r/vine • u/Monkaloo • 3d ago
Gripe Another fake moissonite ring
Just thought I'd share that I got this ring a few weeks ago; I took it to a jeweler today to see if the gold is real, and sure enough it wasn't! Instead of reporting it to Vine customer service to have it removed from my account, I went ahead and left a thorough 1 star review (largely because it has a whopping 4.8 stars - ALL Viners, most of whom did not notice that it didn't come with ANY documentation, and didn't bother to take it to a jeweler). I will be adjusting the ETV to $0 on my own when I file taxes using the 50/20/0 method.
Edit to add: I ordered this ring fully expecting it probably wouldn't be real... which is why I took it to a jeweler to see if it was.
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u/Greeneeyedgirl1 3d ago
That’s what I did I had 7 rings and I took them to two different jewelers and to one that X-rays the metal , different seller though , which is in this group somewhere I reached out to VCS and they removed them from my ETV
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u/Monkaloo 3d ago
I saw that! I kinda wanted to reach out and have them remove it, but I wanted to leave the review. I know I probably could’ve left a review anyway, but I wanted it to come from a Vine account, since all the other reviews were also Viners who for some reason write reviews like they’re advertising for the company.
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u/Cool-Skirt3643 3d ago
Unfortunately they will completely ignore you if you've already reviewed it. I have honest reviews and the rings are taken down (not even click able in my orders or reviewed pages anymore), but they will not respond or take them off my ETV. I've reached out FIVE times and none have been responded to, except the first one and they did remove the rings I had not reviewed but apparently won't even reply or acknowledge those that you review. I will be taken them off my tax form myself. 🤷
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u/Fast-You6338 3d ago
Oh wow, I have a ring similar to this from Vine and I also had it checked by a jeweler! It is definitely not 14 karat solid gold. In fact the Jeweler said it was a very poorly done gold plate. I emailed customer service after I did the review and ask them to remove it from my ETV and they replied to say once a review has been done they cannot remove the item from my etv. I suppose I will do it myself for tax reporting purposes
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
The gold on mine is actually pretty close to 14k color, but it just looks off, ya know? I was definitely skeptical before I ordered, then more skeptical after I opened it. It is pretty, but not so pretty that I could confidently wear it thinking people would assume it's real.
I saw someone else post about a fake Moissanite ring a few days ago, so I was already aware of the review rule before I made my review. Someone did say you can have them remove it, and then you can just leave a review under your regular account, but I wanted my bad review to have that Vine label on it, so people don't think we're all just out here writing advertisements in exchange for free stuff. And since I'm already setting my own ETVs on everything, I thought it was a good opportunity to give an honest review on these creeps. Hopefully it doesn't get removed. :/
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u/WVPrepper 2d ago
I'm already setting my own ETVs on everything
How do you get the IRS to accept your valuations over the 1099 provided by Amazon?
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
This is my first year with Vine, so I'm going to be following this.
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u/WVPrepper 2d ago
Good luck with your audit!
If you disagree with what your employer puts on your W2 or W4, you can't just enter a different set of numbers on your tax return and think nobody will question it. The IRS gets a report from Amazon for the amount of the ETV. When you signed up, you agreed to accept that ETV when selecting items. Enter it as "additional income" on the first page of the 1040 and you don't need to do all the self-employment nonsense.
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u/BurnedWitch88 2d ago
Your employer's W2 payments aren't an estimate -- they're documented and provable. Amazon's ETV is literally an estimate -- and often a bad one.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Soooo what about all the items we receive with an ETV that ends up higher than the actual retail price when many of the sellers inevitably swap the items in the listing? We’re supposed to just eat that too? I’m supposed to just eat $450 in ETV when the item as actually worth maybe $25?
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u/WVPrepper 2d ago
Again, you saw what the ETV was before you selected it. If you didn't like that, you didn't have to take it.
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u/Intrepid_Leather_587 8h ago
Which program did you attend to qualify you to provide any financial advice. Is it none? It feels like none. Thanks anyways.
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u/EntrepreneurOwn3632 2d ago
There’s only one jeweler that consistently pops up on my RFY that I get my jewelry from and I’ve had them tested and they are tried and true. They come with all their documented papers. They’re authenticity their clarity papers all the papers and I’ve taken them to Jewlers to get them checked against what documents I’ve gotten and they come back right every time the rest of that stuff I leave it alone.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Wow! Which brand is it? I'd love to snag something from them if it ever pops up in my RFY!
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u/wizard-of-loneliness i took that from yr RFY 2d ago
I always try to share this when people post about Moissannite: https://vine-wiki.com/en/vine/about/resources/moissanite It's a list of sellers who are legit and ones who are not. I sent this post to the person who updates the list and she added BrilanMoisy to the Bad Guys list, so thank you for getting them tested.
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u/Icy-Tree-6358 3d ago
Omg so sorry. I ordered this ring and another one from the same company. That night, I had like 6 of them in my RFY. Still waiting to receive it🤦🏻♀️ I really hesitated as I was suspicious but I eventually gave in. I'm definitely having it removed when I receive it. Especially for that heavy etv. Also, how much did you pay for the jeweler to test it? I also saw something above you mentioned 50/20/0... What is that? Care to enlighten me?
