Kay Jewelers - kayjewelers.com - tennis bracelet purchase, repair, use experience

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on June 7, 2002:

From:

RE: Kay Jewelers - kayjewelers.com - tennis bracelet purchase, repair, use experience

Dear Kay Jewelers - kayjewelers.com Four years ago my wife purchased a $2,000.00, 5 CT diamond tennis bracelet from Kay Jewelers. Recently we have had the bracelet in for repair at Kay Jewelers (3 or four times so far) due to stretching of the tennis bracelet to the point where my wife has to have the bracelet shorten in order to wear it. Each time we have gotten the bracelet back from the Kay Jeweler repair, the bracelet has broken.

We asked Kay Jewelers to have the bracelet appraised and to work out an equitable adjustment and pay us a fair price for the bracelet. We attempted to trade the bracelet in for another one at Kay Jewelers and were quoted what we thought was a fair price for a new bracelet. However, a new sales clerk quoted us the wrong price and we were informed by the store manager that we would have to pay more for the bracelet even after our trade in. I complained to Kay Jewelers customer service only to be told that because my wife wears her bracelet everyday that this will cause considerable wear and the bracelet will start to break. I asked the customer service rep how she could tell my wife not to wear the bracelet everyday, when that is exactly why we bought the bracelet which cost us $2,000.00. I thought it interesting to find the below listed quote on the Kay Jeweler website: "We care for your fine jewelry, from the day you take it home. That's why we offer FREE jewelry cleaning and inspection. It's a good idea to come in on a regular basis -- a little preventive maintenance can go a long way to ensuring that your jewelry is beautiful and secure for a lifetime". I can assure you that my wife took her tennis bracelet to Kay Jewelers every six months, for the past four years, as stated in the Kay Jewelers maintenance agreement. So as you can see, that statement above is BOGUS. How is it that Kay jewelers is making a statement that "a little preventive maintenance can go a long way to ensuring that your jewelry is beautiful and secure for a lifetime?" In our case the Tennis bracelet's lifetime was a period of four years. The sad part is that Kay Jewelers has clearly deonstrated that they are not willing to stand behind their product as evidenced by their inability to address my problem in a fair and equitable manner.