Frequently Asked Questions: General (About the company)

Q: What will your company name appear as for a charge on my credit card or banking statement?

Q: Why should I choose cubic zirconia?

Q: How is CubicZirconia.com cubic zirconia jewelry better than that of other companies that make/sell CZ jewelry?

Q: Why is CubicZirconia.com known as the "Clear Choice™" for high-quality precious metal cubic zirconia jewelry?

Q: What are your business hours for telephone help/website chat?

Q: When did you start this business?

Q: How are your prices so low?

Q: Do you pay commissions to your salespeople?

Q: Do you have any reviews of happy customers?

Q: Where are your jewelry items made?

Q: I’ve heard your company sets aside 5% of its total gross sales for philanthropic causes, is it true?

Q: What do you mean you don’t maintain a brick-and-mortar retail store? You don’t have a physical store I can visit to check out your merchandise?

Q: Can I see your jewelry in person?

Q: Where are you located?

Q: Do you offer a printed catalog of your jewelry?

Q: Are you qualified jewelry experts?

Q: How do customers communicate with you?

Q: So if I have a question about your products, all I have to do is shoot you an email and someone will answer?

Q: What if I already spoke to a representative and I like the way my concern was handled, and the next time I got in touch with you, another person answers. Can I request to work with the first representative?

Q: We hear a lot about company visions, missions, philosophies etc. What’s yours?

Q: Sometimes you all seem to be a bunch of class clowns with the way you write on your website. Aren’t you afraid people who read this will take you lightly?

Q: Why cubic zirconia? Why not just sell ‘real’ diamond jewelry?

Q: Are you really Americans?

Q: What did I learn from reading so much of your FAQ-ing page?


A: To avoid potentially ruining a customer’s surprise for their gift recipient (who may share the same bank or credit card account), we do not use “CubicZirconia.com” or any other jewelry-related company name when processing your payment. That means our billing will appear discreetly on your credit card or banking statement. Here is an image showing what your billing statement should reflect:

(note: that’s an image so a search online for the text of what shows on your billing statement won’t turn up our company or this webpage!).


To understand how we also protect your surprise in the mail with plain, non-branded packaging see FAQ question “I’m ordering from you as a surprise gift for someone with whom I share the same shipping address. How can I be sure you won’t ruin the surprise?.

A: There are a few reasons, really. First, if you’re concerned about the impact of diamond mining on the environment. Second, if you’re concerned about the impact of diamond mining on indigenous communities (i.e. blood diamonds). Third, even the best-dressed women and men still want to save money. CubicZirconia.com offers a dazzling catalog of premium precious metal jewelry set with the finest 5A diamond-quality CZ stones. When you wear our high-quality cubic zirconia jewelry, it looks like you’re wearing incredibly expensive diamond jewelry...but you only paid a fraction of the cost. Even professional jewelers can’t tell the difference between our 5A CZ stones and a perfect diamond with the naked eye alone!


Fourth, high-quality cubic zirconia jewelry is great travel insurance, so to speak. Our average ring price is $500-700 while an equivalent carat-size-and-gem-clarity diamond ring might cost $20,000-$40,000 or even more. Lots of people have had expensive diamond jewelry stolen and simply couldn’t afford to replace it or chose not to risk it again. That’s why when they travel, these customers do so with one of our high-quality cubic zirconia jewelry designs instead of diamond jewelry.

In short, CubicZirconia.com’s high quality cubic zirconia jewelry offers our customers a true look of luxury he/she can wear with a clean conscience, a sense of security (especially while traveling), and after having paid a lot less money than for comparable-looking natural diamonds.

A: We call it the “CubicZirconia.com Difference”. Our website is filled with reasons why we’re the world’s online leader in fine cubic zirconia jewelry. To get an idea why we are the “Clear Choice™” for high-quality precious metal cubic zirconia jewelry, you can also read the 25 Reasons why you should choose Cubic Zirconia and CubicZirconia.com here. Spend a few minutes browsing our products, reviewing our thorough Frequently Asked Questions, checking out our happy customer reviews...and we know you’ll be on your way to a first-time customer like many more before you. Once you see our jewelry, you’ll see why even newlyweds choose to start their life together with a CubicZirconia.com ring. Thanks for the opportunity to serve you.

A: Some of our customers say that it’s because of our friendly customer service. Others say that it’s because of our large selection, superior products, and an easy-to-navigate website. Yet still others believe where we shine is our custom-design-your-own jewelry program. And there’s at least one guy who heard we were in the process of filing a registered trademark on the phrase as it pertains to jewelry. Whatever your reason might be to view CubicZirconia.com as the Clear Choice™ for your purchase, we are happy to be chosen as your jeweler. Our company will work hard to surpass your expectations.

