AIBU or is the cost of this repair too high?

[Bathsheba]

I bought a bracelet in November 2010. It was fancy beads, and some personalisation, on an elastic bracelet for approx £30.

In May it broke. I have all the beads etc. I have contacted the maker a number of times and until yesterday I didn;t hear anything from them (they say they replied and I didn;t get that and they only received 1 email and I sent more - I am suspecting there is probably spam filters at fault on both sides).

The price they have quoted me to restring my beads and basically put my bracelet back together is £20. This is a standard charge and this is what they are charged for restringing and they need to pass that price on to me.

My stance is that I'd have epxected the bracelet to last longer than 6 months, and when it didn't I didn't expect to be charged 66% of the purchase cost to repair it.

I have bought 10 meters of the stringing elastic for £2 and I'm sure between us that my Mum, my friend who has made jewellery in the past and I can botch some sort of a repair for a lot less than £20 (not inc p&p I suspect..)

This was a company I really liked and have bought other items from but I'm left feeling really disappointed by the price of this.

Happy to be told IABU is I am....

[oldenoughtowearpurple]

To be honest, I wouldn't expect a £30 elasticated bracelet to last very long and would expect it to cost £20 to be restrung professionally. But if you go to you local craft shop you may find someone advertising jewellery classes or whatever and they might charge you less than that to mend it.

[Bathsheba]

Hi Old Enough - I possibly should have said but I was concerned about "outing" the company if I was being U...this was a medical alert type bracelet, so designed to be worn all the time in case of an emergancy.

If that is a reasonable price, I'll accept that - I won't pay it and we will do the job ourselves somehow, but I'll stop mumping about it..:-)

[woollyideas]

YANBU. I used to do jewellery repairs and wouldn't have even charged that for a knotted pearl necklace. I'd tell them their item was clearly rubbish faulty and expect a full repair or replacement free of charge.

[GypsyMoth]

I have similar problem!

I'm looking fir the string-elastic stuff to re string it myself, where do I get that from?

[Bathsheba]

I bought it from Ebay Tiffany...

[smoggii]

I think YABU. 6 months of everyday wear for £30 isn't bad and you are effectively asking them to make the bracelet again.

[oldraver]

I used to wear lots of beeded bracelets and the elastic does go pretty quickly. I just buy a thick elastic and re-do. It is hard to get coloured elastic (last time I looked for it) so I stick with black

[Bathsheba]

Smoggi - I have all the parts for them. I'd have thought the majority of the price for the bracelet would have been the crystal beads and the spacers and the personalised tab rather than the actual making of the item.

Also there is the "cistomer service" aspect....

Hang on, I'm looking like I didn;t mean I was prepared to be told IABU, ..:-)

[cheekeymonkey]

YANBU, I work in the jewellery industry and that is;
A) bad customer service
B) excessive charge
Do you have a jewellery quarter near you? They would re-string it for a few pounds.
IMO the bracelet is made for everyday use and should last at least a year.
Trading standards are very good in my experience.

[Bathsheba]

Hi Cheekey - I am in a city but not one with a jewellry quarter. I'm wondering if taking to a little jewelers would work or if they would charge me tonnes as well...its literally a bit of elastic fishing wire type stuff - I'm just too useless at fine things to have the confidence to tie the little knots...!!!

[fanjobanjowanjo]

Try your local jewellers, mine are really good (not that it helps you!)

[gallicgirl]

I got quoted £7 for a restring at a local independent jewellers. £20 is excessive but can understand why it's not lasted long if you have to wear it everyday. Would it be better restrung on leather?

[cheekeymonkey]

If you do use a local jeweller try to use an independant. Chains will over-charge you and send it to Jewellery Quarter themselves.

[Firawla]

i think yanbu it does sound expensive for a repair after only 6 months

[cerealqueen]

YANBU. I'd not pay that. You could try doing it yourself, really easy, get some proper elastic, (ebay, see how thick the current one is) some superglue, think youtube have some instructional videos.
Hope it works out!

[CelticStarlight]

This happened to me when I bought exactly the same type of bracelet. I was very miffed. I have since found that buying replacement bracelets (just the beaded part without the tag) is much cheaper. I recently bought one that came to about £9 and just hooked it onto my existing medical tag. Doesn't help with your current situation but is worth remembering if you have to buy a bracelet again.