Fire Mountain GemsReviews 85

I recently purchased the assorted T-drilled round Beads from FNG. Initially drawn in by the enticing product image, I was excited to receive what appeared to be a generous quantity of beads. However, upon opening the package, I was left disappointed and underwhelmed.

The main issue lies in the discrepancy between the advertised image and the actual product received. The picture suggested a bountiful assortment, but in reality, the quantity was far from what I expected. This misrepresentation left me feeling somewhat deceived.

Considering the limited quantity of beads provided, I couldn't help but feel that it would have been more cost-effective to purchase a pre-made bracelet instead. The time and effort required to create something substantial from these beads simply didn't align with the perceived value.

While the beads themselves were of decent quality, the letdown from the misleading presentation overshadows their positive aspects. I would strongly recommend potential buyers to carefully consider their expectations and evaluate whether the product aligns with their needs before making a purchase.

In summary, if you're seeking a substantial quantity of beads for your projects, it might be wiser to explore other options.The disappointment caused by the misleading image.

I did business with this company way back in 2004 of summer, I bought enough supplies to make right at 400 cross gemstone pendants, but what got me was that what was purposely supposed to be gemstones turned out to be nothing more than polished bricks/glass, these things would break if dropped the least height of 6 feet, also to make matters worse the gold plated chain spools they sell are at an astronomical price tag@ $25 USD is what I paid per spool of chain, but that was then and the cross pendants were $18 per 100 count, but today you will freak out over the price these things are now, last time I checked their site they were $48 per bag and the chain spools were $68.00 each, unless you are a celebrity or a famous You-Tuber, don't do business with this company.

I have been a Fire Mountain Gems customer for well over 10 years. FMG is my go-to supplier because I need to know exactly what I am buying. Gemstone descriptions include type, substance, treatment, grade, size, cut, Mohs hardness, and quantity -- descriptors are defined in the resources section. All other products (a comprehensive list of crafters' needs) are similarly detailed. Resources include definitions, charts, designs, demonstrations, instructions, adhesives/cleaners/polishers uses and cautions, Q&A solutions, and just about anything a crafter needs to know. On the very few times I have had a problem with an order, the situation was resolved in a timely manner and to my satisfaction. I craft for personal use, many gifts, and some sales. Fire Mountain Gems has never disappointed me.

I thought there was something fishy about this site, and I'm certainly happy I looked for reviews. That I couldn't find a customer service number to ask a few simple questions RE purchasing, quality assurance, and minimum orders was a dead tip-off that all was not kosher.

CAVEAT EMPTOR

I've ordered a few times now and every-time I am so happy with the quality and appreciate the speed of shipping also. My last order had a broken piece (which happens, ya know? But I did not check the order until a couple months later, oops on my part) Even though it had been some time since I ordered it, when I reached back out about the single broken piece, they sent me a whole new package of that bead set to replace the 1 piece. Also, very kind support rep that helped me! :)

I wish I would have read the reviews before I spent hundreds of dollars buying beads from this company. I bought all gold plated beads thinking they would last but within two weeks of wearing them daily, they all turned to brass and there was no gold plating left. When I spoke to their customer service they kept telling me how environmental reasons could make the wearing away vary and there was nothing they could do. I pressed on and had her even speak to a supervisor but again they could do nothing for me unless I returned everything in it's original packaging which I didn't have and had already given away some of the beads as gifts in jewelry I had made. They did not seem to care about the customer at all and told me that they hoped my day turned out better then it seemed I was having.

I ordered fire crackle beads shown as red agate. I received brown fire crackle beads with brown mentioned in the title description. When I contacted customer service, I was eventually told that the customer service person had discussed this with her supervisor and felt that this was due to normal color variations. I sent in pictures and and pointed out that the 2 items have different numbers. Still, this was not their fault, and if I would scroll down farther, perhaps I would find what I want?!? Or, I could return the brown beads and try again. I said I had ordered what I want, but didn't get it, and saw no point in ordering it again if I were going to get brown again. I was told that I would, but I could jump through the hoops again if I wanted to. The whole time I did not feel valued as a customer. When I asked what they could do to fix my order and make me happy, they offered nothing except that I could try again. This person and her supervisor had met together and figured out that I was the one with the problem, not them, although I was not sent what I had ordered. They were most concerned with proving me wrong, and them right which was infuriating. I am disgusted with the priorities of this company and will not give them my business again.

I have been ordering from this website for so many many years now and I never had a problem until about 4 order ago. It's seems like every order I've ordered so far is always wrong in some way or another. They say the prices are good but trust me they are so expensive. Then most places offer free shipping over 35.00 or more. This company doesn't really care about offering any kinds of discounts or free shipping to their customers. I placed an order just received it and once again they messed up. Ordering now through other websites. I'll only order small orders from this company. Very bad review for this company.

I received a Boss Bag of beads as a Christmas gift from someone not familiar with bead quality. I feel badly for them spending money on this… it's literally a bag of trash! The stuff looks like sweepings from a thrift store floor, old shotty beads, None of it looks new, I absolutely would not spend time trying to make something out of this stuff! It's especially NOT something I would associate with Fire Mountain Gem to be selling! I could go on and on about the horrible quality of the bag contents. Please don't waste your money!

I am astounded by some of the negative reviews on this site. I have placed 5-6 orders with FMG over the past 3 years, and I have never had a problem with them that they didn't fix, quickly and cheerfully.