A: Our customer service representatives are available via phone at U.S. toll-free number 1-888-355-2484 and via chat using the chat box at the lower right corner of our website during these hours Monday to Saturday: business hours. If you are unable to reach us via phone or live chat, simply leave a message with your phone number, as well as order number (if you are an existing customer), plus also please include your email address since we sometimes find it easier and faster to respond via email than playing "phone tag".

A: Do you still “party like it’s 1999”? We do. CubicZirconia.com first went online in 1999, and today we are proud to call ourselves the world’s online leader in fine Cubic Zirconia jewelry and related products and services. To put that website live date into some perspective for you...that's before Twitter (2006), before Youtube and Reddit (2005), before Facebook (2004), before Myspace and Skype (2003), before LinkedIn (2002), before Wikipedia (2001), and before Verizon and TripAdvisor (2000)-- and just a year after Google and Paypal (1998) were founded and launched.

 

In a world of fly-by-night online merchants, that kinda says something, doesn't it? Current executive management has led the company since the summer of 2012. You can learn more about our team at the link provided.

A: There are a few reasons our prices are so low.

  1. We design and merchandise our own product line instead of selling “designer”-licensed jewelry designs. This end-to-end control of our brand allows us to provide the best and lowest prices.
  2. We don’t believe the price for diamond-simulant center stones should have any relation to the prices demanded by natural diamond sellers. Unlike many makers of artificial gemstones, who base their retail prices as a certain fraction or percentage of what the real diamond of that size would be priced at...we don’t believe these things should have anything to do with one another! Instead, if we can make a nice profit selling a stone for US$12 to $60 (and we can), then we do that. There’s no need to jack up the price. We’re very clear with people that even though our stones are a perfect optical diamond lookalike...we can and do manufacture them for less than $1.00 each.
  3. Furthermore, we do not have a brick-and-mortar store so our costs are lower. While our team maintains offices, storage and jewelry shop space, we don’t have a physical store you can visit to shop. We’re an online only company and have been so since Day 1. Therefore, our ring, necklace, earrings, and pendant prices aren't inflated to cover paying the exorbitant overhead costs of running a brick-and-mortar jewelry store: no expensive building lease, utilities and property insurance, no fancy jewelry cases filled with investments of in-stock inventory, no company car for the sales manager, no flashy furniture and furnishings to impress clients, no unnecessary administrative staff - and all these savings, we pass on to customers in the form of low-priced, but quality-made cubic zirconia plus precious metals jewelry. We expand on this answer a bit in our FAQ question “Can I see your jewelry in person?.
  4. We don’t need a “fudge factor” on our pricing to account for the fluctuation of precious metals costs (which go up and down daily). A lot of jewelers build in an extra cushion to their jewelry pricing so they don’t have to update the price often. Instead, we price as low as we can and change our prices every week as the cost we pay for the gold and platinum and palladium in our jewelry goes up or down. You can read more about this here.

A: Unlike retail jewelers, we don't pay salespeople commissions. We don't hire salespeople. We hire customer support staff that are pleasant, patient problem solvers. Jewelry buying is often a process involving a lot of thought for customers over a period of time. We'd rather be proactive in helping than pushy about buying immediately. We train our customer support staff to answer questions, ask clarifying questions when necessary, and provide concrete examples and visuals to make sure any jewelry terminology used is understood. The customer support specialist you're paired with when you first get in touch with our company is asked to take ownership of your search for the perfect jewelry for this time in your life-- and in so doing to follow up with you, do research on your behalf, and make suggestions to ensure your purchase provides the most value per dollar spent. Luckily, enough website visitors have become customers over the years to make such a crazy idea work!

A: Yes, CubicZirconia.com first went online in 1999 and today we are proud to call ourselves the world’s online leader in fine Cubic Zirconia jewelry and related products and services. From our first website visitor to our first customer, first repeat customer and beyond...we’ve got lots of happy customers who have provided reviews. You can read some of them here

A: Nothing we sell as finished jewelry is "made in China". Frankly, in this globalized neighborhood, consumers are all beginning to learn that that stamp is code for "cheap and poorly put together with suspect materials by exploited human beings working for a dollar a day". All of our finished jewelry products are hand-crafted in and shipped from the United States using the best of materials for manufacturing. Our website also says our finished jewelry products are “Made in America” and that is 110% true according to the standards set by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

 

That’s not because the United States is a great country, but just you know...because we're based here. Our shop management is actually out of Kentucky. We also have a team making our jewelry in Louisiana. From time to time, we also license some jewelry items from other manufacturers-- but those are always either Made in America or clearly marked as made elsewhere. For a more detailed answer about our “Made in America” philosophy, see FAQ question “Is your product ‘Made in America’?”.

