offering.

At the time of writing this review, Helzberg Diamonds had an inventory of 20,143 loose diamonds. While that will serve the selection needs of many diamond shoppers, the number pales in comparison to the inventory leaders in the industry. For example, at the same time, Blue Nile held 148,109 loose diamonds, while James Allen held 112,414 loose diamonds. That said; if you want to be spoilt for choices, there are many Jewelers that’ll trump Helzberg Diamonds.

However, it should be noted that Helzberg Diamonds is essentially a Brick and Mortar store. That operating model severely limits the amount of inventory they can hold because it would take crazy millions to stock a diamond store. The inventory leaders in the diamond industry are all online stores, and they’re able to offer hundreds of thousands of diamond because they use the virtual listing model. That is, the physical diamonds are owned and held by their partners; and it is only when a purchase is made, that the listed diamond is moved to the fulfilment centre of the online store for the order to be fulfilled.

Quality

The ideal retailer should hold only quality items so that even if you pick an item blindfolded, you’ll not end up with an item that will fall short of some quality expectations.

In this regards, Helzberg Diamonds declares that Quality means everything to them; and as a result, they do not take any shortcuts in ensuring that their products meet the highest quality standards. According to their website, every item listed goes through a rigorous quality assurance process (that is sometimes up to 15 steps).

However, if you move on from what the company says to what you’ll find it doing, their position as a provider of quality may not be rock solid. For example, you’ll find that a lot of diamonds held by Helzberg Diamonds are GSI certified. Though GSI is not a bad lab, it’s grading are widely regarded as loose; or at least, not as tight as GIA and AGS which are the industry’s most reputable certificates. This means if a GSI certificate and an AGS certificate have similar grading, the AGS graded diamond will be found to be one or two levels higher than what AGS would have graded it.

By not using the widely regarded standard certificates, Helzberg Diamonds does not come out strong in providing quality. It also does not help that Helzberg does not provide information such as the H&A (Heart and Arrow) patterning, ASET images, and IDealscope images which would help in analyzing the light performance of the diamond. Granted, many retailers do not provide this information, but they can be made available upon request. However, Helzberg does not provide such information.

Helzberg Diamonds does have some beautiful pieces, especially their masterpiece collection which is their “super ideal cut” diamonds. Also, these pieces come with AGS certificates so you know that what you get is not simply bump upgrading. However, if you move away from their masterpiece collection, you’ll find that many of the other diamonds held feature poor cut quality.

Price, Promotion, and Related Policies

Prices

Even when buying symbols of love and appreciation like diamond and diamond jewellery, you’ll want to get value for money. Thus, you’ll want the ideal store to be reasonably priced.

Reasonableness can only be determined by a comparative analysis of prices in one store with that of the competition. With this is done, Helzberg Diamonds comes out short. That is, most of the time you’ll find that Helzberg Diamond is about 40% – 100% more expensive than the price leaders in the industry.

However, it should be remembered that Helzberg is a brick and mortar jewellery store, while the price leaders are online jewellery stores. The brick and mortar stores simply cannot compete with their online counterparts. As mentioned earlier, holding inventory is hugely expensive; and there are lots of overhead in maintaining the stores that are simply passed on to the customers.

Promotion

Promotions allow customers to get items for less than their regular prices or for free. Thus, customers are attracted to stores that run a lot of promotions.

However, the diamond and jewellery retailers are not as generous with promotions as apparel retailers. Thus, you won’t find too many huge cost saving opportunities. Or so we thought. Helzberg Diamonds had a lot of promotions that significantly brought down prices.

For example, at the time of writing this review, there was a “clearance” sale ongoing which knocked off as much as $1,000 off prices of certain items. The Company also offered a 10% Military discount, and a 10% student discount.

Financing

If you must get a diamond or another piece of jewellery but cannot fully cover its cost at the time, you can still get it from Helzberg because the company offers a couple of financing options. These include Helzberg Diamonds Credit Card, Helzberg Diamonds Private Account, Progressive Leasing, and Price-Lock Layaway.

• Helzberg Diamonds Credit card

Cardholders will get an early announcement on special events and sales, birthday bonus ($50 off purchases of $249.99 or more), as well as three buy-now-pay-later plans. These plans are:

6 months – Minimum purchase of $499 is required. The plan is interest-free if paid in full within the promotional period; else interest is charged from the purchase date at an APR of 24.9% – 27.99%. However, the minimum payment at any time must be 2.5% of the purchase price.

