Reader Douglas’s wife left him, which we’re very sad to hear. He wrote to Consumerist about it because he’s still paying for her ring, which they purchased at Jared when they got married two years ago. He’s struggling financially, and made arrangements with the company to make payments of $50 per month at a lower interest rate. A few months later, they suddenly raised the payments back up to $100, claiming that there is nothing they can do to change the situation. Douglas is stuck.

I am hoping that either you or your readers may be able to help with this,
because I am not sure what to do at this point.

Two years ago, I got married. My fiancee found the ring she wanted at Jared
Galleria of Jewelry, and I financed it using their in house credit financing
(account number ending in [redacted]). At the time we could afford the payments,
but things became difficult about a year ago, when my wife left me. Right
now I am going through a hard divorce, and with the reduced income, and
other bills that need to be paid, I made arrangements with Jared.

I made the arrangements of paying $50 a month (down from $100) and got them
to reduce the interest rate as to be able to lower the balance faster. This
was in August of 2010. I made my payments to them each month, and everything
was fine until February of 2011. Apparently my payments had been changed
back to the $100 a month, and the interest rate was changed back to the
original amount also. I have tried to reason with them, and now its getting
to the point where I receive 3-4 phone calls a day from them. I want to pay
them, but I can only budget $50 a month for them right now, and they keep
telling me that there is nothing they can do.

Is all I ask for is that they can reduce my monthly payment and interest
rate back to what we agreed upon in August, but they are unwilling to do so.
It would also be nice if they stopped calling me on my work cell phone. I
have stated that to them, but they keep calling. Does anyone have any advice
or a phone number of someone higher up that I can call to try to come to a
reasonable solution?

Jared’s parent company is Sterling Jewelers, which in turn is a subsidiary of UK-based Signet Jewelers. Using customer service ninja methods, try contacting someone on the US side of Signet to see if they can help.

Any other recommendations for Douglas?

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