A: We did 5% of gross sales as a gift to philanthropic causes for a number of years, absolutely! In 2019, due to our company growth, we changed to doing 5% of gross profit on a quarterly basis (sales minus cost of goods and credit card processing fees). Though the plan is to give even more in our next decades in business than ever before, during the worldwide 2021 pandemic we adjusted to 4% of gross profit set aside for philanthropy and we maintain that today. We manage to operate our business saving quite a bit of money by not maintaining a brick-and-mortar retail store. That’s one reason why we’re able to sell our cubic zirconia plus precious metals jewelry pieces at relatively low prices. And even so, we’re still able to make enough profit to be able to support worthy causes close to our hearts. Some of these causes were first chosen by an employee. Some were suggested by a customer. You can read more about our philanthropy efforts here.

A: No, while our team maintains offices, storage and jewelry shop space, we don’t have a physical store you can visit to shop. We’re an online only company and have been so since Day 1. We expand on this answer a bit in our FAQ question “Can I see your jewelry in person?.

A: Yes, after you’ve ordered! Shall we process your order now? Just kidding! As mentioned earlier, we’re an online-only company, so we don’t have any physical stores where you can check our items in person. Depending on your perspective, you may ultimately decide this to be a good thing or a bad thing.

 

Although we don’t have a retail store for you to walk into and talk to us-- or see our jewelry-- customers trust us for a number of reasons:

 

  • With few clearly-marked exceptions, our products are made out of precious metals in qualities that are international standards: .925 sterling silver, 10 karat gold (white/yellow/rose), 14 karat gold (white/yellow/rose), 18 karat gold (white/yellow/rose), 950 palladium and 950 Platinum. So long as you’re dealing with a reputable jeweler, international standards help you to compare apples and applies. 14 karat gold jewelry is 14 karat gold no matter who makes the jewelry.
  • We are experienced in working with customers remotely. In fact, to use just one example...our products have shared in thousands of engagements and weddings around the world. We understand it can produce anxiety to make a big purchase over the internet sight unseen. And so we try to make it easy. If it takes 50 questions you email us before you feel comfortable to make a purchase, that’s fine!
  • We put a lot of effort into our website product pages. We try to list every last specification, dimension and piece of information relevant to a purchase of jewelry: number of stones, band width, metal weight, carat weight, earring backs available, finger ring sizes available, customization options, and so on. We’re accountable to that information. What you “see” is what you’ll get!
  • Our product pictures are pretty awesome! We believe these high-resolution images clearly show you what you’re going to get with any specific jewelry item purchase.
  • We offer a pretty great money-back guarantee and manufacturer’s lifetime warranty which applies to all non-custom, non-clearance jewelry purchases.
  • Our ring, necklace, earrings, and pendant prices aren't inflated to cover paying the exorbitant overhead costs of running a brick-and-mortar jewelry store: no expensive building lease, utilities and property insurance, no fancy jewelry cases filled with investments of in-stock inventory, no company car for the sales manager, no flashy furniture and furnishings to impress clients, no unnecessary administrative staff - and all these savings, we pass on to customers in the form of low-priced, but quality-made cubic zirconia plus precious metals jewelry.
  •  

    We do currently have plans for a series of kiosks in malls within a dozen cities in the United States (cities where a good 40% or so of our customers happen to be within a few hours' drive of). However, as of writing in July 2018 those plans are no more than drawing-board stage.

    A: We’re online. We’re everywhere! No, seriously...while we service customers around the world our main fulfillment facility has been out of the Louisville, Kentucky, USA area since 2012. We have a secondary fulfillment center in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. Our repair facility located in Erlanger, Kentucky, USA is run by a separate company who specializes in jewelry repair; with 4 generations of experience and hundreds of employees, we trust them to keep the jewelry of our customers looking its best.

