If you take an item to a store to have it repaired and the store called you to come pick it up, how long would you wait before picking it up?

Would you go right away, or would you wait awhile before stopping by?

Take this story as a warning not to wait too long because if you wait too long, like a few years, the store just might decide that you’re never coming back.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

In which the customer doesn’t pick up her item for 3 years

So this story begins in a locally owned jewelry store.

The jeweler has been repairing and selling high end jewelry for 52 years.

He is over 70 and still works like a madman.

His business is efficient, reasonably priced, and high quality, allowing him to stay in business as long as he has.

For repairs, the customer must leave their piece of jewelry with us for several weeks to place it in line.

When the jeweler is reayd to do the repair, we call the customer with a price quote, and if they approve, the repair is completed within 24 hours.

If they decline the quote, the repair is marked as “did not repair” in our computer system, filed in the “completed repairs” bin, and the customer can pick up the repair at no charge.

They make sure they can contact the customer.

Now, when the customer leaves a piece of jewelry with us, we give them a claims ticket that says “Not responsible for pieces left over 60 days from completion of repair”.

We also take down their name, address, and phone number (multiple if possible) to ensure that we contact the correct person when the repair is complete.

Enter customer. The year is 2014. The month is February.

She leaves her ring with us to be repaired.

The ring can’t be repaired.

When the jeweler looks at it several weeks later, he finds that the original ring is too fragile and cannot be repaired.

We call the customer, and she says she will come get it.

Now obviously jewelry is something you don’t just THROW OUT after 60 days.

The warning on the ticket is just to encourage customers to pick their items up as quickly as possible so that our safe isn’t full of jewelry all the time.

We also keep a clear record of phone calls to and from the customer including the date and time as well as whether we reached the customer or left a voicemail.

Two years later, she still hasn’t picked up the ring.

Fast forward.

The date is now January 2016.

We are doing a bi-annual “call everyone who still has jewelry here.”

I notice that this repair has been here a LONG time, and we have called her more than 6 times.

I give her a ring and the number is disconnected.

We decide that after two years, this woman may be dead/ill and no one knew to come pick up the piece.

It was a piece of junk anyway, and on top of that it was broken beyond repair, so we got rid of it.

Over a year later, she finally decides to pick up her ring.

The date is now April 2017.

Enter a woman to the jewelry store.

She says she is here to pick up a repair, but when I look it up in the system, it says it was picked up in January 2016.

Now obviously this woman is furious that someone else could have picked up her repair, so we dig through our paper receipts from over a year ago and find our note that the repair was discarded.

We explained to the woman that the repair had been disposed of and our reasoning for doing so.

We apologized, but there wasn’t anything to do.

She asked a pretty ridiculous question.

My favorite part is when she says:

C: But why didn’t you call me?!?!

Me: Ma’am we did call you. We spoke with you several times as I see here in our notes, and you kept saying you would come pick it up. But after two years your number was disconnected and you did not leave another method of contact. If you look at our ticket, you will see that there is a warning that we are not responsible past 60 days. We did you the favor of keeping your item for two years, but there is nothing else I can do for you.

Honestly I’m not sure what she even wanted with that item anyway.

Wow! I’m really surprised she ever came back considering how long she had left it there.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person has a similar story.

This jewelry store keeps items forever!

This person’s dad sells items that aren’t picked up.

I wonder if the weddings were called off.

Did this customer think the store was a free furniture storage facility or something?

If you don’t pick up your items, don’t expect them to be there!

Common sense.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.