Watch Out, Your Jeweller May Be Cheating You

Selling Impure Metal And Faulty Weighing Scales Rampant. Whenever you buy a diamond necklace or stone-studded gold jewellery, shop owners might be cheating you of anywhere between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh. The warning came from none other than legal metrology department officials, who recently stumbled upon startling methods used by jewellery shop owners to dupe unsuspecting customers. 
    
During a recent raid at a jewellery store in Himayatnagar, officials found that shopkeepers were charging customers for 22 carat gold even as they were selling ornaments made of 18 carat purity. This meant that customers were paying Rs 500 extra on each gram of gold. Also, the jewellers were not deducting the ornament’s stone weight at the time of billing and were charging the price of 22 carat gold even for stones which cost much lesser. 
    

Since November 2012, legal metrology officials have registered 50 cases against gold merchants in the state for similar violations. Of these, more than 40 were registered in Hyderabad. Raids were conducted at several popular jewellery shops in Punjagutta, Begumpet, Himayatnagar, Pot Market, General Bazaar and Abids. 
    
“A popular jewellery store, which has branches in Punjagutta and Abids, was booked twice recently for maintaining faulty weighing machines, causing each customer an average loss of a few thousand rupees. Similarly, two jewellery stores near Lal Bungalow and one at General Bazaar were found to be not deducting stone weight from gold ornaments,” said a legal metrology official. 
    

During another series of raids on bullion merchants, sleuths had found that some diamond jewellers were charging lakhs of rupees extra by claiming extra carats in each diamond. Each extra carat means a minimum loss of Rs 60,000 for the customer. Unfortunately those who buy diamond jewellery belong to the rich section of society and do not bother challenging the claims of jewellers, the official said. 

HOW NOT TO GET DUPED 

• The assistant controller of legal metrology, suggests a few measures to avoid being duped by unscrupulous jewellers: 
• Ensure that jewellers tell you the purity of the gold you are buying. If they do not, a case can be registered against them 
• Jewellers certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) get a Hallmark mentioning the purity of gold they sell. Use a magnifying glass to see if the gold is of 22 carat (91.6% purity) or 18 carat (75%) 
• While buying stone-studded gold jewellery, ensure that the jeweller has deducted stone weight from the total ornament’s weight     
• If you have doubts about the carat weight of a diamond (1 carat = 200 mg), you can ask for the stones to be weighed separately. A case can be made against the jeweller if the weight is found to be even a few milligrams lesser   
• Find out if the jeweller is using scales that are capable of weighing up to 1 milligram accurately. If not, they can be booked under the Legal Metrology Act