I bought a gold ring from this concern's Ebay store. A "buy it now", not an auction, and of course paid full price.
The item was a gold wedding ring listed in the Victorian/Edwardian 1837-1910 section. I emailed them for more information and was told the ring was late 1800s.
I discovered after I had bought the piece that it was modern, made in 1994.
I admit that I should have researched the hallmarks before I made the purchase but I was naively trusting.
Caveat emptor. Too late.
It was only because I was enthusiastic about the purchase that I decided to research hallmarks on the internet, which took me all of 15 minutes to learn the truth.
The British hallmarks told the whole story.
When I challenged the seller she feigned ignorance of the hallmarks although they were in her own images on Ebay.
Of the hallmarks she said "so small that it is sometimes difficult to identify them" She insinuated that I was trying to defraud her when I asked for a reduction in the price. I paid $695 and wanted $200 back. Still do.
She did offer me a full refund, to her credit. As I like the ring and my marriage is imminent I wanted to keep the ring, but didn't want to pay the price for an antique when in reality I had bought a second hand ring. It is troubling that she cannot tell the difference between a ring of 19 years and one that is 125 (or could she?)
We could not resolve the issue.She insisted the hallmarks were unclear although we both had images that were crystal clear allowing for no difference of opinion on the authenticity of the piece, i.e. British, 1994.
She eventually conceded the fact of the ring being modern because the facts were too overwhelming to continue her subterfuge, but offered me no discount, still insisting on keeping the full price.
She offered me no consideration on the price although it was obviously devalued.
When having to concede the facts, her cover story was that the price is based on the value of the gold and disavows the added value of antique. I do not subscribe to this interpretation. Not knowing this business I think they buy as scrap, probably paying the original owners somewhere in the region of scrap prices for jewelry. Based on the weight and purity of this piece, in today's market it is worth about $190, as scrap. Its commercial value is in the $450-$500 range, as a second hand piece of jewelry of no particular merit.
I do not know what profit this owner gets, but feel that even if she paid top dollar for an antique and that perhaps she was the victim of a fraud, the fraud should not be passed on to me or anyone else when discovered.
Early on in our bargaining, she tried to bribe me with $100 so that I would give her a good rating for her Ebay store.
"$100 as a good will gesture; I in no way wish to receive negative feedback, which is why I can offer you a $100; I was willing to refund your money in full and then some" these are some of the phrases from our protracted exchanges.
This was before our exchanges became acrimonious.
In the end I filed a complaint with Ebay and the New York State Better Business Bureau.
Seller is emotional and illogical and displays such a fragile mental state that I hesitate to say she is dishonest or unethical, perhaps just incompetent, confused. Desperate. She could not take responsibility for the part she played in this transaction choosing rather to blame me.
She repeated over and over again that is was an honest mistake and that she is only human. I do not know but "I am a firm believer in God" she wrote. No idea why. Still no reduction in price offered.
She equated my pointing out her lies and inconsistencies as harassment.
She identified me as a bad customer because a merchant (again on Ebay) who complained about me because I complained to him that he sent me the wrong item (a large percolator instead of a small one) and refused to send me the right item since in his opinion I got a larger more expensive percolator for the price of the smaller one. She, this person at Roman Jewels, did not know any of this but decided I was an unreliable customer based on what she thought she knew although that report was many years old and that I have a 100% approval rating as a customer.
(No way to treat an unhappy customer I can tell you!)
She continues to list modern jewelry in her Ebay store as antiques.
The way I know this is that in 1975 Britain changed their gold purity notation from the karat system they had used formerly to a decimal system.
She claimed not to know this (she, a dealer in gold, quite a lot of it British).
She has decimal marked English (585 used for 14K for example) gold as antique, which is impossible, all of it having been made after 1975, although she has it under Victorian/Edwardian 1837-1910.
A true nightmare to deal with if you have a problem.
Rather than caveat emptor, better not to involve yourself with Roman Jewels or romanjewelsgold on Ebay. read more
