had a 95% platinum / diamond ring returned to me with no hallmarks - how could that happen?

R B Customs · 19 Jul 2013 at 09:45

Hey all,

[tl;dr?] - [I've made the important bits bold]

I bought an engagement ring online - I'm pretty happy with the product and my lass loved it too but we were not happy with the diamond so sent it back to be changed and resized (I ran out of time to to it before it was presented on holiday so had to present it knowing it would need changing)

I've had ongoing communication problems with them - different people replying to emails every time etc until eventiually I asked to be assigned an account manager so I could deal with only one person. That person was doing well until they went on holiday and didn't tell me or anyone else at their company that my case wasn't closed and I was expecting a ring back; as a result it wasn't delivered by the deadline and instead was rushed to get it out the next day - they wont tell me if it was ready and it didn't get sent, or if they had to make it up on the day and send it.

Fast forward a bit and the new ring has been delivered back to me with a new stone but also has a new band / setting. The peculiar thing is that the ring now has no hallmarks at all - no markings on the inside of the band.

My question is at which point in the process should a band be hallmarked? I presume someone else makes the bands for them and they buy them in at a generic size and then resize to suite; however, surly they would have been hallmarked by that point?

I called immediately and they were puzzled and said it could have been polished out (unlikely!) but they said if I sent it back they would stamp it and send it back again - how does that even work? I thought hallmarks had to be done by an independent body.

The ring is 950 platinum, obviously the intention is not to sell it - the hallmark's in that case don't matter to us; it's more of a question of the companies practices that have got me alarmed.
[tl;dr?] - [I've made the important bits bold]

[FnG]magnolia · 19 Jul 2013 at 09:50

You've asked if it should be hallmarked but then said you don't care if it is or not. I'm not sure where you're going here.

e : and Jesus Christ, colours and bold type is not how you make something readable.

Ming007 · 19 Jul 2013 at 09:52

the company own bad service, not responsible for the customers. You can tell us the company name to warn other people and supervise the company to improve the servie!

TommyV · 19 Jul 2013 at 09:59

[FnG]magnolia;24631897 said:
You've asked if it should be hallmarked but then said you don't care if it is or not. I'm not sure where you're going here.

e : and Jesus Christ, colours and bold type is not how you make something readable.

You're on a bit of a verbal rampage lately, having a hard time at the moment?!

I miss the regular oddity of your posts, stop being so serious please

cjgardens · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:00

It is a independent company that does the hallmarking.

I do the garden for a jewelers and i got them to make mine and the wife's wedding rings. When they were finished he told me to go in and have a look, check it was all good then he sent it off to get hallmarked. It took around a week to do and he said it might need another polish when it comes back because when they stamp it it can mark the face side of the ring so keep an eye out for that

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:07

Without a hall mark there's no way to know exactly what the band is made from.

I would want it hall marked.

skippy2421 · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:10

TommyV said:
You're on a bit of a verbal rampage lately, having a hard time at the moment?!

I miss the regular oddity of your posts, stop being so serious please

Ahhh I'm not the only one to have noticed this then. what's up mags? Where's the weird, rubbish spouting, JT stalking magnolia gone?

OP sounds like pretty shoddy service. If you're not fussed about the hallmark do you want to risk the ring disappearing for another period of time and risk them messing it all up again?

yer_averagejoe · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:19

retrieve money and deal with someone reputable.

MowyTone · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:32

R B Customs said:
Hey all,

I bought an engagement ring online

Here is your problem...

LOAM · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:35

My mother once dropped a ring off at a jewelers to be polished, got it back and wore it for a couple of years before it needed cleaning again. She took it into a different jeweler and asked for it to be cleaned and they looked at it and said the diamonds were glass. Seems that the last place whipped the real ones out and replaced over a grands worth of gems for worthless glass. I imagine that sort of thing goes on all the time.

beachBOYken · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:38

Sounds like they sent you back a different ring altogether?

ince · 19 Jul 2013 at 10:56

MowyTone said:
Here is your problem...

agreed you can't do everything online but at least it was romantic

booyaka · 19 Jul 2013 at 11:11

MowyTone said:
Here is your problem...

this. Personally spending that kind of money with an online company is crazy. Find a local decent jewelers, even if it costs a bit more, and go and deal with them. Face to face is so much easier than a random internet company

Buying a item like that over the internet is just plain crazy.

