Resizing, engraving or repairing a ring is a service, and the consumer guarantees for services apply to it: the work must be done with due care and skill, must suit any purpose you made known, and must be finished within a reasonable time if no date was agreed. If the job goes wrong, the remedy turns on how serious the fault is.
The guarantees for the ring itself are in Buying a ring: your rights. This page is about the work done on it.
The three service guarantees
Each row summarises the ACCC’s explanation. The last column is this guide’s illustration of how it could read on a jeweller’s bench, not a ruling on any real job.
| Guarantee | What the ACCC says | Illustration on the bench |
|---|---|---|
| Due care and skill | The work can be no worse than a competent provider of ordinary skill and experience would turn out, and the provider must take reasonable steps to avoid causing loss or damage. | A band comes back from resizing with a visible seam that opens within days. |
| Fit for a particular purpose | The service, and anything it produces, must be fit for a purpose you told the provider about, one it advertised, or one you relied on its advice for. | You ask for the band to be sized to sit comfortably over a knuckle you showed the jeweller, and it will not pass the knuckle. |
| Within a reasonable time | If no time frame was agreed, the service must be supplied within a reasonable time; what is reasonable can depend on the kind of service, the weather and whether parts or materials are available. | An engraving with no agreed date is still not back weeks later, with no reason given. |
Before the ring is handed over
Each point below follows from a rule the ACCC sets out; the checklist form is this guide’s.
- Agree a date. The reasonable-time guarantee fills the gap only where no time frame was agreed, so an agreed date is the clearer measure.
- Say what the work is for. The fit-for-purpose guarantee turns on a purpose you made known, or one the business advertised or advised on.
- Write the inscription down. A service that fails to achieve a specific result you told the business about, and cannot easily be fixed in a reasonable time, is one of the ACCC’s tests of a major problem. A written note of the exact words, letters and dates is the clearest record of the result you asked for.
- Weigh the bench’s advice. There is no remedy under the guarantees if you insisted on your own method after the business advised against it.
- Keep the paperwork. You can ask for an itemised bill for a service, showing how the price was worked out and, where relevant, labour hours, the hourly rate and materials. The business must provide it within 7 days, and you have up to 30 days after the original bill to ask.
When the work goes wrong
A major fault and a minor fault lead to different remedies.
A major problem with a service
The ACCC counts a service problem as major when it creates an unsafe situation, has a serious problem, or a number of minor ones, that would stop someone buying it if they knew in advance, or cannot serve its normal purpose, a purpose you stated or a specific result you asked for, and cannot easily be fixed in a reasonable time. You can then choose to:
- end the contract and be refunded, though not always in full: work already done properly is still owed a reasonable sum; or
- keep the contract and pay less, by an amount that allows for the problem.
A minor problem with a service
The business must fix it at no cost to you. It does not have to offer a refund instead, though it may. Should the fix not come within a reasonable time, or not come at all, you can:
- have it put right elsewhere and recover the reasonable cost from the first business;
- ask for a refund instead, or cancel the service contract and be compensated for the drop in value the problem caused.
If you paid upfront, you are entitled to some money back, and how much depends on how much of the service was done properly, or done at all. Where a faulty job causes further loss or damage, the ACCC says compensation may also be available in some cases.
When the guarantees do not help
The ACCC lists two situations particular to services where there is no repair, replacement or refund under the guarantees: the service was done the way you asked against the business’s advice, or the problem was caused by someone other than the business.
Warranties on the work
A business may also promise to redo or fix work that goes wrong, a warranty against defects. Such a promise can be in a contract or on a label as well as in a formal document, and it adds to the guarantees rather than limiting them. A business must not lead you to think your rights stop at what its warranty offers.