She Left Her Broken Ring at a Jewelry Store—Nearly Two Years Later, She Returned Demanding to Know Where It Was
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There’s only so long a business can hold onto something before the customer has to take some responsibility.
One jewelry store employee dealt with that after a woman left behind a ring that couldn’t be repaired.
The store called her several times, and each time, she said she would come pick it up.
But after nearly two years, her number was disconnected, and the ring was still sitting there.
So, not knowing what happened to her, the store eventually threw it away.
Read on to see what happened when the customer finally came back to claim her ring.
In which the customer doesn’t pick up her item for 3 years
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 ready 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.
The woman had dropped off the piece of jewelry in 2014.
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. 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.
In 2016, they tried to contact her again.
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.
Fast forward. The date is now January 2016. We are doing a biannual “call everyone who still has jewelry here.”
Then, in 2017, the woman reappeared.
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 deceased/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.
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.
She calmly explained just how many times they tried to call her.
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. My favorite part is when she said, “But why didn’t you call 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! It’s crazy how she thought they’d still have it.
Let’s take a look at what readers over at Reddit think about this story.
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Apparently, pharmacies only hold prescriptions for less than a month.
Here’s someone who works at a photo shop.
Holy cow! That’s a long time to wait.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who got back at slacking coworkers with fresh-baked treats.
This person gets it.
This lady needs to stop and think this one through.
If the ring was that important to her, it wouldn’t have sat there for three years.
As for the store, they have a clear policy and tried to contact her more than other stores would have.
At this point, she needs to let it go. The ring is gone, and there’s no one to blame but herself.
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