Center Stone Fell Out of Ring

[chicagolawyer]

Hi Pricescopers,

I need major help on what to do next.

Yes, the center stone fell out of my ring. MIRACULOUSLY, it fell INTO MY PURSE of all places. I know I am the luckiest person ever, but I am still devastated.

What now? The ring is insured by Chubb, and is the Jessica II on this website: http://engagementringsdirect.com/markcollection/index.html.

I am so careful with my ring. I take it off when I sleep, when I workout, do housework or yardwork, and when I do heavy lifting etc. I use a baby toothbrush to clean it with jewelry cleaner. And it did not suffer a blow or knock that caused it to fall out. The setting itself looks 100% normal.

1) Do I make an insurance claim?
2) I will always worry about the integrity of this setting now because no event happened to make it fall out. Suggestions?
3) Does the jeweler have any responsibility to make this right?

Please help me, this is making me sick, and I feel like it is a bad omen for the engagement even though that is silly.

Thanks so much for any and all comments.

 

[Allison D.]

You haven't mentioned how long you've owned the ring, so my first suggestion would be to call the vendor. Tell him what happened and ask him what you should do. It's very possible he'll want to call it in for repair.

Another major reason to phone your vendor is warranty. If the ring has a warranty, you could potentially void the warranty by having an outside party touch the ring.

Good luck - let us know how it turns out.

 

[ahappygirl]

Thank God it fell into your purse! My heart was just racing imagining how you felt when you saw the empty prongs. Hideous.

Okay, breathe deeply. This is NOT a bad omen. This is just life and things happen and as long and you and FI are okay everything else is just icing. I can understand you are upset right now. Of course!!

To answer your original question, I''m not sure what to say. I don''t know how long you''ve had it.. do you remember knocking it on something that may have loosened it beforehand? You probably should have the stone inspected asap before you decide if it''s worth it to make a claim, etc. If you are certain no damage occurred then I would call the jeweler and at least have a conversation to explore your options!

Again, I am so sorry this happened! And thankful the stone wasn''t lost!!

 

[WinkHPD]

Allison speaks wisely. Call your jeweler. While technically he is not liable for any damage that you have done to your ring, chances are very strong that he will want to see it and help you both to get it repaired and to restore confidence in your ring.

You do not state how it is set, four prong, six prong, tension, or ? and I did not visit the other website to see, but this can have a dramatic affect on how secure the diamond is. Often you can be unaware of the event that caused the diamond to come loose, or it could be a defect in the mounting. Hard for us, or your jeweler to know without taking a look at the ring, and thank goodness it fell into your purse!

Wink

 

[WinkHPD]

Ah, the half bezel. Subject to the forces of flex if the ring is not strong in the shank. It would be easy for the ring to come loose while you are lifting something heavy, especially if it is not deeply seated.

Beautiful ring, but make sure they seat it deeply and beef up the "donut" under the diamond that helps to prevent flexing of the half bezel.

Wink

 

[October2008bride]

Oh my goodness - thank Goodness it fell into your purse! Yikes! I can only imagine how you are feeling!

Definitely call Mark - he will want to make it right. He is good like that

I would call him today and then call insurance if you think that is necessary. Chances are Mark will say to just send it to him and he will fix it. Would that work for you?

If you will still be nervous about the security of the setting, I would just discuss your options with Mark.

 

[chicagolawyer]

Thanks to everyone for the help.

I''ve had the ring since December 2007. It sounds like the best thing to do is call ERD, so that is what I''ll do.

Thanks AHappyGirl and OctoberBride for the reassurance! And to Wink and Allison D for the trade input!

I''ll keep you all updated.

 

[denverappraiser]

Definitely call ERD about warranty repairs before you have anyone else touch it. There are a variety of reasons for a stone to come out of the setting, some of which will be covered under a typical warranty and some of which won’t. By all means, start by asking. Also have them check to make sure both the stone and the mounting are undamaged.

Assuming the stone and mounting are undamaged, even if it’s not a warranty issue you may not want to file an insurance claim. I doubt they will charge you very much to do the repairs and the cost may not be worth the claims activity on your policy.

Neil Beaty
GG(GIA) ICGA(AGS) NAJA
Professional Jewelry Appraisals in Denver

 

[niceice]

Whew! How fortunate it is that your diamond fell into your purse! No need to file an insurance claim, you have both the diamond and the ring. At this point, you just need to get in touch with Mark and arrange to send the diamond and ring back to him insured for evaluation.

I took a look at the structure of the ring as pictured on the web site and it looks like it is kind of a half bezel? I imagine that a strike to the ring (practically any ring by the way) or catching an edge of it just right might result in the tension of the bezel being relaxed which might cause the diamond to fall out.

People seldom realize how many times throuhout the day we actually bang our hands on things because our hands are a bit desensitized to such things by design or we''d spend all day curled up saying "Ow!" here''s a true story...

We built a channel set anniversary band for my Mom with alternating sapphires and diamonds... She wore the ring for a few weeks and then called to tell me that one of the sapphires had "just fallen out of the ring" and she didn''t know where it had gone. I had her ship the ring to me. Upon receipt I could see that the structure of the ring was intact, all of the other gems were secure in their seats, so I surmised that the sapphire had been struck and shattered out of the ring. My mom was horrified by this explanation which to me was simply an explanation and very frankly informed me that she is very careful with her jewelry and it couldn''t have been her. I said, it doesn''t matter, we''ll get it fixed and send it back to you...

A few weeks later, I get the same phone call... The same sapphire had magically fallen out of the ring. Get the ring back, fix it, ship it back...

Repeat the cycle a few weeks later...

A few weeks after that I get a phone call from my Mom that starts with "I''m shattering the sapphire out of the ring..." to which I said "Great! How do you know?" and she said that she watched the sapphire shatter when she closed the filing cabinet in her office and happened to notice that she was striking the ring on the little lock that sticks out at the top of the filing cabinet. We replaced the sapphire. Mom hasn''t knocked a sapphire out of the ring since...

Understand that I''m NOT saying that this might be what you did with your ring CL because I have no way of knowing, but the story serves as an example of how we all smack our jewelry around, often without realizing that we do it. Glad that you have the ring insured! As heart stopping as this experience probably was, it would have been more so if the ring was not insured and the diamond hadn''t fallen out in your purse!

 

[WinkHPD]

LOL! Good thing it was your mom. Could have been a multi page thread about what a knucklehead you were for trying to blame your client...

 

[WinkHPD]

Date: 5/12/2008 12:37:50 PM
Author: chicagolawyer
Thanks to everyone for the help.

I''ve had the ring since December 2007. It sounds like the best thing to do is call ERD, so that is what I''ll do.

Thanks AHappyGirl and OctoberBride for the reassurance! And to Wink and Allison D for the trade input!

I''ll keep you all updated.

You are very welcome. Glad that it was so fortunate where the diamond ended up, looking forward to hear of the happy resolution.

wink

 

[Lynn B]

Date: 5/12/2008 7:57:19 PM
Author: Wink
LOL! Good thing it was your mom. Could have been a multi page thread about what a knucklehead you were for trying to blame your client...

LOL! Yeah, sometimes you poor guys do live in a fishbowl around here, don''tcha?