In early December 2008 I took my wedding ring to Thomas Jewellers Warrnambool, Vic for resizing (I swim in the ocean and have found that my finger shrinks slightly when in the cold water and the ring would slip up and down my finger) . I asked for it to made slightly smaller in circumference. The ring is a unique design that my wife and I had designed for our wedding day. It is one of a kind and unique to the jeweller that made it. It had a rustic hammered finish and had raised design shapes in the form of cactus and triangles. I was told at the time by the staff member that when the ring was returned to me after resizing there may be some markings on the ring in the area where the resizing would be performed. I never agreed to have the ring polished. After the ring had been resized and being contacted I went to the store to collect it. The ring had been highly polished and the raised design was nearly as flat as the rings surface in some areas. The hammered finish had also been completely polished off. The ring had lost all its character and much of its meaning. The raised triangles were a reminder to me of wifes wedding ring which has a triangular shaped diamond (trillion) and the raised cactus were a symbol of resilience through any circumstances and reflect the strength of the relationship my wife and I have. My wife and I were shocked at what Thomas Jewellers had done to my ring and wrote the following letter to express our disappointment. "23 December 2008 Thomas Jewellers 158 Liebig Street WARRNAMBOOL VIC 3280 To the Manager, I am writing to express my disappointment in regards to services provided to me by your Thomas Jewellers Store during the month of December 2008. Early in December I bought my wedding ring into your store to be resized. I am sure you can understand the significance of this ring to my wife and I. We had the Ring specially made to symbolise the commitment that we made on our wedding day. The ring was unique in that it had a thick chunky band with cactus’s (to symbolise resilience) and triangles (to match my wife’s specially made trillion cut diamond engagement ring). The cacti and triangles were raised quite definitively from the band and then the whole ring was textured/hammered in such a way to give the ring a very rustic look. When I picked the ring up on the 23rd of December I was disappointed to find that the ring had been polished (which is not a service I requested) to a degree that the rustic texture has been entirely removed from the ring and the triangles and cacti are barely raised from the band. In fact some of the triangles can be barely seen. As you can imagine my wife and I are extremely upset about this. We have spoken to the Jeweller that originally made the ring for us and described to him what has happened to the ring, he believes due to the extent of the damage, the ring will need to be melted down and remade to restore it to its former condition prior to me taking it to your store. The Jeweller who made the ring’s details are: 'REMOVED' Due to the unique nature of this ring I would like Thomas Jewellers to cover the cost of the original Jeweller to restore the ring to its condition prior to the damage occurring to the ring whilst it was in your care. Consumer Affairs has advised me that this is a very reasonable request under the circumstances and that I should ask for a response to this letter within 5 – 7 days of the date of this letter. While I acknowledge that the Christmas period is a very busy time of year the original jeweller has advised that he can repair the ring ASAP, and I am sure you will understand that we would like this matter resolved and my ring restored ASAP. (END of Letter) The ring remained at Thomas Jewellers, Warrnambool store whilst we were trying to resolve this issue. The then Manager of the store was quite understanding of our situation and I believe that if she had been allowed to handle and resolve the situation in the manner in which she wanted the matter would have been over and done with some time ago. It was her opinion that they should have the original jeweller remake the ring and she asked me to obtain a quote from the original jeweller, which I did. However I was told the directors of Thomas Jewellers did not agree with this and believed they had the skills to remake the ring. I agreed to what I believed was a total remake of the ring by Thomas Jewellers. Though I had little confidence that Thomas Jewellers would be able to replicate the design I believed they should have the opportunity to resolve the situation in this manner prior to me taking the matter further. After speaking to the original Jeweller I now know this was a mistake and it was his design and was basically offensive to him as it was his original design and was never meant to be copied by others and was a type of breach of his artistic/intellectual property (I have since learnt that a director of Thomas Jewellers recently assaulted another Jeweller in a competing jewellery store in Geelong. James THOMAS slapped the other Jeweller when Thomas using a measuring tape to measure the competing Jewellers display case . This matter was reported in The Geelong Advertiser on the 15th of April 2009. This concerned me in regards to the integrity of Thomas Jewellers). The ring was returned to me by Thomas Jewellers after what I believed was to be a remake to find that it had only been hammerd and nothing like the original hammering. I had been shown pieces of gold with hammering and indicated one type of hammering which I thought may have been similar prior to Thomas jewellers rehammering the ring. However not being a jeweller and having no previous type of experience the end result bore no similarity to the original ring. After voicing my disappointment the Store Manager who was now a different one to the manager I initially complained to said he would contact the original Jeweller who had made my wedding ring and work with him to remake the ring from scratch themselves (Thomas jewellers). This occurred over 5 months after I had initially taken the ring for resizing to Thomas Jewellers. I had lost total confidence in the Thomas Jewellers by this stage and told the new manager that the only way the matter could now be resolved as far as I was now concerned was for thre ring to be remade by the original jeweller. The manager told me he would have to liaise with the Thomas Jewellers directors prior to being able to agree to this. He also said he would contact the original Jeweller who made the ring to find out if he would be willing to work with them to remake the ring. I recieved a phone call the following morning from the new Store manager stating that he had been unable to contact the original jeweller. He made 1 attempt to phone the jeweller late in the previous afternoon - who, as we had previously explained to Thomas Jewellers managers, works full time at another job and is winding down his jewellery making business. The next day at 10am when the jeweller had not returned his call he called me and said he was unable to contact the original jeweller and that now basically that window had closed. In any case the Directors had informed him that the original jeweller remaking the ring was not an option as they belived they had the ability to remake the ring. I once again reiterated that I had no confidence in the skills of Thomas Jewellers to remake the ring and that we were unable to explain the rings design and techniques as the original jeweller had designed it and it was unique. At all times in my dealings with Thomas Jewellers I have remained calm despite my increasing frustration to what I see as incompetence and poor customer service on their part. My wife and I have contacted Consumer Affairs who have in turn contacted Thomas Jewellers. Thomas Jewellers have remained staunch and will not agree for the original jeweller to remake the ring. They are infact suggesting that the ring never had the rusitic hammered finish and that it was probably already worn down by general wear - which is not the case as the ring was designed to last (being a wedding ring) and made of 9 carat gold. This has left us with no option but to list the matter with VCAT for hearing. Once again to repeat what I previously stated this has been an incredibly frustrating and disappointing experience. I doubt that Thomas Jewellers ever had the desire, expertise, or ability to resolve this issue.
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