Mistakes happen, and apparently there was a hole in the UPS box and all the rings fell out. No really, that’s what this customer’s wife was told when she asked for an explanation of where their rings were. Now the customer says Kay Jewelers won’t give him any other information, or even show him photos of the rings after they were sent to the warehouse. They’ll replace them with jewelry up to $500, but nothing higher, and if he wants to find out anything else he’ll have to lawyer up. Here’s his story.

My wife and I and I live in New Mexico and just got married in December 2009, and we took our rings to Kay Jewelers in the local mall to get re-sized. First off they were family heirlooms so they were very important to us and irreplaceable. Mine was my grandfather’s and hers was from her great-grandfather.

Well they took the rings, gave us our receipt and told us they would be ready on January 9th. On January 8th they called my wife and told her that the the warehouse was running a little behind and they the rings would be in the following Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday (that is literally what the message said). So we called them back that Monday and the manager said that the package was shipped and that it would be in in a few days.

That Wednesday the manager called my wife again and said that UPS was holding the box for an investigation but that our rings were there and everything was fine. The manager also said that we would need to provide proof that the rings were actual heirlooms, which would be hard to do since both the rings from the late 1940s. For the next week the manager kept telling us that UPS was still holding the box and that they weren’t saying why or giving out any form of information.

She also then decided to tell us that Kay was not supposed to take heirlooms in the first place because there was a risk of them being lost. I found that odd because that is something she should have told us a week ago when she found out they were heirlooms.

The next week my wife and I went to the actual store where the same manager told us that the rings were now totally gone and asked us what a suitable replacement would be. My wife then tried to tell her what a suitable replacement would be for us but the manager kept interrupting saying she couldn’t do that and that they would only replace the rings up to $500 (all we asked for was two bands and a $100 engagement ring all of which was below $500). Since the manager refused to cooperate and help us out, we decided to call the Kay Jewelers corporate office and see what they can do.

They, of course, told us the same thing the manager did which was basically your rings are lost and to deal with it. My wife then asked the man at the main office that answered, if he can have a copy of the investigation report UPS made. He said no because other people’s info was on it but he can find out what happened for us. About 30 minutes later he called us back and told us that the UPS report said there was a hole in the box and all the rings fell out.

A few days later we called back to the local store and asked the manager if they took pictures of the rings at the warehouse before or after the resizing to which she said yse. We then asked if we can get copies of the pictures, she said she would have to call the main office and ask. Fifteen minutes later she called back and said that they will be mailing out the pictures and that they should be in in a few days. Well 4 days later my wife and I went back to the store to see what was up with the pictures to which the manager said that now we can’t have pictures and if we want to do anything else besides replace the rings we would have to get a lawyer. Which is interesting since she already said that the main office was mailing out the pictures.

It has been week since we were told we now need a lawyer (which we are now getting). All in all I, personally, feel as though Kay is being very very irresponsable about all of this and rather carefree. As for the manager, both my wife and I think that she has been lying to us about this whole thing since she kept contradicting her self every time we spoke to her.

Well I just thought people would like to know how Kay handles things.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.