Terms of sale

Who these terms are between

These terms are between you and Ceylon Veritas Gems, a gem house trading from 38, Negombo Road, Kandana 11320, Sri Lanka. They apply when you buy a stone from us, whether the order is placed on this site, by email or on WhatsApp.

Nothing here takes away a right the law of your own country gives you as a consumer. Where a local rule is more generous than a term below, the local rule wins and we will not argue the point.

What we sell

Natural gemstones, mostly Ceylon sapphire, sold loose, and settings made to order around a stone you have chosen. Natural means the stone was formed in the ground and not grown in a laboratory. It does not mean untreated: heat is an old, permanent and accepted treatment in this trade, and a heated stone is still a natural stone.

Every stone is a single object, unrepeatable, with its own weight, colour and inclusions. Two stones described by the same words are not interchangeable, and the one you are shown is the one you receive.

Laboratory reports, and what they settle

Where a stone carries a report from an independent laboratory, the listing names the laboratory, prints the report number and links the laboratory's own lookup so you can check the number against their records rather than ours. What the report states is what we state.

A report is a laboratory's expert opinion on what a stone is: its species, its weight and measurements, whether it has been treated and, where the laboratory is willing to say so, where it came from. It is not a valuation, and it says nothing about what a stone is worth or will be worth.

Some stones are listed before their report has been issued. Those are marked, their price reads "enquire" rather than a figure, and the details shown are the house's own statement until the laboratory confirms them. If a report, once issued, contradicts what we published, we correct the listing and you are free to walk away from any order placed on the strength of it.

Photographs, video and colour

Every stone is photographed and filmed as it is, under natural light, with no colour added and nothing removed. What no photograph can do is survive your screen: two monitors show the same file differently, and a phone in a bright room differs from both. Colour and size on screen are a good guide and not a promise.

This is why the return window exists, and why we would rather send more photographs, a video or a live viewing before you buy than have a stone travel twice. Ask, and it costs you nothing.

Prices and currency

Prices are in United States dollars and each stone is priced on its own colour, weight, treatment and cut. Any general price range published in our pricing guide describes the wider market, is labelled as such and dated, and is never the price of a particular stone: the figure on a listing is the price of that stone.

If your bank converts the amount into another currency, the rate and any charge for doing so are between you and your bank.

Payment

Card up to US$ 10,000, and bank transfer above that, invoiced in United States dollars. A stone is held for you once payment is agreed and is dispatched once payment has cleared.

One stone, one buyer, and honest mistakes

Because each stone is unique, it can be sold to whoever commits to it first, and a listing may still be visible for a short while after that. If a stone you have asked for has gone, we will say so and help you find another rather than substitute one quietly.

We may also, rarely, publish a wrong figure or a wrong detail. If a price is obviously wrong we are entitled to decline the order rather than be held to a typing error, and if you have already paid we refund you in full. If any other published detail turns out to be wrong, you may cancel and be refunded in full.

Delivery, duties and when the stone becomes yours

Stones ship insured from Colombo, tracked door to door, with a signature taken on delivery, by FedEx or by EMS. The stone travels with its laboratory report, in the sealed packet a return has to come back in intact. The transit time depends on the service and the destination and is confirmed with your order rather than promised as a single figure here.

Which service carries the parcel decides who pays the import duty. Sent by FedEx, we pay it, and there is nothing to settle when the parcel arrives. Sent by EMS, it is not prepaid and your own customs authority collects it from you. Tell us which you want before you buy, and write to us if you would like the position for your own country: we will not guess at a customs authority's treatment of a gemstone.

The stone is at our risk while it is in transit and becomes yours once it has been delivered and paid for. If a parcel is lost or damaged on the way, that is ours to resolve, not yours: tell us and we will deal with the carrier and the insurance.

A delivery date we give you is our honest estimate rather than a guarantee. Customs, weather and public holidays are outside anyone's control, and where a parcel is delayed we would rather tell you where it is than quote you a date twice.

