An unfortunate trade

[vintageloves]

As a longtime Ass't District Attorney in NYC, I'd like to strongly recommend that you follow the advice given above -- before you do anything else, including calling the authorities. A GIA report on the current diamond -- loose -- will be far more authoritative-conclusive than the local appraiser's measurements of the mounted stone and his guesstimate of the weight.

I'll go ahead and third this advice. You need confirmation the stone has been switched. I'm guessing your stone isn't laser inscribed with its GIA number?

Is it that your jeweler agrees the stone has been switched and simply won't do anything about it, or that he denies that it's a different stone?

 

[Lovesparklesparle]

This story sounds so bizarre. So many whys.

What if the jeweller said you were trying to defraud them and they did nothing wrong ?

How on earth did it take 2 months to realise it was a different stone, especially when you say it is significantly different.

 

[yssie]

I’ll just start out by stating that objectively, the odds of any jeweller risking ruin of his reputation over a 2ct yellow diamond is slim at worst. Your stone is valuable to you, but to someone who sells diamonds based largely on reputation - it’s a drop in the ocean.

Your new stone and your old stone appear to fit very similarly in your setting - more similarly than I would expect for a full half-mm differential.

1. Post the GIA report number of the original stone.

2. Post the appraisal.

3. Take @MollyMalone’s advice.

 

[prs]

I’ll just start out by stating that objectively, the odds of any jeweller risking ruin of his reputation over a 2ct yellow diamond is slim at worst. Your stone is valuable to you, but to someone who sells diamonds based largely on reputation - it’s a drop in the ocean.

Your new stone and your old stone appear to fit very similarly in your setting - more similarly than I would expect for a full half-mm differential.

1. Post the GIA report number of the original stone.

2. Post the appraisal.

3. Take @MollyMalone’s advice.

+1

 

[AprilBaby]

Strangely passive for such a big loss.

 

[SimoneDi]

Like so many others, I am baffled.

The first and very simple question that comes to mind is - did the appraiser look for the GIA inscription? That is the simplest check to verify if the stone is the same or different.

 

[Doc_1]

If you have any suggestion based on all the stupid things I did, I am all ears. Thank you very much.

1- You seem to be tangled financially with the jeweler where you do not want to affect your relationship with him with your decision.

2- One problem emerging here that is obvious, you do not have any written documentations to the sale steps, that can work both ways in your favor and against you.

3- I would think you have the receipt with your name on it for the original radiant stone you lost in this fiasco.

4- Here what appears to be your choices to me:

Either you savor your relation with your jeweler and go all out legally backed by your receipt and your GIA report supporting yo are the rightful owner of the radiant stone (here comes the point I made that the sale process was not documented and it can go in your favor as much as it can go against you)

Or
Accept the loss if the Princess cut new diamond (It looked to me like a princess cut) is not far in value and price from the original radiant stone. If that option is valid you need to get a third party appraisal to know what is the real value of the new stone.

If the appraisal shows it is way inferior, you have no choice but to go all out legally against the jeweler who is responsible for the mess unless your are not telling details like (you Ok ed the switch then you backed off...or so to speak)

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Thanks very much for the reply. Maybe I should just share all the details. I unfortunately did all the wrong things (not did not so anything right) during this process.

Start from the beginning:

-- I bought my originally 2.18ct yellow intense diamond ring with the GIA certification for over $20k in Greenwich, CT. I did not insure it. (mistake #1)

-- I tried to sell my original GIA certified yellow diamond ring. I brought it to a jeweler with whom I have dealt for a while. There is no contractual agreement of this sale. (mistake #2) However, I kept the GIA certification because that's supposed to be transferred upon a successful sell.

-- During the attempted sales, he sent the stone to someone else with no binding agreement or insurance. (mistake #3)

-- Due to certain family reason, I have to cancel the sales process (I was told that the ring was almost sold) but my jeweler said he would get it back for me. After all the Jewish holidays, I finally got the ring back after almost two months, I realized it is not my original stone because the stone has an obvious different cut.

