A message arrives most weeks in some version of the same sentence. I need to see what I am paying for before I send anything. It usually lands right after we describe how an order runs, and it is a fair thing to say to a manufacturer on the other side of the world.
The honest answer has three parts. You can see finished work before you pay anything. You cannot see your own piece before you pay, because it does not exist yet. And the part almost nobody explains is that the deposit is not spent on gold on the day it arrives.
Most writing about a custom jewelry deposit comes from retailers who sell from stock, where paying before seeing the item genuinely is unusual. This is written from the production side, with the sequence we actually run, the numbers behind it, and the point where the money stops being refundable.
The short version
What is normal across the trade: a 50 percent deposit is the common standard for custom jewelry, and it usually becomes non-refundable once work begins. Redora takes 30 percent, and it stays fully refundable until you approve the CAD rendering, because no metal or stones are bought before that point.
An order here runs in this order:
- Specification and quote, at no cost
- A 30 percent deposit
- CAD produced and sent for approval, usually 1 to 3 days
- One to two rounds of revision on most designs, two to three on complex ones
- Written CAD approval, and only then are materials ordered
- Production, 5 days for simple work, 7 to 10 for most orders, up to 15 for complex pieces
- Photographs and video of the finished piece for review
- The remaining 70 percent, then shipping by FedEx, DHL or UPS in 2 to 5 days
The answer to the original objection sits between the second step and the fifth. Until the specification is confirmed in writing and the CAD is approved, the order can be cancelled for a full refund with no restocking fee and no administrative deduction, processed within 5 to 7 business days. That is published in our returns and refunds policy rather than offered case by case. You see the design of your own piece while your money is still refundable.
The deposit does not buy metal on day one
This is the part that gets explained badly, including by us. It is quick to tell a client that the deposit is needed to order the gold bar and the stones. On a stock item that is close enough to true. On a custom piece it is not the sequence, and a buyer who has thought about it for five minutes will notice.
Nothing can be ordered until the design is fixed, because the design is what decides the order. Gold is bought by weight, and the weight is not known until the model exists. Stones are bought by diameter and count, not by total carat, and those are not known either. A CAD file is the document that turns a reference image into a purchase order.
That sheet is an ordinary one from our floor, and it is worth reading as a document rather than a picture. It fixes the metal at 18K with an estimated 4.8 g, the total stone weight at 0.839 ct, and the stone list at 46 diamonds across five diameters: thirty at 1.40 mm, twelve at 1.80 mm, two at 2.00 mm, one at 1.60 mm and one at 3.50 mm. It fixes the band at 1.5 mm, the letter height at 19.5 mm and the ring at a size 64.
Every one of those numbers is a cost, and none of them can be read off a photograph. Setting labor is charged per stone rather than per carat, so 46 stones is a labor figure as much as a design one. That is the work the deposit is paying for at this stage. Not gold, not diamonds, and not production time. Design time, and the commitment to hold a slot in the schedule.
Where the money stops being refundable
The refund window does not close on a date. It closes on a physical event, which is the moment metal is committed to your specification.
| Stage | What exists | Can it be undone |
|---|---|---|
| Quote and specification | A written spec and a price | Yes, nothing has been spent |
| CAD rounds | A 3D model of your piece | Yes, full refund, the design time is ours to absorb |
| CAD approved, metal ordered | Gold bought at that day’s price, stones selected | No, this is where the window closes |
| Casting and bench work | Your design in solid metal | No, the metal is now in your shape |
| Setting | Seats cut for your specific stones | No, seats are cut to one stone size |
| Finishing and inspection | The finished piece | No, but nothing ships until you have seen photographs |
Three numbers explain why that line sits where it does. Casting and polishing lose roughly 11 percent of the metal committed, so a finished 10 g ring needs 11.1 g going into production. Turning bullion into workable alloy carries a per gram surcharge, around 8 RMB per gram for 18K and 21 for platinum. And the finished piece weighs about 90 percent of the figure the CAD file reports, which is why the file weight is a planning number and the scale is the specification.
None of that is recoverable once it has happened. A cast ring in your size, with seats cut for your stones, has scrap value and nothing else. That is the actual reason made to order work is prepaid, and it is a better reason than any assurance about trust.
What you can see before you pay
The request behind the objection is usually two requests wearing one sentence, and they have different answers.
