Jewelry Purchase Question - What would you do?

[CanadianCruiser]

My wife (CC's wife) who has become addicted to this forum (she's been posting a few replies lately!) bought a piece of jewelry from Ballerina Jeweller's on St. Maarten (at the port) on our Disney cruise.

Unfortunately, she was really taken in by the beautiful design of this pendant and didn't really inspect it all that closely with loupes before she bought it. Upon returning home, we inspected it closer and discovered that one of the diamonds had a really large inclusion and a few of the stones were loose and not set all that securely.

After contacting Ballerina, the salesman kindly offered to service the piece at one of their US locations, but we're just not sure if it's a good idea to be mailing expensive jewelry across the border from Canada. I don't even know how much it would cost to insure it against loss (we would probably have to have it appraised) or even if it would be worth it instead of perhaps trying to get it repaired locally. I was just going to go get the diamond replaced and see if the other stones could be tightened up at our local jewelry store here at my cost since I'm just afraid that the pendant might be lost if we ship it.

This post is not intended to slight Ballerina Jewellers since it's basically buyer beware in the jewelry purchasing arena, and I want to mention that the salespeople at both their stores were very friendly and helpful to us. I don't think the salesman realized the flawed and loose stones since he mentioned all the diamonds were about VS1 quality.

Does anyone have any experience with jewelry problems purchased on a cruise? Looking back, I should have helped my wife by looking at the piece more carefully, but I was busy tending to our kid while my wife shopped. A word to fellow cruisers - be sure to check out that really nice looking jewelry BEFORE you pay for it and BEFORE you leave the store especially if buying from a shop that isn't in the VIP jewelry book. You'll avoid the headaches we are going through!

 

[kcashner]

I guess we've just always stuck to the list that the cruise line supplies of the "guaranteed" stores. Their policy is that you have 30 days after returning home to have the piece appraised/inspected. They guarantee that your "at home" appraisal will be more than you paid for the piece.

I'm sure there are some fine print regulations about who can do the appraisal, but we've never had a problem.

 

[CanadianCruiser]

Yeah, it's best to stick with the approved list of retailers it seems. At least you have a guarantee that way. We had bought the VIP book, and my wife had watched the onboard shopping info program. Unfortunately by the time we arrived to downtown St. Maarten, the stores were closing at 5:30! Some stores closed at 6 pm, but the only shops left open were the ones at the pier.

Since the Magic was leaving at 9:30, my wife browsed around the little mall at the dock and found the pendant that she really liked. Oh well, she still loves it, and it's really not that big of a deal with one of the diamonds having an inclusion. I might just pop into the local place and see how much it might cost to snug things up and maybe do a swap.

I always thought diamonds were clasped by claws with small indentations to lock them in. With this piece, all that is holding the diamonds in place are the straight claws that are kind of pinching the stone. Some of the diamonds are actually only being held in place by 3 claws with the 4th one not even touching it which kinda makes me wonder about the quality of the work. We should have looked more closely at the design details before we bought it.