I am actually looking for advice, posting here for traffic and because I am not sure what topic this fits into!
The essence of the story is that a company has potentially lost something very precious to me, although it has little monetary value, and I wonder if people have views (including maybe from people who know the legalities better than I do) on what I can do.
The longer version: My engagement ring is not worth much in money terms (silver not gold, no precious stone), but of course, being my engagement ring, it has great sentimental value to me. But also, very importantly, because of where it came from and the circumstances surrounding its purchase, it is completely irreplacable.
It needed some repairs and I found a company online that repairs this very specific type of jewellery. They said they could help, seemed very clued-up and responsive, and so I posted it to them. They emailed me back the next day confirming receipt and even attaching a picture of the ring to show they had it. They were going to get the jeweller to look at it and then give me a quote for repair.
Two weeks went by and I didn't hear from them so I emailed them to ask what was happening. After three days (and repeated emails from me) they emailed teling me that they had posted the ring (Royal Mail tracked) to their repair lab or whatever, but it had been lost in the post. They were trying to find out from Royal Mail what had happened and they hoped to find it, but right now it was lost.
This was incredibly upsetting, obviously. If they do not find it, what are my options? In money value it probably is not even worth more than a hundred pounds, but it is worth much much more to me, of course. I could, I presume, demand that they pay me out the value of the ring, but that does not even start to compensate me for what has been lost.