My lovely fiancee proposed to me in April this year (09) and gave me a platinum diamond engagement ring costing £900 it was beautiful.

Before he gave me the ring it had been made one size smaller from an O to an N as it was quicker that ordering the ring in the correct size.

I had only been wearing the ring 6 weeks when i noticed that the band was badly mis-shapen.

i returned to the store in The Oracle Centre Reading and they said they had to send it off to be checked by their quality control team.

4 weeks later i had a phone call from Ernest Jones telling me the QC report was back and that the damage was due to customer mis-use and excessive force being placed on the band!

I do not have a manual job i am at home most days with my 1 year old baby and i had been so careful with the ring, taking it off to do any major housework and wearing rubber gloves to do the washing up.

The store told me that the only option was to have it repaired and they would do this free of charge as a good will gesture.

My only concern with having it repaired was that it may happen again and isn't an engagement ring meant to last a life time??

My fiancee was furious and wanted a refund as he felt he had been talked into buying Platinum, by the sales assistant when he had planned on buying white gold.

The store told me they could not give me a full refund as it was not a manufacturing issue and said i had to speak to their customer service team.

I phoned them a week ago Monday and spoke to a very helpful women Michelle who said she would get the info from the Reading store and would phone me before the end of the week.

Guess what she didn't phone, since last friday i have phoned 6 times and have been promised each time that Michelle will phone me back, as i can't talk to anyone else because she is dealing with my case!

I have had advice from consumer direct and have found almost 50 very similar cases on consumer forum websites but i'm now starting to loose the will to live,

this is my engagement ring it is so upsetting that a major retailer such as ernest jones have taken my fiancee's hard earned cash and now they just don't care.

Has anyone else had problems with Ernest Jones and had a successful outcome?? Any info or advice would be great thanks!

Hi Carlajay

Welcome to CAG there are many threads on poor service/faulty goods from retailers, have a read around them as there is advice on how to proceed.

My initial advice is to contact your local trading standards, let them involved.

There is little point in visiting the shop or telephoning, all communication should be in writing just in case you need to escalate your complaint, or issue a county court claim.

Hi Carlajay,

We had very similar problems with an engagement ring and were also told after demanding 3 quality inspections that the damage was due to customer misuse.My engagement ring actually snapped within a few months of buying it.

Having got nowhere with the local store or their so called customer services dept we took the ring for an independant evaluation with another jeweller (they were happy to help for free as apparently Ernest Jones aren't very well thought of among other jewellers). Their report was damning.

We sent a copy of this to Ernest Jones and also lodged a claim with the Small Claims court. After 18 months of fighting with Ernest Jones, within weeks we given a full refund and compensation for messing us about. Unfortunately, it did mean giving back my engagement ring but we found a similar one at a more reputable jewellers.

Threaten them with legal action, otherwise you'll be fobbed off forever.

Best of luck.

I'm having a nightmare myself with an engagement ring from ernest jones- diamond has fallen out within 5 months! i was wondering which independent evaluator anyone has taken there rings too for a second more thorough, proffesional experienced sensible opinion? any help would be greatly appreciated, I'm in the process of writing to there customer service department but by the hundreds of bad feedback it sounds like i should just go straight to the small claims court?

surfing around I came across this.

Many moons ago my then husband to be bought me a white gold (9 ct I think) diamond and sapphire engagement ring. The ring was way too big and, instead of having it sized down I ordered a new one to be delivered in. In the meantime they let me keep the original one (had to wear it on another finger)... well I used to take the ring on and off when I washed my hands and it began to bend inwards, took it into the shop and they said it obviously wasw a faulty ring (by this time the sapphire had popped out). Come the glorious day of picking the new ring up I went in to Ernest Jones. They brought the ring out.. lovely... I tried it on.. lovely... they said, take it off and we'll give it a final polish and as I took it off it bent completely!!!. Well, was not best pleased to say the least, they called the manager over who tried to make light of it and said 'oh so you're the Uri Geller then'... big big big mistake - he got a complete (but no bad language) mouthfull - let's just say that there were 6 other people in the shop when I started and 0 when I finished.

Anyhoo he offered me another ring for the same price - I said no.. he offer me a £50 on top of the price my husband to be had paid - I said no.. I finished up with £100 more than the price of the original ring... in cash (went to a different jeweller altogether). I think he only offered me the money to get me out of the shop. He then had the audacity to ask if I'd be back to buy my wedding ring!!!! (Marriage has since finished - obviously an omen).

In short (and that was long) I would NEVER EVER EVER buy anything from Ernest Jones again - not even a cleaning cloth...

Good luck.

Do not use Ernest Jones chain of shops

Ernest Jones and their Premier Service Centre are not to be trusted, as they tried to trick me with a number of chicky tricks. I needed a new battery for my watch and they said it would take 6 weeks to get my watch back. They tried to sell me a full service costing £350 and when I refused they tried to sell me a watch about same price, which I also refused. After leaving my watch with them to get just the new battery fitted, they called me after one week saying that there was a problem with my watch and it needed a full service and that it would simply not work with a new battery, as they tested it and it didn't work. This was a pure lie. After waiting for 6 weeks and no further call from them, I called them back and asked for my watch back and my money back and went to another service provider, who did change the battery in one week (instead of 6) for a quarter of the price and the watch is working perfectly now with its new battery. Ernest Jones is simply not to be trusted and I am shocked to see a brand like Baume & Mercier associated with such dishonest merchants.

threads from 2011!!

A week to change a battery???

Is it an atomic watch?