Wedding ring breaking for THREE times and NO ONE is helping us.

My husband and I are EXTREMELY UPSET and FRUSTRATED!!

7 January 2022: My husband bought (cash) my wedding ring and band from Sterns Cape Gate. The purchase price was down from R 22 999 to R 13 500. The ring is flower shaped (as I love flowers so it was very sentimental). After purchasing the ring he immediately added it to our private insurance company, where all our house, cars and everything is added to as well. The ring is Yellow Gold (9ct) and consists of 36 diamonds. I got engaged on the 1st of October 2022, so this was the first time I was wearing my ring.

10 February 2023: One of the claws of the wedding ring twisted and one of the heavier diamonds almost fell out. It went for a full assessment with the next information: the client must have damaged the ring as to it being the client's fault. There is no factory fault on the wedding ring. I only wear my wedding ring to work (high school teacher) and NEVER at home, swimming, cycling, doing dishes without it, showering, doing the garden, etc. I only wear my ring from 7am - 3pm. We decided to claim from our private insurance to repair the ring, as we are going to get married at the end of 2023. For those who don't know, everytime a ring is repaired, the value of the ring is decreasing and the monthly installment for the insurance on the ring gets increased as it is a high level of damaging item on our side. The ring is now repaired after claiming and we think all is well...

10 November 2023: My husband and I wanted to solder the wedding ring and band together as it is sentimental to use for the two rings being seen as one. Getting to the Somerset West Sterns we actually saw that the wedding band (9 ct gold also with small diamonds) just snapped... how does this EVEN HAPPEN ????? Again, we claimed, repairing, leading to another decreasing value and increased insurance rate.

25 June 2024: I got home after activities (with my silicone ring, as I am too scared to do anything with my wedding ring). I decided to wear my wedding ring as my husband and I just wanted to go grab a coffee and I wanted to wear my ring for once. We came back from getting coffee and there YET AGAIN another claw is twisted and the diamond is almost about to fall out. We assess AGAIN. The same story: The client damaged the ring (how can I do that while just going out for coffee???) and we need to pay another amount AGAIN for repairs. Again, no factory fault on their side. Now for a THIRD TIME, we must claim, the value of the ring gets decreased (for the third time around), our insurance installment get increased (must say, for the third time AGAIN). We are not going to repair or pay anything until you as Sterns either give us our money back, or give us the chance to choose another wedding ring with the same value. Like I said, we kept ALL the slips, assessments, payments, the certificate, everything. At this point we are even looking to assess the ring at various other places, because we are very sure that there is a factory fault on this ring. In the last assessment we received (as you'll see attached) it even states that the ring has no diamonds...???

I spoke to 5 different people at customer services this morning and they all told me the same thing... nothing can be done as we are not insured at the TFG-group. No one even once mentioned to both me and my husband that you need to be insured with this group in order to get help, repairs, money back or whatsoever. This is going to be sorted out ASAP, as if it is not, I am willing to go to court, papers and even Carte Blanche. After reading all the reports on Hello Peter we were so shocked that something like this can even happen to a PURE GOLD and PURE DIAMOND wedding ring and band.

If I am not to receive an email back with a solution that doesn't cost us anything, I am going to take this further.