Tiffany ring broken!

T

Tr2163

Member
Aug 22, 2014
56
46
#1
Hello everyone, I am a newbie here just being able to start my first thread.

I know there are lots of TC fans here and I'm still one of them. But let me explain. I recently sent my wedding band to clean which I have been wearing for three years. It is a band with a row of small diamonds. I must say that I live a quite normal office life, nothing physically heavy, or weight lifting or so. After cleaning, the lady told me that one of the diamonds was broken, and fixing needed $400. I was so astonished because I have never noticed any cracking on it. I went home and after a further examination, I found three diamonds that seemed to be broken !

I am not sure if it has been broken before or during the cleaning. Either way doesn't make me feel comfortable on the quality of the ring. The story doesn't end here. The next day, I noticed that my E ring, which had the cleaning done at the same time, was completely broken on the band!! I rushed back to the store and they promised me to send the e ring back to NYC to fix at no charge. They couldn't explain why it was broken and they swore that they have never seen this before.

Now I am still waiting for the repair to be done while wearing my wedding band with three broken diamonds. Fixing them would cost more than a thousand according to the sale.

Has this ever happened to anyone here? The wedding band was 6k+ But I am reluctant to invest more on it now.
 
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#3
I own a Tiffany e ring and a Tiffany wedding band. I have been wearing them for years without any problem. if you own the shared prong band, you do need to bring it in for Tiffany to clean and inspect every two months, as the shared prong setting is more fragile. That was what Tiffany CS recommended. I have not had any stone in my band chipped but over the years, two of the stones did become loose on two separate occasions and Tiffany tighten them for me for free. Is your band insured? Maybe your insurance can cover the repair fee.
 
#4
I almost wonder if something happened during cleaning. Surely you'd have noticed something off about both rings prior to that instance that would give you concern, esp your eng ring?!

I do hope they are well insured with recent appraisals
 
#5
gemlady72 said:
Which style ring is it? Do the diamonds go all the way around the band?
Click to expand...
tiffany.com/Shopping/Item.aspx?fromGrid=1&sku=GRP01702&mcat=&cid=287466&search_params=p+1-n+10000-c+287466-s+5-r+-t+-ni+1-x+-lr+-hr+-ri+-mi+-pp+7646+14&search=0&origin=browse&searchkeyword=#p+1-n+10000-c+287466-s+5-r+-t+-ni+1-x+-pu+-f+true+1-lr+-hr+-ri+-mi+-pp+7646+14

I am trying to post the picture from tc
 
#7
ame said:
I almost wonder if something happened during cleaning. Surely you'd have noticed something off about both rings prior to that instance that would give you concern, esp your eng ring?!

I do hope they are well insured with recent appraisals
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure the e ring was NOT broken before cleaning. It was broken completely in the middle of the band that I can easily see a gap! It is hard to not being noticed.

I don't have them insured! My bad. Where can I get the insurance? Although it might be too late now......
 
#8
So sorry your beautiful rings are damaged. Are your settings platinum? Platinum is a strong metal but brittle and does crack. Recently my local designer platinum bracelet broke and I have since been told by a number of jewellers who deal in estate pieces that this is fairly common with platinum.

When a piece of jewelley is accepted by a jeweller for repair work including cleaning it is usually inspected and any damage noted on the work order. This is for the jeweller's legal liability.

If your jeweller did not mention the damage on your repair receipt then there is a fair chance it was not damaged when they first received the pieces.

Did Tiffany clean your rings or another jeweller?


I used to have my Tiffany jewelley cleaned by Tiffany every year and wouldn't consider taking it anywhere else. I remember every piece being scrutinized by the SA at the repair desk. Now this is some time ago as my diamonds stay at the bank and have done so for some while.
 
#9
Hi,

Yes, the band is platinum. I thought it wouldn't crack so badly since I've done nothing unusual or put it into the oven......

All my cleanings are done by Tiffany. I left the ring at the customer service counter to be cleaned and went to shop around in the store so I am not sure if she had scrutinized them carefully enough. And when I went back to fetch my ring, she referred to the broken diamond as nothing serious, like " oh, by the way, one of the diamonds is broken". She then gave me the price to repair it before I even got time to digest the news.



purplepoodles said:
So sorry your beautiful rings are damaged. Are your settings platinum? Platinum is a strong metal but brittle and does crack. Recently my local designer platinum bracelet broke and I have since been told by a number of jewellers who deal in estate pieces that this is fairly common with platinum.

When a piece of jewelley is accepted by a jeweller for repair work including cleaning it is usually inspected and any damage noted on the work order. This is for the jeweller's legal liability.