When I bought engagement rings and wedding rings, the jewelers in question agreed to clean them and re-polish them ever 2 years for next 20 years as part of the deal.

utajoker · 19 Jul 2013 at 11:38

MowyTone said:
Here is your problem...

ince said:
agreed you can't do everything online but at least it was romantic

I bought my engagement ring online and everything was fine.

Adam · 19 Jul 2013 at 11:44

I know a number of people who have bought from bluenile and have been happy. I bought some diamond earrings for my mrs and she loved them.

Efour · 19 Jul 2013 at 11:44

At what point in the process is a jewellery item assayed and hallmarked??

Who actually does it ? Is The guy that makes it allowed to stamp it or is it a 3rd party?

R B Customs · 19 Jul 2013 at 12:13

[FnG]magnolia;24631897 said:
You've asked if it should be hallmarked but then said you don't care if it is or not. I'm not sure where you're going here.

e : and Jesus Christ, colours and bold type is not how you make something readable.

okay.

=XDC=FluphyBunny said:
Without a hall mark there's no way to know exactly what the band is made from.

I would want it hall marked.

yes exactly, but they seem to be hallmarking them willy-nilly! should I be asking them for an independent report?

yer_averagejoe said:
retrieve money and deal with someone reputable.

The problem is they are pretty reputable; peoples only remarks have been regarding communication which in my case has been pretty bad considering the amount of money being chucked around. Granted I'm sure they deal with much much more expensive rings and stones but they should treat all customers well.

cjgardens said:
It is a independent company that does the hallmarking.

I do the garden for a jewelers and i got them to make mine and the wife's wedding rings. When they were finished he told me to go in and have a look, check it was all good then he sent it off to get hallmarked. It took around a week to do and he said it might need another polish when it comes back because when they stamp it it can mark the face side of the ring so keep an eye out for that

That's interesting to know, Thanks. Do you think that it is only because your jewellers was independent / small it had to be sent off?

R B Customs · 19 Jul 2013 at 12:21

booyaka said:
this. Personally spending that kind of money with an online company is crazy. Find a local decent jewelers, even if it costs a bit more, and go and deal with them. Face to face is so much easier than a random internet company

Buying a item like that over the internet is just plain crazy.

When I bought engagement rings and wedding rings, the jewelers in question agreed to clean them and re-polish them ever 2 years for next 20 years as part of the deal.

no way! I visited many local stores and all of the stones were vastly overpriced and under graded; I was buying it as a total surprise - she had absolutely no idea so we didn't need to go around looking at them.

you choose exact attributes from a massive list of available stones and can offset characteristics against others and view all of the scanned cert's on their website too. I've saved well over 65% against anything comparable from a local shop - chain or not.

[edit] also no one else had the design that I was after, it seems to be unique to this place. a lot of my local specialists (prestons of bolton for one) only had one setting to choose from and their stones were visibly flawed but priced as if they were flawless! no ta.

I know part of what you pay for is face-to-face service, but there was no way I was paying over the value of the stone and ring.

utajoker said:
I bought my engagement ring online and everything was fine.

yep and many have... mine is fine too except the rubbish communication and the missing hallmarks. THe first ring was exactly as expected and I was warned that I had chosen a stone which may be too tinted for my liking but didn't have time to change it so I said send it anyway and I'll change it later (when back from Norway)

Efour said:
At what point in the process is a jewellery item assayed and hallmarked??

Who actually does it ? Is The guy that makes it allowed to stamp it or is it a 3rd party?

That's what I want to know. It seems a bit weird. There is no way it's been 'polished off' they're way too deep to polish out without knowing it.

R B Customs · 19 Jul 2013 at 12:22

Adam said:
I know a number of people who have bought from bluenile and have been happy. I bought some diamond earrings for my mrs and she loved them.

This wasn't blue nile but I've heard great things about them too!

covenantuk · 19 Jul 2013 at 12:28

MowyTone said:
Here is your problem...

What's the problem?

I didn't buy the whole ring online myself as I wanted my partner to choose the style so we went to a ring maker, but I bought the diamond online from James Allen and saved 40% over buying from some rubbish jeweller with teenage sales assistants bleating "isn't it pretty". Here's a hint, if they can't show you a certificate for the diamond and tell you what each specification means, walk out of the shop. Diamond prices are fixed enough as it is without buying rubbish on top.

Blue Nile get great reviews too, but if you buy loose diamonds then James Allen works out 20% cheaper. There's another 2.5% duty to pay if you buy a ring from the USA.