I had written a much better post on this topic, but the internet gods, having a weird sense of humor, decided that it should vanish into the ether.. so I will recap with this somewhat abbreviated presentation of my side of the story.
Twenty-some odd days ago katiedid came into my store with a princess cut diamond in a stout platinum mounting and asked if I could pull her stone from the original piece and re-set it into a new mounting she had just bought. I looked at her new mounting and immediately told her that I felt the piece was somewhat thin and insubstantial, and that she would be better off leaving her stone in the original ring. She told me that the mounting''s thinness wouldn''t be a problem as she ''never does anything'' with her hands and that she expected the ring would be fine. I wasn''t exactly thrilled at her response, but what could I do but set her stone as requested?
As she said, I did chip a corner of her stone trying to set it into the new ring, I came out to the front of the store and told her that I''d chipped it and that we would replace the stone at no charge. Two days later I had several new stones for her to choose from, she selected one and we set it.. she appeared to leave the store contented.
Within a couple days she called back and asked if she could upgrade the diamond for one of better color. We agreed to do so. We pulled the stone we''d just replaced, an ''H'' colored diamond, and set a a new ''E'' color stone in it''s place, charging her only the difference in cost between the two. Again, I assumed she left the store happy.
What seems like several weeks went by and she comes back to the store with her ring complaining that the stone was now loose. When she took off the ring it was immediately obvious that the ring was out of round, the top of the shank under the head, was bent down and compressed. It was clear that the piece had sustained some ''wear''. Understand, wear in jewelry is to be expected, rings in particular take a lot of abuse in their day-to-day existence, it''s unavoidable. I tightened the stone for her, again telling her that the mounting was somewhat fragile and wouldn''t hold up over time and that the ''head'' was especially thin and vulnerable. Again, I was told that it would be fine. What could I say under the circumstances but ...OK? The following day she comes back to my store with her ring and accuses me of having chipped her stone a second time. Now, keep in mind that she had been wearing the piece for 10 days or 2 weeks at this point, that the head was so thin that it flexed in a moderate breeze and and that the mounting clearly showed obvious damage. I want to note that she complained in her last post that several of the side stones had already loosened in just a few weeks wear,(not a sign of quality manufacture,by the way). But, regardless of the wear issue she maintained that I must be responsible for the chip despite the fact that the mounting was already damaged after such a short while. Don''t you just love retail?
I always find it interesting that customers are never responsible for damaging their jewelry and that somehow the damage mysteriously happens without their having done anything. I have had customers come in with rings that look to have been gnawed on by badgers or run through a garbage disposal... and they still swear that they too "never do anything with their hands". Obviously, it can only be the jeweler''s fault. Remarkable, no?
In any event, we have given katiedid back her money.The fact that her mounting was so thin and poorly designed as to be an accident waiting to happen was evidently my responsibility too. Bottom line, I am left with nearly $4000 worth of princess cuts that I would never have bought,(I personally hate princess cuts)and the only lesson I can draw from this is that no good deed goes unpunished.
thanks for reading this..
gworks
Twenty-some odd days ago katiedid came into my store with a princess cut diamond in a stout platinum mounting and asked if I could pull her stone from the original piece and re-set it into a new mounting she had just bought. I looked at her new mounting and immediately told her that I felt the piece was somewhat thin and insubstantial, and that she would be better off leaving her stone in the original ring. She told me that the mounting''s thinness wouldn''t be a problem as she ''never does anything'' with her hands and that she expected the ring would be fine. I wasn''t exactly thrilled at her response, but what could I do but set her stone as requested?
As she said, I did chip a corner of her stone trying to set it into the new ring, I came out to the front of the store and told her that I''d chipped it and that we would replace the stone at no charge. Two days later I had several new stones for her to choose from, she selected one and we set it.. she appeared to leave the store contented.
Within a couple days she called back and asked if she could upgrade the diamond for one of better color. We agreed to do so. We pulled the stone we''d just replaced, an ''H'' colored diamond, and set a a new ''E'' color stone in it''s place, charging her only the difference in cost between the two. Again, I assumed she left the store happy.
What seems like several weeks went by and she comes back to the store with her ring complaining that the stone was now loose. When she took off the ring it was immediately obvious that the ring was out of round, the top of the shank under the head, was bent down and compressed. It was clear that the piece had sustained some ''wear''. Understand, wear in jewelry is to be expected, rings in particular take a lot of abuse in their day-to-day existence, it''s unavoidable. I tightened the stone for her, again telling her that the mounting was somewhat fragile and wouldn''t hold up over time and that the ''head'' was especially thin and vulnerable. Again, I was told that it would be fine. What could I say under the circumstances but ...OK? The following day she comes back to my store with her ring and accuses me of having chipped her stone a second time. Now, keep in mind that she had been wearing the piece for 10 days or 2 weeks at this point, that the head was so thin that it flexed in a moderate breeze and and that the mounting clearly showed obvious damage. I want to note that she complained in her last post that several of the side stones had already loosened in just a few weeks wear,(not a sign of quality manufacture,by the way). But, regardless of the wear issue she maintained that I must be responsible for the chip despite the fact that the mounting was already damaged after such a short while. Don''t you just love retail?
I always find it interesting that customers are never responsible for damaging their jewelry and that somehow the damage mysteriously happens without their having done anything. I have had customers come in with rings that look to have been gnawed on by badgers or run through a garbage disposal... and they still swear that they too "never do anything with their hands". Obviously, it can only be the jeweler''s fault. Remarkable, no?
In any event, we have given katiedid back her money.The fact that her mounting was so thin and poorly designed as to be an accident waiting to happen was evidently my responsibility too. Bottom line, I am left with nearly $4000 worth of princess cuts that I would never have bought,(I personally hate princess cuts)and the only lesson I can draw from this is that no good deed goes unpunished.
thanks for reading this..
gworks
First, here is the accurate timeline. I received my new SP setting on Friday, May 11th. On Sat, May 12th, I took it to Goldworks and that is the day my original stone was chipped. I left it there over the weekend and did NOT get to select the replacement stone--they said they would find me something comparable. 
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