12 months – Minimum purchase of $999 is required.  Also, it is interest-free if paid in full within the promotional period; else interest is charged from the purchase date at an APR of 24.9% – 27.99%. The minimum payment must also be 2.5% of the purchase price.

36 months – Minimum purchase of $1,999 is required. However, unlike the plans before it, interest is charged at an APR of 9.99%. A subscriber will make 36 equal monthly payments of 3.24% of the purchase price and APR.

• Helzberg Diamonds Private Account

This financing option is available at Helzberg stores for in-store purchases only. You’ll pay up the full amount within 6 months with fixed monthly payments. Also, the plan is interest-free; and the full amount you’ll pay will be just the purchase price of the article.

• Progressive Leasing

You don’t need any credit to assess the Progressive Leasing Plan. The store will set up a 12 months plan within which you can pay up. Alternatively, you may choose to pay you to lease up in 90 days and save on the purchase. This leasing arrangement differs from the other financing plans in that, though you go home with the article, you do not own it until you have paid up the lease

• Price-Lock Layaway

Price Lock-Away allows you to lock in the price of a diamond or other jewellery at today’s price. Since these pieces only ever go up in value, with price lock-away, you won’t have to pay more if the price actually goes up.

After locking the price, you can pay up the full price within 10 months; however, you’ll need a minimum down payment of 10% of the total sale to start the plan. The layaway plan differs from other plans, in that you’ll only get the article after completing payment.

Other Services

Life Time Jewelry Care Plan

The ideal online store will stand by its product, and like most jewellery stores Helzberg Diamonds does this with its Lifetime Jewelry Care Plan.

The plan covers all inspections, cleaning, and certain repairs. Such repairs include that parts and labour necessary to fix normal problems which occur during normal usage of the jewellery. However, the jewellery has to be taken for inspection every 6 months for it to continue in the plan.

Trade-In-Policy

If you have an original diamond purchase (such as loose diamond, pendant, earring and rings) from Helzberg Diamonds, you may return it to the Company towards getting a new diamond piece. This offer greatly reduces the burden of forking out the full price of the new diamond piece; because you’ll get credits equal to 100% the original purchase, and you’ll only have to pay the difference between the price of the new purchase and the original purchase.

However, unlike some jewellers that’ll accept diamond jewellery not originally purchased from them for the upgrade; Helzberg Diamonds will not accept any diamond jewellery for upgrade except it was originally purchased from them.

Shipping

After placing an order online, it has to be shipped from the store to your shipping address. Thus, shipping is an important consideration if you’ll be making an online purchase. The shipping items to consider are shipping destinations, shipping times, and shipping costs.

Shipping Destinations:

Except for an online store ships to your location, you shouldn’t consider buying from it. Usually, online retailers do not accept orders from a location that they do not ship to; but even if you somehow succeed in placing an order in a store that does not ship to your location, it’ll be difficult to receive delivery of the order.

Thus, the first check should be whether the store ships to your location; and you’ll want a store that ships to many worldwide locations so that your location will more likely be covered.

In this regards, Helzberg Diamonds does so-so. At the time of writing this review, Helzberg Diamonds ships to only locations within the US, as well as US military addresses (APO/ FPO). Thus, Helzberg Diamonds is the US facing diamond and jewellery Company.

You might find a link (www.helzberg.com/intlshipping/processor/borderfree/countryListLookup.do) advertising that the company now ships to some 100 international locations via its partnership with Borderfree. However, when writing this review, our order would not process; and the Live Chat agent (Kaneisha) responded that Helzberg Diamonds definitely does not do international shipping. Then why that link? Neither we nor Kaneisha (even after consulting with her supervisor) knew the answer to that.

That said; except you are resident in the US, or have friends/ family in the US who can receive the order and re-ship to you, you’ll have to look at another online diamond and jewellery store for your purchases.

Shipping Times

You’ll not want to wait forever to receive an item you order online; thus, you’ll want a store that offers fast delivery.

Delivery times are determined by the order processing time and package shipment times, and Helzberg diamond is able to offer relatively fast times on both fronts. In terms of order processing; all in-stock items should ship the same day order is placed if payment is verified before 11 Am (CST); items that require resizing will be shipped the day following order placement (if the order was placed before 11 AM on the day of placement); while for items that other work, shipment will depend on the particular work required.

In terms of shipment; Helzberg Diamonds will either ship your order to a store, or to your door. Given that Helzberg Diamonds has a good physical presence, you can choose to send your package to a Helzberg Diamonds store close to you for you to go there to pick it up. However, not every item is available for in-store pickup. When shopping, you’ll find “Pick Up in-store” where you can use the delivery service.

