It’s a cautionary tale. An Upstate woman bought jewelry at a nationally known store that didn’t stand up to the test.
Hannah Wright in Spartanburg purchased what she thought was a 10 karat gold wedding band from Zales and found out it wasn’t gold at all.
“When I got it back, it was gold, it didn’t shine, not one bit, and I thought, maybe it’s dirty, kind of looked like fingerprints a little bit so I asked her to clean it, and I get it back and start turning it and looking at it, and it almost looks like the silver, the white gold part of it was flaking off so it’s kind of discolored in areas,” said Wright.
So she got it tested, by a place with 30 years experience assessing the value of things, the EZ Money Pawn Shop in Spartanburg. Lara Brown, a manager there showed us how the acid test works.
‘If it’s not real, it will disappear completely, and that’s what hers did. There was no gold left, the acid ate it completely off the stone,” he said.
Zales doesn’t allow news cameras in its stores, so we couldn’t talk with people here in the Westgate mall location. But the corporate office did tell me it’s investigating what happened.
In a statement, Zales said:
“Integrity is a core value of our company, and the trust of our guests is of the utmost importance to us. As such, we have diligent processes in place to ensure appropriate tracking and security of all guest merchandise brought in for repair or service.
In any instance where a guest presents a concern, we work with them directly to ensure a satisfactory resolution reflective of our commitment to each and every guest.
Wright says not all the saleswomen at the store believed her, but she did get her money back.
It was no fairy tale, but a less than two months before her wedding, at least she has a happy ending.
