Top 20 Diamond Scams

The 20 most common scams in stores
and 13 precautions to avoid them.

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Robert Graves

Founder and President, Diamond Helpers, Inc.

Questions? Email Me

This photo was taken in Fallbrook, CA, in 2013. Since I started this business in 1998, I have answered thousands of consumer questions, saved them nearly a million dollars, and helped them avoid countless scams. I sleep well knowing I have served.

Three Decades Experience

Robert has over three decades of experience in the diamond and jewelry business. He spent 12 years training more than 100 diamond sales specialists, and managing several top retail jewelry stores, including one of the most successful diamond stores in the country. In 1984, he began specializing in loose diamonds and has been certified in diamonds by the Gemological Institute of America since 1986. Since 1980, Robert has helped over 10,000 couples find their perfect engagement ring, tested over 10,000 stores to find the best in integrity, service, pricing etc, and coached hundreds of couples with their relationships. He has been quoted in a dozen newspapers and countless websites, and coaches dozens of the most successful jewelry stores in the country on how to help educated online customers.

Service Centered Approach

Robert has always focused on helping people. From the age of 16, no matter where he worked, he did it with a focus on extreme service. Selling never meant convincing someone to buy. It always meant helping them find something that meets their needs, at the best possible price. Selling should be done with integrity, or not at all.

Even in his first fulltime job, unloading trucks for a department store, he invented ways to make work more efficient, and quickly rose to management. He continued to raise the level of customer service in the store, one department after another, gaining the respect and love of his coworkers, and soon was promoted as the youngest multidepartment manager in the chain.

Educational Sales Approach

When Robert switched from department stores to the diamond business in 1980, he noticed that the industry approach was to keep the consumer ignorant, and take advantage of that ignorance to sell lower quality goods at higher markups. He could not stand by and watch that happen anymore, so he created a sales approach that educated and empowered the consumer, helping them make more informed decisions.

The educational sales approach that Robert pioneered — teaching about diamonds using microscopes and photos and other tools — has since been copied around the world. At the time, it did not garner any love from competitors, who preferred to keep consumers in the dark. Soon Robert’s stores dominated the markets in the Austin TX area, and other stores were forced to change or close. The technique spread and became a foundation for success for many stores around the world. He now helps dozens of the country’s most successful diamond specialty stores as a sales consultant.

Empowering Consumers Today

Since 1999, Robert has been happy to share these hard-earned lessons and insider secrets with consumers online, to help you buy intelligently and save money, save stress, and save time in your search for an engagement ring.

Far too often the stress of a large purchase that is mainly in the dark, can make the process unpleasant, and distract a man from the original intent of the purchase : the love you share. As Robert says: “I want to help you keep the romance in the process, and keep the fear out of it.”

The Rest of the Story

Among his hobbies, Robert enjoys african djembe drumming, which he has studied since 2000 from several modern masters of the tradition. He now teaches both online and locally, and is creating events to drum for dancers.

Robert is passionate about creating a safe space for women to shine. To that end, he is creating events that honor and created safety for women, to inspire creative expression and restore the flow of passion into all aspects of life.