     

    Our staff strives to be efficient, and consists of: the executive team that takes care and oversees overall operations; the concierge team that takes care of custom price quotes for all custom jewelry creations; the superstar customer service team that takes care of all frontline customer interactions; the marketing and content creation team; the fulfillment team; the manufacturing and production team; the information technology team; and, the repairs and after sales service team. You can read more about our team members here

    A: Sorry, we do not currently have a printed catalog of our jewelry. While we have shared some internal catalogs with some customers in the past, and we may publish one again in the future, right now that is not on our roadmap of priorities. Most of our jewelry styles are pictured on the website, but not all of them. For example, there are styles we have made through our custom program that have never been published online for others to buy. And there are customizable-center-shape versions of some rings that might be online with one center stone shape that we can actually customize with 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10 different center stone shapes, a fact which we have never noted online.


    At any given time we may have 25% or more of our product catalog in various stages of publishing online or re-publishing online. If you can describe what you’re wanting to purchase-- especially rings or earrings-- there is a good chance we can make it for you, even if it’s not in our online store right now. Please contact us with special requests.

    A: Our team’s jewelry knowledge varies from person to person. Though we are all encouraged to learn as much as possible about our products and the company’s craft of jewelry-making, the person who puts loose stone orders in the mail, the website development team, and the folks answering the phone each each know less about how to make a ring from scratch than those whose job it is to make our rings from CAD to wax to mold and finally metal casting…does that make sense?


    However, in the role each one plays, yes we work with experts on our team. Let us provide a few examples if we may.


    Jewel, our stone setting specialist, is probably one of the best in her craft today. We're talking about decades of experience in every which way stones can be hand-set or machine-set into a manufactured piece of jewelry. She has an astoundingly wide knowledge base about jewelry-making best practices, and we couldn't produce the quality and volume of jewelry we do without Jewel.


    Nicole, our rockstar customer service manager loves creating magical "wow" moments for our customers. Nicole was instrumental in creating the company's custom CZ "design your own ring" program from the ground up. In that capacity, she's been involved in creating hundreds of one-of-a-kind rings for our customers. She has a real flair for helping prospects talk through what they are wanting to get made...before they are ever asked to spend a single dollar.


    Teresa is our Top Customer Service Rep, and she’s got serious empathy skills when a customer has a question or problem. Believe it or not, she actually listens and tries to read/understand everything before opening her mouth or sending off a form-response email. She is so "in-tune" with our customers, her name is actually a part of approximately 25.83% of all positive reviews and testimonials CubicZirconia.com receives on an annual basis!


    Deepak and Brian, our 3D CAD imaging geniuses are exactly that - GENIUSES. They can take even the most abstract jewelry design idea and transform it into a concrete design element so well that you'd think they're able to hack their way into the customers’ minds to find out what they really want! They can’t though. That would be creepy.


    We could go on and on about each and every member of our team. The point is, we're not all jewelry experts, if that's what you're asking. We're not all customer service rockstars, either, but we have the mother of all customer service rockstars (Nicole) and her daughter (Teresa) on our roster to "wow" our customers all day long. We're not all 3D CAD imaging experts, but we believe we have 2 of the best CAD specialists in the industry today. And so on, and so forth. Deepak, Teresa, and Nicole for instance aren’t going to be doing Jewel’s job anytime soon. We all serve and support each other to give the best service and products to our customers. You can read more about our CubicZirconia.com team here

    A: Through mental telepathy! Haha! Kidding aside, the main mode of communication we have with customers is email. We do things this way for 4 reasons:

     

  • Many of our customers are working with us to purchase jewelry that will be a gift. Most customers have a cellphone in 2018 as we write this, but there is no way for us to know that the phone number we may have for a client is private or a shared line like a home or office number. To avoid potentially ruining a customer’s surprise for their gift recipient, we very rarely leave voicemail messages and are more likely going to call only when email fails to reach a customer for a timely response. When we do call, we also don’t use a caller ID that says our company name for the same reason
  • Not every phone call will ever connect the two people who need to talk; but sending an email gives the sender (that’s us) plenty of confidence that the message was at least delivered.
  • We can extend our workday with email whenever necessary, or if we get behind (no one minds if you send an email at 2AM their time, but if you call...well, that’s another story).
  • Email is by nature a written communication and it gives you proof to refer to if there is ever a misunderstanding. Our customer having a written email where we said something holds us accountable to follow through on our promises.
  •  

    We believe our email handling of customer service concerns is as good as any jewelry company. Heck, one of our customer service reps even synced our support email to his personal cell-phone just so he can monitor customer messages real-time! For the most part, we do our best to reply to email concerns within 24-48 hours.

     

    For more urgent concerns, we do have a toll-free number, U.S.1-888-355-2484, that customers can call from 10am-8pm EST to talk to us or leave a voicemail. We do our best to return calls within 24 hours.

