The manufacturers argue that it’s all about making a product “more affordable” to consumers, which is fine, as long as the consumer knows exactly what they are buying.
In other words, the composition and an explanation must be declared on the labels so that consumers can make an informed choice.
Often, though, the “modified” version is passed off as a superior version of the original, despite the price suggesting otherwise.
The furniture industry, for example, has in recent years developed novel ways of slicing, manipulating and processing natural hides in order to make them go a lot further, thereby making “leather” lounge suites cheap enough to flog to the unsuspecting mass market.
One form is “bicast leather” or split leather – a thin layer of leather, cut laterally from a hide, which has been coated with polyurethane and then embossed.
Unlike genuine, full-grain leather, bicast leather will not develop that appealing leather “patina” or suppleness with age.
In fact, with use, the polyurethane layer is likely to crack and peel away from its backing.
The leather mark on such couches is thus clearly misleading.
But one local, national furniture retailer sold a batch of bicast leather chairs and sofas a few years back with the following tag: “Bicast leather is a very durable split grain cow leather, which, when coated with a polyurethane finish, gives the hide a beautiful lustre, robust feel and a superior finish.”
But many of those who bought these “superior finish” pieces – from a variety of retailers – didn’t find them to be very durable at all. Within a year or two, they began to peel.
As for individually quick-frozen chicken pieces, injecting the portions with brine began as a means of making the pieces more succulent, but the large amounts of brine currently being used by some companies suggests that selling water at chicken prices has become the prime motive.
And so to gold.
June Cairns of the Bluff, Durban, wrote to Consumer Alert about a pair of gold and diamond hoop earrings which her husband bought her from Natal Wholesale Jewellers (NWJ) in the Galleria, eManzimtoti, as a Christmas gift.
In June – just within the six-month Consumer Protection Act’s (CPA) warranty period – as Cairns was putting on the one earring, “the gold peeled off in a fine film in two pieces, and I was able to see what looked like plastic underneath”.
The couple returned the earrings to the shop, where the manageress told them she had never seen anything like it before, and said they would have to be sent back to the manufacturer.
The following week, the manageress got back to them to offer an exchange or a refund, which was their right in terms of the CPA.
Cairns chose a refund. But for her, that wasn’t the end of the story – she wanted to know why those earrings were filled with something other than gold, and why this hadn’t been disclosed by the company.
“So I called the company’s customer relations manager, Louise de Gabriele, about the matter. Her response was that I must have bent the earrings, which clearly didn’t explain the undeclared filling.”
On pushing her for an appropriate response, Cairns was forwarded an e-mail sent by the manufacturer, which read: “The Nano earrings are manufactured from 9-carat gold, which is then filled with a resin.
“This is a patented process which took years to develop. The benefit of the resin is that it strengthens the earring by giving it a solid inside, therefore ensuring the earring is not easily damaged.
“This product is sold to leading retailers in the US, Australia, Canada, France and Italy.”
De Gabriele added: “I trust the above clarifies the authenticity of the gold.”
Yes, the thin outer layer of those earrings may well have been authentic 9ct gold, but that was not the issue.
Clearly, creating a gold hoop earring with resin on the inside is a lot cheaper than using enough gold to create a sturdy hoop wall.
“While NWJ resolved the situation by refunding me,” Cairns said, “I believe that my husband, and others, were misled about this product at the point of sale.
“The layer of gold was very thin on those earrings; making them gold-plated, in my view. They should have been clearly marketed as such, and priced accordingly.”
As it was, she said, the earrings were sold for R1 365, and NWJ supplied a valuation of R2 100.
“And if this is such a widely used manufacturing method, I find it unlikely that the shop manageress would not have been aware of it.”
Contacted for a response, NWJ’s Ronald Earl told Consumer Watch that the earrings in question, which were sold as part of the company’s Christmas promotion last year, and not since, had already been recalled.
The Cairns’s were the only ones to complain about the earrings, he said, but the company “will be recalling 26 units”.
I pointed out that, when Cairns complained about her peeling earrings, she was not given any indication that NWJ felt there was anything wrong with the product.
“NWJ purchased the earrings in good faith from a very reputable source in the local jewellery supply chain,” Earl said. “It was standard quality, available to numerous retailers locally.
“NWJ did not go out of its way to source inferior product, or to mislead the public.
“NWJ takes all complaints very seriously and endeavours to act in a timeous and responsible manner regarding such quality issues.”
So why the recall?
“NWJ approached both the Jewellery Council for advice, as well as our supplier on the product issue,” Earl said.
“The supplier in question gathered extra info from their manufacturer and, based on this, decided to recall the item from stores.”
Asked how NWJ intended to go about recalling the other 26 pairs of “resin/gold” earrings sold, Earl said: “Where we have customer records of purchase, we will endeavour to contact them with an explanation and/ or refund.
“We also know which stores sold the item, and when.
“These stores will be told what to offer the customer should there be a complaint or return.”
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HOW TO TELL IF WHAT YOU’RE BUYING IS JUST WHAT YOU WANTED
Is this resin/gold product widely sold in South Africa, and, if so, how is it described to consumers?
Consumer Alert posed this question to Lorna Lloyd, chief executive of the Jewellery Council of SA. She said other major South African retailers had indeed sold this form of gold – labelled as 9ct gold in the past – but she wasn’t sure if it was currently on sale.
Asked how it should be labelled, ideally, she said: “Nine-carat gold outer with resin inner core.” That would do it, although to my mind the average consumer would get an even clearer picture if the term “gold-plated” was used.
“The goods are true gold alloy, with an internal core of resin, which is similar to the clay used to set crystals,” Lloyd said.
“From the supplier’s experience in all other countries they sell these products in, there were two issues: hallmarking and disclosure.
“Many items on the market today are gold products that also have crystals set in them, using a non-metallic resin.
“This enables the items to be stamped ‘gold’ without any reference to the other non-metallic components of the product. This is also true for gold watches, that do not reference the leather band.”
Ah, but in those cases, the non-gold component is clearly visible to the consumer.
“For items where the inner core is not visible, there needs to be a clear disclosure for the customer,” Lloyd said.
“(US home shopping network) QVC’s website clearly states that the goods have an inner resin core, so the customer will know that not the entire weight is of gold.
“A positive way in which to market this product would be to show that it is durable and strong because of the inner core.
“This is the way their Canadian customer went about it, when he called his brand of Nano products ‘4everLast’.”
Putting a positive spin on a “diluted” version of a product doesn’t serve consumers well, not unless the percentage of the product they think they’re buying – in this case, gold – is declared.
I asked The Foschini Group (TFG) – which owns the Sterns and American Swiss brands – whether it had ever stocked this form of gold and, if so, how it was labelled.
TFG Jewellery Division’s managing director, Adrienne Kleinman, said the term “Nano” gold was not understood in the same way by various stakeholders, nor consistently used.
“We believe that it would be confusing to customers and would not use it,” she said.
“We have had requests from customers to provide a 9ct product that is hardier than the hollow product currently made and sold worldwide, and filling the interior with resin would be one way of doing so.
Of course, using more gold would be another.
“We therefore can’t say that we would never stock a product like that, but we would ensure that the product was clearly labelled as such, as we’ve done with our Gold Fusion range,” Kleinman said.
Gold Fusion is a range of jewellery consisting of silver with a 9ct gold covering. So as not to confuse consumers, she said, the range is sold separ-ately in store, and it is labelled as comprising silver and the percentage of 9ct gold stated. This also appears on the till slip.