If you’ll want the item sent to your door, Helzberg Diamonds offers three shipping options – standard delivery, expedited delivery, and express delivery.

The standard delivery will get the item to your door in 5 – 7 business days after the item ships out of the fulfillment center of Helzberg Diamonds; the expedited delivery is a “2 business Days” delivery that will get the article to your door within 2 days from the date it ships out; while the Express delivery is a “Next Business Day” delivery that will get the article to your door the next business day after it ships.

However, it is only standard shipping that is available for orders shipping to Hawaii, Alaska, or APO/ FPO addresses; and you’ll have to allow additional time for the package to be delivered.

Shipping Cost

The total acquisition cost of any online purchase consists if its purchase cost and shipping cost. Thus, where shipping costs are high, an item can easily become too expensive to acquire. That said; you’ll want the ideal online store to offer shipping costs that are as low as possible.

The lowest possible shipping cost is zero, which is free shipping. Thankfully, Helzberg offers free shipping. All Helzberg Diamonds order for in-store pickup is shipped free of charge. However, even when shipping items to your door, you can still get free shipping because Helzberg Diamonds offers free standard shipping for orders of $99 or more.

Where free does not apply, Helzberg Diamonds charges flat shipping rates as follows: Standard shipping cost $9.95, Expedited (2 Business Days) delivery cost $13.95, and Express (Next Business Day) delivery cost $19.95.

It’s a good thing that free shipping is offered at all. Also, if you’ve checked reviews of another jewellery store, you’ll find that the minimum order requirement (for free shipping) of Helzberg Diamonds is easily the lowest in the industry. Many of the other diamond and jewellery retailers will require you to spend as much as $500 (or even more) to qualify for free shipping. Thus, in such stores, customers may be pressured to spend more than intended just to get free shipping. However, the low minimum order requirement of Helzberg means that you won’t have such pressure when shopping in the store.

Returns

In this age, buyers do not consider online purchases without considering returns. It’s very possible that you may not be totally satisfied with your order, and instead of having to keep an unwanted item, you’ll want to be able to return it to the store and get a replacement item or a refund.

Like every serious retailer out there, Helzberg Diamonds allows customers to return any item that does not meet some expectations. However, there are some conditions. Thus, what follows is a review of their return policy.

Items that cannot be returned

As you would have guessed, not every item purchased from the store can be returned. Helzberg Diamonds does not accept returns of pre-owned merchandise, personalized/ engraved jewellery and special orders.

There is nothing to say here as this no different from the policy of other stores. However, we find that Helzberg Diamonds does not mention sales/ clearance items as one of the items that are final-sales. That will mean that customers can choose to return the discounted items listed in the online store. This is a good one, because many retailers rule out the return of clearance items, thereby forcing the customers to buy at full price to be eligible for returns. Helzberg also allows you to return gift items.

Return Process

You’ll want a return process that is very smooth else the frustration of receiving delivery of an unwanted item may be the least of an unwanted buying experience.

Thankfully, Helzberg Diamonds is able to offer a hassle-free return process (especially for items purchased online). This is because Helzberg Diamonds allow both in-store returns and return by mail for items bought online. However, items bought in a store must be returned to the store, and cannot be returned by mail.

As most customers attest, in-store returns are very convenient, as it simply entails taking the unwanted item to a Helzberg Diamonds’ store closet to you. Thus, allowing the in-store return of even online purchases allows for a super-convenient return process. This is one area where Helzberg will trump the “true” online store because in those you’ll have to return all items by mail (that is mailing the item to the retailer’s fulfilment centre).

However, their online returns (return by mail) is also relatively easy. In fact, you can call (1-800-435-9237) and Helzberg Diamonds will arrange to have the item picked up.

Return Window

Retailers only accept returns which get back to them within a pre-determined timeframe. Therefore, so that your returns will not get to them late, you’ll want an extended return window.

Helzberg Diamonds does excellently well in this regards. The store allows a return window of 60 days from the delivery date. If you’ve checked other reviews, you’ll find that this is one of the most generous return windows in the industry. Most of the other jewellers only give you 30 days from the delivery date for any item you are returning to get to their fulfilment centre. That said; when you buy from Helzberg Diamonds, you won’t have to race against time when you chose to return an item in your order.

However, for all purchases of watches, Helzberg Diamonds allow the more often seen return window of 30 days from the delivery date.

Cost of Returns

Truth be told, retailers want sales to be complete. Thus, though they’ll accept returns with a smiling face, they’ll rather you not make returns. Thus, some make returns expensive, by charging high return shipping or even restocking fees. That said; you’ll want a store with return costs that are as low as possible.

