Wilson Diamonds is a member of the American Gem Society (AGS). Jewelers belonging to AGS are required to follow strict ethical guidelines in order to maintain membership. We heartily endorse these rules and wish every jeweler would do the same.
ETHICAL TENETS
- The ethical business person never knowingly misrepresents the facts.
- Ethical business actions require one never to intentionally deceive other parties.
- Ethical business actions require that one compete on one’s own merit, not on the diminishment of one’s competitor.
- Ethical business actions require one to acknowledge and resolve issues once discovered.
- Ethical business actions require one to further one’s education and understanding of the jewelry industry.
- Ethical business actions require one to encourage other industry members, by action and deed, to also embrace these principles.
PRACTICES PROHIBITED TO AGS MEMBERS
- Advertising which is in any way not the truth or has the intent to be misleading.
- Following a policy of regularly selling merchandise at prices lower than those at which it is marked or conducting repeated discount sales and discount promotional events as an on-going policy.
- Advertising or setting artificially high prices as the “regular price†to allow either a fictitious sale price or supposed discount “mark down†lower than the original price.
- Regularly offering trade-in allowances in excess of the true value of the merchandise turned in.
- Regularly offering excessive “throw-ins†or “give-aways†as part of the sales transaction.
- Advertising, displays or promotional events which visually and/or in content, in the judgment of the grievance a nd review committee and/or the marketing committee do not maintain the confidences and dignity of the jewelry business.
- Representing itself as a wholesaler and selling to the consumer.
- Placing its primary advertising and selling emphasis on credit terms rather than the merchandising itself.
- Employing the technique of “switching†that is, attempting to influence customers to buy an article carrying a higher mark-up in place of the article requested. (Bait and Switch)
- Using the nomenclature of any nationally known or internationally known gemstone grading system without strictly adhering to the standards of that system.
- Deliberately misrepresenting its merchandise in any way.
- Using blown-up illustrations in its advertising, which enlarge one part of an article out of proportion to other parts.
- Failing to adhere to all federal trade commission recommendations and bureau of standards definitions as they relate to the jewelry industry.
- Failing to advertise in accordance with recommendations set forth by the Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc.
- Indulging in “sharp practices†which have the effect of deceiving prospective purchasers.