What Level A verification actually involves
Most trade directories verify a house by checking that its website loads. Level A is the opposite of that. It takes a working week, it looks at records the public cannot see, and it ends in a written decision that either goes on the record or does not.
Level A is paid, and it is worth saying exactly what the fee buys: the review work and the capacity to keep doing it. It does not buy the mark, it does not buy a score, and it does not buy a place in any ordering. Houses fail Level A having paid in full, and the fee is not returned to buy a different answer.
What we look at
Six stages, in the order a house goes through them. Nothing here is self-declared: every stage rests on a document, a record or a conversation we can point back to.
Identity and the company behind the house
Company registration in the jurisdiction claimed, the names of the people who control it, and proof that the person applying is one of them. A trading name with no entity behind it does not pass this stage.
Trading history
How long the house has traded and what it has traded. We ask for evidence that spans years, not a recent screenshot: marketplace records, fair exhibitor listings, trade body membership, invoices with the commercial details removed.
A recorded interview, thirty minutes
A live video call with someone who runs the house. Not a formality: we ask about sourcing, about how treatment is disclosed to a buyer, and about the last stone that came back. Answers are compared against the documents already on file.
Client and trade references
Named references we contact ourselves, weighted towards other houses and repeat buyers rather than one-off retail sales. We ask them about disclosure and about what happened when something went wrong.
Certification and disclosure practice
Which laboratories the house uses, whether reports are handed over before payment or after, and whether treatment is stated on the listing or left for the buyer to ask about. This is where most applications are decided.
A written decision
One reviewer writes the decision and a second signs it off. The house receives the reasoning either way. An approval publishes the verified mark and dates it; a refusal states what would need to change.
Thirty minutes on camera, with someone who runs the house
The interview is the part that cannot be delegated to paperwork. Documents establish that a company exists; a conversation establishes whether the people running it understand what they are selling and how they talk to buyers about it. We ask the same core questions of every house, then follow whatever the file has raised.
The recording is retained as part of the verification record and is never published. It is evidence for the decision, not marketing material, and no clip of it appears on the site or in any listing.
What gets refused
Stated plainly, because a mark is only worth something if it can be withheld.
- No company entity behind the trading name, or an entity the applicant cannot show control of.
- Trading history that cannot be corroborated anywhere outside the house’s own website.
- Treatment or material origin left undisclosed on listings, including lab-grown stones sold without the term appearing.
- References who cannot be reached, decline to speak, or describe disclosure practice that contradicts the file.
What it costs
The current fee is shown on the plans page, since it moves with the Verified plan rather than being priced separately. A refused application is not refunded: the work was done, and refunding it would make the fee a purchase of the answer.
Questions, answered
Because the review takes a reviewer several hours, including reference calls and a live interview. Free verification would either be superficial or paid for by advertisers, and both of those make the mark worthless. Charging for the work is what lets us refuse a paying house.
About a working week once the documents are in, most of which is spent waiting for references to reply. The interview is scheduled to suit the house and takes half an hour. Houses that submit incomplete records take longer, and we say what is missing rather than refusing outright.
The record stays listed as sourced, without the verified mark, and the house receives the written reasoning. Nothing negative is published: a failed review is not a public judgement, it is an absence of a mark. A house can reapply once the specific point has been addressed.
Yes. The mark carries the date it was granted and is re-assayed annually. If a renewal lapses the badge served on the dealer’s own website stops rendering, which is deliberate: a mark nobody re-checks is a mark that says nothing about today.
No. Payment carries a weight of zero in the score. The four components are verification at 40 per cent, certification practice at 25, disclosure at 25 and standing at 10, and the plan a house is on appears in none of them. A free listing can outscore a paying one.