Anything I can do re diamond ring bought for £800 from hsamuel in 2008 poor quality?

Popkins

My husband bought me a diamond ring Dec07/Jan08 from HSamuel - it was in the sale and he paid £799.99 for it (full price before the sale was £1600!!) It is a cluster ring with 7 diamonds in 9ct gold.

I have recently been selling a lot of my gold jewellery as I tend to wear silver so decided to include this diamond ring when taking some of my other items to be priced up to sell - I took it to 3 jewellers and they all said that the diamonds were extremely poor quality and actually very heavily included and actually the centre diamond damaged!! There is no way I have damaged the stones as it has not been worn enough and I don't do anything whilst wearing it to damage it!! The most I got offered was £87 and that was mostly for the gold - and in fact one of the jewellers wouldn't even offer me anything for it as he said he couldn't use the diamonds!!

As you can imagine this came as a HUGE shock to us!!! EEEK!

My question is this - is there anything I can do now as its been about 3 years? I do still have the receipt but I guess I have no way of proving that I haven't damaged it - but I KNOW I haven't!!

Any advice gratefully received please...


:(:(

Equaliser123

Were the quality of the diamonds stated at the time of the sale?

go_cat

I think they would argue after such a period of time that there is no proof you hadn't had the diamonds swapped for a lower quality.

And being objective you wouldn't have known this if you hadn't wanted to sell it ... you would have just enjoyed the ring

scheming_gypsy

Was the price reduced in the 'sale' because of the quality of the diamonds?

if he just bought 'a gold ring with diamonds' then that's what he got unfortunately.

Hullmale

You need to look at the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA) - the ring has to be of satisfactory quality and it sounds like your ring is not. You have up to 6 years to claim damages - but the onus is on you to prove that the ring was faulty and of poor quality - and of course explain why you waited so long. You need to write a letter to the Jeweller stating that under SOGA you have a right to a full refund as the ring was of poor quality - and lay out your argument. There is plenty of info on SOGA on this site and elsewhere. If you do not get a satisfactory response from the jeweller then a stronger letter warning of legal action will be necessary - or maybe the Jeweller is a member of some professional body that you can complain to? You can also make a claim for damages under the Sale of Goods Act in your County Court - but that is the last resort, make sure you try all the other options first.

visidigi

I'm sorry, but no.

The ring was sold for £799 - it serves its purpose, and up until valuation you were entirely happy with the ring and the quality of it.

what you are not happy about is the valuation of the ring - this is open to perception and is open to debate - it does not change what H Samuel sold you the item for, its not affected by SOGA as the ring does what it is meant to do.

The item was sold for what H Samuel felt was a fair price - a price you husband was willing to pay - just because you cannot now claim back that money doesn't change your SOGA rights.

Its the same with a car, or an investment, its value can go up as well as down...there really isn't a legal issue here....

paddyrg

I think your options are limited - you have accepted the ring and have had plenty of opportunity to raise any concerns in around 3 years. Of course the scrap value will be lower than you paid for it, and almost all old gold goes for scrap to be melted down and reborn as new gold. 9ct is the lowest actual gold content 'gold' can have, hence the low scrap value, and unless the diamonds were assayed and certified as flawless/whatever grade, then they will be of lower value. And as you have realised, price and value are not related. If the gold and stones had been worth £1600 in the first place, they would never have been able to halve the price - the raw materials have very well known prices with a tiny amount of buy/sell spread wholesale!

fluffnutter

Hullmale wrote: »

You need to write a letter to the Jeweller stating that under SOGA you have a right to a full refund as the ring was of poor quality..

Even if the ring is of poor quality, and that's agreed by an independent reviewer, you can't expect a full refund after three years. Even if the ring were new the first remedy suggested by the retailer might well be a replacement or repair (if appropriate). Full refunds are not necessarily always legally available - and certainly not after three years of use and enjoyment.

Popkins

Thanks for responses everyone.

Guess it looks like we will have to chalk it up to an expensive experience and realise that indeed just because a high street store charges a lot of money for a diamond ring it does not follow that the price equates to the quality you would expect for such a price! We will NOT make that mistake again and would NEVER buy diamond jewellery from HSamuel again!!

For those being 'objective' you have assumed I was happy with the ring which in fact is not the case - I was originally happy with the ring when my husband gave it to me it is true but after a while when I wore it near another diamond ring I already owned I became less happy with it as the colour of the diamonds was quite yellowy/browny in comparison to my other ring - this was actually the reason for getting it valued for selling as I wasn't happy with the colour and hardly ever wore it - but I had no idea it would in fact be practically worthless!

Obviously I realise that the scrap price would be much less than we paid for it - and anyway I was wishing to sell it as a piece of jewellery not for scrap, selling it for scrap hadn't crossed my mind as at the time I thought I had a £800 ring in my possession and again I'm sorry if I made it sound as if I was expecting to get what my husband paid for it - obviously not as its second hand but I don't think its unreasonable to expect it to be worth three figures maybe half what was paid or at least a quarter!! not worthless or under £100 as i've now discovered!

visidigi - I love the way you're telling me what I was and wasn't happy with - at no point did I ever say I was 'entirely happy with the ring and its quality' - as I've just pointed out I actually wasn't - Before the valuation I was already unhappy with the ring and rarely wearing it which is the reason I took it to be valued for sale in the first place! I didn't go to HSamuel as at the time I didn't think my husband still had the receipt so thought I wouldn't be able to do anything there just because I didn't like the colour of the stones - in my mind I was still under the misguided idea that HSamuel would sell a ring for a fair price for related quality - not true clearly which is what I discovered when I got the valuation!

I then spoke to my husband and found that he did indeed still have the receipt so I was just sitting here wondering whether there was anything I could do as I have a ring I don't wear sitting in a jewellery box gathering dust and cannot sell it as each jeweller I have tried pretty much says its worthless! So I could bin it I guess but then it feels like throwing away £800!! :eek:

scheming_gypsy - No it was not reduced due to the quality of the diamonds - well not that they told us that!! - it was just a general pre-xmas sale of many items and this was one of them!

Equaliser123 - I'm not sure - it doesn't state the diamond quality on the receipt though

Dunno what to do with it now as I don't want it - just don't wear yellow gold anymore!! plus like I say I've got an eternity ring which I wear all the time but can't wear them together as those diamonds are obviously much better quality (not HSamuel!!) and the two look dreadful together!! It does look pretty on its own but thats no use for me

fluffnutter

Popkins wrote: »

Dunno what to do with it now as I don't want it - just don't wear yellow gold anymore!! plus like I say I've got an eternity ring which I wear all the time but can't wear them together as those diamonds are obviously much better quality (not HSamuel!!) and the two look dreadful together!! It does look pretty on its own but thats no use for me

How about getting it coated and re-sized and wearing it on a different finger? Seems a shame not to use it. And if you can't sell it for much... perhaps reinvigorate it?

Or... you can do what my mate does. She wears all her (usually engagement) rings on a chain round her neck. She had about four at one point, bless her.

Fergie76

Take it to Samuels and ask them for a quote?

Won't achieve very much, but at least you could then argue the toss with them.