Engagement Ring

Doglover23

hi everyone i have a question.

my partner brought me an engagement ring in April 2011 and proposed in august 2011, it was a forever diamond from H Samuels. November 2012 the diamond fell out and i cannot find it anywhere.
We have the receipt but no insurance. i have spoken to H Samuels and they said they could send it away to see if the ring can be fixed and a new diamond put in but it will cost me quite a lot.

I was surprised that the ring 'broke' so quickly even though i tried to look after it as best i could. It was a solatare so feel it should have been made of harder stuff to last longer than 15 months. to me, therefore, it is not fit for purpose and i was wondering if i had any rights to take this argument to them and ask them for a new one.

thank you.
Leanne

Valli

As far as they are concerned you have had, and worn, the ring since the date of purchase.

I seriously doubt whether they will accept any liability for this; they will claim you wore it washing up etc.; it's accidental damage for which they are not liable. However, it is worth asking - you never know. You might have been in a stronger position had you found the missing stone...have you checked your vacuum cleaner? That way the repair cost would have been re-attaching the stone; now a new stone needs to be supplied.

I strongly suggest, given you cannot find the stone that you ask for an ESTIMATE of costs of repair and agree this cost before giving them the go-ahead to fix it. You could also try a local independant jeweller to see if they can repair at at a more cost-effective price.

It MIGHT be possible to claim for the accidental damage on your household contents insurance - have you checked?

If it is a high value ring it might be worth getting it (or its replacement) independantly insured; take photographs and retain all receipts.

InsideInsurance

The "problem" with rings is that people want to see the stone and not a big blob of metal and so there is a balancing act between minimising the amount of stone covered and ensuring the stone is secure. The consequence is that you have relatively small claws, particularly on smaller stones, which will always be prone to knocking, catching etc

As you have had the item over 6 months it switches to you to prove that the item was faulty and not a simple case of accidental damage. If H Samuels reject it is faulty you may consider getting an independent jeweler to look at it and ensure the claws look suitably constructed but your going to have to ensure the costs add up.

Assuming you end up footing the bill, get a quote from an indep as well as Samuels for its replacement, I suspect it will be cheaper

somethingcorporate

It costs pennies to add this to your home insurance so for next time it will be worth it.

I suggest you go to an independent as will likely be cheaper or better quality diamonds for the same price.

cracklepop

somethingcorporate wrote: »

It costs pennies to add this to your home insurance so for next time it will be worth it.

That's what I thought, but when I called up my insurer (Santander) yesterday to add my wife's engagement ring, they said it couldn't be added the value exceeded their limit for an individual item.

I was surprised, but I won't lie, a bit of me did enjoy explaining it to my wife! :rotfl:

InsideInsurance

cracklepop wrote: »

That's what I thought, but when I called up my insurer (Santander) yesterday to add my wife's engagement ring, they said it couldn't be added the value exceeded their limit for an individual item.

It all depends on who your insurers are, Hiscox you only have to declare items over £15,000 on their direct policy. For Axa its only items over £10,000. M&S from memory is over £12,000

Have to admit that none of my single items breaches those limits so never tried to discover what their top end is for a single declared item.

Depending on how budget your insurers are will dictate the limits but H Samuels most expensive ring is under £7,000 so wouldnt even have to be declared to middle mass market insurers or above

cracklepop

InsideInsurance wrote: »

It all depends on who your insurers are, Hiscox you only have to declare items over £15,000 on their direct policy. For Axa its only items over £10,000. M&S from memory is over £12,000

Have to admit that none of my single items breaches those limits so never tried to discover what their top end is for a single declared item.

Depending on how budget your insurers are will dictate the limits but H Samuels most expensive ring is under £7,000 so wouldnt even have to be declared to middle mass market insurers or above

Santander told me the limit for a single item of jewelry was £1500 which really surprised me. I think she said jewelry is classed separately to normal household contents.

I expected it not to be fully covered but I was also told I couldn't even pay a premium to add it.

Does that sound odd to you?

Hintza

cracklepop wrote: »

but I was also told I couldn't even pay a premium to add it.

Does that sound odd to you?

That sounds very odd to me. Think I would be changing insurer next year.

We have had good quotes from Direct Line the last two years. This year they tried to increase my premium but I re did it as a new policy and saved £100 (I'm getting increasingly fed up with these lets rip our existing customer off business tactics though)

cracklepop

Hintza wrote: »

That sounds very odd to me. Think I would be changing insurer next year.

We have had good quotes from Direct Line the last two years. This year they tried to increase my premium but I re did it as a new policy and saved £100 (I'm getting increasingly fed up with these lets rip our existing customer off business tactics though)

Thanks.

It seemed odd to me too. Not least that she said they'd totally understand if because of this I decided to change insurer. Hardly bending over backwards to keep me!

InsideInsurance

cracklepop wrote: »

Santander told me the limit for a single item of jewelry was £1500 which really surprised me. I think she said jewelry is classed separately to normal household contents.

I expected it not to be fully covered but I was also told I couldn't even pay a premium to add it.

Does that sound odd to you?

Santander Home insurance is a white label of Budget insurance brokers. Jewellery is not a separate section but is lumped into their High Risk category.

Looking at their site £1,500 is the default unspecified limit, items higher than that can be put on but must be specified. Their site allows me to specify a single item up to £10,000 but anything over that throws an error saying it exceeds the limit.

Now either you are very generous or possible their call centre rep made a mistake.

There is one other possible explanation which is of cause as a broker they have a number of insurers on their panel. I cannot comment explicitly for Budget but with some brokers not all insurers have agreed to take on the same risks and so it can be the case that as you selected no items over £1,500 when you bought they put you with an insurer that has no appetite for high value items. Now mid term that you have something high value that insurer wont touch it but you are locked into the insurer as much as you are Santander/ Budget and so their only option would be to cancel it and rebroke (with cancellation fees normally being applicable).

In the first instance I would still challenge the rep about not allowing anything over the unspecified limit

cracklepop

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Santander Home insurance is a white label of Budget insurance brokers. Jewellery is not a separate section but is lumped into their High Risk category.

Looking at their site £1,500 is the default unspecified limit, items higher than that can be put on but must be specified. Their site allows me to specify a single item up to £10,000 but anything over that throws an error saying it exceeds the limit.

Now either you are very generous or possible their call centre rep made a mistake.

There is one other possible explanation which is of cause as a broker they have a number of insurers on their panel. I cannot comment explicitly for Budget but with some brokers not all insurers have agreed to take on the same risks and so it can be the case that as you selected no items over £1,500 when you bought they put you with an insurer that has no appetite for high value items. Now mid term that you have something high value that insurer wont touch it but you are locked into the insurer as much as you are Santander/ Budget and so their only option would be to cancel it and rebroke (with cancellation fees normally being applicable).

In the first instance I would still challenge the rep about not allowing anything over the unspecified limit

Thanks that's really useful information. I'll give them another call.

(I'm generous, but not that generous!)