Kay Jewelers deformed Lisa’s wedding ring during a routine cleaning and refuses to provide a replacement ring. Lisa first noticed that a tiny diamond was missing, which Kay Jewelers found stuck in their cleaning equipment. In the process of reseating the diamond, Kay again deformed the ring, scratching out the ring’s beaded edges. Kay decided they couldn’t repair the destroyed ring, but rather than ordering a new one from the manufacturer, Kay decided to remake the ring using a low-resolution picture of the original as their guide. Shockingly, that ring didn’t work out either. It’s now been three months and Lisa wants her wedding ring back.
Lisa writes:
My name is Lisa. My husband is a USMC Sgt. who recently left for his third deployment. He has been stationed at Camp Pendleton (I live in Oceanside) but was most recently stationed in Jacksonville, NC. Before he left I took his wedding ring to be re-dipped in gold to make it look nice before he left. It takes about a week and is about $40 (any store can do it). I picked the Kay Jewelry store in the local Jacksonville mall because it is a well known chain. While I was there the salesperson asked if she could clean my rings for me. I let her. The next evening we were out of town when I noticed my wedding band had a (tiny) diamond missing. I had no clue where I lost it.
A week later I picked up my husband’s ring from Kay Jewelers. While I was there I half-jokingly asked the salesperson if they found a diamond in their cleaner. Crazy enough – they had it. It was scotch taped to an index card with no name or notes, by the register. They happily took my wedding ring and agreed to repair it. We were again out of town when it was ready so the day we returned I sent my husband to the mall to get it before they closed. When he came home I opened it up and put it on. My first impulse was that it wasn’t my ring. Upon closer inspection it seemed to be my ring only it had been made nearly unrecognizable. Among other things, there is a tiny beaded edge on the top and bottom edges of the ring that was completely gone in some spots, but still there to just barely be made out in others. And instead of being one width and thickness it now tapered off where the diamonds stopped and looked, for lack of a better word, “smooshed” at the ends. It no longer sat flush against my engagement ring.
I returned first thing the next morning and gave my ring to the manager, explaining it had somehow been damaged. She was skeptical that it could have happened at their (offsite) repair shop but she took it back. I was upset (in tears) and wrote out a detailed explanation of what was wrong with the ring. When I got home I contacted the store where I bought the ring and they emailed me a photo from the manufacturer. I printed this email and brought it back to the mall the next day so the manager could also send that to the repair manager. It was originally purchased on 7/20/07 (our wedding day) at another jewelry store and I do have all the original receipts.
I was supposed to have the ring back from the second repair in about 10 days. When 14 days had gone by I was calling daily, waiting for it to come back. I was finally told they couldn’t repair my ring but that they would “remake” it, using the same diamonds (as if I could see that they are the same). They wanted to use the email photo to send to a ‘laser shop’ to have the ring cut. At this point I contacted the corporate customer service office by phone. I told both the store manager and the corporate customer relations person it is very upsetting to have lost my (actual) ring now just because I agreed to have it cleaned. Even having it recreated, it still wouldn’t be “my” ring. I’d of course rather have mine repaired to its original state but if that really wasn’t possible I’d at least prefer to have the same ring from the same vendor instead of trying to remake it from a tiny email photo. I asked why they couldn’t just get a replacement from the manufacturer. Neither one could tell me if they could do so or not. They just took the information and said I could expect the ring in about a month.
My husband is now gone on his third deployment and every day I am without my wedding ring. It is traumatic enough to have him gone, to be without my wedding ring is even worse. Because I returned to Oceanside after my husband deployed, the repair shop shipped my ‘remake’ to the Kay store at the Westfield shopping center, Plaza Camino Real. I got a call to come pick it up today. I was optimistic that this whole mess was about to be over and I would have my ring back. However, the ring that was sent was not a good replica of my wedding ring. It was wider and thicker than my ring and while ‘close’ in style, it simply was not the same style as the ring it was meant to replace. My ring was very delicate looking and this was like a brick in comparison. It did not look like a ‘set’ when worn with my engagement ring. I was devastated again to give the ring back to the manager and tell him I could not wear it. The store manager was very sympathetic but didn’t know anything of how the ring came to be in his store. He promised to make some calls tomorrow to the NC store and to the corporate office but I knew there was nothing he could do tonight and I was upset and in tears so I left the store and came home.
