Engagement ring disaster, please help us make next move.

[LD]

Alexis

I have some legal training but unfortunately not in the field you need. In my experience, very occasionally, a lawyer''s letter (if written well) may be enough. Don''t forget, the Swiss jewellers will pass the letter to their lawyers who will advise on the success of winning. They will incur costs too and they will have to weigh up whether they want to take it forward or simply settle. If they are a large jewellers it may be more prudent for them to take the diamond back and forego any negative publicity.

I''m sure you''ve already done this but plot your complaint in bullet paragraph format with timelines, referring to documents (list them in an appendix attached to the timeline document). If you do that, that''s most of the lawyer''s job done and it''ll save time/money etc.

Wishing you the very best of luck.

 

[Sharon101]

I personally agree with what many others have said here (in different ways). Do get legal advice on your chances of success, and consider the costs even if you do win.

My gut feeling is that in essence you will have to convince a court of law that EGL has less credibility & is inferior to GIA. I somehow think there would be many `experts` for them to gather up to prove that EGL is indeed very highly regarded.

Then there is the issue of you having bought the diamond with your eyes and being happy with the innitial transaction, EGL report etc. Can you really prove that if you had seen the GIA report that you would have turned down this same diamond that you otherwise loved.

I think the dificulty here is that it may be difficult for a court to get past the fact that you innitially accepted the report from EGL (we deduct this or you wouldnt have bought the diamond), you start out happy.....and it is only down the track that you get upset because you get a different report from GIA.

It is clear to us here that you were scammed and ripped off, but will a court or judge be able to see this....and adequately compensate you so you are not out of pocket even more than now?

 

[alexis5]

hi Pricescopers

i thought i would post an update on our e-ring saga and more importantly thank everyone who has contributed- your advice and/or supportive comments helped us enormously.

it has been a very full on week or two but the initial upset has worn off and we are trying to be more philosophical about it all. we considered the recent advice and experience of oldmancoyote, loving diamonds, sharon101 regarding the overall costs of legal action (not to mention the stress) and will be sure to be driven by heads over hearts on this issue. swissdiamond - your contacts were extremely useful. thank you again.

we found a Geneva based lawyer and have decided to start things with an initial letter from him that does not attribute blame but sets out all of the facts and the corresponding law. we have our fingers crossed that this will be enough. they will know from this that we can go on to file a claim for their bankruptcy which would be public.... they can appeal but it may be worth their while to get out early....

whatever happens we are back to being focused on how happy we are together and getting very excited about our wedding early next year. we also have a cubic z e-ring until we know what our next move will be!

the jeweler needs to respond to us by 17th November so I will post when we have heard. we are not holding our breaths and are no longer waiting anxiously for responses.

thanks again for your input and perspective, it has really helped us through so far.

 

[alexis5]

Hi PSers

the 17th of November has come and gone and they have not responded to the letter we paid a swiss lawyer to write for us. I can''t believe they haven''t even had the decency to respond. So that is it. We can''t risk being completely out of pocket nor the emotional stress before our wedding so we are dropping this - just like they banked on i guess.

So, in the end, all we got from them was a brief email insinuating that we had swapped the stone and were now pretending it was the same one (the stone is their own special cut!) with not one word of regret from the owner (who had told us about the GIA cert when we met him in person). He also has not ever addressed the appalling service of his store manager, despite the fact that we outlined in detail how my fiance was spoken to by the manager of the store e.g when she was exasperated at him asking questions about what to do when the stone was loose she swore using a word which means ''whorehouse''in French.

The jewelers name is VAN DER BAUWEDE, they are famous for their watches. I know it is not a well known jeweler in the US but they have an excellent reputation in Europe and sell all over the world in boutique jewelers. http://www.vdb.ch/ , [email protected]
The owner who the letter was addressed to was Maxence Van der Bauwede ([email protected]). The store manager (the woman who I describe below) is Ms Danielle Pace.

