Engagement Rings Turkey???Advice

smithp27

I've recently got engaged and am wearing a stand in at the moment until I find a ring I really like!We have heard that the gold factories in Turkey are really good value, is there any particular resort we should go to to visit any particular recommended gold factory? We are planning to go away end this month so thought it would be a good opportunity to purchase the ring too! Any advice on offer would be greatly appreciated!

tatli_lokma

Congrats to you on your engagement!

In answer to your question, unless you can a) speak Turkish and b) know a good bit about jewellery and diamonds then I would strongly advise against this.

Firstly, if you buy in a resort then you will pay a premium for this - i.e tourist prices. Plus the quality may not be great, plus you are taking the risk of being sold a dud. Even in shops which seem reputable, it can happen - I have seen it happen a lot.

My husband is Turkish and we lived there when we got engaged. Even with him being a native, my first ring was troublesome. Only for us living there and him speaking the language were we able to return it.

I would never buy jewellery - well expensive or investment or very meaningful jewellery - in a tourist resort.

Also, my relative works in a jewellers in Dublin. She said the amount of rings that get brought in to them, which were bought abroad, which whilst money was saved, they have problems with the settings, stones getting loose etc - they end up costing the same in the long run. She also said that a lot of people come in expecting to get a great valuation on a ring, only to find they over paid for it, or that it is not a great ring, or that it is not platinum but white gold etc....I might add, this goes for lots of countries, not solely Turkey.

My first ring had trouble with the setting. As a result the diamond fell out once and other smaller diamonds came loose etc. We had trouble bringing it back and only that my hubby is Turkish and we were living there we would have been stuck with it. If we had been on holiday then a month after coming home we would have had problems with it and no recourse. And we didn't even buy from a tourist area!

Many jewellers in the resorts buy factory made rings, as they are realtively cheap, unusual designs and a hit with the tourists. The problems with these rings is that because they are mass produced they often have problems with the settings as we experienced. We ended up going to a family friend who made our ring to order. This took about a fortnight, and we visited the shop around 4 times to be sure it was ok. Plus we knew the language so we were able to explain properly what we wanted.

All these factors together and I would say, no do not buy such an important ring in a resort in Turkey, in fact in any tourist resort abroad. Even in shops were they speak perfect English, they can be....well lets say 'slick' in their sales technique.

Having said that, if you speak Turkish (or the local language) and know your jewellery, and are prepared to travel to a large city (i.e not a tourist resort) then you can save money. My ring was over €1000 less than I would have paid here. But my first ring, although I saved compared to Ireland, would have ended up costing me as much in repairs in the long run (plus all the heartache and inconvenience).

You might be better going to Antwerp or New York if you want to combine a holiday and jewellery - at least there will be less language barriers.