ComplaintsforCity Jewellers

• Initial Complaint

  23/11/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  It is hard to define dates as this has been ongoing for an extended period of time. Before COVID I dropped a watch for repair at City Jewelers in Portage Place. I followed up in person and by phone and was advised they were having a had time finding a Spring for the watch, at one point I requested its return and was told they really did want to fix it, so I left the watch. They are very pleasant and I like supporting local. At the beginning of COVID I followed up by phone and was advised they would call me back. When I returned downtown I went to the store to find it closed, I found the store in Polo park was still open and that all goods from the Portage Place store had been sent there. I have followed up 2x in the last 2 months and on each occasion been told to expect a call back which had not happened. There stub (receipt) number **** does state "not responsible for goods left over 90 days", however I believe this is negated by my attempts to follow up and to pick up the watch which were not completed as they wished to continue to attempt the repair, (delays are not uncommon with vintage watches), however they have never contacted me even to follow up on my attempts to contact them. Adding to their lack of communication, they closed their location without notifying me. The watch is a vintage Gruen which does have both financial and emotional value in my collection. For resolution I wish for the watch to be delivered to my home address with no cost to my and no contact delivery. I understand the watch will not be repaired but do expect it to be whole and in one piece. I do not wish communication from the jeweler at this point. I believe these are good people and this somehow went astray, this is my first BBB complaint which could have been avoided if the store had communicated with me

  

  Business response

  08/12/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/11/28) */ Hello Alex, Thank you for reaching out. From what we have gathered in your entry, your main concern is that City Jewellers is not responsible for your vintage Gruen watch as it has been in our possession for over 90 days and our policy states that we are "not responsible for goods left over 90 days". To add to that, you mentioned that you were in contact with our Polo Park location in the last two months (August - October) to check in with the status of the repair but failed to give you a definite answer. You are dissatisfied that we have not provided you with an update and concerned that we would deny responsibility with your watch being in our possession for more than 90 days. You are also dissatisfied that we did not communicate that we had closed our Portage Place location and opened up in Polo Park. Our store policy does state that City Jewellers is "not responsible for goods left over 90 days". We would like to clarify that this only applies to items after we have informed the customer that it is ready for pick up and when we have received acknowledgement of this information from the customer. In this case, your watch has been in our possession for more than 90 days due to an ongoing repair and we are held responsible for it. We would just like to re-iterate that we are not denying responsibility for the watch. With that being said, the watch is still in the same condition as you left it in, although we still haven't supplied the defective spring. You agreed to repair the watch on January 17, 2020 when we gave you an estimate price for the repair and was informed that it will take a longer time to supply the defective parts as it is a vintage watch, which we are still in search of. We called/left a message to all of our customers, including yourself, to inform them about our Portage Place store relocating to Polo Park at the end of September of 2020. Due to the fluctuating COVID restrictions, we then called all of our customers on February 08, 2021 to inform them of our Polo Park opening -which we assume that you were clearly informed of as you have been in contact with our Polo Park location in the last two months. You also mentioned that at the beginning of COVID you contacted us to follow up on the repair. We were closed in March 2021 - April 2021 (at the beginning of COVID) due to the mandatory lockdown and only resumed operations in the first week of May 2021. We did attempt to leave you a voicemail in September 5, 2021 and in October 13, 2021 although the number could not be reached therefore could not leave a message. Peter Sr. and another staff also tried calling you prior to writing this response although the number could still not be reached. We do apologize for the delay of the repair. Vintage watches do require a longer time to repair due to the lack of parts given its "vintage" nature, which you have a good understanding of as stated in your entry. Due to COVID, there is also a delay in the shipment of parts which has prolonged this repair even more. We would like to note that repairs are only accepted by City Jewellers if and only if there is mutual agreement between City Jewellers and the customer to complete the repair -a customer has the right to terminate a repair at any point as long as the repair has not yet been completed. We do respect your decision to terminate the repair as it is taking longer than the usual, although we are surprised to know about this decision through BBB as we had the understanding that you still wanted to continue on with the repair based from the two (2) conversations you had with our Polo Park staff in the last two (2) months. We do apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. Your watch is ready to be picked up at our Polo Park location. For security purposes, we do not offer no-contact delivery as we require our customers to pick up the items in store as we require the claim stub and a signature upon release. Please call us at ************ to arrange a pick-up time. Thank you. Sincerely, City Jewellers Management Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2021/12/07) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) I appreciate the response, I wish any repairs to cease and assume I have 90 days to pick up my watch as Polo Park is no where in my travels. I will add that my phone number has not changed, at no point has it been out of service, I learned of the Portage Place closure by visiting the store. I do not believe any action has been taken on my watch in an extended period of time. If they were unable to perform the repair, I would have appreciated being notified in a timely manner. I am agreeing to this solution as they seem to have confirmed they have not lost my watch.

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