On 12/31/21, I paid almost $600 in American dollars for a pendant from Austen Jewellers. It is undisputed that they received my credit card payment for this. Wayne Austen and I spoke on the phone on 12/30/21, and we agreed that he would ship the pendant on 1/4/22 and text me the FedEx tracking number. They did not ship the pendant on this date.
Since I did not get a tracking number, I texted them on 1/5/22 about this. They demanded that I send them a photo of my ID (presumably my driver's license) before they would ship the pendant. I told them I would not do this because it was high risk for identity theft and there was no legitimate reason for it. They lied and said customs required this. I get a fair number of international--including Canadian--shipments, and customs has never required this.
They then left a voicemail saying that they required IDs for all purchases greater than $1500--but this purchase is much less than that.
They also lied in the voicemail by claiming that customs would not allow packages to be sent to a UPS Store, which is my official mailing address. I have gotten many international--including Canadian--packages at this store without ever having a problem.
I then texted them saying that if I did not get a valid FedEx tracking number by the end of the day, I would report this as fraud to my credit card company. They then sent me a text with a FedEx tracking number.
When I put the tracking number into the FedEx website, the website informed me of the following:
"3:47 PM Shipment information sent to FedEx."
"3:50 PM Shipment cancelled by sender."
So Austen scheduled a shipment just to get a tracking number to text to me, and then canceled the shipment 3 minutes later. The pendant was still for sale on their website.
I then filed a Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaint and notified Austen Jewellers that I had done so. At that point, they got the pendant sent out, but Elyse Austen demanded that I “retract all previous allegations, including the BBB complaint.” I obviously will not retract statements that are true and documented by texts and voicemails.
Austen Jewellers also somehow found out my email address, even though it is not public, I never authorized anyone to give it to them, and they had no legitimate reason for having it.
Even though I finally received the pendant, it took filing a BBB complaint to make this happen.
In addition, Austen Jewellers’ demand for a photo of my ID, repeatedly lying in an attempt to find out my home address when they had a valid delivery address, and getting my private email address without my authorization, are very disturbing. Identity thieves are very interested in obtaining this kind of information.
Austen Jewellers Ltd Reviews
On 12/31/21, I paid almost $600 in American dollars for a pendant from Austen Jewellers. It is undisputed that they received my credit card payment for this. Wayne Austen and I spoke on the phone on 12/30/21, and we agreed that he would ship the pendant on 1/4/22 and text me the FedEx tracking number. They did not ship the pendant on this date.
Since I did not get a tracking number, I texted them on 1/5/22 about this. They demanded that I send them a photo of my ID (presumably my driver's license) before they would ship the pendant. I told them I would not do this because it was high risk for identity theft and there was no legitimate reason for it. They lied and said customs required this. I get a fair number of international--including Canadian--shipments, and customs has never required this.
They then left a voicemail saying that they required IDs for all purchases greater than $1500--but this purchase is much less than that.
They also lied in the voicemail by claiming that customs would not allow packages to be sent to a UPS Store, which is my official mailing address. I have gotten many international--including Canadian--packages at this store without ever having a problem.
I then texted them saying that if I did not get a valid FedEx tracking number by the end of the day, I would report this as fraud to my credit card company. They then sent me a text with a FedEx tracking number.
When I put the tracking number into the FedEx website, the website informed me of the following:
"3:47 PM Shipment information sent to FedEx."
"3:50 PM Shipment cancelled by sender."
So Austen scheduled a shipment just to get a tracking number to text to me, and then canceled the shipment 3 minutes later. The pendant was still for sale on their website.
I then filed a Better Business Bureau (BBB) complaint and notified Austen Jewellers that I had done so. At that point, they got the pendant sent out, but Elyse Austen demanded that I “retract all previous allegations, including the BBB complaint.” I obviously will not retract statements that are true and documented by texts and voicemails.
Austen Jewellers also somehow found out my email address, even though it is not public, I never authorized anyone to give it to them, and they had no legitimate reason for having it.
Even though I finally received the pendant, it took filing a BBB complaint to make this happen.
In addition, Austen Jewellers’ demand for a photo of my ID, repeatedly lying in an attempt to find out my home address when they had a valid delivery address, and getting my private email address without my authorization, are very disturbing. Identity thieves are very interested in obtaining this kind of information.