Small Claims Action?

[HouseOfGoldandBones]

Hope someone can give me some advice.

I bought 2 vouchers from a jeweller (who I know as a friend of a friend) from her shop for a make a ring workshop, and as a result of speaking with her my friend asked if I could take her necklace in to be soldered the following day.

When I called to collect the necklace she had lost it, and 2 weeks later, it could not be found.

I let friend know, and she spoke with CAB, who wrote the jeweller a letter, which she ignored.

It now turns out that she is closing her shop, but will continue to work from home

I contacted her to ask for a refund of the 2 vouchers, on the basis that a class in a workshop, is an entirely different prospect than travelling 20 miles to sit in someone's house, and she has completely ignored me (although she has read the letter)

I am now really hacked off with this jeweller, and wondered if it would be worth sending a "letter before action" and advising her that both friend & I intend to take action to recover our funds.

I appreciate that the replacement value for friend would probably only be for the price of the gold in the necklace (although it had huge sentimental value), but I think now it is a point of principle.

Does anyone have any advice, other than to accept this & move on!

Small claims track is ideally suited for this kind of dispute.

Great Collaborate thanks for that.

I'll draft a letter today & get it sent.

Sounds like a very small claim unless the necklace was valiable. Check the minimum claim value for small claims. The minimum fee for an online claim is £25.

There is no minimum claim value. You can claim for £1 if you want. The court fees are part of your claim so you get those paid by the other side if you win.

The vouchers were £65 each, plus the cost of the necklace.

I'm assuming I can only claim for "replacement" value of the necklace? Even though it was made in the UAE 45 years ago, and not replaceable as such.

It may be an antique in that case. Check she is not about to go bust first otherwise you are wasting your money and check who the contract is with eg if it is ABC Limited then look on companies house (free) to see the company is not in liquidation rather than Ms Jones trading as ABC (i.e her personally)