I can't give a bad review without giving a good one, or at least other options. In the Thaigems review, I mentioned that I was sorely disappointed with the whole transaction. In return, I got a note from a person who was frustrated and wanted to know a good vendor who isn't astoundingly expensive.
Here is my response:
I buy most of my semi-precious stones from a few vendors whom I trust implicitly.
In the case of beading.com, which is really called South Pacific (even though it's in Vermont - go figure), the "peacock" pearls I ordered turned out to be baby blue. They were pretty, but not what I needed. I called and Willis, the owner, insisted on speaking to me then and there. He credited me the money for the pearls, had me keep the baby blue ones, and sent out the right ones to me at no charge. That was far more than I expected, and it's gained them a customer for life.
The one error I had with Jewelweaver was mostly my fault - I messed up and ordered something that was out of stock, and my computer didn't get the error message during the order process. Andrea found me a similar set of beads and sent them to me as a gift, because they weren't the high quality that I had ordered. Again, way above and beyond - I would have been satisified with an email saying that the beads were out of stock.
Both of these places aren't rock-bottom cheap, but they are very reasonable, and both regularly carry specials that are astonishingly good. (My favorite is South Pacific's 100 strands of white freshwater pearls for $100. I've bought this a couple of times, and split the order with friends) For the quality I've gotten, the prices are amazing.
Hope this helps,
Kathy