Dreamr724
Rough_Rock
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2008
- Messages
- 31
So here''s a little story to make you feel just a little more insecure about this ailing US economy. Not to mention this whole situation made me think the fates were against me and BF
)
BF and I selected my engagement ring and at this point it was up to him to pick it up and plan a proposal, etc. Over the Christmas Break the jeweler emailed BF to tell him that the ring was ready for pick up on the 28th. BF and I went to Richmond directly from Connecticut so he didn''t have a chance to pick it up until we got back to DC. So, on Sunday when I was cleaning up the apartment he went out to Christian Bernard to pick up the ring (without me knowing) and oddly enough the store was closed. Hmmp - he thought that''s odd that it''s closed, he just thought, it''s Sunday maybe they closed early. Then on Wednesday he went back to the store and again it was closed. He said he had an unsettling feeling about this considering that the economy is in such a rough state. So he went back to the apartment and typed into google, "Christian Bernard Bankruptcy" and immediately several articles came up about their sudden filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
CB filed on December 26th, two days before we were supposed to pick the ring up and a day after Xmas. Here''s a little thing of note, when a store files for Chapter 11 they expect to eventually come out of it, going directly to Chapter 7 is like saying, "We''re F**ked - cut all losses NOW". So, BF Dan is now in a pure panic about what to do about a finished ring that is paid for and behind closed doors. In the online articles it allows people to post their comments and through reading the articles he realizes that the managers for these stores had no idea that the CEO had given these drastic directives and were blindsided by closed doors as well. So BF being the nice guy that he is, emailed the jeweler directly, saying sorry to hear about getting laid off, BUT do you think maybe we can get our ring back? The guy emailed back saying everything is wrapped up in the courts and he will do the best he can to get the ring to us. Phew we thought, at least we could talk to this guy directly, then when Dan emailed back, there was an automated email that said that the email address was cut off . . . So here we are no contact info, no money and no ring. Not that this really stops our plans to get engaged but it sure does put a wrench in the plans. .
I guess we aren''t the only ones who are in the situation, and there are others, who just brought their jewelery in for a quick repair and also have their items behind closed doors. Thankfully, since everything is paid for the ring is fully our property and eventually we''ll get it back - maybe a year from now considering how slow the legal system works.
We just have to laugh about the whole situation - there''s just nothing else to do but wait and it sure does make for a good story to tell the grandkids.
So, here''s a lesson in today''s economy - buy it, grab it and RUN!
Sadly, the last correspondence that we received from the jeweler told us that the ring looked very nice. Ironically, we must have searched through at least 10 different stores, but we selected CB because we thought oh they''ll be around so I can get it cleaned and repaired easily and because the jeweler was great. The ONE place we selected goes under so suddenly!
We now have to contact the credit card company and file a dispute to get the piece back it''s worth approximately 22K retail value. FUN Stuff!
BF and I selected my engagement ring and at this point it was up to him to pick it up and plan a proposal, etc. Over the Christmas Break the jeweler emailed BF to tell him that the ring was ready for pick up on the 28th. BF and I went to Richmond directly from Connecticut so he didn''t have a chance to pick it up until we got back to DC. So, on Sunday when I was cleaning up the apartment he went out to Christian Bernard to pick up the ring (without me knowing) and oddly enough the store was closed. Hmmp - he thought that''s odd that it''s closed, he just thought, it''s Sunday maybe they closed early. Then on Wednesday he went back to the store and again it was closed. He said he had an unsettling feeling about this considering that the economy is in such a rough state. So he went back to the apartment and typed into google, "Christian Bernard Bankruptcy" and immediately several articles came up about their sudden filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
CB filed on December 26th, two days before we were supposed to pick the ring up and a day after Xmas. Here''s a little thing of note, when a store files for Chapter 11 they expect to eventually come out of it, going directly to Chapter 7 is like saying, "We''re F**ked - cut all losses NOW". So, BF Dan is now in a pure panic about what to do about a finished ring that is paid for and behind closed doors. In the online articles it allows people to post their comments and through reading the articles he realizes that the managers for these stores had no idea that the CEO had given these drastic directives and were blindsided by closed doors as well. So BF being the nice guy that he is, emailed the jeweler directly, saying sorry to hear about getting laid off, BUT do you think maybe we can get our ring back? The guy emailed back saying everything is wrapped up in the courts and he will do the best he can to get the ring to us. Phew we thought, at least we could talk to this guy directly, then when Dan emailed back, there was an automated email that said that the email address was cut off . . . So here we are no contact info, no money and no ring. Not that this really stops our plans to get engaged but it sure does put a wrench in the plans. .
I guess we aren''t the only ones who are in the situation, and there are others, who just brought their jewelery in for a quick repair and also have their items behind closed doors. Thankfully, since everything is paid for the ring is fully our property and eventually we''ll get it back - maybe a year from now considering how slow the legal system works.
We just have to laugh about the whole situation - there''s just nothing else to do but wait and it sure does make for a good story to tell the grandkids.
So, here''s a lesson in today''s economy - buy it, grab it and RUN!
Sadly, the last correspondence that we received from the jeweler told us that the ring looked very nice. Ironically, we must have searched through at least 10 different stores, but we selected CB because we thought oh they''ll be around so I can get it cleaned and repaired easily and because the jeweler was great. The ONE place we selected goes under so suddenly!
We now have to contact the credit card company and file a dispute to get the piece back it''s worth approximately 22K retail value. FUN Stuff!
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