Complaint Review: Harry Ritchie Jewelers - Everett Washington

Under the terms of our in house finacing, there are different levels of account statuses. Credit building accounts require the item to be paid in full before the piece can be taken home. If an individual is currently in a lower credit bracket this would be the reason why this situation happened. The point is your fully financed and everytime you make a payment we report to all three bureaus. This is a benefit to someone who may not be able to afford fine jewellery. Until the item is paid in full, it is legally the ownership of the company.

If they are charging you interest on the account, keeping your merchandise until it is paid for is illegal. Report this activity to the attorney general in your state. Also complain to the better biz bureau and any consumer agencys. And for heavens sake, don't do biz with a company that can't even spell 'jewelry'!!!

Don't know about that credit building. The thing you had better watch out for is that if too much time passes the store may have the right to dispose of any repairs or mfg's not picked up in a certain time frame. All stores are different, but depending on any paperwork that you signed, initialed or agreed to in any way, may give them certain rights under STATE LAW. To top this off you say you moved any any notice they may send might be returned to them. Don't wait. I think that's BS about "pressures you to buy".

I am not sure here why you expect to get your jewelry back without completeing payment. In most businesses, payment is due when service is rendered. If you drop your car off for service, you have to pay in order to pick it up. The same is true for just about everything. Yes, they are your diamonds, but the fact is the store has put out their time and money in order to do the reset, why should they have to eat that just because you ordered something you can't pay for? As it is, it seems that the store did the best thing since you haven't paid yet and you don't live there anymore.

The "Credit Building Plan" sounds exactly like a layaway purchase. The store should use that word in describing the plan, and explain up front to all plan customers that they cannot have the merchandise until after all payments are made. Reporting layaway payments to "credit companies" may or may not improve the consumer's credit rating, since layaway really isn't credit. It's quite the opposite. The consumer is trusting the merchant to deliver the merchandise later, rather than the merchant trusting the consumer to deliver money later. On repair/modification jobs, if the customer has inadequate credit, it seems simplest to collect all of the price before starting work. This avoids the problem of deciding the disposition of the piece (or parts of it) if the customer doesn't make the rest of the payments. In my non-lawyer opinion, if the jeweler wants to play hardball, he can probably claim a mechainc's lien on the pendant (with diamonds) and keep it until the $500 is paid. This also should have been explained to the customer up front.

FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO COME INTO OUR STORE.HARRY RITCHIES IS A FAMILY OWNED JEWELERY STORE AND THEY ARE THE ONES GIVING OUR CUSTOMERS THE CREDIT THEY COME IN FOR. FOR PEOPLE WITH NOT SO GOOD CREDIT, WE GIVE THEM AN ACCOUNT CALLED THE CREDIT BUILDING ACCOUNT. WHICH IT DOES JUST THAT. WE REPORT TO THE CREDIT COMPANIES . SO WE ARE HERE TO HELP THOSE FOLKS IN NEED OF OUR CREDIT LINES. WE HAVE NO CONTROL OVER WHATS ON THERE CREDIT REPORTS ONLY THEY DO. SO IN GOOD FAITH I SAY THANK YOU DON RITCHIE FOR YOUR DEISIRE TO HELP PEOPLE WITH NOT SO GREAT CREDIT.