The chief executive of Ramsdens says the “influence of the air conditioning” may explain why a Dundee woman’s gold ring appears to have shrunk.
Peter Kenyon said the company could offer no explanation as to why a ring sent in to be resized had been given back to Claire McVinnie weighing less than it did when she handed it in.
Ms McVinnie, 32, handed over a ring to Ramsdens Jewellers on the High Street in February and when she returned to collect it she noticed that the ring was “visibly thinner”.
Claire was told by a member of staff that in order for the ring to be altered, an 18 carat gold “half-shank” was added.
On consulting another jeweller she was informed it was possible to resize the ring in question by one-and-a-half sizes without having to add anything.
She said: “A member of staff argued with me that a piece of 18 carat gold had been inserted to make it bigger and told me that it’s impossible to stretch a ring one-and-a-half sizes. This is untrue.”
Several days later, Claire remembered the ring had been weighed by Ramsdens the day it was submitted for alteration and was informed by the manager it weighed 3.08g.
She then had it weighed by two separate jewellers, who said it was 2.88g.
“So not only have they not inserted a piece of 18 carat gold but they have taken gold from the ring making it worth less money,” she claimed.
“Trading Standards were finally able to persuade the area manager to authorise a refund but I am still left with a ring that has gold missing from it and it’s so thin it’s fragile.”Firm’s responseIn response, Mr Kenyon said: “Every Ramsdens branch calibrates their scales on a weekly basis to ensure they are accurate and our internal audit team verify that during their random half-yearly branch visits.
“I can give no absolute explanation why the weight differed when the ring was first brought in store. The difference is 0.2g which could be influenced by the air conditioning or the ring may have been dirty or there may have been human error.”
Mr Kenyon added that the Dundee branch’s repairs are outsourced to a local firm, and said: “(The firm) advised ourselves that in undertaking the repair they added gold to the ring to make it bigger and on the second repair added a new half shank. We can only absolutely confirm that a new half shank was added.”
Mr Kenyon continued: “Trading Standards have visited our store on two occasions regarding Ms McVinnie’s complaint and claims. On their first visit to discuss the claim, the ring had arrived back from the repairers following the half shank repair and my staff were under the impression that the trading standards officer was very happy with the quality of the repair.
“Trading standards subsequently made a second visit to the store to test our scales. The scales were found to be accurate.”
Mr Kenyon said it was also his understanding that Trading Standards tested the local repair firm’s scales and confirmed they too were accurate.
He said at no time did they suggest refunding the cost of the repair work but that the payment decision was taken by management to “try and make this customer happy.”