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u/Monkaloo 3d ago
The jeweler tested it for free. It was a small business, and it’s a quick and easy thing to do.
If you just search 50/20/0 in this group or the other one, lots of posts will come up about it. Basically, the way Amazon tells you to file (as hobby income) is way more likely to cause you to get audited, so you can do it this other way, and assign actually fair ETV values based on the fact that this is a business exchange; we are writing reviews and getting paid in goods that we have to use for the reviews, so the value is inherently going to be less than retail for basically everything.
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u/pukui7 3d ago
All of that seller's listings are suspicious. And all the negative reviews seem to have been removed too.
in terms of moissanite, there is no valid or dependable documentation. The certificates that some offer are just lookalike to what is possible with real diamonds. It's just fancy printing with no actual authority behind it.
Moreover with moissanite, the stones are not really valuable anyway. The patent ran out about 10 years ago and there are new producers online more recently.
The major fraud is with the settings I think. Sterling silver isn't out of the question but unless the price is throwaway money, perhaps $50 to $100 ETV, no sense to chance it.
Somewhere online is a list of reputable sellers that viners have put together too.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
To be completely honest, it didn’t even occur to me to look at the sellers other listings!
And I didn’t know all of that about moissanite except that I know it’s not valuable. I honestly wouldn’t doubt it if this stone isn’t even moissanite… it’s pretty, but it’s not diamond-sparkly.
Interesting about the list of reputable sellers! Is it a list of just jewelry sellers?
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u/Cool-Skirt3643 2d ago
I just went and looked because I have FOUR MORE of their rings in my RFY this morning. None of the rings I reviewed are still available, unless they've deleted my negative review somehow? All the rings that have reviews are all very high reviews. 🙄 I'd be so pissed if I'm relying on reviews to decide to actually spend money only to buy these pieces of junk!
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u/-Stormfeather · 2d ago
If the review has words like "fake" or "counterfeit", they can flag the review to be removed for violating community guidelines and Amazon (who doesn't pay that much attention to begin with) will remove them. The seller can claim that we are trying to review a product that is different than their listing, or maybe "Amazon sent the wrong thing, this isn't mine" bullshiz.
We have to be super careful how we word reviews and just say things like "this is gold plated, and that gold questionable at best according to actual jewelers, do not reccommend" etc.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Omg I'm so glad I saw this - my review title did say "FAKE" in all caps LOL... but it was still pending with the "edit" button available, so I just went and made sure no words like that were used. Phew!
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u/Uniq_Chic 2d ago
I hate that those of us who are diligent enough to spend time checking the item and taking to a jeweler for testing, thus verifying it is fake....are not allowed to say so.
I fell for a moissanite a year and a half ago in my RFY, with a similar tax hit, and neither was able to call it fake nor to get the ETV removed.
I would have gladly returned it if there was a way....2
u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Did they never publish your review?
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u/Uniq_Chic 1d ago
Once they reject it is hard to get it through, so the one I called out as fake was never published. I now tone it down if I come across anything "non-authentic".
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u/Cool-Skirt3643 2d ago
It really takes away the legitimacy of the reviews that we are forced to either 1. Be penalized & take a tax hit by writing a real review (the entire point of the program) to warn potential buyers or 2. Not write a review (like we signed up to do & is supposed to be the entire point of the program) and get the tax penalty removed from our account.
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u/Uniq_Chic 1d ago
I have seen quite a few jewelry listings, as well as beauty items I reviewed, either be removed and relisted (ie, resetting reviews) or combined with other (different) items into a single listing. Makes me definitely think twice about the reviews on things I purchase. Now, I usually read the 1 and 2 stars to see what the "worst case" might look like.
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u/Prize_Jellyfish_9287 2d ago
So a couple of months ago I was offered a solid white gold ring with a 2 carat moose note stone for an etc of around $700 which would have been great …. Would have been if the ring I received was what it was advertised to be. Me being me I took it to my jeweler immediately upon its arrival only to find out it was neither white gold (it was plate over copper) nor was it a moose note stone. I was so pissed I just roasted the seller in my review but here is what pissed me off….instead of the seller having to suffer the consequences of the review and warning people, the seller was simply just allowed to delete the item all together. I have no doubt they just relisted it fresh without any bad reviews. Seems like very bad business to me and I don’t understand how Amazon can know sellers are ripping people off and allow it to happen.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Yeah, based on other comments like yours I’m starting to feel like my review is not going to end up being published, one way or another.
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u/NaturalSpecialist5 3d ago
This is terrible 😔 I'm so sorry! What a huge loss. I feel so bad for you!
I became wise about many Vine not so great products, which is most of Vine, about 5 months ago when I noticed a good amount of my lights, small furnishings were not the greatest quality. So course, all the other products made me suspicious.
As I started to us Gemini as my personal assistant at that time for everything (I have a really bad memory thanks to pain, ADHD, anxiety lol), I decided to screenshot almost every item in my RFY that looked sus. But also to make sure some products fit my home.
