The Jewellery Channel, TJC, ch640 sky - cs & quality issues

Poppy9

My OH is a trained goldsmith and friends often ask his opinion on their jewellery buys. His opinion is that you can pay too much for crap jewellery anywhere as most buyers do not know what they are looking for. A friend recently asked him to look at a clasp on a bangle she had bought from a shopping channel. He could sort the clasp out but he said the bangle would be mangled after wearing a few times as it was hollow. If a bangle is hollow it will crack and become dented and mis-shapened. He asked how much she had paid for it and I told him to guess. He said Argos price £50, gold weight £5. She had paid £120:eek: . He said for the huge mark up on that bangle they could have added a figure of 8 clasp and safety chain as snap clasps are notorious for failing without regular checking.

Another poster asked if you can resize gem set rings. Upto a 1/2 eternity ring, yes you can. A decent goldsmith will know the tolerance in adding, removing sizes before it affects the settings of the stones. A full set ET ring is more difficult unless you are completely removing one section or don't mind having a piece of gold added with no stone.

dazman36

In Oct 2006 i bought my wife a Pendant with a whopping great 3.28 cts Diamonds (keep an eye on the 3.28 cts they could disappear.
I thought nothing of their money back pledge get it valued and if your not happy then return.
How many people actually do that well i did not until a family friend remarked about how beautiful my wifes pendant was. I showed him the Certificate of Authenticity and to my amazement he said "you been ripped off mate" he took me to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and strike me down he was right. The price ican live with the fact i had not had valued and was worth less but to have only 0.27 cts of diamonds was robbery.
I tried to contact TJC to no avail on option 3 so i entered option one and bid on an option wow i did not believe a voice and a non automated one at that.
I made my complaint and was told to email this i did, 4 days later still no answer so i rang again on option 1 only to be told to wait i waited 3 more days then had enough i rang again option 1 works every time.
They said i would have to wait to speak to someone has Customer Relations do not take incoming phone calls.
I politley informed the young lady that if my call was not received by her line manager i would invoke my right to escalate my complaint through to OFCOM, Local Trading Standards, Press, ASA & local court as i had entitled the email Notice of Formal intent to Legal Action outlining that the goods sold in no way reflected the advertised goods (Misrepresentation of Goods act, & Sale of goods act.) within minutes i was talking to a gentleman called "Percy Van Der Burgh" i outined the complaint and told them what i would do within 24 hours i was asked to send in the item for a full refund.
My opinion is they mislead and has 0% customer Service.:T

maninthestreet

dazman36 wrote: »

In Oct 2006 i bought my wife a Pendant with a whopping great 3.28 cts Diamonds (keep an eye on the 3.28 cts they could disappear.
I thought nothing of their money back pledge get it valued and if your not happy then return.
How many people actually do that well i did not until a family friend remarked about how beautiful my wifes pendant was. I showed him the Certificate of Authenticity and to my amazement he said "you been ripped off mate" he took me to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and strike me down he was right. The price ican live with the fact i had not had valued and was worth less but to have only 0.27 cts of diamonds was robbery.
I tried to contact TJC to no avail on option 3 so i entered option one and bid on an option wow i did not believe a voice and a non automated one at that.
I made my complaint and was told to email this i did, 4 days later still no answer so i rang again on option 1 only to be told to wait i waited 3 more days then had enough i rang again option 1 works every time.
They said i would have to wait to speak to someone has Customer Relations do not take incoming phone calls.
I politley informed the young lady that if my call was not received by her line manager i would invoke my right to escalate my complaint through to OFCOM, Local Trading Standards, Press, ASA & local court as i had entitled the email Notice of Formal intent to Legal Action outlining that the goods sold in no way reflected the advertised goods (Misrepresentation of Goods act, & Sale of goods act.) within minutes i was talking to a gentleman called "Percy Van Der Burgh" i outined the complaint and told them what i would do within 24 hours i was asked to send in the item for a full refund.
My opinion is they mislead and has 0% customer Service.:T

Exactly how much did you pay for this diamond that was described as 3.28 carats?

dazman36

maninthestreet wrote: »

Exactly how much did you pay for this diamond that was described as 3.28 carats?

£926.00

had numerous Baguette diamond and a Tanzanite centre stone

Not the price that bothered me was the being misled

System

Hi there, was just wondering what exactly the certificate listed, compared to what the channel actually said... Did the item info on he screen say 3.28 carats of diamonds or just 3.28 carats - referring to the tanzanite without you knowing it?

I work in a retail jewellers and find it interesting how they quote the carat weights for all of their gems, whereas in shops on the high street (not the overly fancy ones) you only ever really find out the carat weight of diamonds, and not gemstones. Can be quite misleading I think, and don't get me started on the price drop things... the number of customers I get coming into my shop asking for repairs on their rings etc when asked for the price of the item for liability purposes, coming up with prices 3 times higher than what we'd sell them for, and we have a HUGE mark up. Even though they only paid £27 they tell you it's worth £379, even though deep down they MUST know it can't really be worth that much but the channels decided to give you a £350 discount....

