Tarnishing?

[sunshineshiney]

Even brand name jewelry hallmarks fade with constant use.

Is is amazing how people who spend $6k think the jewelry should look constantly new, and have impeccable customer service to bring it back to new free of charge. lol

Most of the same people probably have zero clue that VCA jewelry goes well beyond a million dollars .

My engraved Tiffany pieces faded ages ago…it was more of an “oh well” mindset to me.

 

[sunshineshiney]

I don’t expect anything from VCA to be free of charge.

My bracelet looks great. It just has no serial number. This means I can’t have it insured. It is unfortunate, but it is something that can be restored.

I wanted to share my experience with other people who may also be wearing their VCA pieces daily. It could be an unintended consequence.

Did you already take it to VCA? If you did, I’m curious what they said?

Should you ever need service or repair, they will be looking for the serial number .

I did not think about it from an insurance standpoint. Thanks for sharing .

 

[chareen]

I don’t expect anything from VCA to be free of charge.

My bracelet looks great. It just has no serial number. This means I can’t have it insured. It is unfortunate, but it is something that can be restored.

I wanted to share my experience with other people who may also be wearing their VCA pieces daily. It could be an unintended consequence.

Yes, I would def take that back to VCA. They should be able to engrave it, but I don’t know if it will look as good as the original engraving since it will go to NY. Also the serial engravings are not so deep to begin with.

On another note, hopefully VCA will work with Cartier to see what alloy mix they use (if they aren’t already). That’s what conglomerates do - they work under the same umbrella learning the best practices from each other while being somewhat autonomous in operations. Cartier uses different alloys in any given year - at least this is what I was told by a Cartier manager when the RG oxidation (RG turning yellow) was an issue many years ago. Idk..maybe this was over a decade ago. I think oxidation for those pieces make the gold more pink now.

 

[Mmh1995]

I don’t expect anything from VCA to be free of charge.

My bracelet looks great. It just has no serial number. This means I can’t have it insured. It is unfortunate, but it is something that can be restored.

I wanted to share my experience with other people who may also be wearing their VCA pieces daily. It could be an unintended consequence.

Perhaps you could take it to VCA with the original paperwork with the serial number and have it restored at a cost? 2 years doesn’t seem like a long time to have it worn off already.

 

[Sophie0121]

I don’t expect anything from VCA to be free of charge.

My bracelet looks great. It just has no serial number. This means I can’t have it insured. It is unfortunate, but it is something that can be restored.

I wanted to share my experience with other people who may also be wearing their VCA pieces daily. It could be an unintended consequence.

I know that @nicole0612 had some of her bracelet re engraved (I don’t know at which cost). I understood you have to take it back with your original paperworks at the boutique for that.
I don’t know what I would do myself as I have some bracelets and don’t intend to sell them … I wonder if you have a timeline to do it (if it is too old do they still do it (like a piece bought in 2000?)

 

[nicole0612]

I know that @nicole0612 had some of her bracelet re engraved (I don’t know at which cost). I understood you have to take it back with your original paperworks at the boutique for that.
I don’t know what I would do myself as I have some bracelets and don’t intend to sell them … I wonder if you have a timeline to do it (if it is too old do they still do it (like a piece bought in 2000?)

I will preface this by saying I have not been following this thread, so I may be missing some small detail of context.

A bracelet that you have under your purchase profile or have the receipt for and know the full details of the purchaser (eg it was a gift from your family member) can be sent for re-engraving of the origional serial number, VCA markings and other hallmarks. For the first year it is free, after that there is some small charge. For the “French 18k” hallmark, it will need to be shipped to France for the re-engraving (if that hallmark matters to you). It took mine about 9 months, but that is because I elected to have it sent to France for the full engraving.

 

[J**]

If this helps -- I once sent off a 5 motif bracelet for resizing and noticed the serial number was re-engraved/refreshed when it was returned. I didn't specifically ask for this to be done, though I knew the engraving was half worn-off when I submitted it. I was not the original purchaser/it wasn't on my purchase history record and I didn't have a receipt, but I did have the COA with serial number matching what was visible on the bracelet.

 

[Astrich]

I will preface this by saying I have not been following this thread, so I may be missing some small detail of context.

A bracelet that you have under your purchase profile or have the receipt for and know the full details of the purchaser (eg it was a gift from your family member) can be sent for re-engraving of the origional serial number, VCA markings and other hallmarks. For the first year it is free, after that there is some small charge. For the “French 18k” hallmark, it will need to be shipped to France for the re-engraving (if that hallmark matters to you). It took mine about 9 months, but that is because I elected to have it sent to France for the full engraving.

Update: I did take it into VCA, and they are sending it to New York for re-engraving. You are right that they were able to find all the purchase information from my profile. I think the process will take about two weeks.

After the Palisades fires, a lot of people in California have had their insurance policies canceled. I wanted to have all my jewelry insured on a separate policy, so I needed the engraving for this bracelet. The SA shared that a client who had lost all their VCA pieces in the fire, but had them all insured, was able to come and just re-buy their whole collection.

Everyone at VCA was very nice and it was interesting to learn that this happens a lot.

 

[BirkinLover77]

Update: I did take it into VCA, and they are sending it to New York for re-engraving. You are right that they were able to find all the purchase information from my profile. I think the process will take about two weeks.

After the Palisades fires, a lot of people in California have had their insurance policies canceled. I wanted to have all my jewelry insured on a separate policy, so I needed the engraving for this bracelet. The SA shared that a client who had lost all their VCA pieces in the fire, but had them all insured, was able to come and just re-buy their whole collection.

Everyone at VCA was very nice and it was interesting to learn that this happens a lot.

Information is knowledge and thank you for sharing your opinion to TPF forum it is very important for those that may have massive collection and hope that they never have to suffer the cost of losing
any of their pieces to fire and or thief.

 

[nicole0612]

Update: I did take it into VCA, and they are sending it to New York for re-engraving. You are right that they were able to find all the purchase information from my profile. I think the process will take about two weeks.

After the Palisades fires, a lot of people in California have had their insurance policies canceled. I wanted to have all my jewelry insured on a separate policy, so I needed the engraving for this bracelet. The SA shared that a client who had lost all their VCA pieces in the fire, but had them all insured, was able to come and just re-buy their whole collection.

Everyone at VCA was very nice and it was interesting to learn that this happens a lot.

So glad that you had a good outcome with the bracelet! This has been my experience as well.