Export from Sri Lanka

A gemstone leaving Sri Lanka is an export and is declared as one. We handle those formalities at our end and the paperwork travels with the parcel. Import formalities at your end are governed by your own country's rules, and who pays the duty follows the service as set out above.

Your fifteen day return

You have fifteen days from delivery to return a stone that materially differs from the stone you bought or from the specifications stated for it. That is what the return is for: it is a remedy where the stone is not what was described, not a change of mind.

Every return is verified. Three things have to come back so that it can be: the stone, unset; its laboratory report; and the sealed packet, intact. Together they are what lets the stone in your hand be read against the document that describes it, which is the whole of how a difference is established.

Where the difference is confirmed, the refund goes to the original payment method, by the route the payment came, within five working days of the stone reaching us and being checked. Working days are days the banks are open, so a weekend adds to the calendar time rather than to the five days.

Setting a stone ends the return, because the report is issued on the loose stone and a set stone can no longer be read against it. If you are unsure whether a stone qualifies, ask before you send it and a gemmologist will tell you straight.

This is our own policy, and it sits under the law rather than over it: if the law where you live gives you a wider right to cancel or return, that right stands and this section does not cut it down.

Setting and made to order work

If we are making the piece as well, drawings come back in five working days, with options quoted to the gram of metal and no obligation to take any of them. Setting then takes four to six weeks in our Colombo workshop, and the stone is photographed before and after it goes in.

A piece made to your instruction is made for you alone, so once setting has begun the fifteen day return no longer applies to it. That is the trade you are making when you ask for a setting, and we would rather you knew it before the metal is cut than after.

None of that touches your rights if the work is faulty or not what was agreed. Those rights survive any setting.

If something is wrong with a stone

If a stone does not match what we published about it, or does not match its report, write to us. Send a photograph if you can. We would rather hear about it than have you keep a stone you are unhappy with, and we will put it right by correcting, replacing or refunding, whichever fits what went wrong.

Natural inclusions, the marks the ground left in a stone, are not faults. They are described on the report and visible in the photographs, and every natural stone has them.

What we do not promise

We do not tell you what a stone will be worth later, we do not sell stones as an investment and we give no financial advice of any kind. No figure anywhere on this site is a forecast. We are not licensed to advise on investments and we are not pretending otherwise.

We also make no promise about what a third party will do: what another laboratory would write about the same stone, what an insurer will value it at, or what a jeweller will offer you for it.

Our photographs and our writing

The photographs, video, text and design on this site are ours. Read them, quote a line with a link back, send a page to whoever you like. Do not republish our photographs or copy as your own, and do not use them to sell someone else's stones.

Where our responsibility ends

We are responsible for the stone we sell you: that it is what we said it is, that it arrives, and that it is put right if it is not. Where we are at fault, our responsibility to you is limited to the price you paid for the stone and its carriage.

We are not responsible for a loss that has nothing to do with the stone itself, and nothing in this section limits responsibility that the law does not allow anyone to limit, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Events genuinely outside our control, a natural disaster, a strike, a border closing, pause our obligations for as long as they last rather than cancel them. If such an event makes an order impossible, you get your money back.

Which law applies

These terms are governed by the law of Sri Lanka and the courts of Sri Lanka have jurisdiction over any dispute under them. If you are buying as a consumer somewhere else, that does not deprive you of the protection your own country's consumer law gives you, or of the right to bring a claim where you live if its law allows it.

Before any of that, write to us. Almost everything is settled by one person reading a message from another, and we would far rather resolve a complaint than win an argument about it.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The terms that apply to your order are the ones published when you placed it, and the date at the top of this page tells you which version you are reading.

How to reach us

Write to info@ceylonveritasgems.com, telephone +94 (77) 638 2473, or post to 38, Negombo Road, Kandana 11320, Sri Lanka. A gemmologist replies, not a template.