The quality is notoriously bad as well, not that ours is much better, but I would like to think our after sales is a bit better.

Well, hope you've got it all sorted now and they get their act together soon

changkra

Poppy9 wrote: »

My OH is a trained goldsmith and friends often ask his opinion on their jewellery buys. His opinion is that you can pay too much for crap jewellery anywhere as most buyers do not know what they are looking for. A friend recently asked him to look at a clasp on a bangle she had bought from a shopping channel. He could sort the clasp out but he said the bangle would be mangled after wearing a few times as it was hollow. If a bangle is hollow it will crack and become dented and mis-shapened. He asked how much she had paid for it and I told him to guess. He said Argos price £50, gold weight £5. She had paid £120:eek: . He said for the huge mark up on that bangle they could have added a figure of 8 clasp and safety chain as snap clasps are notorious for failing without regular checking.

Another poster asked if you can resize gem set rings. Upto a 1/2 eternity ring, yes you can. A decent goldsmith will know the tolerance in adding, removing sizes before it affects the settings of the stones. A full set ET ring is more difficult unless you are completely removing one section or don't mind having a piece of gold added with no stone.

After reading this i'm pleased I buy all my gold in Thailnd, including the stones.

dazman36

moydie wrote: »

Hi there, was just wondering what exactly the certificate listed, compared to what the channel actually said... Did the item info on he screen say 3.28 carats of diamonds or just 3.28 carats - referring to the tanzanite without you knowing it?

I work in a retail jewellers and find it interesting how they quote the carat weights for all of their gems, whereas in shops on the high street (not the overly fancy ones) you only ever really find out the carat weight of diamonds, and not gemstones. Can be quite misleading I think, and don't get me started on the price drop things... the number of customers I get coming into my shop asking for repairs on their rings etc when asked for the price of the item for liability purposes, coming up with prices 3 times higher than what we'd sell them for, and we have a HUGE mark up. Even though they only paid £27 they tell you it's worth £379, even though deep down they MUST know it can't really be worth that much but the channels decided to give you a £350 discount....

The quality is notoriously bad as well, not that ours is much better, but I would like to think our after sales is a bit better.

Well, hope you've got it all sorted now and they get their act together soon

Tanzenite was a seperate carat advertised

Nnepsor

dazman36 wrote: »

In Oct 2006 i bought my wife a Pendant with a whopping great 3.28 cts Diamonds (keep an eye on the 3.28 cts they could disappear.
I thought nothing of their money back pledge get it valued and if your not happy then return.
How many people actually do that well i did not until a family friend remarked about how beautiful my wifes pendant was. I showed him the Certificate of Authenticity and to my amazement he said "you been ripped off mate" he took me to the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham and strike me down he was right. The price ican live with the fact i had not had valued and was worth less but to have only 0.27 cts of diamonds was robbery.
I tried to contact TJC to no avail on option 3 so i entered option one and bid on an option wow i did not believe a voice and a non automated one at that.
I made my complaint and was told to email this i did, 4 days later still no answer so i rang again on option 1 only to be told to wait i waited 3 more days then had enough i rang again option 1 works every time.
They said i would have to wait to speak to someone has Customer Relations do not take incoming phone calls.
I politley informed the young lady that if my call was not received by her line manager i would invoke my right to escalate my complaint through to OFCOM, Local Trading Standards, Press, ASA & local court as i had entitled the email Notice of Formal intent to Legal Action outlining that the goods sold in no way reflected the advertised goods (Misrepresentation of Goods act, & Sale of goods act.) within minutes i was talking to a gentleman called "Percy Van Der Burgh" i outined the complaint and told them what i would do within 24 hours i was asked to send in the item for a full refund.
My opinion is they mislead and has 0% customer Service.:T

I had recently been hooked on watching this channel & Gemstv and ordered a pair of earrings & a pendant from the Gemstv channel - they look fantastic on the screen but I was very disappointed with the size of the actual items. I am glad that I did order something and didn't pay too much for them as this has put me off getting anything more & your posting confirmed my misgivings. How they can start at such a high price & reduce it down to a fraction of the cost is a bit of a giveaway, so thanks for your story!! :j :j

Nnepsor

I had recently been hooked on watching this channel & Gemstv and ordered a pair of earrings & a pendant from the Gemstv channel - they look fantastic on the screen but I was very disappointed with the size of the actual items. I am glad that I did order something and didn't pay too much for them as this has put me off getting anything more & your posting confirmed my misgivings. How they can start at such a high price & reduce it down to a fraction of the cost is a bit of a giveaway, so thanks for your story!! :j :j

Debbie_S

changkra wrote: »

After reading this i'm pleased I buy all my gold in Thailnd, including the stones.

Do you go there or buy online?
I'm considering a Jewellery Channel purchase.