Sold ring to jeweller now he wants his money back

[Chopsticks2829]

Hi can anyone give me advice for a friend…
My friends mum enjoys buying bits and bobs of costume jewellery and beads from eBay as she enjoys arts and crafts and making things.
She bought a bag full of rings, beads and other bits and bobs recently, and inside it was a men’s gold ring. My friend took it to her local jeweller, she signed paperwork to say she had the right to sell the ring and was given £425 for it.
The jeweller has now come back to her several weeks later and said he wants his money back as the ring isn’t what he though and is just heavily plated.
The ring was sold to an experienced jeweller in good faith. The price was agreed and the deal was done. Had the opposite happened, and the jeweller made a mint, my friend would have had no come back.
Is the jeweller within his rights to ask for the money back? He’s been sending my friend screenshots from the internet about sale of counterfeit and fake goods which I don’t think applies to this case.
Thank you for reading 🙏🏻

Well what a strange coincidence
https://www.gransnet.com/forums/chat/1337998-Let-the-buyer-beware?msgid=30676334

This; I do wonder whether the story might be a bit of an ‘urban myth’.

I would tell him if he contacts them again they will file a police report for harassment he is causing fear and alarm with his messages, he is unprofessional and it needs to stop. If he continues with the messages do file the report. He sounds a little unhinged.

There was a thread on here about (guessing) a year or so ago, where the OP took a gold necklace to be repaired. The one she got back was absolutely not the original necklace. Jeweller kicked off at her but it really wasnt the same one.

The fact is that these people know that they know more about your items than you do, and use that to their advantage if they are unscrupulous. Sounds like this is one of those.

I have a very valuable ring, both the metal and the stone, that I have been told was worth "£200 tops hun". When I showed the appraisal certficate she went very pale and backtracked massively. Luckily I know that it is platinum and good quality diamond as I had it appraised the same day I bought it, just to make sure I got what I paid for, she was trying to make out it was plated gold with a shit diamond. Many people dont though, they just take the buyers word for it.

What the fuck?!?! They've just rolled over and taken the hit? Are they pathologically incapable of saying no - ever?!

There was a thread on here about (guessing) a year or so ago, where the OP took a gold necklace to be repaired. The one she got back was absolutely not the original necklace. Jeweller kicked off at her but it really wasnt the same one

That was me, @PyongyangKipperbang - I mentioned it upthread - and as said it taught me the hard lesson to always get a receipt detailing exactly what the item is if leaving it with them

It's not the same situation as selling something to a jeweller of course, but the principle's similar, as in while most people are completely decent there are still crooks everywhere

What an utter crook! Please don’t give into his demands. Let him report as I he likes. Contact citizens advice and see what they say suggest, please please don’t pay him

yes - how will they know it’s the same ring??? She should call the police and see what they think tbh. And hopefully they will stop him harassing her.

how will they know it’s the same ring???

They almost certainly won't, @Peaceandquietandacuppa, and even if they did they most likely wouldn't do anything about that either

Obviously it's their choice to make, but sadly this is how crooks get away with it - see also the "knocker boys" who still visit elderly ladies and offer a few quid for that valuable piece they "just happened to see through the window"

Take his threats and do them.
tell trading standards he’s purchasing items without due care & then harassing the public for refunds. He has a responsibility to know what he’s doing.
tell the police he’s harassing your friend.
tell the bank there may be attempt to claw a payment back, that it is in dispute and is a police matter. Worst the bank will do is freeze that amount in the account for a while. Which if your friend paid it out she wouldn’t have anyway.

Ridiculous. He's chosen to use a business model of testing in-store, being aware of its limitations, presumably because it's more cost-effective than sending items to be more thoroughly tested elsewhere - so he must take the hit if this method fails him.

Why is there an identical thread on Gransnet- as linked to by another poster here?

Either the OP is the same person as on Gransnet, or it's some kind of 'reverse' thread where the jeweller is gauging opinions before they try this scam on.

It seems very odd that there are two identical threads posted on the same day.

Even gold plate is expensive now - I was looking at £400, plated chains recently!

The one on Gransnet says something along the lines of "I saw this on another forum" (AKA here).

Not really. It didn't mention another forum at all. This was it.

Lets say you buy a mixed bag of apparently junk jewellery from Ebay, an auction or a car boot sale. You pick out a couple of decent looking rings, take them to a jeweller and ask if he would like to buy them.

The jeweller offers you £500 for what appears to be a mans gold signet ring. The only question he asks is are you legally entitled to sell this property. You tell him yes. You accept the offer.

A few days later he contacts you via text to tell you that the ring is only heavily plated, not gold, and he wants his money back.

I would tell him that he made me an offer based on his professional opinion and I accepted. I did not misrepresent the goods in any way or guarantee that it was gold. So it’s a done deal. Then I would block him.

What would you do?

.

Exactly.

He's the professional.

He should have been able to tell by the weight alone whether there was room for doubt.

And as others have said - what guarantee does your friend have that the ring he returns to her is the one she sold him?

Surely it would be incredibly simple to test whether a ring was gold in a shop. All you need is the volume and the weight.

You all use him ? If you all use him and know him what makes you think he's lying? Did you really think a gold ring worth nearly 500 would be in a bag of beads? I'm thinking are we for sure you haven't scammed him... sorry your friends mum 🤣

Can't believe they gave in - I'm actually really angry. He will keep getting away with this.

"Struggling with his messages" FFS just block him!!

I don't think BOTH posters are genuine. The timing of the posts doesn't make sense.

I also doubt that either is a genuine account and more likely to be someone testing the response if they want to carry out this kind of practice.

I'm tempted to report as I think this is very suspect.

I'd not waste your time on this one.

I've reported it. Slightly odd when same thread is on Gransnet with with a different tone to the writing.

Am I missing something? Why wouldn't people discuss interesting things that they've read or heard of on another forum - possibly putting a different angle/their own perspective on it?

Also, plenty of people change relatively unimportant details ('rounding' to £500 isn't the same as claiming it's worth £20K), a DD becomes a DS; they're 38, not 35; they're in Northampton, not Wrexham etc. - often to avoid being 'tracked' across the internet and to make things less outing.

Why does that automatically make it suspicious?

Caveat emptor. He is supposed to be the expert. Surely she sold it to him on the basis that he was the expert and told her what it was worth. Which is usually a lot less than the jeweller can sell it on for. If he lost out, tough shit.

Well, at first I couldn't believe anyone would even consider refunding the jeweller, but it seems your friends ... Sounds like they're being scammed and are just rolling over, when he had no legal comeback at all.