-- I brought the stone to an appraiser to check. He confirmed that this current stone has a different dimension than my original one. However, he suggested me to send the stone to GIA so we can know what's the price difference between the original one I had which is over 2ct and this current one which he is 90% under 2ct. He felt bad for me and did not even charge me anything.

-- I have sent GIA an email with the image of the GIA certificate with my original stone. I told them that if there is anything they do to track stolen stones, I hope the information is helpful.

-- My jeweler still have not come up with anything concrete in resolving the situation. Frankly, I really do not want to get into a legal battle with him especially that I am somewhat close to him and his finance.

If you have any suggestion based on all the stupid things I did, I am all ears. Thank you very much.

@clcat120 ,
I am very sorry for the situation you find yourself in. As @msop04 advises, please don't blame yourself. You did nothing wrong. Over my career I have seen many cases where people have been swindled in one way or another. Fraudsters often rely on their victims being embarrassed or being willing to blame themselves and therefore taking no action.

You are lucky to have folks like @MollyMalone coming in to advise. Please seriously consider taking every piece of advice she gives you.

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Strangely passive for such a big loss.

@AprilBaby,
You may be surprised how common this reaction is to victimization. Early in my career there was a plague of colored gemstone scams. It was an organized criminal operation with boiler rooms full of telephone scammers. They got lists of professional people - doctors, accountants, even lawyers - and would spend all day, all week, all month calling them pitching these 'investment opportunities'. So these victims were sophisticated people who should have known better.

As I was a local colored stone expert, many of these folks brought their 'investments' to me to evaluate. I got absolutely sick of giving people bad news. And it made me angry that criminals were giving my industry a bad name (that is a rant for another day).

But I was struck by how many of these folks blamed themselves and took no action. They did not want to call attention to the fact that they had been played.

At the risk of making a false equivalency, the dynamic may share some similarity to how many women react to being sexually harassed. There is a strong self-blame component that perpetrators often count on.

 

[tkyasx78]

It sound like you need to demand the jeweler return the original stone or you need to call the police.

that is THEFT

 

[MollyMalone]

It sound like you need to demand the jeweler return the original stone or you need to call the police.
that is THEFT

Because jewelers too can be the victim of scams, the police will want to have proof-documentation that she gave the ring to the jeweler -- and that the current stone is not the original. Which is why some of us have urged her to first get a GIA report on the current stone; it's unrealistic to expect that the police should do that.

 

[tkyasx78]

Yes, I agree, she will need proof the stone is not the same. GIA is the best option as she does not specify how she got the second set of measurements. There is no way the police will pay to have it examined.

A .5 of a mm difference is HUGE in a diamond and I find it unlikely that a jeweler REMADE her ring to fit a smaller diamond.

The bigger problem will be that she took the ring home and the jeweler can claim that SHE switched the stone as she took it home and didn't inspect or verify the inscription that should be on any nice diamond identifying it. I hope she did not buy a diamond that is not laser inscribed to ID it.

 

[MollyMalone]

* * * The bigger problem will be that she took the ring home and the jeweler can claim that SHE switched the stone as she took it home and didn't inspect or verify the inscription that should be on any nice diamond identifying it. I hope she did not buy a diamond that is not laser inscribed to ID it.

A perhaps surprising number of fancy color diamonds offered by, e.g., Leibish and Ishay Ben-David (who specialize in these stones) have GIA lab reports, but the lab report number is not inscribed on the stone.

