Should be careful when you order on Future Fashionista!!

[Contessa]

Where's the hysteria?

 

[Winston]

Where's the hysteria?

Umm, with those who are trying to make a bad situation worse with the whole CZ thing.

 

[Vlad]

Let's drop the CZ thing because there is no indication whatsoever that this was the case. And new posts with baseless assumptions that contribute nothing other than to fuel insecurity and panic will be deleted.

 

[Winston]

An expert such as yourself...........yet placing pearls between your teeth.

Interesting......or was that a bad joke?

An old cliche to add some levity, and I don't make bad jokes.

 

[merika]

This is not about me and my transactions. I am simply trying not to feed the hysteria about the possibility of CZ's. How do you know, that she took the time and effort to set CZ's to pass off as diamonds? Most of those who posted about transactions have had their pieces checked. Never once did the subject of CZ's come up until someone decided to start this fire.

Jewelers who actually make their own settings are few and far between. Even then, "handcrafted" is almost always a merging of various findings available to the trade.

Where the setting came from is really nothing to fret over. As for getting yourself crazy over stone clarity, etc., you will, if you continue to check over everything you have, get a different opinion each time. Every jeweler sees inclusions and feathers differently. I am not trying to undermine any purchase, but most of you seem concerned with stones that are small; where the lot needs to be considered as a whole to value. If they are all consistent, sparkle, and compliment the piece they were intended for, then you got your money's worth. The price you paid, again, is subjective to the jeweler. Do you all really think retail, designer stones are that superior relative to the mark-up? They all come from the same vendors and chances are they have their settings imported from the same companies other jewelers use. They are just contracted differently. The only difference is that each "brand" may have a higher standard for what they want to put in their pieces; i.e., using only G-H, vs1 stones, which by the way varies within the trade more than anything. If I took my Tiffany DBY out of the setting, to a jeweler for a "blind" evaluation, chances are I would get a different opinion on its 4 C's. And I know, some will say, "Tiffany's has their stones "cut" differently". Bottom line, it's a science!

Fault Elana for her poor business sense, but please stop vilifying her for the diamond quality you have. It's just getting catty.

No jeweler in their right mind is going to use top, color, clarity goods in most earrings, unless specifically requested by the customer, then they are looked at, as loose, before setting, and command a premium. I speak from extensive diamond purchasing experience. I have large GIA stones in rings, a large Kwiat diamond band, but, as is evidenced by my unfortunate listing for diamond bracelets that still appears on FF, a lesser retailer in a bracelet, but with no less the sparkle, brillance and color.

If Kallie Girl's earrings "sparkle like crazy" then, in my opinion, she did great!

^I'm not saying anything about Elana's stones per se, but how can YOU be SO sure about what was Elana's thing re: her business, her merchandise etc and what wasn't?

You may be sure about the transactions she did with you, the merchandise she exchanged with you and the correspondence she had with you, but how can you speak for every other person's transactions and every other person's merchandise that they purchased from Elana?

My quote above was actually also relevant to your previous post, (especially the part in large type which) I also quote here.

I know your transactions with Elana have not involved stones of value lesser than stated, as per some appraisals. However you cannot make blanket statements about the diamond quality of other people's purchases or imply that they are being catty. You have a) no idea what those people paid for their diamonds sold by Elana b) no idea what Elana told them the quality of the stones were or c) no idea what Elana told them about the sources of her stones, the construction of her jewelry, the cost of manufacture or any other particulars, and therefore have no right to tell people what they can or cannot say about how much the diamonds they paid for are worth, especially if they have a qualified appraiser backing their statement.

 

[HHPmom]

Some of us have had the items professionally appraised, no cubic zirconias, pleazzzzzzze.

But I feel strongly enough to post further.,
When you have some posters on a thread as sensitive as this, who are brand new members of the forum, and post on this thread, and at the same time
make statements elsewhere, such as the one I am actually copying and pasting, below, it is obvious, at least to me, that in some cases, the true intent of some posters is not to help in any way but to sensationalize........and, lets face it, a thread such as this sells..............,and here is the exact copy, Viral use of the web.

The other forum just banned her recently. But they used to share profit made off of that forum's selling by Elana, read from another xxxxxx xxxxx.Of course, all the links and pages related to Elana are now deleted from the forum that she posted as Japster.

I was stating the facts that I read it off from another forum, stating where I read it from. People can read and decide for themselves. It was also stated here by one of the admin that the links related to her were removed.

