DCLA Certificates Now $20 (For Diamonds with Auscerts)

According to a good source of mine, DCLA is now offering their certificates for stupidly low $20 – provided the diamond has already been certified by Auscert.

The question one must ask is why??!! Are they trying to win back clients (diamond wholesalers and retailers) that are now giving Auscert business – and if so, why are they specifically targeting Auscert? Are they trying to discredit Auscert by re-certifying their certs at a lower grade?

My prediction is that Auscert will hit back and offer a similar offer for their certs.

Unfortunately, this situation highlights the bitter relationships between some of the Australian diamond labs. These so-called “lab wars” filter down to the retailers selling these certs and create confusion for the consumer. Because there is so little information online about Australian labs, most consumers get their information from retailers. One retailer may sell DCLA and say Auscert is inferior, another may sell Auscert and say DCLA is inferior.  It is because of this that we, along with other retailers have given up on Australian labs and use international certificates.
Whilst we use solely GIA and AGS, others use IGI and EGL, who in my opinion are sub-par, whereas for the most part, Australian labs grade accurately and consistently. What is needed is for all Australian labs (especially DCLA) to work together and stop fighting. That way, they will gain a bigger share of the certification pie and they will all benefit.

This entry was written by Nikhil Jogia and was posted on on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Diamond Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.