I have been beading, mostly bead weaving, for 4 years, and I recently launched a small, custom-made jewelry business. It is important to me to have trustworthy sources of high quality beads and findings, so that I can keep my prices up, but I also need good pricing, to actually make a little money. FMG hits my sweet spot. I probably buy 65-75% of my materials from them.

I have had to return items twice: once, I sent back acrylic beads. They looked good on the site, but I found them very cheap looking when I got them. Sending the return was easy, although I did have to pay for shipping. The second time, I had ordered toggle clasps. I though I was ordering single clasps, but the item was actually 5, so I ended up with 30 instead of 6. No problem, they said, just send them back. I asked if there would be a problem with pricing, since I had just qualified for the highest discount (100+items). They said they would still honour the discount, as long as I didn't make a habit of ordering 100 items, then returning several, just to get the discount. (This exchange was polite and cheerful - it is hard to convey nuance in writing, and I don't want anyone to think she was snarky. She just meant that they are happy to accommodate customers who make an honest mistake, but they do monitor for customers who try to game the system.)

At the highest discount level, their prices are generally much better then I can find elsewhere, particularly in North America. I always worry about ordering from China. If I only have 70 items, I just find $1 items and buy enough to get the 100+discount. I have saved over $200 on my total order by spending that extra $30. They also have frequent, excellent sales.

Overall, I have been very happy with their quality. I bought a large number of 9mm white freshwater pearls on sale, and they were stunning! I regularly buy seed beads, pearls, semi-precious stones, sterling silver, clasps and findings from them, as well as Fireline. They have a nice assortment of Cloisonné beads as well, although their selection of silver-trimmed ones (as opposed to gold-trimmed) is very limited.

I generally stay away from their bead mixes, as they tend to combine genuine stones with imitation, which would be "off-brand" for my business. I avoid their mystery bags for the same reason.

The website isn't perfect, but it has the best sort and filter functionality I have seen on a bead site. You can search with key words or select categories. Once you have search results, you can filter by (depending on the item) stringing length, brand, material, bead shape, finish, etc.

My only "complaint" is that they change their product mix frequently, and on several occasions, I have not been able to reorder beads that I really loved.

I bought the Bag. When I received and opened it, it was a complete disappointment. There were no single bead which would attract your attention. There were a lot of huge stones, possible for the weight. A lot of cheap plastic and wooden beads. A small number of glass beads were damaged and scratched. And the rest was just some bead rubbish. Big disappointment. Never order this - waist of money.

Absolutely LOVE Fire Mountain Gems! They send the nearest free gifts with your order. Their "grab bags" are PACKED full of cool items! And their pre made jewelry is at a great price & great quality as well.

I ordered Swarovski flat back ss20 rhinestones in the color Siam, and I only found Fire Mountain Gems because they were sold out everywhere else. They came and are fakes. They are meant to be cut the same but are made of a slightly foggier material and cut with slightly less accuracy than real Swarovskis. They aren't much worse and I will still use them, but they should not be counterfeiting because that's scamming. In the picture you can see that the top facets are slightly bigger and the small corner facets don't go down all the way to the bottom. In real life, they look just as good to the untrained eye but don't have the same gorgeousness as the Swarovskis, and it's easy to tell they lack the magic when compared side by side.

I've ordered from FMG twice. The first experience was pretty decent, all the items looked as pictured and appeared to be natural as marketed. Because of my first pleasant experience I decided to place another order. I received that order today and I am beyond disappointed. Everything I ordered was sold as natural but is obviously glass… I mean OBVIOUSLY glass! I called customer service to alert them of the problem and was first told it was a wrong pull but once she realized my complaint was that all of them were glass I was told it couldn't have been a wrong pull. Their only solution was to have me send them the beads back and they would examine to see if I received the wrong products. By the way they don't refund shipping… I'm not about to pay to ship these item back to the company which would take over a week to be told that they are natural. This company thinks you're stupid and takes advantage of small business. I will never order from them again.

TOTALLY MISLEADING IN HOW THEY ADVERTISE THEIR PRODUCTS TO WHAT YOU RECEIVE! I COULDN'T BELIEVE HOW AWFUL THE ITEMS I ORDERED AFTER BEING SO EXCITED FROM THE PHOTOS.
HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! BE PREPARED IF YOU ORDER AND ARE DISSATISFIED; YOU WILL NOT BE CREDITED FOR SHIPPING FROM ORIGINAL ORDER OR SHIPPING BACK! LESSON LEARNED - READ REVIEWS BEFORE ORDERING ANYTHING!

I have had nothing but a good experience with Fire Mountain! I sit and waite on my order then it is like Christmas! I had problems with some shells they sent me but they did make it good! They are who I trust to do buisenes with. Thank you Fire Mountain.

I ordered 7 items from these folks and of that, four were severely undersized based on the dimensions given on the website. I did a chat and the chat agent was supremely unhelpful, listing me what they say are acceptable dimensions for any given item, repeating over and over that they wont' all be the same size (duh. I'm not stupid), and insisting that the only way to measure is with calipers. I set these beads on a flat ruler and can't see how a caliper will make a bead measuring clearly less than 8mm stretch to meet a minimum of 8-10. The worst was a 12 X 8 bead string where not one measured above 7 X 8. Minimum quoted was 9 X 7 for that size. So the other three I bought were great and all within ballpark but the four here were disappointing and the customer chat was insulting and useless. Be warned: they are very generous about what they think is okay range of sizes. If you go in like that, you won't be left angry like me.