Browns - the gift that keeps on taking

Sometime on 24/07/17 one of the larger emeralds fell out of my Emerald & Diamond Butterfly Pendant which had been bought from Browns La Lucia in late December 2015. I went to the La Lucia branch straight after work to show them what happened. Jenny and the other assistant showed much concern as how this could happen to a 19 month old piece of jewellery. However the moment i mentioned that the item was insured their attitude relaxed and they told me they needed to send the piece away to be inspected and the damage assessed. Only on the 03/08/17 did Jenny from Browns call me to say it had been decided the emerald fell out because of something i did to the necklace (naturally) and the repair would be just under R4 000.00. I was quite shocked as I thought that was a lot of money for one little emerald to be replaced due to faulty workmanship. Before i could even digest this Jenny told me that i needed to let her know IMMEDIATELY if they could go ahead with the repair. I explained I could not believe any firm who takes 10 days to give a quote can expect an immediate reply especially as this was not pocket change we were talking about, she agreed to "let me" come back to her the next day. I didn't as I was not in the office that day, so she called me on Monday 07/08/17. I told her that I was not going to pay almost R4 000 to Browns for fixing something that i felt was their fault was broken. Jewellery is meant to last a lifetime, not less than 2 years. Jenny did not comment and said she would let me know when I could pick up my jewellery once it got back from Johannesburg. That is over 6 weeks ago, and I still have heard nothing and still do not have my piece of jewellery back.

I am firstly horrified that Browns produces jewellery that falls apart , and looking at all these other reviews, this happens exceptionally often, and secondly am even more shocked at the lack of Customer Service I have received, especially after I wouldn't let Browns earn a continual income on a piece of jewellery by continually having to repair it. The gift that keeps on taking. I think not.