The information on the ring (manufacturer and style number) was available but it’s clear no one at the repair shop contacted the maker to get the dimensions of the ring. I was concerned that this ring was going to be remade from a photo in an email (not a decent size photo or even one of high resolution) which is why I gave them the information on the vendor. I have been patient with this process but I have had enough. I told them I don’t want a remake or something ‘close’ again. If my ring is beyond repair I want the same ring, from the same manufacturer. Close may be good enough for a costume piece someone wears occasionally. It isn’t good enough for a wedding ring and certainly not my wedding ring. It has now been several months since this began. My ring was damaged in their repair shop. I don’t believe it was intentional but this failure to replace it now feels malicious and cruel.
Short of hiring a lawyer and suing them I was looking for any advice or assistance you might be able to give me. I don’t want to drag this out. I don’t want anything but my ring back. Any suggestions?
Lisa adds:
I have been told time and again that Kay doesn’t deal with Master Craft (the maker of my ring, style #R9018-026) so I won’t be able to get the same style. I contacted Master Craft myself yesterday and found out from them that they DO in fact, do business with Kay. I am INFURIATED that I have been put through this, lied to and caused so much emotional distress for THREE MONTHS when my ring could have been IMMEDIATELY replaced. I have spent multiple nights sobbing because my ring is gone. And now that my husband is deployed to Iraq, it is even more painful not to have it.
No one at the corporate office or the NC store where this happened has even said “we’re sorry this happened to you”. Instead the store manager and the first customer relations person I’ve dealt with (Carol) have acted like I was trying to scam them. It has been beyond frustrating. I did nothing but let the sales person clean my ring and now its ruined.
Lisa already wrote to Kay’s executive office asking for help. If they don’t respond, you don’t need a lawyer to sue them in small claims court. North Carolina’s small claims courts hear any cases involving items worth less than $5,000. Read our guide to small claims court to help prepare your case.
(Photo: Lucid Nightmare)
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I dunno, speaking as someone whose hubby isn’t being sent off to war zones, I’d be super-stressed if I didn’t have my ring. It would so much worse if the hubster wasn’t around or was in danger. I feel so sorry for her.
I hope they resolve this and I’m totally on her side. She doesn’t seem to want anything above and beyond, it seems like she’d take her OLD ring if that were an option at this point, but clearly, it’s not. So replace it – work with her. It’s not like these things are cheap, even without the sentimental value. You’d think there’d be a bit more service on Kay’s end.
Grr. Now I’m cranky.
I think Kay also sucks. Bought a white gold chain from them and the clasp went to pieces after a few months. It had a lifetime warranty, which they gave me crap about…I took it back to them and they gave me another one and it had the exact same clasp failure within a week!
I’ve a couple observations/suggestions:
The suggestion to get your ring cleaned/serviced at the place you bought it is a good one but in practice it can’t always be done. What if you move away?
My jeweler (independent small-town shop) never uses a machine to clean my wife’s rings. He steams them and hand buffs them with microfiber and that’s it. I don’t know if I’d trust those machines.
Get recommendations on a good jeweler in your area, just as you would with any other major purchase.
And finally, remember that’s just a bunch of minerals and metal. Of course it has a lot of sentimental value, but things will go a lot better for you if you can divorce (pun intended) your sentimental attachment to that one specific hung of minerals and metal. Get it insured if it’s that expensive and if something happens to it just get it replaced. My wedding ring may symbolize my marriage but its a symbol and nothing more. Of course you want it replaced and you want the replacement to be up to spec, but if you can get over the “it’s not THE ring” you’ll have an easier time controlling your emotions.
@supertechman: I agree. I don’t understand all the distress and tears over a piece of metal and glass. Then again, I’m quite the unromantic gal: I didn’t get my wedding and engagement rings until months after my husband and I got married, and to this day I never wear either one. (My husband, however, wears his wedding band all the time, which leads to some interesting looks from other people when we’re out together, haha.)