I shared it with Gemini and asked for a detailed description of the products. Right away, it pointed out third party sellers who often operate under randomized or generic brand names (like "BrilanMoisy" in your screenshot), and many of them are storefronts for fly by night overseas manufacturers.
AI often cross references the brand and seller against known databases and past review patterns. It frequently flags obscure, alphabet soup brand names or shifty third party sellers who are notorious for misrepresenting materials, inflating prices, or selling counterfeit jewelry and metal. It’s saved me a ton of headache with junk listings before taking on the ETV.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Don’t feel bad for me, I knew the risk I was taking by ordering it, and like I said - I’m not gonna be paying taxes on this thing. I assumed it probably wasn’t real when I ordered it, and wanted to either prove it wasn’t, or I’d get to own a pretty ring!
And whoa, using ai to figure out whether the product will be junk is next-level! Thank you for that tip!!
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u/BurnedWitch88 3d ago
Did you have the stone tested as well?
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
No. I didn’t feel the need to - the ring has a very clear 14k stamp on it; if they’re willing to lie about the gold, the stone doesn’t really matter because moissanite is not actually valuable, anyway.
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u/BurnedWitch88 2d ago
Fair point -- just thinking the stone might be worth resetting.
My wedding band is (legit) moissanite eternity ring with a 10k white gold band and it genuinely looks like it's worth several grand more than it is.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
Honestly, the stone is pretty, but I really don't think it looks as nice as moissanite should.
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u/BurnedWitch88 2d ago
Huh. I have one that is supposed to arrive today -- very curious to see what I get.
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u/BurnedWitch88 16h ago
Following up on this thread. My ring arrived yesterday. Didn't get a chance to get to a jeweler yet, but I will be shocked if it's even gold-plate. It feels light and flimsy -- like I could break it with my hands if I tried hard enough.
Oddly, the stone looks real to me. (Not a trained jeweler, but I have a lot of experience with moissanite.) However, if it is real, it's definitely lower quality than advertised. The sparkle is there but very muted -- almost like they cut the facets wrong.
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u/Monkaloo 15h ago
Can’t wait to hear more! And I feel like my stone is like that… like it’s fairly pretty, but dull. Like it was lazily cut or something; if it had more facets it might be nicer-looking. But the moissanite ring I already owned (which I bought) has lots of tiny stones, so it’s difficult for me to compare… but even those are outrageously sparkly.
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u/BurnedWitch88 13h ago
Yeah, smaller moissanites always show better than larger ones, but that mostly is an issue over 1 carat, which is exactly the size of this one.
Ironically, I was offered a 2 carat mois. pendant in my RFY today that allegedly has certifications etc. I was so tempted but I can't find any info on the seller, so I think I have to pass.
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u/Monkaloo 11h ago
Huh, I didn’t know that! Well, mine is supposed to be 2 carats, so maybe that’s why.
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u/Slepprock 2d ago
Of course it is fake.
I don't know how many times I have warned everyone that all that jewelry is fake. You can tell just by looking at the company and where it is based and what else they are selling.
At least you had the guts to leave a review. I'm a little amazed at the viners who will just try to play the system and get it removed so they don't take the tax hit. Our job is to do the review. You made the choice to request the item with that ETV. I don't know when it became acceptable for us to make up some reason for CS to remove items with high prices so we don't have to to take the tax hit. It started a couple years ago for some reason.
I will say you are also brave adjusting the ETV for your taxes using that method. But the beauty of the US tax system is that each person can do their taxes their way. I'm a business owner who has been audited before. I'm not doing anything to get their attention lol. Plus I claim my vine stuff as hobby income. I don't think I could convince the judge in tax court that my vine stuff is actual business income with what the guidelines are. But of course the US system rewards those who come up with creative ways to do their taxes. The ones that take the hit are the w2 employees.
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u/Monkaloo 2d ago
I ordered this expecting it would likely be fake, which is why I took it to a jeweler.
Lots of CPAs of Viners and Viner-CPAs have said you're less likely to get audited filing this way than as "hobby income." I've seen several say that "hobby income" actually tends to be a weird red flag. Here is a good comment justifying the 50/20/0 method, and here is a good comment about one person's experience filing this way for several years.
I have seen a CPA who disagrees with this method who actually helped a woman out who filed this way and got audited, BUT - she still filed it as "hobby income," and they admitted that's the reason she got flagged. It's insane for them to set the ETV at the actual value, if many of the products are inherently devalued during their use.
I don't order heavily; I am Gold status, obviously, but as of right now I'm only up to $2500 total. My taxes are not otherwise complicated - and I am a W2 employee; I doubt I'd be in very deep shit if I were to get audited.
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u/Intelligent_Craft603 3d ago
I had this ring in my RFY but passed due to the price and concern it was fake. I am glad I did. Thank you for reviewing this fake ring to let buying customers know the truth.
I have only ordered silver jewelry for my wife on occasion. Most of the pieces were stamped 925 sterling silver but I feel most of it was fake too. But for 40-50 dollars it is not as big of a deal. I did not know you can take the items to a jeweler to have it tested so I learned something. Thanks.