I have been wearing a ring for 50 years with a 2 carat heirloom diamond in it. The ring had been serviced and checked twice a year, by a jeweler, throughout my care. In February of this year, it was re-checked because i kept snagging my clothes with one of the prongs. After going back several times for more polishing, the problem was corrected. Then, in June…4 months later, tragically to all of us, the stone was lost out of the setting after no unusual trauma or activity. It was apparent that two of the prongs were broken. We searched and searched and could not find the stone. The jeweler agreed to temporarily replace the crown and the diamond with a zircon until we could afford to replace the diamond. Now, my family and my insurance carrier are stressing that the jeweler should use their own insurance (I have none) to replace the loss. The diamond had been in the family for 4 generations and we are all sick at heart over this. To me, it seems unreasonable that the stone should have popped out after having been serviced four months ago. What do you think my chances are of having the jeweler replace the diamond? Is this an uncommon situation? Thank you!
Your chances of having the jeweler replace your lost stone are next to nil, in my opinion. But you definitely don’t get what you don’t ask for.
Why did you not have it insured, if it was that valuable? Depending upon the cut, clarity and quality of the stone, a 2 carat would have probably appraised in the $15,000 to $20,000 range. Your insurance would have been somewhere around $300 annually.
Thank you for your feedback, Omar. I was a single mom most of my life and didn’t want to spend the money, plus I wore the ring 24-7. When I could finally afford the extra $$$, I simply didn’t think of it…
Since this involves legal advice, let’s move it over to IMHO.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The problem is that the ring was in your possession for those 4 months. How can the jeweler be held responsible for something that was out of his control for all that time. Unless you can show bad work on their part I think that it is up to you and your insurance company to cover the loss.
I’m sorry for the loss of your diamond. My mom lost an old ring and was very upset about it for a while. What was amazing is that it turned up 3-4 years later in a shoe in the back of her closet, so there’s always hope.
Your family’s expectation is utterly unreasonable. If I was a jeweler and someone came to me 4 months after servicing a prong on a 50 year old ring that was worn daily and expected me to make good on a fallen out diamond I would look at them like they lost their minds.
How does this expectation even make any sense? The setting was 50 years old and any one of a number of things could have happened to the setting in that 4 months beyond his servicing the troublesome prong.
Insurance companies don’t make money by paying out claims. You’ll have a hard enough time trying to get your own insurance company to pay out on this one, you won’t live long enough to see that jeweler’s insurance pay out this one.
My wife gets really nervous going out with her expensive stuff on. It’s insured, but it seems silly to me to buy the stuff and then she doesn’t wear it. I could have bought gold coins and stones as a better investment. Jewelry was made to be seen, you have to take the chance that something could happen to it. And don’t give up looking. My wife found an earring years after she lost it.
Standard limit for jewelry losses under a homeowners or renters insurance policy is about $2,500, not per item, but per incident. If you have more expensive jewelry you need a rider policy with the pieces appraised and itemized by the insurance company. In those cases, they will cover theft or even loss up to the appraised replacement cost.
My wife’s ring is covered by the store we bought it from, under the condition that we bring it back every six months so that they can clean it, inspect the setting, etc. But they only do that for stones purchased from them and even one missed checkup can theoretically cancel the coverage. (In practice, they’ll give you a little leeway.)
However… this coverage exists only because the store put it in writing when we made a purchase.
The store even covers just losing the whole ring or theft?
I doubt the store will/should have to pay for this.
First of all, how could you prove that you lost it and didn’t just go somewhere and sell it? I am 100% sure you didn’t, but in a court case, that would be far harder to prove. Plus, how can you prove you were not wearing the ring while digging in the garden with your hands, or bowling, or whatever else could cause abnormal wear and tear?
I have told this story here before, but think it is worth repeating:
When my godmother and her husband first got married, he bought a tiny little island in the Land of the Lakes area in Canada. They had a couple of cabins on the small island and she went out to pick some wild blueberries one morning. When she got back into the cabin, she realized she had lost her brand new wedding ring!
She searched high and low. No diamond ring. Every year they went up to those cabins and every year she would search in vain.
Fast forward about 40 years and one morning on the island, her little granddaughter came into the cabin and said, “Look what I found grandma!” Sure enough, the little girl had found the long-missing diamond ring on the ground, about 100 yards from the main cabin.
The point of this story is, perhaps one day you too will suddenly look down in that shoe in your closet, or at the bottom of that dresser drawer, or in the pocket of a winter jacket, and find your diamond again?! As you can see from the story, it might just turn up when you least expect it! Hope this happens for you.
It is entirely possible that the stone is lost in your house somewhere. I lost an earring a few years ago–not valuable, but I liked the pair, and kept the one hoping I would eventually find its mate. I searched high and low at my boyfriend’s house and my house over a period of five years to no avail. One day I pulled out of my closet a fabric knapsack that I had used from time to time during those years, and the missing earring just fell out of nowhere. I guess it had been caught on the outside of the bag? Who knows? Go through every square inch of your house and other places you hang out.
I have a similar 2-carat ring and have an extra policy on it, separate from my homeowner’s insurance. The annual premium is $155.
Hope you find the stone! Nothing helpful to add but I’ll tell my lost diamond story.
I was getting out of my car at the grocery. It was a really low sporty car and as I was getting out I noticed something glittery under the car next to me, pretty far under. I thought it was a chunk of broken headlight so didn’t investigate further. As I was shopping I thought about it again and wondered why there hadn’t been any other pieces of broken headlight laying around. Gee I thought, maybe it was a big ol’ diamond that fell out of somebody’s ring. Finished shopping, went back out to the parking lot, the same car was still parked next to mine. Got down and looked under and it was gone. It was highly unlikely that someone walking by would have seen it or noticed it. Maybe someone with a car as low as mine would have seen it when parking on the other side but not likely. My best guess is that someone noticed thier diamond missing from the ring and retraced thier steps. If it was a diamond, it was a big one.
Just for kicks, you might want to check things like vacuum bags, lint traps for your washer and dryer, under the auger in the washing machine, sink drain traps. Also, 2 carats is pretty big, you might have better luck finding it by turning off the lights (at night) and running a flashlight across the top of a floor and watching for a reflection. Also, don’t forget to check in your car and at work.
I’ve found lost diamonds after a while. I’d give it a few months before I’d call it totally lost.
I too have had lost jewelry turn up.
- Lost ring found under the dryer when the dryer was moved.
- Earring found in a used gift bag when I pulled the bag out to reuse it a year later.
- Ring found in front yard during spring planting. Apparently I’d lost it while working in the yard the previous fall.
Take off the nozzle or whatever’s at the end of the hose on your vacuum cleaner, then stick the hose into some knee-high nylons or pantyhose. Pull it tight, then secure with a rubber band. Use this to vacuum around your house - maybe you’ll find the diamond, and the nylon will keep it from going up into the vacuum.
Sorry about your loss - I hope it turns up.
This is a very good idea.