Beware of Jeweler's Lifetime Guarantee

Hardly a day goes by that some client asks us if we have a lifetime guarantee. We immediately know they have been pitched the lifetime guarantee gimmick at some jewelry store. We ask them what kind of guarantee and the answer always has something to do with getting their jewelry item every six months and the jeweler providing fee cleaning but gets a little fuzzy about what the guarantee actually provides. They think it protects them against loss and damage but they are not sure on the specifics.

Of all the shoppers who have mentioned a lifetime guarantee, not one had the guarantee in writing.

The jeweler’s requirement that every item be inspected every 6 months gets customers into the store on a regular basis with the hope they will purchase something else. It is also common for these regular inspections to discover a mounting needs replacement, repair, or an upgrade, at the consumer’s expense. If the consumer has his or her jewelry maintained or repaired by anyone other than the jeweler, the action voids the warranty. This marketing gimmick keeps the customer not only coming back on a regular schedule to the jeweler; it keeps them out of other stores.

The danger with these lifetime guarantees is that shoppers assume they are covered for all problems and therefore do not purchase jewelry insurance. The fine print in most of these guarantees stipulates the warranty does not apply to lost, stolen or abused merchandise, but who ever sees the fine print.

We found one guarantee with the following wording:

Your diamond is warranted against loss from the original mounting for the lifetime of the purchaser, providing it is examined at least every six months by a (jeweler’s name) authorized inspector and documented on this certificate. This warranty covers only loss, which is incurred through normal wear, and any unusual damage or accidental mishap will nullify this protection. Prongs must be intact and not separated, and any necessary repairs found during inspection must be made by (jeweler’s name) at the consumer’s expense. In the event of loss, (jeweler’s name) will replace your diamond with another of equal value. ($5,000 maximum merchandise liability)

Take a close look at this warranty from the consumer’s perspective.

• The consumer must pay for regular maintenance found at the six-month inspections or they void the warranty. The jeweler decides what is required, even if it is new mounting, or they can void the warranty.
• The jeweler defines “normal wear” so any “unusual” wear voids the warranty.
• An accident voids the warranty so any event the consumer did not intend to do will void the warranty. Can you think of what could happen to damage an item of jewelry that does not include “unusual damage or accidental mishap?”
• If the prongs are not intact or are separated (bent), the warranty is not valid. The real question is how can the diamond be lost if the prongs are intact and not bent? The language of the warranty excludes everything that could happen to cause the loss of the diamond if the prongs have to be intact and unbent.
• The warranty implicitly excludes loss, theft, or damage, which are covered by jewelry insurance.
• It is obvious that the lifetime warranty is a valuable marketing gimmick for the jeweler, but what value is this warranty to the consumer?

In other words, the only thing they “might” cover is the jeweler’s negligence. Jewelry insurance covers all the things that typically happen to jewelry (loss, theft or damage) and the jeweler’s “warranty” covers none of it. The biggest loser is the shopper who does not get insurance because they believed they were covered by the guarantee. They are in for a rude awakening if anything ever happens to their jewelry item.