Charity shop selling donated silver jewellery

orangelittlebear

I work for a charity shop and we sell donated jewellery, if the jewellery has the 925 hallmark on it we mark it as silver, we don't have any expertise in the area. Could we be sued if the item turned out not to be silver, even though it had the hallmark? (we would be happy to take the item back and return the money if the purchaser was concerned that it was a fake).

paddyrg

How about asking your local jewellers to do the charity a favour and assay any odds and ends of jewellery you get through the door, maybe 20 minutes of his time once a month? Then you can mark the items 'silver assayed by xyz jewellers', he gets a bit of promotion, you get a favour, everyone wins.

orangelittlebear

Thanks, good suggestion re jeweller. Just wondered, since several folk volunteer and put things out if something did get put out without being checked if we would be at risk of being sued. personally I assume that as long as we were willing to give a refund it should be fine, but equally don't find that we've put the charity in a position where they're paying out for a mistake.

oldtoolie

If I'm not sure about something, I simply describe what I can see. So instead of saying silver spoon, I would say spoon with 925 hallmark.

I can't see how you could be sued, if you offer refunds. We sell old items on eBay for our charity. Occasionally a buyer complains that the item is not as described. We normally give an immediate refund and tell them to keep the item.