Welcome to this momentous event! Here and now, you are invited to read this post about the Swindler Of The Year award for 2011. That’s right, folks, it’s SotY award time again! So here we go!
There’s an online jewelry store called http://www.limogesjewelry.com/ that I thought was a great place to shop. They have some really pretty jewelry there, and they also offer high quality engraving on nearly every item in the store. They offer free shipping sometimes and there are always some coupon codes out there to get some discount on your order, which is good since nearly everything on the site is pretty expensive.
I normally wouldn’t purchase anything online that has personalization options, since it’s so hard to return such things if they come out wrong. In this case, however, I felt I could make an exception for various reasons. That being so, I purchased a ring and had it engraved, and I can tell you I paid a fairly decent chunk of change for this ring. I was OK with that, since it was symbolic and very important to me. I was willing to pay more money to get higher quality. I shelled out the cash, sent in the order with personalization options filled out, and waited.
The ring arrived, and I was thrilled. It was shiny, it fit perfectly, and the engraving was correct. This was an unprecedented success, I thought. Sadly, that thought was not to be my last on the subject.
Less that 3 months after I purchased the ring, I woke up one morning to discover an itchy red rash on my ring finger, seemingly coming from under the ring. I removed the ring and my horror caused my breath to catch in my throat. As I said, this ring was very personal and meant a great deal to me symbolically and emotionally.
Imagine my absolute horror when I slid the ring off and discovered not only was my skin having an awful reaction to it, but I also discovered the reason for the reaction. I didn’t even have to take a close look. I glanced and saw what had happened. The silver ring was, in fact, not silver. It was some cheap metal, probably tin or maybe brass or something, not even stainless steel. It was supremely cheap metal covered in silver paint of some kind that was now flaking off in tiny little specks of shiny, and covering the skin on my finger. The reaction I was having to the ring was an allergic one that I get from wearing cheap jewelry, and I am familiar with it. I just didn’t expect it to happen with a ring I had spent and arm and a leg on. Looking at it now, I can’t understand what the fuck it was they were charging so much money for!
I went back to the website but of course the ring is no longer in their online catalog, and can’t even be viewed as a previous item or anything. It just gives a page saying “This item is no longer available” and sits there loading forever. [2-15-12 Update: The item IS back in the catalog now, and it says "Pure Silver" in the description. One would think that "pure silver" means that it is NOT a cheap copper or tin ring covered in silver paint that flakes off after wearing it for less than 3 months] I looked at their 90 day guarantee, which says you MUST include the original packing slip, which I had thrown away less than 2 weeks ago. I didn’t think I needed it anymore, since I was unaware that my ring was cheap junk that would start disintegrating soon.
So, my finger is red, itchy, and has little bits of silver paint stuck to it (that won’t come off no matter how hard I scrub) and the ring itself is now looking very old and patchy and basically looks like the piece of complete crap that it always was.
Usually I am all about caveat emptor. Buyer beware indeed. In this case, however, I thought for sure that I was getting a high quality product and I was more than willing to pay for such. The fact that it turned out to be a complete lie as far as I am concerned, is only made worse by the fact that there isn’t anything I can do about it. One of the worst and most ironic points is that the company appears to be very religious in some ways, which would lead one to believe they would not do such things as lie or sell a product they know is worthless while charging ten thousand dollars for it. No, I didn’t actually pay 10k for the ring, but considering my level of finance lately, that’s not an unreasonable comparison. I am absolutely heart-broken over this and I have no way to replace the ring any time soon. Thank goodness for my BFF who is not only awesome and understanding but totally gets me and can sympathize with why I am so upset.
I sent them an email about this but they can’t be bothered to respond, evidently. Not a surprise. They are probably so busy cheating people out of their hard-earned cash that they don’t have time to read any emails. That means that I have to say what I have to say here and hope beyond hope that someone at Limoges reads it and has some kind of a conscience
So, to the people at Limoges Jewelry:
Congratulations! You have won my Swindle Of The Year award for 2011! I hate you so much I hope a thousand syphilitic camels vomit into your couscous. I hate you. You have broken my heart. You sold me a piece of crap ring that you undoubtedly knew was junk, and made sure it wouldn’t start falling apart until long after any sane person would have lost or gotten rid of the packing slip. I have actually purchased better quality items for much less money in one of those little vending machines outside of the grocery store that takes only quarters and dispenses everything in those little plastic eggs. Yes, those. Even those pieces of crap are still better quality than the piece of shit you sold me, and they, at least, are honest about it. I have gotten better customer service from the indian at 7-11 who tried to shoot me with a 12 gague when he mistook me for the guy dating his daughters. I hate you Limoges Jewelry. Please die in a fire. Thanks.
To the people who read this blog:
Avoid Limoges like the plague, tell your friends and neighbors to do the same, and join me in boycotting another horribly money-grubbing company full of liars out to make a quick buck no matter whom it hurts.
To my BFF:
You rock. Thank You.
Update 2-15-12: I got an email back from them saying ‘sorry’ and ‘we’ll replace or refund or exchange the item’ but I have to wonder, will they just replace it with another piece of complete junk? We shall see. I will post results when they happen.
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So, update:
EVENTUALLY, after a lot of round and round, they DID refund my money. I still think they ought to give me something for pain and anguish but I doubt I could get that, and no need to push my luck. I have since gotten a replacement from a completely different company, in a totally different design, and so far it is holding up great. I really do NOT hope anyone at Limoges actually gets hurt, by the way, in a fire or otherwise. That is an expression, meant to show extreme displeasure. I don’t want them to die, I just want them to feel some kind of guilt about what they did, and undoubtedly have done to other customers. I am still baffled as to what the hell was going on over at their company that made them send me a cheap piece of junk advertised as pure silver, but it is in the past and now, perhaps, someone can learn something from it.
Companies seem to think that just because the internet makes the world smaller that they can take advantage of people and no one will complain or stand up for themselves. You MUST stand up for yourself when you get ripped off like this. Not because it’s going to stop them from cheating other people, not even because it is the ‘right’ thing to do. Stand up for yourself because you paid your hard earned money for a LIE, and let them know you’re not going to let them get away with it. Who knows? It might actually do some good out there, not to mention making things right with your wallet.
If you take nothing else away from this page of my blog, let the one thing you do take be this: When you are wronged, FIGHT for your rights and do not let any company get away with ripping you off. As a great man once said: FIGHT BACK!