I love pearls and FF was selling a lot of pearls on her site. So it's natural that I took an interest in reading this. When the OP in another forum did not get her merchandise in the "pearls" subforum, I gave her the Federal Trade Commission's link to take further actions. Even though I joined here almost a year ago, I don't post here. I would not have started posting here in this thread, but doberman mentioned I posted in another forum that some of her pearl strands are sourced from Tara Pearls, so I jumped in to add some information. Those that read my posts elsewhere know that I provided facts and helpful information, more than what I contributed here about FF.

Everyone started out as a newbie once. Don't judge a person's motive by the number of posts they have.

 

[Megs]

Not everything we read everywhere is a fact .

I did not see anyone state that their merchandise is cubic zirconia when they were told they were buying diamonds. Of course if that is proven to be the case, you should come forward and post that information. But posting ideas that are not proven will only muddle fact and fiction.

 

[HHPmom]

Not everything we read everywhere is a fact .

I did not see anyone state that their merchandise is cubic zirconia when they were told they were buying diamonds. Of course if that is proven to be the case, you should come forward and post that information. But posting ideas that are not proven will only muddle fact and fiction.

I did not say anything about CZ. The last paragraph in habanerita's post was about my post somewhere else.

 

[Contessa]

Not everything we read everywhere is a fact .

I did not see anyone state that their merchandise is cubic zirconia when they were told they were buying diamonds. Of course if that is proven to be the case, you should come forward and post that information. But posting ideas that are not proven will only muddle fact and fiction.

Apologies Megs.

i just wanted to point out that all things sparkly may not necessarily be authentic.

That's all.

 

[habanerita]

I will take it your explanation meant you were stating rumors., not facts.
And herein again lies the danger of posting unfounded rumors and stating them as if they were facts.


I was stating the facts that I read it off from another forum, stating where I read it from. People can read and decide for themselves. It was also stated here by one of the admin that the links related to her were removed.

 

[HHPmom]

I will take it your explanation meant you were stating rumors., not facts.
And herein again lies the danger of posting unfounded rumors and stating them as if they were facts.


I was stating the facts that I read it off from another forum, stating where I read it from. People can read and decide for themselves. It was also stated here by one of the admin that the links related to her were removed.

She was banned and links were removed. Those are facts.

The statement about profits, etc, I didn't know for sure, that's why added that I read it off another forum. Anyone wants to know more can look for it.

 

[restricter]

Again, I think it's a lost cause to try to recoup from any past purchases...

It is not necessarily a lost cause. Depending on each person's specific facts and circumstances, as well as the relevant statute of limitations, there may be action that can be taken. Whether a judgment would be paid is yet another story. It is up to those who believe they have been harmed to weigh the costs, benefits and the law.

In addition, each of the 50 states has a Department of Consumer Affairs or similar agency. It is their job to investigate and help resolve customer complaints, and if necessary, refer cases for criminal prosecution.

Whether an appraisal is sufficient proof in a legal action is a question of fact, to be determine by the presiding judge (if no jury) or by the jury.

There has been a lot of useful advice posted and while I cannot provide legal advice to any of you, I hope some of the legal background above will assist those who believe they may have suffered financial harm from their transactions.

Back to lurking.

Best regards,

Restricter

 

[gga]

Of course jewelers have a significant markup. I can't imagine where you got the idea that we didn't know or understand that. I've bought from mom and pop stores to major chains, and Elana is the only salesperson I've ever bought from who has consistently forced me to listen to how broke she is and how she's doing me a favor selling me these items at her cost while inflicting a significant markup on me. I don't think any of us would be focused on price or markup if Elana hadn't turned our attention there herself by over and over claiming to sell at wholesale or below. Don't claim something then turn around and become outraged when people hold you at your word.

And of course earrings have inferior quality diamonds.

The problem isn't that there was a markup. The problem isn't that the diamonds are inferior.

The problem is that Elana lied.

The problem is that she sold diamonds that didn't meet the specs she listed on receipts by a wide margin. Small differences in diamond qualities as assessed by various appraisers can be dismissed as opinion. Big differences can't be so easily dismissed.

And if we step away from diamond quality, I don't think your everyone-on-here-is-such-a-rube-and-poor-Elana-is-a-beleaguered-professional-who-just-had-a-run-of-bad-luck-recently defense explains away a 2008 receipt that lists diamond weight on beads on a pearl necklace as double what the diamonds weigh in reality. 5 carats in diamond weight don't just disappear on opinion.

Selling a client diamonds that you say weigh 5+ carats more than they really do? That's a lie. That's fraud. And that predates Elana's illness.

And that's just one necklace out of several jewelry items with the same problem.