Helzberg Diamonds gives the very best in this regards; which is free returns. Whether you return the Helzberg Diamonds’ purchase to store or the company arranges the pickup, it is at no cost to you (the buyer).

Return Processing/ Refunds

How and when you’ll get your refund after returning an item to a jewellery store is an important consideration.

In terms of “how”, Helzberg Diamonds issues refunds via the original payment method. This is a good one, as the customer can then decide to use the funds for future purchases in Helzberg Diamonds or to go to another store. However, where refunds are made only as store credits, customers will be tied to the particular store. However, when you return a gift item, Helzberg Diamonds will issue only store credits. If you want cash, the original purchaser (whose name is in the receipt) will have to make the return.

In terms of “when”, Helzberg Diamonds issues refunds within 2 – 3 weeks of receiving the returned item. While this is definitely not the fast “return processing” and “refunds issuing” time, it’s relatively better than most stores where you can be kept waiting for a month or more to receive a refund.

Customer Support Service

Even the sophistication of technology cannot suffice for an effective customer support service. Customers will have questions about the store, its product or services; and they’ll want answers. Also, customers may have issues with their orders; and they’ll want a quick resolution. Thus, the ideal retailer should provide for handling customers’ questions and complaints.

One of the first places to get answers is the FAQ section of a website, and Helzberg Diamonds provides a solid FAQ section. The self help articles answers a lot of questions that customers have asked in the past; and to aid navigation, these are arranged by subjects such as Order and Payment Information, Shipping Information, Return and Exchanges, In-store Pick up, Product Information, and more.

If you’ll rather get help directly from the Company, there are a lot of channels supported for contacting an agent of the Company. These include live email, chat, and telephone.

For the e-mail service, the email address to send your submissions is help@helzberg.com. However, you’ll have to wait for some while to get a reply. Thankfully, Helzberg Diamonds has a relatively fast response time (within 24 hours); thus, you’ll not be waiting endlessly to get the needed help.

If you’ll rather have instant feedback, you can use the telephone support or live chat support. The live chat can be accessed from the website of Helzberg Diamonds, while the telephone number to call is 1-800-435-9237. However, the service is only active within the hours of 8:00 am – 8 pm (CST) on Monday – Friday; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm on Saturday; and 12:00 pm – 6:00 pm on Sundays.

It must be pointed out that the live chat service of Helzberg Diamonds is actually live. The feature is not like that paraded by some stores which will put you in a queue waiting for long periods to have an agent available. When we tested the service, an agent was always available; and the response was not only instant but largely helpful.

Summary

Helzberg Diamonds is a legit retailer that has over a century operating record. With its “Here’s to Love” tagline, the Company pushes a love-theme. There was actually a time when the fashionable way to show your affection was to send your loved one a Helzberg Diamonds’ “I AM LOVED®” lapel button. However, receiving a Helzberg Diamonds’ article nowadays does not hold that same appeal anymore.

As a shopper, it also does not help that you’ll find the selection in Helzberg Diamonds to be relatively small. Also, many of the diamonds in Helzberg Diamonds are with the GSI certificates meaning their diamonds will be of lower quality than an equally GIA graded diamond.

You’ll also have to face high prices. For arguably lower quality diamonds, you’ll be paying about 40% – 100% more in Helzberg than you’ll be paying in some other online jewellery store. This means that if you want value for money, you wouldn’t be shopping in Helzberg Diamonds.

However, if you would not mind paying the premium, the Masterpiece collection is very good diamonds to get from Helzberg. You’ll find an easy ordering process, relatively fast delivery, a generous return window, and an effective customer support service. Helzberg may come short in their product offering and pricing, but they do offer the service.

Pros:

• Provides a variety of articles which include diamonds, engagement rings, wedding rings, jewellery, and watches
• Offers eco-friendly lab created diamonds
• Offers real quality pieces in their masterpieces collection
• Offers a lot of financing options
• Have relatively fast delivery times
• Free shipping is offered
• The $99 minimum order requirement for free shipping is one of the lowest in the industry
• Offers free returns
• Allows in-store returns of online purchases
• Offers a generous return window of 60 days from delivery date (albeit 30 days for watches)
• Support multiple ways to directly contact a customer care agent (email, telephone, and live chat)
• Offers a lifetime jewellery care plan
• Offers diamond jewellery upgrades
• Feedback is relatively fast

Cons:

• Their inventory is relatively small
• Prices are relatively higher than in most jewellery stores
• Does not directly ship to international locations
• Use the relatively loose GSI diamond certificates