# Jewelry store lost my wife's ring. Advice needed. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 29, 2010, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906 "2010-06-29T06:30:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/81 "2010-07-02T19:18:38Z")
Don’t forget, engraving can be duplicated as well. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/82 "2010-07-02T20:53:52Z")
> [@Gymnopithys](#): > > **Jewelry store lost my wives ring. Advice needed.** > > How many wives do you have ? 😉 Apparently that’s been fixed, although with some regret on my part. I thought his use of the old Middle English singular possessive of wife to be rather charming, even if inadvertent. ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/83 "2010-07-02T20:56:18Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > Don’t forget, engraving can be duplicated as well. > > mmm Well, yeah, but they’d have to know/remember exactly what was engraved to duplicate it. Would they have done written that down just to fix a prong? I dunno. Why would they? ---
**Author:** ![DiosaBellissima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@DiosaBellissima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DiosaBellissima)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/84 "2010-07-02T21:40:25Z")
> [@legalsnugs](#): > > Well, yeah, but they’d have to know/remember exactly what was engraved to duplicate it. Would they have done written that down just to fix a prong? I dunno. Why would they? If they got the ring there, I’d imagine they got it engraved there, too. I’m sure that stuff is kept in a system, if nothing else as a work order. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/85 "2010-07-03T07:21:06Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Now they will never have their wedding ring ever again. A new lump of metal may look like it, but it is NOT it. Same principal as a pet, that new golden retriever may look just like Phluphi, but it is heartbreaking to many people when a beloved pet dies. A ring is not a living thing. The two scenarios are nothing alike. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/86 "2010-07-03T09:23:38Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > If that’s the case, wouldn’t you want the replacement to be EXACTLY like the original? Seems to me that getting a different replacement ring flies in the face of the idea that the original was something special. Really? Seems to me, getting an exact duplicate of the original ring rather fatally undercuts the specialness of the whole deal. The first ring wasn’t a unique symbol of my marital relationship, it was just a mass produced item picked out of a catalogue, with thousands of women out there with exactly the same thing. Now, obviously, on an intellectual level, I’d already know that when I first bought the ring, but getting an exact replacement would essentially gut any emotional importance I’d attached to the first one. The new ring would always be a copy, and never the original. A different ring would be a replacement - ideally, an upgrade, so that even though it’ll never be the first ring, it would still have some perceived individuality to it. > [@SanVito](#): > > And it’s entirely replaceable, with a ring that looks and feels exactly the same. The same ring they picked out. It’s not greatgranny’s-made-in-1902-nevertobereplaced ring. Why would that make a difference? Either the sentiment attached to a ring matters, or it doesn’t. Why does sentiment about your great grandma warrant consideration, but not sentiment about your marriage and your spouse? ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/87 "2010-07-03T09:39:40Z")
Two weeks seems a long time to fix a loose stone. And then they didn’t tell you until four weeks? Any jewellers here? How often do valuable goods such as these get “lost”? ---
**Author:** ![legalsnugs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@legalsnugs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/legalsnugs)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/88 "2010-07-03T17:40:59Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > If they got the ring there, I’d imagine they got it engraved there, too. I’m sure that stuff is kept in a system, if nothing else as a work order. Well, there you go - seems like they \*could \*have substituted an exact replica with the exact engraving and who’d know? But they didn’t. I still think they should do something to make you just a little happier, though. ---
**Author:** ![Velma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/85e7bf/32.png) [@Velma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velma)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906/89 "2010-07-06T17:08:33Z")
> [@Cicero](#): > > Two weeks seems a long time to fix a loose stone. And then they didn’t tell you until four weeks? > > Any jewellers here? How often do valuable goods such as these get “lost”? Again, just going on what I remember from my mall jewelry store days. It depends on where they send the jewelry to get repaired. We sent ours just across town but we told people it was usually a week to 10 days to get it back, especially if the jeweler was backed up. Ours serviced jewelry for several stores in the area. Mall/chain stores usually don’t have an actual jeweler on site. In the case of engraving, we would have made a note of it or any identifying marks on the jewelry. We would examine each piece and write a description on the work order, for example, “diamond engagement ring with 1 carat stone, sapphire wrap and “eternal love” engraving” or whatever. Any damage would be marked also so the customer couldn’t say we chipped their piece when it already came that way. And specific instructions on what was to be fixed. We would often send out dozens of pieces at a time, so we were sure to note engravings, so we didn’t send home the wrong diamond band with someone else. Lots of rings look a lot alike (or in the case of mass produced jewelry, are exactly alike.) I was only there about 6 months and we never lost a piece, but we did have an instance where a ring got sent back to the wrong store and it took us a bit to figure out where it had gone. With things being shuffled around it is going to happen to somebody. That’s why I would tell people with one of a kind heirlooms to find a place where they can talk to a jeweler on site about their piece and stuff isn’t getting shipped/driven around all over the place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewelry-store-lost-my-wifes-ring-advice-needed/544906.md?page=4)