 

[Sammyjoe]

As this thread developed I found it quite sad that some posters are almost excusing what has occurred as simply "Elana let her business slip etc" Give me a break.

I simply see it as Elana being a fraud and a scammer. The moment you state something is at cost - then it should be truly at cost or at least close to it, the fact that she stated cost and charged over 5 times and some times much more the amount is a scam. Yes lots of people are happy with their purchases and lots of people are unhappy due to her scamming.

Also if anyone thinks Elana has been vilified, trashed, slagged off etc on this forum , then they need to look at other forums which imo have been far harsher, this forum has been very fair to her and the facts have been presented and people will make up their own minds.

 

[hlfinn]

As I have tried in the past on this thread, some facts which are being either ignored or not posted are:

Neither Paypal nor credit card charges are available on Future Fashionista. They have been discontinued by FF for some time, if you don't believe it, try to charge and item and you will see for yourself. Furthermore this has been in effect for a few months now, so there is no danger of anyone buying anything online from Future Fashionista,, again, the danger has not existed for a few months.

There were several items offered by FF on the web and by J in the private market place that were clearly stated as having been made by a friend or by others, or purchased for a good price by FF., several of us received emails regarding the earrings described in this thread, which I own and love, stating that the stones were set by FF, the rest had been bought elsewhere.

There are several members who have received positive appraisals on items bought from Elana. As posted by Winston, her business sense was not on par, especially for the time period starting last May.

I know it has to be horrible for a good client to have received an appraisal much lower and of different specs from what was described to her, and there is no explanation for this.

However, for some of us, the chance to obtain the pearl necklaces, earrings, etc., we were able to purchase for the prices we purchased them for, and with the chance to customize our purchases, and pick from several options, was a great benefit. In my personal case, there was no conspiracy to deceive or scamming, again, this is in my personal case.

As I stated before on this thread, if someones personal life, (Elana's children have answered phone calls where they have been told their mother is a thief and many more things), business life is trashed, destroyed on the web, responsibility has to be taken to post factually.

habernita- with all due respect we all get that you like elana and want to defend her. but consistantly telling everyone else on here that we're wrong and elana did basically nothing wrong is getting really tiresome. you know i checked a TON of her listings from the "private marketplace" and she DID say SPECIFICALLY that she hand set, hand casted, hand made etc the pieces that she sold. did she say that about everything? no. but a very large portion of it. have YOU read through her threads? also, there's no mention in your short list of what elana did wrong that mentions her selling jewlery as vintage when it was not. i don't think people should be calling her house and telling her children anything but people have called and called and emailed with no answer, no machine, NO RESPONSE and they're getting fustrated. it's great YOU were able to talk to her but you know after you did you still didn't bring anything to the table about what was wrong, how she intended to rectify it or anything. as i said, we get it, she's your friend. but why not try and read this thread and have some empathy for the people who were scammed.

oh and as far as i know her ebay business is alive and well so it seems she's still selling just, potentially, not on her website. and how do you know you can't buy anything with pp or a cc on her site for the past several months?

Of course jewelers have a significant markup. I can't imagine where you got the idea that we didn't know or understand that. I've bought from mom and pop stores to major chains, and Elana is the only salesperson I've ever bought from who has consistently forced me to listen to how broke she is and how she's doing me a favor selling me these items at her cost while inflicting a significant markup on me. I don't think any of us would be focused on price or markup if Elana hadn't turned our attention there herself by over and over claiming to sell at wholesale or below. Don't claim something then turn around and become outraged when people hold you at your word.

And of course earrings have inferior quality diamonds.

The problem isn't that there was a markup. The problem isn't that the diamonds are inferior.

The problem is that Elana lied.

The problem is that she sold diamonds that didn't meet the specs she listed on receipts by a wide margin. Small differences in diamond qualities as assessed by various appraisers can be dismissed as opinion. Big differences can't be so easily dismissed.

And if we step away from diamond quality, I don't think your everyone-on-here-is-such-a-rube-and-poor-Elana-is-a-beleaguered-professional-who-just-had-a-run-of-bad-luck-recently defense explains away a 2008 receipt that lists diamond weight on beads on a pearl necklace as double what the diamonds weigh in reality. 5 carats in diamond weight don't just disappear on opinion.

Selling a client diamonds that you say weigh 5+ carats more than they really do? That's a lie. That's fraud. And that predates Elana's illness.

And that's just one necklace out of several jewelry items with the same problem.

i am so sorry, again, gga for this. and once again thank you for coming here. there is no excuse for what elana's done- scam people who trusted her.