Too long to fix a ring?????????????????

[Charmed]

My friend took her emerald stone ring to a local jeweler to have the setting more secure. Three months later, she still doesn''t have her ring. They ruined the setting, which was from Ireland and set in heart shaped prongs, they of course can''t replicate that. The diamonds around the band began to fall out. Now the jeweler is saying it isn''t a real emerald when at first she said it was!!! Still no date on when the ring will be ready! I told her to take it out of that jeweler QUICK! What should she do?!?!? Have you ever heard of this??????

 

[pqcollectibles]

Hi Charmed!

From my own personal experience with competent, reputable jewelers, this situation is not at all normal.

Generally a reputable store that did not originally sell the "custom" item will refuse to work on it. They can't replace it if they damage it in some way.

My local jeweler hates working with emeralds. I bought 2 through her, had one reset twice, and she cringed each time. Jewelers typically carry insurance to cover setting damage on diamonds, but not necessarily on other gemstones.

I also came in possession of an estate piece that I have an appraisal verifying the ring is set with genuine Columbian emeralds. When I took the ring to my jeweler for resizing, I didn't take the appraisal with me. She tested the diamonds, but listed the emeralds on the work slip as "green gemstones".

Anytime I've had work done on any jewelry, the longest it's taken has been a week. And that was a custom bridge build job on an existing platinum semi-mount.

Your friend needs to get whatever paperwork she has on her emerald ring gathered together. Appraisals, original sales information, etc. Hopefully it has a complete itemization of all the gemstones, including the emerald, total carat weights, and details of the custom setting. She also needs "before" pictures as well.

I would press the jeweler for a complete replacement including reordering the setting, if possible, from Ireland. Maybe you have a friend who is an attorney and would be willing to write the jeweler a letter on his/her professional stationary. Check out small claims court limits in your area. Contact the Better Business Bureau, local Prosecuting Attorney, the State's Attorney, and any professional associations that jeweler is a member of (GIA, JVC, etc.). Maybe if you make enough noise, they will fix it or compensate your friend for her loss. Beyond that, I don't think she has much recourse short of all out legal action if the jeweler is not willing to come to some sort of replacement/refund agreement.

 

[dimonbob]

Her jeweler has made a serious mistake of some sort with her ring and does not know how to get out of it. His hope is that she will forget her ring and go away.
I hate to say this but she needs an attorney to send this jeweler a letter to get him off his butt.
The threat of public exposure should move him.

 

[Heyjud]

There's honest mistakes and there's making a MESS
This sounds like the latter...I must confess

I agree with the others that say
Get an attorney and MAKE THEM PAY!

 

[goldseekur]

Hi Charmed,

I believe that the jeweler who has your friend's ring got in way over their head. Three months is a really long time. I do custom work for a living and have for many years and I can make a ring from scratch twice over in that amount of time, without bucking the line of custom jobs in front of a new take in.

Contrary to the 1st reply, it is not uncommon for difficult jobs to take several weeks to complete depending on how busy a custom jeweler is. Additionally, my company has been in business for 27+ years and we do work on custom pieces that we did not make. In fact, we are well known for our ability to do that which others say cannot be accomplished. But that is not the point of the reply, the point is . . . she should give them the opportunity to make it right for her first before resorting to an attorney's letter. Most honest jewelers that I know want to do the right thing. But if they are just throwing up their hands and saying there is nothing to be done, then you should take some action, such as contacting the original store of purchase and getting a price of replacement.

On the subject of the emerald in the ring, I find that often my customers don't really know when they do own a synthetic or imitation stone, many chain jewelers sell chatham type emeralds, which are not natural emeralds and often their sales people don't take the time to properly explain what they are actually selling. While this may or may not be the case with your friends ring from Ireland, checking the original sales receipt might help. Usually Irish made rings are 9 karat gold which is a bit tricky in the US because the United States minimum requirement for it to be considered gold is 10K. So it might have caused the jeweler problems when he went to work on the ring as he may not have known that. Unfortunately thats not a really good excuse. I hope this information helps you and your friend. Good Luck

~A concerned Goldsmith~

 

[pqcollectibles]

Hey Gold!

Your professional input was great! Especially glad you mentioned the gold K differences as well. I knew about 9K from UK companies advertising. Although I've never bought any myself, Iam glad to know it can be a potential problem getting work done.

I should clarify that I understood the problem to be a "simple repair" and not a "custom start to finish" job. I have had custom work done that took much longer than a week.

The bridge build job I mentioned was the most elaborate "alteration" I've had done. The ring was an existing semi-mount already set with a stone. I had that stone replaced with a different size and shape of cut, as well as matching the height of a band. The platinum smith took about a week to build/set a new bridge and mount my stone. Any time I've have simple alterations done, prong straightening/tightening, resizing, etc., it's usually a matter of a few days before I get my ring back.

Hope that clarifies my previous comments.

 

[Charmed]

Correction, I just spoke to my friend and the ring comes from Thailand, not Ireland. She appreciates all of the feedback. It is really too bad!!!! Any other ideas are appreciated!!!!

Thanks

 

[goldseekur]

Charmed & pqcollectables,

I understood that the ring went in to the jeweler to make the setting more secure. . . I guess that I presumed that it was more than pulling a prong down over a stone or tightening a single stone in a channel that had simply loosened up through wear and tear.

With the comment of the stones falling out, I guessed that there may have been channel work or prong work that was required. In my personal experience, there have been rings that have come into my store via one of my sales people and the only thing that we were supposed to do was to tighten a single stone. Prior to working on any piece, we inspect the item under a scope and try to head off potential issues. We also require that the item be thoroughly cleaned so that we can properly inspect all aspects of the ring, and on occasion, through no fault of anyone who is currently handling the ring, when the dirt and/or debris is removed from the ring, the stones fall out of the mounting and into the cleaning tank. Now, this shouldn't happen, but, not all jewelry is created equal. Sometimes the prongs aren't over the top of the stones, sometimes the channels aren't far enough over the edges of the stones either. The fault of this kind of problem lies in the original setter of the ring. Generally speaking, just like some golfers are better than others, some setters are better than others. There are shortcut ways of doing things and then there are the right way to do things. The less expensive the piece, generally, the greater liklihood that a time saving method may have been involved in the original creation of the piece. Again, since I cannot inspect the item in question, all I can do is offer potential guesses as to why this happened.
While this may sound like I am letting the jeweler off the hook, from personal experience, it really stinks when you take on a piece and all you do is clean it and it falls apart on you. You know that that all you did, but the customer would never believe you because they had worn it for a while and it didn't fall apart on them. Unfortunately, hand cream and soap can be powerful adhesives and once removed, the ring must rely on its original manufactured quality to stay together.
~ That being said, he also could have done something that he is a fault about, and if thats the case, he should make good on it.

If you could post a digital picture of the ring from close up I could be of greater help to you

~the concerned goldsmith~