Should You Go to Jared?

[MineralMan]

Not the peripatetic White House adviser - the jeweler.

Jared is owned by Signet Jewelers, which also owns Kay and Zales, all big names in the jewelry retail industry. Last year, though, a story broke that hinted about a scam by some of the outlets of those three doing some shady business for their customers. To wit, they were swapping stones in jewelry brought in for repairs or cleaning. In some cases, costly larger diamonds were switched to lower quality stones of the same size in this scam. Most customers didn't even notice.

Here are a couple of links:

http://nypost.com/2016/06/04/jewelry-giant-accused-of-swapping-real-stones-for-fakes/
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/women-say-kay-swapped-their-diamonds?utm_term=.xvEzagYgG6#.ly46Ej0jDW

Of course, the mother company of the chains says that's all hogwash. But, is it? Who can say?

[rsdsharp]

1. I suppose it could happen, but I doubt it's common.

Full disclosure. I used to work for Gordon Jewelry (actually the store I managed was a Jaccards which was part of the Gordon family of stores). At that time Gordon was the second largest jewelry company in the country behind Zales. It was publicaly traded, but run by the Gordon family in Houston -- Mr. Harry, Mr. Aaron, and one of their sons, Mr. Danny, as they were called.
Zales subsequently bought out Gordon after I left, and now has apparently been swallowed up by Signet.

I once had a woman ask how she could be sure she was getting her diamond back if she had us do repairs on it. She wasn't satisfied by my assurances until I told her that if I wanted to steal a diamond I'd call the home office in Houston and have them send up a stone. If I was going to be a thief I'd want to make it worth my while.

[MineralMan]

3. Oh, it probably doesn't happen often, and probably

would happen because an individual did it, not as official policy.

However, most people can't tell a diamond from a CZ or a moissanite stone, frankly. Swap one in during a cleaning and the customer takes it home. Once it's out of the store, there's no way to know when it was swapped, especially if it wasn't noticed right away.

I doubt that any company would do such a thing as a practice, but I can imagine it being done by a technician working on a piece, if he or she thought they could get away with it. Imagine a solitaire ring coming in all grimy and dirty for a cleaning. Swap in a fake, do the cleaning and it would look so much better at a glance that most customers wouldn't even notice, except that the piece looked better after being cleaned, as expected. Pop the diamond into the watch pocket of your jeans, and you're done.

You wouldn't want to do with with a stone that had an ID number engraved on it, of course, or one that had an easily noticed inclusion that the customer knew about, but...

I'm betting that it happens more often than will ever be known, frankly.

[sarah FAILIN]

7. I think they were caught with marked stones.

Someone had a microscopic security Id put on their stone. Very few would have that proof though.

[FBaggins]

2. More likely to be individual dishonest employees, rather than a problem with a particular company.

Of course... I thought the same thing about Wells Fargo when the story first broke.... but it would be hard to imagine a corporate culture that encouraged direct theft like this.

[MineralMan]

4. Yeah, probably.

But who knows, really. I think there are probably many people walking around with rings with .5 carat stones in them that are no longer diamonds. Even some 1 carat ones. Anything larger than that would be risky for the swapper, I'd think. But the smaller stones are usually not engraved with an ID and are pretty much commodity stones at some level.

Most people cannot tell the difference between a diamond that size and a CZ or moissanite of the same size and cut. They just can't.

I can, but then, how many people do you know who carry a 20-power loupe in their pocket all the time? I've had that loupe in my pocket now for over 15 years. I use it, too, from time to time.

[MiniMe]

5. I thought he worked for Subway??

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. No, he works for his father-in-law. nt

[madinmaryland]

8. Umm no. He is busy making license plates.

No subway meals, though.