That being said, of course Kay screwed the pooch on this one and should make every effort to resolve the issue to the OP’s satisfaction. It doesn’t matter if the jewelry in question is the wedding ring of a military wife or the diamond tennis bracelet of a billionaire socialite…Kay should be held responsible for damaging it. Best of luck to the OP.
i see no fault in mentioning that her husband’s in the military. the kay store should have treated her wedding ring with more care for certain, but i can understand how having to worry about a spouse who’s overseas and in harms way would exacerbate the stress of losing a wedding ring. i would say the majority of americans believe a wedding ring to be more than just a piece of jewlery and would be equally distressed at having it handled in such a way without having to deal with a military situation.
No doubt Kay’s solution to this will be to have customers sign a form releasing the store and its employees from all repercussions resulting from possible damage during these ‘free’ inspections +/or cleanings. The fine print will be revised.
It sounds like a great story for the local news station: “Up next, how a jewelry chain destroyed the wedding ring of a local woman while her husband is fighting in Iraq!” My best wishes for Lisa in getting this resolved.
Doesn’t the military typically have some sort of free legal advice on base? Seeing as she is married to an on-duty soldier I imagine this is available to her as well. At the very least it is worth asking about. If nothing else maybe the base lawyers can sent a request letter to that Kay store on their letterhead. That might get them moving.
As for what happened, yes kay should be liable for damage like this. They probably took it to a buffer that had the wrong compound on the wheel, or simply used way too much force for a delicate ring.
At this point there is no getting the original ring back. Its gone. There is only getting damages.
So . . . very . . . tired . . . of hearing “so and so is in the military so I deserve special treatment.” Career choice (it’s a volunteer deal, no draft) does not get you special treatment. If it did, I’d be king.
Stand up for yourself, woman!
@SomeoneElseNotMe:
Why? What career choice is so much more dangerous and underpaid that you deserve kingly treatment?
Beta tester for a pharmaceutical company?
My diamond has a serial number on the stone. Everytime I get it cleaned (at Jared, for free since that’s where it came from) they put it under the scope to make sure the number matches and let me have a look.
It’s kind of reassuring. That and they’re super nice and give you drinks if you want them, and clean the jewelry on-site.
grrr… how come its the comments that 40 other people reply to that always get “de-voweled” I hate having to try to DECODE posts to know what everyone else is talking about.
Good Luck to the OP, and my only advice is to try to steer clear of the “mall jewelry stores” ask friends and family who they use to find a reliable mom and pop type store. I found a great one off of a referral, been in business for 3 generations, cheaper and better quality every time
She should file a small claims case and let Judge Judy handle it, she would set them straight!
Consider contacting and file a complaint with the NC Department of
Justice – Office of the Attorney General – Division of Consumer
Protection. That’s what they are there for. I don’t know what is more
criminal, the fact they tried to fake it, or the fact they’ve been
jerking around a Marine and his wife. Shame on you Kay Jewelers!
What makes them any worse/better than any other jewelry store? They all seem the same to me! You think you’re getting a good deal,but they’re always gonna come out ahead no matter how much it’s marked down.
As a military spouse whose husband deployed (but not multiple times like this poor woman’s husband), I understand the stress.
I’d be upset about the messed up rings, too. There should be some compensation by Kay. Getting the rings replaced would be nice.
If that can’t happen, when her husband gets back they might consider going to a quality jeweler and having both their rings redesigned, perhaps to commemorate all they have been through in their marriage.
I’m hard on jewelry. My wedding ring has been changed/repaired 4 times in nearly 25 years of marriage. The original ring was not expensive (my idea, knowing how much I work with my hands) so my reasoning is this-
we are still married, but like the ring, we change over the years.
Could The Consumerist do a follow up on this story? I take a special interest in military families.