GIA doesn't issue Diamond Dossier reports on colored diamonds. The Dossier, less expensive than a Grading Report, doesn't include clarity plotting; instead, GIA inscribes the lab report on Dossier diamonds.
https://www.gia.edu/gem-lab-service/diamond-grading

GIA charges an additional fee for inscribing a diamond (colored or not) for which a Grading Report is being issued.
https://www.gia.edu/doc/GIA_DtoZServices_100117_USD.pdf
https://www.gia.edu/doc/GIA_ColoredDiamondServices_100117-USD.pdf
I don't see any downside to getting an inscribed diamond (and the cost is quite reasonable imo unless it's an after-the-fact add-on**). But there are folks who think that's unnecessary when you're getting a report with the clarity plotting. And laser inscriptions aren't fail-proof; they can be removed, or conversely, added after a stone leaves a lab.

ETA: if you buy a diamond that has a GIA report that's less than 60 days old, you'll only pay an add-on fee of $30, plus the inscription charge. But if the report is more than 60 days old, you'll have to pay the Update charge, which can be as much as 75% of the current cost of the Grading Report because GIA does a complete re-evaluation. See the Follow-Up Services section of the GIA fee schedules linked above.

 

[doberman]

As you describe it, the jeweler is 100% at fault. Your original stone is gone most likely. Tell the jeweler you're going to alert the police, pressing charges and tell him you will see him in court....But not before you write many reviews of his business online. Good idea to get confirmation - written confirmation first that the diamond is not the one you had originally

Why you're taking this lying down is a mystery to me.

 

[MollyMalone]

Don't post any slurring reviews online unless-until you get your documenting paperwork lined up. Otherwise, you could find yourself on the receiving end of an defamation lawsuit, which would not be fun (to put it mildly).

 

[MarionC]

As you describe it, the jeweler is 100% at fault.

Why you're taking this lying down is a mystery to me.

Not a mystery to me. I would be handling this in the same way. I suspect comes down to personality type, and each of us has their own way of dealing with problems.

 

[Sunstorm]

OP you are NOT taking this seriously and you really need to!

I am not surprised either as to why. I was once victimized by a "friend" who was a beautician and caused second degree burns throughout my body. At the time I was working at a major law firm where everyone advised to sue. That also included the dermatologist that was treating me with antibiotics, many ointments. The 2B degree burns took over a year to heal and I was fortunate enough to actually heal perfectly but I spent tons of money on cosmetic treatments for the resulting damage. I did not sue because I thought this person was my friend and I guess I was in shock. I did not blame her. However, not only did she not take any responsibility, she did end up blaming me for having sensitive skin. She may not have maliciously caused injury which was extensive and included an entire summer of my having to wear long sleeves and quite a bit of suffering. She may have had an equipment malfunction. As it turned out she admitted that it had happened to someone else. End result? I ended up not speaking to her again. In hindsight I should have sued. She was never a friend as it turned out.

I think your number one action is to gather all your documentation- then get a GIA- then file a police report for theft because this is theft.

The stone in some of your pix looks consistent of irradiated stones. While I absolutely cannot say this for sure based on pix I suspect if there was a switch the stone you got would be significantly less valuable than your original one. Even if not, your jeweler is 99% involved to a certain extent.

We need to see better pix of your old stone. On a couple of the pix of your new stone it looks extremely similar, on other pix of the new stone, entirely different.

Back up your claims and take action. No friend would steal from you and even if it was negligence and it was the third party the jeweler is claiming to have sent this stone out to just like that (doubt it), the jeweler surely would have noticed a switch and notified you and taken action himself. What is more likely is that he sold the stone, did not pay you and when you wanted your ring back, he tried to find a replacement you would not notice. That is theft, deception and so on, again no friend would do this. No trustworthy trades person would do that for that matter either, not just to a friend but not to anyone period. This jeweler should be put out of business and held criminally accountable if this indeed happen to you and you verify the facts with a report of the new stone.

Best of luck and please keep us posted.

 

[Doc_1]

The OP is not telling it all here, there are missing details she is holding and I understand. but lets not rush to blame the jeweler.

 

[skypie]

Seems like the loss is NBD to OP. Maybe she should just forget about it and move on.