Seeing our work is reasonable and immediate. Finished pieces are photographed and filmed on the floor, product pages carry the actual piece rather than a render, and we will send video of comparable work in the metal and setting style you are asking about. Anyone can ask for that before a quote, let alone before a deposit.
Seeing your piece is a different request, and the answer is that a CAD render is the only honest version of it. A buyer once pushed back on this in the sharpest way we have heard: a 3D view can be generated before any material is ordered. That is correct, and it is exactly the order we work in. The CAD comes first, the metal is bought after it is approved, and the deposit in between covers the design work rather than the material.
What is not reasonable, and what buyers are right to refuse, is a supplier that wants full payment against a photograph with no model, no written specification and no approval step. The custom jewelry process from idea to finished piece exists as a published sequence for that reason.
Two things push back the other way
A deposit percentage on its own says very little. Thirty percent with no checkpoints is worse than full prepayment with a written specification, a CAD approval gate, production photographs and a stated refund window. The number is the least useful part of the arrangement, and it is the part buyers compare first. Our guide on how to compare custom gold jewelry manufacturers goes through what should come attached to any payment.
The second point is uncomfortable and more common than fraud. In buyer forums, the recurring bad outcome on a custom ring is not a supplier vanishing with a deposit. It is a piece that matches the approved CAD faithfully and still is not loved when it arrives. Those posts turn up every few weeks, and the replies usually agree the ring is a correct build. The risk that deserves the attention is not the deposit. It is approving a model without reading it.
That risk is also asymmetric after the fact. Changes requested after CAD approval carry a charge and extend the timeline. Eternity bands, full pave settings, and certain channel and tension designs cannot be resized later without rebuilding the piece. The CAD stage is where a project is cheap to change, and it is the stage most buyers rush.
What to ask before sending a deposit
- The expected finished weight in grams, at your size, with the understanding that it will land near 90 percent of the CAD figure
- Band width and thickness in millimeters, since a 1.8 mm and a 2.4 mm band look identical in a photograph and differ by roughly a third in gold weight
- Stone count and millimeter size per stone, not only total carat weight
- How many CAD rounds are included, and what a further round costs
- The exact point at which the order stops being refundable, in writing
- What is checked before the piece ships, and what happens if it fails that check
A producer can answer all six in one message. A middleman has to go and ask someone.
Common questions
Can I see the design before I pay anything?
You can see finished work, product photography and video of comparable pieces at any point, at no cost. The CAD of your own piece comes after the deposit, and your money stays fully refundable until you approve that CAD in writing.
What is the fine print around the deposit?
Thirty percent to begin, refundable in full until the specification is confirmed and the CAD is approved, with no restocking fee and refunds processed within 5 to 7 business days. After CAD approval the piece is being built to your specification and is no longer eligible for cancellation. The full wording sits in our terms of service.
What happens if I do not like the CAD?
It gets revised. Most designs reach a signed off file in one to two rounds, complex ones in two to three. If the design cannot be brought to something you want, the order is cancelled at that stage and refunded in full. A CAD that is still moving after five rounds usually means the brief is changing rather than the file.
Is it safe to pay a deposit to an overseas manufacturer?
The question worth asking is not about the country. It is what the payment buys before the piece exists: a written specification, an approval gate before any metal is cast, photographs during production, and a refund window with a stated end point. A supplier who will not put those in writing is the risk, wherever they are.
When is the balance paid?
After the piece is finished and photographed, and before it ships. Nothing leaves the facility until the finished piece has been reviewed. Rework before shipping runs between 1 and 3 percent of pieces, and what gets checked before a piece ships is a published list rather than a general assurance.
Do accent stones come with certificates?
No. Individual laboratory reports are not issued below roughly 0.30 ct, so the small stones in a pave row or a halo have no certificate of their own. A gold test certificate and a report on the center stone are what exists. Any supplier promising certification on melee is describing something the industry does not produce.
If you are having something made
The deposit question is really a sequencing question. Money first, then a model of your piece, then a decision point where you can still walk away, then material. Written down in that order it stops being a leap of faith and becomes a schedule, and every stage of it can be checked as it happens.
Our custom jewelry work is produced at our own manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, which has been running since 2011. A reference image and a target budget are enough to get a specification and a quote, both at no cost: start a custom project.
About the author
Written by the Redora Jewels production team. Redora operates a fine jewelry manufacturing facility in Shenzhen with on-site casting, setting, and finishing. The payment sequence, refund window, weight figures and rework rate described here are the ones this facility works to. Questions about a specific project can go to info@redorajewels.com.