     

    For more detailed information on how you can get in touch with us, click here.

    A: Absolutely! We constantly monitor our email inbox and do our best to respond to customer inquiries in a timely manner. In fact, if you catch us squarely during our operating hours between 10am-8pm EST you have a good chance of getting a response to your email within a few hours or less! But usually, we make sure to answer email inquiries within 24-48 hours.

    A: Sure you can! Just say so on your subsequent emails that you previously worked with Nicole, Teresa, Trevor, Todd or anyone else and we’ll be glad to turn the matter over to that person. You see, we want you to feel as comfortable as possible working with us (especially on a custom jewelry piece) because we know how stressful it can seem to invest your hard-earned money on something sight unseen with a company based online. So if working with a representative you’re comfortable with gives you a measure of peace, the rest of the team will be glad to take care of whatever’s on that person’s plate so your chosen representative can work exclusively with you until your project is done. Cool?

    A: As a company, CubicZirconia.com believes that “Better Every Day” is a realistic expectation. It doesn’t matter if your improvement comes in leaps and bounds, or in eeny-meeny baby steps. As long as you make a conscious effort to become a better person or a better company every single day, sooner or later, you’ll reach the best version possible.


    Click here to learn more about the immutable laws that describe our core value philosophies of life, business, jewelry-making and relationships.

    A: Not at all! We may kid around in our ‘professional’ communications, product descriptions and so forth, but when it comes to the business of providing the best quality cubic zirconia plus precious metals jewelry-- whether it be custom made or from our growing catalog of tens of thousands of products-- we’re dead serious. Our dedication to excellence in this business shows in the reputation we have built over the years and the numerous raving fans we have been happy to serve since Day 1. We’re just not interested in communicating in the stodgy, old-fashioned, holier-than-thou way many brick-and-mortar jewelers do in their brochures and advertising.


    Just because you like to kid around and promote a cheery atmosphere, doesn’t mean you take your responsibilities lightly, right? Besides, being serious and uptight all the time is stressful, bad for your prostate, death on your sex life...and simply not fun. And if something’s not fun, it’s ain’t worth doing.

    A: The answer is simple…If you can’t tell the difference, why pay the difference?

     

    We only use the highest-quality Cubic Zirconia stones in manufacturing our finished jewelry: AAAAA (5A) diamond-quality CZ, the best grade commercially available, flawless and visually indistinguishable from perfect and flawless mined diamonds to the naked eye. Even jewelers with decades of experience can't look and tell the difference without special tools and tests. So your friends and family won't know it's not a diamond unless you tell them. This is what we call the “diamond mystique”.

     

    Moreover, by purchasing high-quality, diamond-simulant cubic zirconia jewelry, you are saying "No more!" to ‘Blood diamonds’. Yes, we are a proud supporter of the international effort to stop blood diamonds. Buy now from our company and send an emphatic "No more!" to the greedy practices, false scarcity tactics, and brainwashing-level advertising conducted by one of the world's most monopolistic cartels-- the ruthless human rights abusers that sully the the shady side of the diamond industry.

     

    You can also read the 25 Reasons why you should choose Cubic Zirconia and CubicZirconia.com here.

    A: We’re an ecommerce business and full-service jewelry shop owned by Americans, and run by Americans. We make jewelry and do business like Americans, working out of American manufacturing facilities-- even when some crucial members of our remote design, fulfillment and customer support teams do live in other countries like Canada, Bangladesh, or The Philippines. We even speak American. Er, English. You can read a bit more info and less snark at this FAQ answer here: Q: Where are your jewelry items made?”.

     

    If what you’re really asking is “are you making a quality product with support from people I can understand when I ask for help?” Yes and yes.

    For a more detailed answer about our “Made in America” philosophy-- and how our finished jewelry products conform to U.S. government standards to claim United States origin-- see FAQ question “Is your product ‘Made in America’?”.

    A: If any of our FAQ answers made you mad, insulted you or made you uncomfortable in any way...you should consider thanking us for saving you from doing business with CubicZirconia.com. This is not the takes-ourselves-not-too-seriously place for you to spend your hard-earned money. We offer customers a life-time warranty and that’s like a marriage; we want to attract only customers who have a sense of humor, good attitude and some faq-ing patience-- the kinds of customers who will be reasonable to work with when high-quality precious metal jewelry made with stones that don’t last a lifetime does indeed need a touch-up or repair in the future. If that’s you, we’ll treat you right. If any of our writing made you laugh, you are our kind of customer and we really hope you are going to buy something (else) soon.