Chipped Diamond in Ring

[Beanietdc]

Hello,

Can anyone advise me on my situation please.

My other half bought me an engagement ring in May 06 that had 2 diamonds in it. The jewellers included the 10 year diamond guarantee in case of any manufacturing defects etc.

All was going well until a couple of weeks ago when I noticed that about 1/3 of one of the diamonds was missing.

Now - I don't have a manual job, I do as little in the way of housework as I possibly can and I don't have a box full of diamonds that I spend the day running my fingers through so I can only imagine that the diamond had a crack in it when the ring was bought. To be honest I have no idea how long it has been chipped for because it is not really obvious unless you look closely.

I took the ring back to the shop for "assessment" under the guarantee and after 2 weeks they came back saying that it was down to "wear and tear" and so not covered by the guarantee.... hmm...now I may not have been the best student in the world but even I know that diamond is the hardest natural substance known to man and to hit my ring against something (i.e. another diamond) hard enough to lose a big chunk of it would have meant that I quite likely broke a couple of fingers..... I didn't...

So anyway, the shop is adamant that they won't do anything but are willing to replace it (with another cracked diamond??) for the princely sum of £155 which is more than half of the original purchase price....

Can anyone advise on my rights/acts to quote etc before I start a letter war with the jewellers in question please.

All help gratefully received!!

Tina

[GlasgowGirl]

Well I don't claim to be an expert, but I would have thought that the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) applied here. It says that goods must be of satisfactory quality and fit for purpose. Given that an engagement ring is, by definition, supposed to last a lifetime, I imagine that only lasting a few weeks before bits of it fell out would not qualify as being of satisfactory quality. The tricky bit seems to be that it's up to you to prove that the defect existed at the time you bought the ring. More info at BBC - Consumer - Guides to - Sale of goods

[Tony]

GG is absolutely right any reasonable person would expect a diamond to last forever - unless being used for drilling. See our guide here Sale of Goods Act | Consumer Information

If they continue to be uncooperrative Trading Standards will write a letter for a very small fee.

I have a good friend that is a jeweller - I'll ask him for you

Tony

[Tony]

Hi Tina,

I have just spoken to my jeweller friend about this and he told me that diamonds are not indestructable and if hit in the right place you can shear a piece off. As the diamond is probably quite low grade (guessing by the price) shears may be more likely. He was setting a £60,000 diamond when I spoke to him and is a bit of a diamond snob, but he said that the only way to find out for sure would be to send it to a lab. This will cost and they may also conclude that it is wear and tear.

This is quite an interesting diamond site that I found: Amazon.com Loose Diamonds: Round Cut, Princess Cut, Diamond Engagement Rings & more