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 🙏🏻

Do you also do the same if a shop offers goods for sale at what seems like a bargain price - insist on paying more, to the full market value, because you don't want them to be short-changed and, presumably, they don't understand their own business?

HE is the expert, HE valued the ring, HE offered the price to buy it (which he would have expected to be significantly less than the true value, so as to build in a decent profit for himself).

As PP have said, if he'd made a mistake the other way and, with further investigations, it had actually been worth £4,000, do you think he would have been desperately beating a path to the seller's door, insisting on giving her thousands more and prostrating himself in front of the doors of Trading Standards and begging for their mercy for having underpaid her?

In what way? The price the jeweller offered was dependent on the perceived value of the item, not its last sale value. If you bought something on eBay, would you demand to know what the seller paid for it before deciding on your bid?

The onus is on the jeweller to check if an item is gold, gold plated, gold coloured or whatever. Dozens of people must go to jewellers with no idea of the item’s worth - it’s their job to check that out.

@Chopsticks2829 did your friend reply? If so, what did they say?

Hope they’re standing their ground as the jeweller doesn’t have a leg to stand on!

Update: because it’s a local jeweller my friends mum has agreed to give him the money back in 2 instalments when she revives the ring back in the same condition she handed it over.
It’s not the outcome i hoped for or I would have chosen had it been me, but my friend and her mum are both struggling with his messages and feel for their peace of mind, they will give in to his demands.
I would LOVE to publicly out this little con man but it won’t change anything now. I will never give him my business again however.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to give their opinions and advice.
Thank you ♥️ (🐻)

Isn't there a law about harassment? I wouldn't give the money back but if I was them I wouldn't give it in 2 instalments either. He would have to wait until I had the full amount. Did they take photos of the ring because if they didn't they could receive another similar ring, considering it wasn't a totally familiar ring to them?

Struggling with his messages? Do they not know how to block people? Sounds like they are both quite vulnerable if neither can say no, explain that actual laws and then block him. It’s a shame for her mum if your friend is also a very vulnerable person; they need someone strong to stand up when things like this happen.

We are too busy to run off of appointments. The only time that we would take something in to assess is if it’s high value/stones need checking.

We don’t often make mistakes, but in any case, somebody getting £425 is going to make a much bigger result to them than it is to us. You’re treating it as much grander than it is- we do this day in/day out. It doesn’t take long to run a few tests/have a trained eye but that isn’t infallible.

I would be inclined to give a very factual, non emotional review on facebook/trust pilot etc.

On xxx went into get a ring assessed for sale. Was examined and told by jeweller it was 22 carot gold and offered xxx which i agreed to. On xxxx received email stating he got it wrong and wanted me to return his money. On xxx received another message. (Maybe post while removing personal details). After x message agreed to cancel sale in order to stop messages.

Nothing but pure, provable facts so nothing he can argue against.

That’s a really disappointing outcome. People like that should not be allowed to get away with it.

I’d seriously be tipping off the police to what looks like money laundering.

Not sure, that would depend on the person

No.no.no. You are being conned.

This is not good!

I agree with pp they do both sound vulnerable. I’d have blocked him and reported him to trading standards. I appreciate they want peace and maybe can’t handle confrontation but them backing down will unfortunately empower him to bully other people - most likely women - in the future.

Is there anyway as a last minute final attempt you can show your friend the reply from the jeweller on this thread, who said they don’t have a leg to stand on and shouldn’t have to refund the money?

They could go back and say “further to our last conversation we’ve now found out that we are not obliged to refund you the money. So our promise to do was on the basis of being mislead. As a result we will be reporting this to relevant authorities and won’t be refunding you at all.”

They’re being very, very foolish. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are given a different fake in return.

Ring should have had a hall mark. He should have checked it out. Think he thought he was getting a good deal and sounds like he is pissed off ha ha ha.

I'd write back

If you want to get trading standards involved then thats what you must do. It was a private sale to a jewellers in good faith. I will wait until I hear from them directly.

Kind regards

I reckon he is scamming you with threats of trading standards - due to it being a private sale in good faith, I doubt there is anything they can do and they know it - so are making threats to try and get you to return the money

but my friend and her mum are both struggling with his messages and feel for their peace of mind, they will give in to his demands.

thats what the con man is banking on

sad

It was sold as seen. If he jewellery had a case they would pursue it through proper channels- small claims, report fraud.
They messed up - and have put pressure on you. What an unpleasant situation to go through

As a jeweller’s daughter he should have checked the hallmark. He could have tested the gold with a small dab of nitric acid as gold is unreactive compared with other metals (tiny area is filed to expose beneath gold) and weighed it. His mistake entirely.

The jewelker, as the expert, is dedmed to know what he's looking at. What he's doung is trying to mend a bargain snd the law will not allow that. Your mum isn't an expert snd cannog be expected to know the value of what she has

Tell him to either sue or bugger off. If he does neither, threaten to report him for harrassment. Do it if he doesnt take a hint. He's bang out if order.

Hi Op, I would try to explain to your friend that the ring he gives her back could possibly not be the correct ring. This all sounds a bit dodgy and she needs to block him and report it to the police. She didn't have anything in writing to say if its not ligit she would return the money!

Block him on everything his choice you don't owe him anything

I could possibly believe that he might be telling the truth and just not be very professional about understanding that he is taking a risk that is on him if he gives a wrong value, and thus price, for an item... but when he started threatening to report a private individual to Trading Standards, that very much tipped the balance for me into scammer/conman.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the ring that he returned was not the one that he originally bought. In fact, as he knows that it wasn't a precious family ring to the seller, and just one that she happened to buy as part of a job lot, I wouldn't put it past him to maintain that there's no point in returning it (or another passed off as it) anyway, as it's supposedly 'worthless'.

The risk is now he might return a different ring.

I would write a factual report on online forums as poster said above. Include screenshots of the messages that he said and at the end report how stressed the whole situation was for your relatives.

If every thing is as stated, your friend has clean hands. The jeweller saw the item and offered a price. Why is your friend not blocking him from emails etc?

How did he miss the jewellery mark though? Plated rings don't get marked and if they are they will indicate what it is eg GP (Gold plated) what happened to the axid test or magnetism test, colour test? 🥴 or am I wrong...he snoozed now he lose.