The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice

I got your address from an attorney who thought you could perhaps help me. I was dealing with a guy called Mr XXX who has a jewellery business called XXX's Jewellery in the Main Mall in Gaborone. I gave Mr XXX my wedding ring for coating and polishing at a cost of P300. To my surprise very soon afterwards I saw my wedding ring at Cash Crusaders on display for sale. When I enquired how my wedding ring ended up there they told me that Mr XXX pawned it and when he wasn’t interested in paying to get it back, Cash Crusaders displayed it for sale.

In order to get my precious wedding ring back I was then forced to buy it back from Cash Crusaders even though I already owned it.

I have all the receipts as proof of payment for re-purchasing my wedding ring at Cash Crusaders. When I was there I saw many more wedding rings on display at Cash Crusaders which are said to be from the same person.

What can I do?

This is a case where we can do our bit to help you but where another organisation can be of more help than us.

Call the Police! Give them all the details of your situation including copies of receipts, dates and times. File a formal complaint of theft, fraud or cheating, whichever the Police think is best. If in doubt file complaints of all three. Do not stop filing complaints until the police have run out of paper.

We spoke to Cash Crusaders about this and they told us that they will accept anything in return for cash so long as the person offering it has ID, proof of address and some sort of receipt. Not that difficult I suppose if you are a jeweller. However surely they must have known something suspicious was happening if the same guy kept coming in pawning items of jewellery?

We’ll do our best to track down Mr XXX to see if he can explain why he STOLE your wedding ring. We’ll see if has anything like a decent excuse for THEFT. We’ll see if he can persuade us why he’s not a CRIMINAL.

If he can’t do these things we’ll name him, blame him and shame him. We’ll record all our telephone conversations with him and give them to the Police to back up your complaint against him.

I don’t think he wants that to happen, do you?