I am disgusted at their behaviour. It has been a real mixture of frustration and sadness for us- directed at them for their incredible arrogance in dealing with us and at ourselves for trusting their reputation over common sense. I am particularly upset that my fiance, who had saved his hard earned money for this special occasion was then treated so disgracefully. I can''t believe we continued to give them the benefit of the doubt right up until they didn''t respond to this letter and didn''t want to hurt their name in anyway- how naive!

We will now do everything we can to stop other consumers making the same mistake with this jeweler by putting information on the details of this transaction and how they dealt with it everywhere possible. I would really appreciate any tips on how/ where to do this. I do not want people like that to think they can act so unscrupulously and get away with it... particularly given the fact they market themselves as a jewelery company with a strong family tradition and values! If they had at least given us some sort of response regarding what had happened with this mix up then i may not feel so strongly about making this known to as many people as possible but they have brushed us aside without explanation. In the end they charged us 22, 000 Euro (about 18,000) for a GIA graded H, VVS2 emerald (VDB cut) in a platinum band after telling us it was E in person and in writing. Until they respond the only viable explanation seems to be that they lied.

I will start by writing a brief thread with their names in the title. I would also ask that you just mention this jewelers/watch makers name to anyone you know in Switzerland, France, Belgium, Holland, Hong Kong, Saudia Arabia, Lebanon, Russia, UAE. I will contact the local consumer bodies to make sure we do all we can in writing articles etc.

I should say that the lawyer we dealt with in Geneva (a friend of a friend) was so kind and extremely empathetic which helped a great deal. The Swiss consumer bureau was also fantastic. And, of course, the support here made a huge difference to us. Thank you so much. So many great people in the world!

For now, we are back to our hectic jobs and the excitement of our wedding early next year. We are also going to get the stone reset (it is not the poor little stone''s fault!) in something gorgeous so that we have a fresh start and it reminds us again of all the happiness we have together (I need some advice on the reset so will post later). I will be sure to post the final product! Aside from the upset we are both really happy that when things like this come up we deal with them together - a much better sign for a great marriage than the right ring experience!

So, please give me any thoughts you have on spreading the word on Van Der Bauwede (ideally in a way that they know about it so they do not treat future consumers in the same way).

Thank you again from my fiance and I !!

 

[bgray]

i suggest that everyone of us email them with this post attached and are committing to seeing that their actions will get around...............thoughts?

 

[purselover]

I''m sooo sorry your ring never got resolved. I can''t believe them, they''re such a disgrace

I am glad you shared the name with us and I hope this spares many others from pain and time further down the road.

 

[alexis5]

Date: 11/24/2008 7:13:07 PM
Author: bgray
i suggest that everyone of us email them with this post attached and are committing to seeing that their actions will get around...............thoughts?

i am not sure if you meant my thoughts or others. but from my perspective I think this would be a good way of starting to communicate with them. I know they think we are small fish which is why they have not even replied to us... but showing them the number of people who have seen this would begin to shown them otherwise. I think they also dismiss this us b.c they don''t sell in US and UK but if they know people will pass this on to contacts elsewhere, they may feel what they have done a little more. I for one would certainly appreciate this support but of course do not expect this.

Is anyone aware of any other major forums, publications or trade fares where we could make the facts known please can you let me know?
Just to be clear I am not interested in being rude or emotional with them, nor would I want anyone to do this - I only want them to know that they can not misrepresent a product, charge a huge amount of money, deliver appalling service and then refuse to address the matter.. without some sort of consequences.

I would really appreciated PSers thoughts on emailing them or alternative ways to make these actions public.

 

[lilpea]

I just wanted to say I am sorry to hear of your experience. I am in the Netherlands and just bought a beautiful e-ring (havent been propsed to yet though so its sitting in a safe at home) from antwerp and the whole process was the most exciting one I''ve been through. What made it more special was the experience of looking, selecting the diamond with the jeweller and having it set etc, which with my future fiance made it more important than the ring itself. So I am so sorry that you have negative associations with the diamond now and I agree that getting it reset will hopefully change some of that. I am truly stunned at the amount which you paid and its shameful you have been ripped off in that way. Please focus not on the experience but what it really means - a future together with your husband.