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Royal Mail has apologised after an “irreplaceable” diamond ring seemingly went missing in the post. Its Cheltenham owner says she and her husband are devastated that it has happened.
Rachel Murray lives with her spouse, Patrick Cooper, in the Fairview part of the town. She said: “The ring is essentially irreplaceable and it is very upsetting indeed.
“To have lost an item that is extremely personal and of such sentimental value is devastating. Patrick was involved in the design process as well and he feels the loss as much as I do.
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“He and I waited a long time to get married and we feel as though we’ve lost a part of our history and have been fobbed off as if it’s a birthday card that has gone missing.” Rachel said the ring was made by a close friend, who was a very successful designer and had also worked on behalf of famous artist Damien Hirst.
She said it was made of palladium, a single diamond and five emeralds but said she did not want to reveal its value. She added: “It is a bespoke piece of jewellery. It has stopped me from sending anything through Royal Mail since.”
The ring went missing after initially being given to a jeweller for cleaning. It was sent to another jeweller based in London as part of it was damaged and required specialist repair.
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Rachel added: “We are only being partially compensated by the insurance company of the jewellery shop in Cheltenham and Royal Mail have not taken any responsibility for the loss. We have had to use a solicitor to even get to this point and as such are now significantly out of pocket.”
She said the most upsetting thing had been the way the matter had been handled by Royal Mail. She said: “I still have not had any information regarding any outside investigation and they appear to be settled with listing the package as ‘missing’.
“I have been informed that there were other items belonging to other customers in the same package. I have no proof that any of the investigations/interviews have taken place.
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“Because they have deemed it ‘missing’, I can’t involve the police in case of theft.”
What Royal Mail said
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for any distress and inconvenience caused to our customer by the reported loss of her engagement ring. If our customer would like to submit a claim for compensation via the details on our website, we would be very pleased to consider it.”
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