W Hamond - The Original Whitby Jet Shop

It was our 20th Wedding Anniversary recently and we took my original engagement ring to the shop, to see if we could get another stone set as the original had been lost. After speaking with Micheal who had brought out a number of lovely gemstone options, he then brought out some beautiful peices of malachite. I am utterly delighted that the ring my hubby originally had made for me in Whitby was restored to its original beautiful bespoke condition. I cant tell you how pleased I am with the service from both Micheal and Gillian.

Had a great experience at the jet shop with my husband. He brought his ring in to get his garnet replaced with Whitby jet and Michael sorted it out on the same day! Stone island is flush and service was great. Fantastic jewelers with an amazing range. Absolutely would recommend 👍

Absolutely fantastic jewelers. So incredible helpful and kind— they helped my fiance sort my engagement ring out as well as (very last minute) ordering stunning wedding rings with inlaid jet. They also had to deal with a size change on one of them!! We ordered them June 5th and received them well in advance of our wedding elopement (which will be on June 28th). Staff were wonderful, accommodating, and the jewelry is stunning.

We purchased some earrings for my daughter via the Hammond website. Following a prolonged and frankly unacceptable delay in their dispatch, with little or no explanation or apology, the incorrect earrings eventually arrived after some chasing. Given the pitiful communication skills of this company rather than begin the correction process via email we decided to have a day out in Whitby and exchange the earrings for the correct ones face to face. A little bit of background. many of you I know will believe, quite understandably, that the quaint little shops scattered around Whitby selling Whitby jet are all independent with craftsmen plying their ancient trade within the store, they are NOT. Most of the little shops are now owned and operated by C.W.Sellors who also own W. Hammond the much trumpeted 'Original Whitby Jet Shop', they are by definition as original as Ratner was to fine jewellery! Meanwhile in the 'Whitby Jet Store' just down the road from Robinson's Jet (both owned/operated by Sellors) my wife was trying to exchange the earrings. 'There'll be a £25.00 cleaning fee', we were informed. Now I don't disagree with the company cleaning returned items particularly studs etc but firstly; should the customer who has been sent. the wrong item have to pay for this and secondly where on earth does £25.00 cost come from?? I enquired, they couldn't provide a reason other than that catch-all rhetoric ... 'it's just our policy'. Policy of lifting customers leg. So to be clear, in the main all the little shops in Whitby, some in York, selling Whitby Jet are owned and operated by C.W. Sellors who mass produce these items and then distribute to the facade of quaint shops within the town. Their customer service and 'policies' we experienced are very poor and, I'd suggest, conflict with relevant legislation. Important to note, there are still independent genuine retailers of Whitby Jet in Whitby who produce top quality and individual pieces. Please, search them out and don't make the same mistake I made.

I have been shopping (in the Whitby store) with WHamonds for 30 years and have numerous pieces of their beautiful jet jewellery - however my last experience with them has been awful! We were going to Whitby last weekend for a little break and I had seen a bracelet online in WHamonds that my husband said he would buy me for Christmas. We rung the Whitby store but it wasn’t in stock, so we purchased it online expecting 4-6 week delivery. It arrived early - the day before we went to Whitby! Perfect - however when I opened the parcel - the bracelet was far smaller and far more delicate than it looked online and unsuitable for me unfortunately - so we took it to Whitby with us the next day to return … this is what the awful service began! We took the bracelet straight into the Whitby store as soon as we arrived on Friday lunchtime. I didn’t see anything else I wanted as an exchange at that time, so we asked the lady on the counter to return this for a refund. We were told she couldn’t generate the refund as it was an online order - very odd considering it was purchased from WHamond and I was in the Whamond store! I have never ever had this issue with any other online/store return! She said she would send the bracelet back to head office which would get there by the next morning or Monday morning at the latest and the refund would be generated. In the meantime - I had seen the Google reviews regarding the awful refund experiences from other customers….. On Tuesday afternoon - I rung WHamonds Customer service line to be told I would be contacted in due course to see if I wanted a credit note or exchange - just like all the other negative reviews! I told her implicitly that I required a refund as they already have the item back. She said I would get an email when head office ‘receives it back’ - I again stated that Hamonds already ‘had the bracelet in their possession and I had the receipt from the Whitby store to prove it. She was very unhelpful and basically said the refund would happen when it happens - usually 14 days after receipt! (Ridiculous situation considering I had physically retuned the bracelet to the store!) Contacted them again on Wednesday to be told that there was nothing on the system that I had returned the bracelet and they would contact the store to find out where it was! So I assume it’s still sitting in a shelf on the store somewhere! No refund - no bracelet! I will be contacting my bank to instigate a charge back if I don’t hear from them the by the end of office hours today. So - in a nutshell - if you want a pleasant, easy, shopping experience - just like the other negative reviews reviews regarding refunds - do not shop with WHamonds online!