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This bracelet was purchased on the Internet and brought in to me to solder some charms onto it.
It turned into quite a saga & it's the third Tiffany style bracelet that has been brought to me
that turned out to be fake...
I blogged here about the whole "fake internet bracelet"
Long story short it took hours of work to restore the mess it made of pickle etc AND I was the one
who had to tell the customer her bracelet was a fake :(
Nic x
There are so many fakes about, many of our customers seem to get duped mainly abroad or on ebay, it's really shocking that so many people can get away with it.
I bought some make up on ebay which turned out to be fake, I contacted the seller and they asked me to return it and offered a full refund plus return postage. However they then sent many emails trying to cajole me into not leaving feedback, claiming they did not know that it was fake.
I did leave feedback (which provoked an abusive email response), but it is a worry that others wouldnt leave it allowing these kind of sellers to continue to get away with selling fake items to people who don't know the difference.
Amy
I never work on any repair or alteration to a piece that I don't know the exact provenance of without testing it first. It takes only seconds to do and can save an awful lot of hassle.
Yes, I've learned this lesson the hard way too. I was asked to solder charms onto a "silver" bangle and the whole thing just collapsed. The lady was very understanding about it though and commissioned me to make a silver one.
That was hard on you, Nic. People who have bargain jewellery, sometimes come into our class looking for bargain repairs. But sometimes the pieces have sentimental value. Has anyone had problems with hallmarked silver? Can you describe the test, George? Dennis.
I've long had a policy of only repairing my own work tho' I'd make an exception for a friend with a hallmarked item.
Its a potential snakepit and generally takes a lot longer than dealing with your own work.
Dennis, I just use an acid testing solution. I generally file a small spot in an inconspicuous place (to remove any plating) and test there.
I have some silver plated Pandora style bracelets that are stamped 925 and were sold as silver, there is loads of fake stamped stuff on ebay from abroad, my sister bought one of a stall at the hospital as silver stamped 925 and now the copper is starting to show through! on ebay it is buyer beware, and if it sounds to good (cheap) to be true, don't buy it. This was actually the reason I started making my own jewelery, I'm allergic to metal and got an awfull angry red rash round my neck from a 'silver' chain I bought on ebay, an the pandora bracelets are very expensive as you are paying for the name, something which is a pet hate of mine, I don't mind paying for quality, but won't pay for 'named' goods, I bought one of cooksons bracelets but had to change the clasp as the magnetic one just kept coming open, then the safety chain snapped, so I made my own and some for friends, and thats how I started :-)
Sometimes I have people compare an Ebay price to one in my shop ~ e.g. recent example
British made, solid silver, UK hallmarked, heavyweight silver bracelet with every link soldered for £45,
which they tell me they can get for £25 off Ebay...
(I'm pretty darn sure that the quality would not even have been in the same ball park for that!)
Nic xx
I love the way people do that - try and compare you with ebay [-X=:-O
I often think my prices are too low for the amount of time I put into things - and if you tried to compete with Ebay you'd never get anything, I'd be lucky to cover my costs!
Still, it's easy to say "they're not the sort of customer I want anyway if they don't appreciate my workmanship and want to pay for it" - but a lot harder to do when you're semi-broke and wanna buy more silver to play with!!!!
I read your story and I would have done exactly the same thing and I hope everybody would do so in similar situations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Amy_FJFW
Just one curiosity, if I may ask. Did the seller keep its promise?
heh, I mentioned before that I have a tiffany cuff. Mr Medusa was tasked by my parents with buying it and he decided to get a second hand one off ebay. Before getting it engraved he asked a local jeweller to test it, just in case (this is a few years ago before I started making btw). It came back as silver so he had it engraved.
After three weeks of wear, it started showing copper on the edges. It had been subject to a very, very thick silver plating. We put in a dispute with paypal and got a full refund without even having to return the cuff and left stinking FB. We then got the real McCoy.
Where people get confused is in thinking that "925" is a hallmark. I sell a lot of antique stuff on ebay and all the time you see people flogging stuff as hallmarked when it's not. All tiffany items carry a proper hallmark and it's tiny. on my cuff it's about 1 x 3mm, and comparing it to my stamp which is 1mm, it is less than half that size.