A Trust Check answers one question: how safe is it to buy from this store? It doesn’t judge whether the jewelry is beautiful or the prices are the lowest. It looks at what happens to your money and your order — who you are buying from, what the return and warranty terms really say, how you pay, and what other buyers report.
What every Trust Check includes
- A verdict, a Trust Score out of 100, and who the store is and isn’t a good fit for.
- The store’s key policies at a glance: returns, refunds, shipping, warranty, resizing and payment.
- The fine print, including exclusions and places where the store’s own pages contradict each other.
- Who is behind the store, how to reach it and what other buyers say about it.
- Answers to the questions people search for about the store, and a numbered list of sources.
How we check a store
- We read the store’s own pages. Policies, FAQ, terms of use, warranty, shipping and contact pages, plus a sample of product pages. We save a copy of every page on the day we read it.
- Every fact comes with a quote. Each statement in a review is backed by a word-for-word quote from a saved page or another named source. Before a review can be published, our software checks that every quote really appears in its source. If a quote can’t be found, the fact can’t be used.
- We compare the fine print. We look at what different pages say about the same thing — for example, when a return window starts — and point out conflicts, because that’s where buyers get caught out.
- We check public records. Such as when the store’s domain was registered and, where available, business registries.
- We look at what other buyers say. Ratings on Google, Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau, and threads on Reddit and forums. We summarize them in our own words with a link and the date we checked. We don’t copy reviews, and we treat them as signals, not proof.
- We test the store ourselves where we can. We ask customer support the same questions we ask every store, go through checkout up to the payment step, or place a test order and send it back. A review always says which of these we did and when, with screenshots or photos. If a review has no hands-on section, we haven’t run these tests for that store yet.
- An editor reviews it. Before publishing, our GIA Graduate Gemologist, Valentina Di Roberto, checks the facts, the score and the wording.
The questions in each review’s FAQ are ones people actually search for. We answer a question only when the store’s pages or other sources answer it; if they don’t, we leave it out instead of guessing.
The Trust Score
Trust Score rates how safely you can buy from a store, not how pretty its jewelry is. Every point comes from a fact we can link to: the store's own policies, public registries, and independent review platforms. We don't accept payment for scores, and affiliate commissions don't change them.
The score adds up 100 points across six areas. Each rule below is applied the same way to every store, and every review shows how many points the store got in each area and why.
| Identity & transparency 20 points | Physical address published: 5; none: 0 Phone, email and live chat: 4; two of three: 2; one: 1 Domain 5+ years old: 3; 2–5 years: 1; under 2: 0 Legal entity named on the site: 5; only in third-party sources: 2; not found: 0 Owners or leadership named on the site: 3; only in third-party sources: 1; not found: 0 |
|---|---|
| Purchase protection 25 points | Return window 30+ days: 6; 14–29 days: 3; shorter or none: 0 Free return shipping: 5; paid: 0 Full refund, no restocking fee: 3; fee or store credit only: 0 Return terms consistent across the store's pages: 4; minor wording differences: 2; conflicting deadlines or conditions: 1 Few return exclusions: 2; custom/engraved/resized excluded (common in fine jewelry): 1; most items final sale: 0 Free, insured shipping with signature: 3; insured but paid: 2; uninsured: 0 Lost-package claims handled by the store without extra paperwork: 2; standard carrier claim: 1; notarized statement or refund at the store's sole discretion: 0 |
| Warranty & aftercare 15 points | Lifetime manufacturing-defect warranty: 5; 1+ year: 3; under 1 year or none: 0 Free maintenance (cleaning, re-plating, prong checks): 3; some: 1; none: 0 Free resizing without a time limit: 3; first resize free / time-limited: 2; paid: 0 Few exclusions: 4; typical exclusions (wear, third-party repairs): 2; whole product categories or lost stones excluded: 1 |
| Product transparency 15 points | Diamonds graded by GIA, IGI or AGS: 5; in-house grading only: 1; no grading: 0 Karat and alloy composition disclosed: 4; karat only: 2; vague ('gold tone'): 0 Natural, lab-grown and simulants clearly labeled: 3; partly: 1 Independent appraisal included: 2; store's own appraisal: 1; none: 0 Published sourcing policy (Kimberley Process, recycled metals): 1 |
| Payment safety 10 points | Credit cards and PayPal: 4; cards only: 3; wire/crypto/Zelle only: 0 Established installment providers (Affirm, Klarna, Shop Pay…): 3; in-house only: 1; none: 0 (neutral for low prices) Established checkout provider (Shopify, BigCommerce, Stripe…): 3; unknown: 1 |
| Reputation 15 points | Trustpilot 4.5+ with 500+ reviews: 6; 4.0+ with 100+: 3; lower or too few: 0 Google 4.5+ with 100+ reviews: 4; 4.0+: 2; lower: 0; online-only store: these 4 points move to Trustpilot BBB A- or better with complaints answered: 2; profile with unanswered complaints: 1; F or pattern alert: 0 No recurring complaint pattern: 3; recurring delays, slow communication or disputed warranty claims: 1; non-delivery or fraud reports: 0 |
What the score means: 90–100 Excellent, 75–89 Trustworthy, 60–74 Mostly reliable, below 60 Proceed with caution.
If part of a check is still pending — for example, a store’s BBB profile — the review says so, and the score is updated when the check is done.
The dates on every review
- Published — when the review first went live.
- Updated — the last time we changed what the review says.
- Facts checked — the day we last read the store’s pages and checked every fact against them.
Every review ends with an update history. Store policies change, so always confirm the current terms on the store’s own site before you buy.
How often we re-check
We aim to re-check every store at least every six months, and sooner when we learn that a policy has changed. When we do, we update the “Facts checked” date and add a line to the review’s update history.
How we make money
Trusted Jewelries is free to read. Some links to stores are affiliate links: if you click one and buy something, the store or an affiliate network may pay us a commission. It costs you nothing extra.
- Stores can’t pay for a review, a score or a better position.
- Commissions don’t change the score. It is calculated only from the rules on this page.
- We say so next to every “Visit store” button.
How we use software and AI
We use software to save store pages, pull out quotes and check that every quote matches its source, and we use AI tools to help extract facts and draft the text. AI is not a source: a statement can only appear in a review if it is backed by a quote from a saved page or another named source, and an editor reviews the facts, the score and the wording before publishing.
Corrections
Spotted a mistake, or a store policy that has changed? Tell us through our contact page. We check the report against the store’s current pages, fix factual errors and note the change in the review’s update history. Stores are welcome to send corrections too: we fix facts, but we don’t change a score on request — only when the facts behind it change.
Changes to this methodology
- Oct 28, 2026 — version 1.0: First public version.