What would you do?

[clgwli]

This post is about a friend of mine so if I do not have all the information please be understanding.

A friend of mine that I work at a church with became engaged this past fall. Literally just days after she was engaged the diamond fell out of her ring. It was a custom job for her that her fiance helped design. I am not 100% sure of the size of the stone but it was a cushion cut diamond. It was set in a 4 prong setting that has pave set diamonds on the band. She was very gentle on the ring being that it was brand new and so the assumption is that there was a flaw in the way the stone was set.

Her boyfriend through the jeweler bought the stone through http://www.redboxdiamonds.com/ They have a 1 year warranty on all stones as stated in their website here http://redboxdiamondmoments.com/why-red-box-diamonds/security/

The jeweler started off by giving them a loaner ring and said they would work on getting the stone replaced for my friend. Then somehow it turned into they were not able to get Red Box to replace the stone. Finally the jeweler claims they must have messed up on the form to send in so now the jeweler cannot get their diamond replaced.

My friend has since returned the loaner ring and has her setting back from the jeweler. She has no idea what to do next. They tried reporting the jeweler to the BBB but that has not helped at all.

They cannot afford to get a replacement stone at this time and they would really rather avoid using a CZ or the like until they can get it replaced. The ring was not covered under their insurance because of the Red Box warranty. But they are still talking with their home owners insurance just in case something can be done. It seems very unlikely at this point.

They do have the certification and appraisal done on the stone so they do know the value of it.

What would you do in their situation to get the diamond replaced? I am just looking for any ideas or suggestions for them. I can try to answer any questions if need be.

Thanks so much! I feel so bad for my friend at this time. An engagement is supposed to be a happy thing and she has no nice ring to wear until this gets fixed.

 

[legallyspoiled]

I would gather as much documentation regarding their policies, photos, etc and take the jeweler to small claims court.

 

[legallyspoiled]

I would gather as much documentation regarding their policies, photos, etc and take the jeweler to small claims court but that is just the over litigious lawyer in me speaking.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Date: 4/7/2010 2:45:26 PM
Author: legallyspoiled
I would gather as much documentation regarding their policies, photos, etc and take the jeweler to small claims court.

I would do this too, and I am not a litigious lawyer.

 

[Dreamer_D]

PSA Get private insurance every single time! It costs very little and is worthevery penny for peace of mind.

 

[cara]

Date: 4/7/2010 2:39:26 PM
Author:clgwli
... The ring was not covered under their insurance because of the Red Box warranty. But they are still talking with their home owners insurance just in case something can be done. It seems very unlikely at this point.

*WHY* is the stone not covered under their insurance? Is it because they did not add it, thinking that the RedBox warranty would be enough? Or does their insurance know about the warranty and think RedBox should pay, so the insurance doesn't have to? Or does their insurance specifically exclude jewelry or something. Sometimes you may be able to make a homeowners claim on something even if you didn't add it specially to your policy - depends on your policy and the value of the addition.

Nevermind, I just looked at the RedBox site, seems to good to be true! What a guarantee - seems that knowing exactly why RedBox will not honor this warranty is important. Most vendors would not offer this kind of unconditional loss policy on their stones *especially* if they did not set the stones themselves. But RedBox offers this, seems your friends would be covered, so it is important to find out why they are not. I smell something shady, either between RedBox or the jeweler or both, and thritto the small claims court recommendation if they don't get a good explanation from the jeweler/RedBox.

 

[oldminer]

The Red Box diamond program belongs to Stuller, a very large and reputable sorce of jewelry components and also a large diamond cutting facility and official Site-Holder. If your friend has a receipt I am pretty sure they can get Stuller to honor the 1 year warranty in spite of the nonsense being tossed around by the retailer. It is possible that the retailer did not give them a real Red Box diamond or possible they showed them a Red Box diamond, but delivered a lesser stone in the actual ring. A dozen bad things may have been done, but more than likely it can be handled better than giving up.

The person who lost the diamond should get their sales receipt and proof of purchase and get on the phone with a Stuller representative and inquire how to proceed. Getting opinons here will not produce results. Rapidly contacting the warrenty provider is an essential component of getting this settled.

 

[RaiKai]

Date: 4/7/2010 2:59:19 PM
Author: oldminer
The Red Box diamond program belongs to Stuller, a very large and reputable sorce of jewelry components and also a large diamond cutting facility and official Site-Holder. If your friend has a receipt I am pretty sure they can get Stuller to honor the 1 year warranty in spite of the nonsense being tossed around by the retailer. It is possible that the retailer did not give them a real Red Box diamond or possible they showed them a Red Box diamond, but delivered a lesser stone in the actual ring. A dozen bad things may have been done, but more than likely it can be handled better than giving up.


The person who lost the diamond should get their sales receipt and proof of purchase and get on the phone with a Stuller representative and inquire how to proceed. Getting opinons here will not produce results. Rapidly contacting the warrenty provider is an essential component of getting this settled.

Agree with this.

And if that does not get things resolved as the jeweler did not give them a real Red Box diamond or what have you....put together the stuff for the civil claim against the jeweler. However, depending on the value being sued for...you may exceed small claims court in your area (i.e. the cap here for small claims is $25,000) so you'll have to look into it and may need to look at different options in that case. I am a lawyer (though...this is not legal advice in any shape or form!), though not one who particularly thinks going to court is the answer for everything. Lawyers tend to usually avoid court if they can (that does not always work out so well for me given my profession)! However, for this it might be your only option if it turns out the jeweler made an error (either purposely or not) and is unwilling to fix it.

 

[clgwli]

I thank you guys for your suggestions. The bad part of the story is that my friend''s fiance used a jeweler who was someone he knew previously so they''ve tried to be nice. That and he''s just a nice guy (the fiance) and not a pushy guy. I think that''s why it hasn''t gotten very far. One of his friends is a lawyer and just started helping him out.

I think my friend is a bit upset by it all but doesn''t know what she can do about it all. I didn''t realize that Red Box was associated with Stuller, so I will pass that on to her to see. She''s ready to call in news people though (we have a few consumers good groups) and know they would love this story before going to court. She really thinks this jeweler is horrible though. While dealing with this in the beginning she noticed her ring was a bit big, and the guy wanted to charge her for a sizing less than a month after she got the ring. I told her that was a big red flag to me.

Hind sight is 20/20 and even if she gets the stone replaced, she knows now to have her insurance cover it as well as any other secondary insurance.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Cara makes a good point. All of your material possessions from your home, including a ring, are covered under a renters or a home owner''s policy. Usually, if an item has not been scheduled, there is a cap on the amount you can claim and there is a deductible. These values are often $5000 and $500 respectively. So unless they do not have home owners insurance or do not have renter''s insurance, their ring should be covered under their policy at least to the tune of $4500. They should contact their insurance provider immediately and find out what their policy does and does not cover.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Im sorry this has happened to your friend - I would definitely act on oldeminers advice and if that does not work, I would also take it to small claims court and/or alert the media.

 

[clgwli]

I thank you all for the suggestions. She is really at a "I don''t know what to do now" kind of feel.

I do know for sure that she is checking with his insurance, but I will remind her to check with hers since they do not live together.

They are both wonderful people and I feel so bad that this is happening to them. Hopefully a friend who is a lawyer will help guide them as well. Again thank you all for suggestions. I wanted to make sure I also didn''t forget a step before ending up in court.