I’m currently in an ongoing battle with Kay Jewelers in Cambridge, MA
because they essentially destroyed my engagement ring when all I wanted was
a simple re-sizing done. It’s a long story, but they lost a stone,
scratched the surface of the main stone to the point where it’s all I can
see when I look at the stone, they made the center stone irreparably
crooked, they messed up with the re-sizing, and they chipped the bottom of
my center stone while trying to prove to me that it was the size they said
it was. Throughout this entire ordeal, (which, so far, has been going on
for over a month), they’ve made me to feel as though it’s my fault that they
keep damaging my ring. Not to mention that the staff at the store has done
everything from hanging up on me when I call them to check on the status of
my ring, to trying to sign me up for a Kay’s credit card, to trying to sell
me a completely new and totally different ring, to saying the only way to
fix my [poorly made - their words] ring, is to have it completely reset and
they could do it for a price at the next Diamond Event.
I finally got sick of the runaround enough to get Customer Relations
involved, and I’m also seeking a second opinion from two very trusted people
every time my ring comes back from Kay Jeweler’s off-site shop. After the
most recent trip, (in which I picked up my ring after they replaced a
diamond that fell out), I discovered that one of the supposedly tightly
reset diamonds was loose and they had chipped the underside of the center
stone. I never had a problem with my ring in the nearly 4 years we’ve had
it, until I brought it into Kay’s. At this point, it’s destroyed beyond
repair.
If a jeweler cannot understand the importance of a wedding ring to someone than they should find a new career. For many, the ring is far more than just a piece of jewelery – its also a religious symbol blessed by a priest or minister. To mishandle someone’s ring and then mishandle the situation is wrong and someone with that store should be held accountable.
Kay seemed to have many opportunities to resolve/address this issue. I’m sure that the offer to remake the ring for Lisa wasn’t made lightly.
Unfortunately Lisa was not satisfied with the remade ring, due to the very poor workmanship of it, and has every right to ask for closure to this issue.
Lisa has had to put up with one thing after another with Kay Jewelers, and at this point she does not have to give them another chance to remake the ring, she can just take them to small claims. That said, she may wish to give them one final opportunity to correct the issue regardless, and possibly ask for a gift voucher as a concession for her troubles.
And I’m not understanding why so many commenters think being in the army is the most dangerous, stressful job. I’d say THE PEOPLE LOSING LIMBS AND DYING SO YOU COULD HAVE THE SPARKLIES FOR YOU RING HAVE THE MOST STRESSFUL LIVES!!
I tire of American materialism so quickly…
Going to a chain store in a mall for something like a diamond scares me! I always go to the same independently owned store and they are wonderful. They even showed me how to clean my own ring. Soak it overnight in ammonia and use a soft toothbrush (very gently) in the morning. I do this about once a week and my ring always looks brand new! I take it in every once in awhile to have the prongs checked. Never have any problems!
My uncle is a jeweler and told me stories of people going in for a ring cleaning and coming out with a fake diamond or ruined ring. I had laughed about it, figuring that he just wanted more business, until I read this. Now both of our rings will only be going to him for cleaning and re-dipping.
The nerve of Kay Jewelers to ruin a wedding ring and then try to offer up a half-assed copy astounds me.
Well, my daughter had her wedding ring screwed up after a sizing and then when they sent it back in, it mysteriously came up lost by UPS. They did give her a new ring. What a weird mess.
first off, did the ring originally come from kays or one of its sister companies? second, master craft is not a vendor that the stores can order from directly in their stores. master craft company may supply signet with some of their product indirectly but the stores don’t have a catalog to order from directly. customer service will do everything they can to rectify the situation but they are blind to what the store is looking at. setting a stone is not a complicated process and shouldnt have been a major ordeal. it sounds like it may have been damaged during the cleaning and polishing process by the shop it was being repaired at. If master craft can send the shop a wax mold of the original ring, then the shop can re-create your ring exactly as master craft made it. I hope this helps and i am sorry you are having a problem with your ring. If you have any questions about this or need any assistance with this, e mail me.
Am going to buy my wife an anniversary ring for Christmas this year. Was looking on line and ran across this aricle about Kay Jewelers. Guess where I WON’T be buying the ring from!