Customers not getting the full value of their jewellery from cash for gold companies

It has been claimed in a recent report that companies that offer cash for gold jewellery are not giving consumers the full value of their jewellery. In fact, the report claims that quite often consumers are only receiving a fraction of the worth of the jewellery from the firms. According to the consumer campaign group Which? consumers are getting ’shockingly bad value’ on their gold jewellery given how the value of gold has increased.

Over the past couple of years a rising number of firms have been running expensive television advertisements offering to buy consumers unwanted gold jewellery and offering a fair valuation and price for the items sent in. With many having suffered in the difficult financial climate many have decided to send in their gold jewellery in order to raise some quick cash, but officials from Which? have said that they are receiving nowhere near the amount that the jewellery is actually worth.

Which? carried out an exercise where they bought three items of gold jewellery totalling £729 in value. However, when they tried to sell it to the companies that were offering cash for gold they received offers that were as low as just £38.57. One company even said that it would not return a £399 necklace free of charge because it was not even gold, and officials from Which? have said that this was not accurate.

The investigation showed that on average the cash for gold companies that advertise on television were only offering 6 percent of the retail value of the jewellery whereas High Street stores were able to offer an average 25 percent. The cash for gold firms have said that the reason that they offer varying values for jewellery is because of the different costs that they have to pawnbrokers and jewellers.