Advice needed from jewellers and beware of Goldsmith jewellers

Kate1

I had a platinum two full row diamond ring purchased as an eternity ring from Goldsmiths in December 2009. By October 2010 it had lost a diamond and was replaced by them under the 10 year diamond gauantee that came with the ring. Then in June this year it lost another diamond and after them having it for ten weeks they have contacted me to say it needs not just the missing diamond replacing but six others aswell and that I will need to pay for all seven to be replaced as they believe it 'has suffered some degree of accidental damage'. Of the seven diamonds that need replacing, one is missing as I knew but apparently 'three are cracked and three have internal damage'. When the ring was sent from the store a repair receipt was completed after it was looked at under a magnifying lense and to the question stones chipped/scratched the box was tick no. It was commented that the band egde had 'some marks'.

I feel that a ring marketed as a wedding ring should stand up to daily wear in order to make it fit for purpose.

I have no idea how I could have possibly caused internal damage to diamonds and cracked three others and am concerned that this damage has occurred due to the process in which the ring was last repaired nineteen months ago, has happened whilst it has been with them in the last ten weeks given my receipt states no chips or starches to the diamonds or the diamonds are of unsatisfactory standard.

Any ideas what could have caused this sort of damage? Should I just pay for them to repair it and take it as a lesson not to purchase from Goldsmiths as they fail to honour the diamond guarantee? Do I pay for an indepentant report on the ring but then I feel even if it says they is damage to it I have no way to prove it wasn't caused by them when repairing it nineteen months ago or in the last ten week as have no idea how I have damaged it.

Ideas appreciated?

Hintza

Most wedding rings are plain bands and that is for a reason.

Tsavorite

Ah, the joys of high street jewellers (I used to work in one, but not this one). Don't pay yet. Ask to have the ring back unrepaired and take it to an independent for assessment, then go back to Goldsmiths and see what they say. If, as I suspect, the independent jeweller says it isn't damaged and Goldsmiths still don't budge, send the ring to the National Association of Goldsmiths, who will do a report. You may find that changes the shop's attitude quickly.

Without seeing the ring, scratches on the edge are expected but dents are not. It depends what they mean by marks. But diamonds do not crack or become damaged without either a huge amount of force exerted on them or they had fissures and so were of an unsatisfactory standard to begin with. Did you get a certificate with the ring telling you what clarity the stones are?

shaun_from_Africa

I've never worked in a jewellery store, nor have I had anything to do with diamonds apart from using many diamond tipped drills, but I disagree with this statement:

Tsavorite wrote: »

But diamonds do not crack or become damaged without either a huge amount of force exerted on them.

Diamonds are the hardest known naturally occuring substance but they are still fairly brittle.
In short, this means that they are very difficult to scratch (due to their hardness), but are very relatively easy to break due to their brittleness.

A good example that many people could relate to is sapphire glass used for watch glasses in many medium to high end watches.
These provide an extremely hard watch face that is very scratch resistant, but if knocked on another hard or angled surface, can very easily crack.

meer53

It sounds as though the ring has been knocked for a stone to fall out and damage others, and marks on the band were seen.

I can see why they think it was accidental damage and are refusing to pay for the replacements.

InsideInsurance

What shape of stones are they? Are they channel or claw set?

As others have said, diamonds are very hard but brittle and the smaller the stone the easier they are to damage - particularly if they are things like baguettes. Likewise the smaller they are the less you can lose to mounting so the higher the risk of losing them.

The missus wanted to get a channel set full eternity ring of baguettes so went down Hatton Gardens. Some of the guys there were perfectly happy to do it, others said they'd only do a 3/4s ring because they had previous problems of the bottom stones cracking on similar rings.