If your jeweller did not mention the damage on your repair receipt then there is a fair chance it was not damaged when they first received the pieces.

Did Tiffany clean your rings or another jeweller?


I used to have my Tiffany jewelley cleaned by Tiffany every year and wouldn't consider taking it anywhere else. I remember every piece being scrutinized by the SA at the repair desk. Now this is some time ago as my diamonds stay at the bank and have done so for some while.
Click to expand...
 
#11
Yea I'd make this a big thing with not only store management but corporate. If that was not addressed to you prior to cleaning, that gives me pause. And it is too late to insure them, especially to have this covered. These repairs if not covered by Tiffany--as in they're found liable, and I'd press that issue--are solely your responsibility.

I'd escalate this to management above the store. I'd in fact, file a BBB claim and ask for a full investigation, that you want the security footage analyzed because if that was not identified, and they dropped them or banged them in a manner to do the damage, which is possible, that's on them.

It IS entirely possible the damage was done prior and the cleaning uncovered it (were they really dirty?) but damage of this sort is typically pretty obvious before a cleaning and between the two of you, it wouldve come up prior to that.
 
#12
Yes, I have had a diamond in a ring break before. I had my e-ring with two diamond baguettes and one of them broke right after buying the ring (within a month or so) and had to pay $900 for it to be replaced. I feel this was already broken when I got the ring, but was so enamored with the pear solitaire center stone that I didn't notice, as I was also not super active at that time (this was quite a few years ago). After the replacement, even with activity nothing broke, which kinda reinforced my view. I think that baguette was defective when they placed it into the ring along with my center stone.
 
#13
I find it hard to believe that Tiffany could so quickly and easily break 3 diamonds in your band as well as your e-ring just in one cleaning session. It sounds as if something happened when you were wearing them together. I'd think if it were Tiffany's fault it would be one or the other, not both. I just don't see how that could happen. I don't know what equipment they have in their back rooms but to me it just doesn't seem plausible so much damage could be done to 2 separate pieces of jewelry without someone else hearing someone beating them with a sledge hammer. It's possible the metal turned brittle but a broken e ring and 3 broken diamonds sounds like both rings, while being worn together, were banged into something or dropped, etc. It's pretty hard to do that kind of damage.

I was with a girlfriend once who fell wearing a diamond ring and slammed that thing hard into marble tile. The tile chipped and a quarter size piece of tile went flying. She took her ring into the shop immediately and there was no damage to the diamond or setting. So I'd think it'd be pretty hard for Tiffany to do such damage in such a short time frame with other employees there. Just doesn't make sense. I'd think it's more possible you had damaged it in some way and didn't notice the damage but the vibrations from cleaning made the damage worse.
 
#14
Diamonds might be the hardest material but they're actually not the toughest. They can actually break easily, when hit on the point of cleavage. A shopping cart, a car door, doing dishes, gardening, clapping and the rings hitting against each other...it can definitely happen. If the diamonds hit each other at some point it's possible, actually, prior to the cleaning by the OP, or if there was already damage and they were steamed, the heat could've made that issue worse, and the SA should've inspected for that prior to the cleaning, IIRC that's protocol--or if the SA dropped them, perhaps into the metal ultrasonic and they crashed into the metal container or off of each other on the way in. If they hit on the point of cleavage, itll shear them right apart.
 
#15
I am not sure what happened exactly but I didn't wear them together. I wear them on different hands actually ..

QUOTE=lilmountaingirl;27347379]I find it hard to believe that Tiffany could so quickly and easily break 3 diamonds in your band as well as your e-ring just in one cleaning session. It sounds as if something happened when you were wearing them together. I'd think if it were Tiffany's fault it would be one or the other, not both. I just don't see how that could happen. I don't know what equipment they have in their back rooms but to me it just doesn't seem plausible so much damage could be done to 2 separate pieces of jewelry without someone else hearing someone beating them with a sledge hammer. It's possible the metal turned brittle but a broken e ring and 3 broken diamonds sounds like both rings, while being worn together, were banged into something or dropped, etc. It's pretty hard to do that kind of damage.

I was with a girlfriend once who fell wearing a diamond ring and slammed that thing hard into marble tile. The tile chipped and a quarter size piece of tile went flying. She took her ring into the shop immediately and there was no damage to the diamond or setting. So I'd think it'd be pretty hard for Tiffany to do such damage in such a short time frame with other employees there. Just doesn't make sense. I'd think it's more possible you had damaged it in some way and didn't notice the damage but the vibrations from cleaning made the damage worse.[/QUOTE]
 
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