Vincent's Jewelers

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2016/01/05) */
This is a very vague complaint about a series of transactions that began in began in 2004 and were technically closed out in 2009 with my last email with her in late 2010. During that time, I had many lengthy visits with the customer in the...

store, listening to her and her many life challenges. All that we did do for her and tried to do for her was in the spirit of trying to help her, which as is clearly supported by the early emails that were exchanged. I have a file folder containing all the documentation of the transactions as well as emails that were exchanged, where I explained the transactions in detail, and what I was willing to do and try to do. I also have the original inventory photo's of all the items each time they came in. I can provide any of this as needed.

I am giving a summary only, but can provide details, as well as lengthy emails I had with the customer.
I need to first explain how our consignment works. A customer can leave a piece of jewelry here for us to sell as long as we feel that they are in good condition. We assess a consignment value for each item, this consignment value is what the customer is to receive regardless of the selling price. Simply, we have to sell the item for above this agreed upon consignment value for us to profit, it could be 5% it could be 50% above the consignment value. Another way to look at it is that this consignment value becomes our cost, we have to sell it above this cost to make a profit. So the final selling price is irrelevant to the person that left the item(s) on consignment and the purchaser's identity is held in confidence, as well as the seller. Now if we buy an item, the items belong to us. So if an individual who leaves an item on consignment chooses to "cash out" or sell the items to us at a later date, they can no longer get the consignment value if and when the items sell. And yes, the "Cash out" value is less than the "Consignment Value". With consignment, the customer has the risk if and when it sells, and we only pay for the item if and when it sells. If we buy the items, we hold the risk. Simply, the one holding the risk gets the better reward. In more than one instance, she willingly put these items that were appraised for "well over $100,000" on consignment in the store for 1/3 of the inflated insurance appraisal value.

The customer first left seven items on 11/10/2004. All the items had to be cleaned, polished and prepped to be put in the case, and were placed in inventory between 11/15/2004 and 11/29/2004. She picked up all seven items on 4/2/2005, as none of the items sold.
She then came back on 9/22/2005, and sold six of the original items for $9,000. But we agreed that we would not alter them or scrap them out for six months in case she wanted to buy them back, so we listed them on three separate tickets ([redacted]/XXXXX/XXXXX) and tagged the items. It is not easy for us to tie up fund like this, so we would not normally provide this option, but were compelled to help her. They were assigned special inventory numbers so they would not get altered or scrapped out. She did come back in March of 2006 and purchased all 6 items back, and then put all of them back on consignment in the store. One item sold in 2007 (the most sellable), and she was paid for the item (Chk# XXXXX $4,000).

She came in on 4/5/2008 and brought in 4 new items. The customer needed funds that day, so we offered to buy all 9 of the items for $10,000, but she asked for the same agreement as before, that is that we would not scrap or alter the items giving her 6 months to buy any items back. I agreed to help her and give her the flexibility. I entered the 4 new items on two new tickets, they were assigned special inventory numbers to prevent them from being scrapped or altered. I also flagged the original 5 consignment items in the inventory system that they were now purchased, but they could not be scrapped or altered for 6 months.
I executed a purchase form with all five of the ticket numbers clearly listed: Three tickets from 9/22/2005 ([redacted]/XXXXX/XXXXX), with the remaining five items as one item had sold and was paid for, then the two new tickets with the four new items ([redacted]/XXXXX). The purchase form clearly states "Rolex and all items ticket numbers XXXXX/48/49 + XXXXX/82". I also listed all ticket numbers on the check as well as the check vouchers. Both the purchase form (with her license attached) and check vouchers were signed by the customer. It is also not realistic that we only purchased five of the original remaining six items for more money than the "prior" Transaction. (Again, one item had sold and was paid for from the original six, Chk# XXXXX $4,000) There could be no confusion or misrepresentation, it was all clearly displayed multiple times.

On May 5 2008, I allowed her to take back two items at no cost, even though I had technically purchased them. We did discuss this fact in detail (that I purchased all the items), again none of our transactions were rushed in any way, we always visited and discussed how she was doing. These items were originally on consignment for $2,000 each. This left me with seven items.
During the six months, I had conversations with the customer in person, via phone and via emails. We discussed that the price of Platinum dropped dramatically in the time frame and that market conditions were very bad. I held off an additional six months without scrapping or altering the items. None of the items sold during this time and I sent an email to the customer indicating that I should have already tried to liquidate the items by scrapping or altering them. But wanted to give her the additional 6 months to purchase any of the items back. We had discussions that if I could liquidate or sell some of the items and get the $10,000, I would try to get her something back. She really wanted to get the Rolex back. I was very clear during these discussions that we technically owned the items, but I wanted to try to get her something back in some way.

On 4/20/2009, a full year after the original purchase, I made the decision I needed to begin to actively liquidate the items. I sold one smaller item in December of 2009. During the entire time frame (2008 - late 2010), I offered via many email discussions to allow her to purchase any of the remaining items back at the allocated cost. I was also clear that I owned the items, but wanted to try to get her something back if we could. Again, I want to be clear, we purchased the items from her on 4/5/2008, but was still trying to go above and beyond to help her. She began lashing out at me in mid 2010, which is why I went out to get the bids on the remaining 6 items. The best offer on all six remaining items came in at $12,325. I could have accepted the offer and got my money back with a fair profit for the two years, but I did not accept the offer (I was still hoping she could buy back some of the items back, or that I could make enough on some items and then consider giving her some items back).

I did not hear from her after these exchanges in 2010. In the beginning of 2012, I still had those six of the seven items available. I then sold one item and one reworked item in 2012, and sold one item in 2013 (I had to recut the center gem for the customer to buy it) . After 7 years, I still have three of the seven items in stock.

As I stated in the beginning, we did help her and tried (not always successful) to help her above and beyond what was agreed. All this has been discussed with the customer in great detail via phone and emails. The only fraudulent and bad business practice was that I did and continued to try to bend from the original purchase agreement by giving her more (by my choice, not any obligation). We clearly purchased the nine items on 4/5/2008, but agreed to not alter them or scrapping them for six months to allow her to purchase any item(s) back. After six months, all options she had were expired. But, we even held off an additional six months without altering or scrapping and items.

She simply has no real claim, we not only fulfilled the purchase agreement, we provided well above the signed purchase agreement. We gave her two pieces back that we clearly purchased, and tried to give her more. Regretfully we have not been very successful in selling the items in a timely manner to even consider giving her any more at this time.
We have incurred cost reworking many of the items to sell them, which was indicated to the customer via emails. We have had to recut one of the large sapphires to sell it.

I have been very flexible with this customer, trying to help her out above and beyond. I would still be more than happy to allow the customer to repurchase any of the remaining items at the original allocated cost, or give her an additional $1,000 when all the items are sold. I would also be willing to split the profit with her if she sent in a customer or customers that purchased the remaining three items.