Why I don’t Trust Premium Pearl

What upset me first about Premium Pearl was the fact that I posted an innocent question to another website asking about the same   type of collection that they carry. It was a company called American Pearls company in New York. I asked if Premium Pearl collection was the same and I received a response stating it was not and that Premium Pearl had stolen the concept from American Pearls. 

Not knowing which to believe I posted a question to a pearl bulletin board and asked people what they thought. I posted just part of American Pearls response as you can see here. http://www.pearl-guide.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1912

Everyone agreed with American Pearl. That was it! Or so I thought. Shortly after my comment I received an email from the administrator of the bulletin board and they said that Premium Pearl was threatening legal action because of my post. Can you believe that? First they lie and then threaten to sue me for asking a simple question?

Here was the response I got from American Pearls about Premium Pearl’s collection quality. That is why I would never, ever trust premium pearl. They are not  an ethical company.

American Pearl is the originator of Collection Quality.  It is a name that we created to describe the finest quality, blemish free, thickest nacre pearls in the world; procured by Charlie Bakhash himself through his 50+ years of pearl dealings in Japan.  Anyone else using “Collection Quality” is copying us.  What does this mean?  It means they are watching our website americanpearl.com’s every move in terms of our information/marketing and making sure they copy our every word and strategy. 

Please visit the Internet Archives at: http://www.archive.org Here you will have the opportunity to visit any website “back in time”.  In doing so, you’ll see how they evolved over the years to copy American Pearl.If you take a look at their home page in October of 2006 (this time last year) there is no mention of “Collection Quality” pearls.  It also shows that they set up shop in 2004 to capitalize on the online pearl opportunity.

Well, American Pearl has been in business for 50 years selling nothing but pearls.  In fact, our website has been up since 1997 and officially recorded in the Internet Archives since 1997.  So now that we have established that American Pearl originated this quality and that premiumpearl is simply copying us.  However, let’s get to the truth of the product.The whole point of the “Collection Quality” series is that it is the highest luster and thickest nacre that can be produced.  In fact, each pearl has at least 1mm nacre thickness on each side of the pearl.  So premiumpearl is successful in ripping off americanpearl’s concept and strategy and branding but failed to deliver a pearl that is truly higher luster and thicker nacre (the actual skin of the pearl) and blemish free.In fact, thicker nacre pearls and higher luster are directly correlated.  A seller that does not disclose the nacre of a top-of-the-line product such as this is clearly holding back.  American Pearl created the “Collection Quality” line of goods to bring to market a very special elite quality of cultured pearl that the owner, Charlie Bakhash, earned the right to procure over 50 years of business dealings directly with the farmers; yes Charlie Bakhash is a citizen of Japan and lived in Kobe for nearly 20 years as a Pearl Dealer. 

How can I comment on premiumpearl who set up shop to capitalize on an opportunity and is methodically using our branding for their no good.  Not only do I question their business tactics, I question their pearl qualityIf you don’t believe me, please go to the Internet Archive and see for yourself:  http://www.archive.org/web/web.php.

Thank you for your email.Edward Bakhash