HELP - I have been conned by Vashi Jewellers

MyRealNameToo

Roya2018 said:

Roya2018 said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Roya2018 said:

Hi there. We bought my engagement ring in 2019 from Vashi Jewellers. 

Looking for advice- never been or heard of a situation like this and Dr Google is not of any help

I have a ring which is from a jeweller who has since committed mass fraud and was the centre of a panorama documentary. He had defrauded and conned his investors and it has come to light that he has also conned customers with regards to the intricacies of their purchases I.e. inflated diamond size when actually it's smaller or clarity etc. Just to add the company went into administration in 2023 so is no longer around.

It seems to be after review that the ring has been poorly made and therefore the stones are sat very loosely in the clasps. After having it reviewed by a jeweller in Hatton Garden, the ring is not to the specification we were sold - lesser diamonds etc

Reviewing the paper work, there is a lot of information missing from the appraisal document and therefore have evidently been scammed and quite evidently been duped into thinking the piece of jewellery was of high quality.

Do we have any protection from credit card company ( purchase was 2019) can we we do anything about it from a fraud POV, can we claim under insurance? We no longer have the credit card and cannot trace the original transaction. 

I am not sure what to do and any advice and direction would be most appreciated. Thank you

Just to be clear, you purchased a ring in 2019 from a jewellers.

You have now been advised by another jewellers that the ring is poorly made and not matching the diamond rating that you initially understood.

As a result, you believe there is diminished value loss of £4.5k.

Why do you trust the word of the second jeweller more than the first?

Why was the second jeweller assessing the value of the ring?

If the second jeweller was valuing the ring with a view to purchase from yourself, a large part of the perceived loss will be the difference between what a jeweller will pay to buy the ring versus retail.

What was the original total value of the ring?

The reasons for having the ring reviewed and therefore valued is due to panorama documentary where it was spoken about being mis sold diamonds and how they had conned customers into thinking that had one product but actually had something else. 

For peace of mind I wanted to ensure what I have is what it says on the certificate which is obviously not the case as we have now found out from.independent jewellers. 

They do not know the back story and just know it as I want my ring valued for insurance purposes. 

The original value of the ring was £6000 and both are saying it should only have cost around £2.5-3K

On what basis are they valuing it? 

If I use a specialist service like Blue Nile I can get a better ring than from a high street jeweller for under 50% of the price, I can't get the same ring because the likes of Blue Nile dont sell the low quality diamonds that the likes of Earnest Jones sells. 

Were I to use somewhere like a Hatton Garden Jewellers they would come in somewhere between the two. In fact one that I discussed valuing my wife's engagement ring says she uses the same mount as I'd bought but the online price the retailer was charging was less than her wholesale price. 

Paying a premium for getting from a known brand or a high street brand doesnt automatically may it a con... its just a different business model with different costs involved etc. 

Claws not being tight etc, well firstly thats a quick fix and secondly claws come lose overtime so just because they are now loose after 6 years of wear isnt a sign that they were loose when it was bought. 

So the only real thing you have to go on is if the diamond is what was sold or not... Is it a certified diamond? Assuming it is then on the girdle will be a serial number laser inscribed, you can go to the certifying labs website, put in the serial number and it will tell you the standard of the diamond. Note however that not all certifying labs are equal, the likes of GIA are considered to be rigorous and trustworthy. Some others are intrinsically generous in their scoring. 

At the end of the day if they have gone to a lab that tends to round up, as long as the lab said it was colour rating F and the serial number confirms its rating F there isnt the greatest amount you can do as they sold what they were told it was. The fact GIA may have scored it a G or H is unfortunate but it isnt fraud per se.

If it is an uncertified diamond then there is more scope for variance as its not been tested in lab conditions and ultimately many of these things are a scale, its not as if diamonds only come in 23 distinct shades but its a continuous spectrum with a somewhat arbitrary point where a stone goes from one colour score to the next and can be influenced by the light source being used to test it etc.

Grumpy_chap

EarToTheGround said:

Hello Roya, only just came across your post re your Vashi ring today, I have left you a message and would like to follow up this as I was a researcher looking into Vashi re Panorama. Thanks  

I would suggest that any individual contacting a claimed researcher for a major media business takes steps to verify the authenticity of the individual they are contacting.