Jewellery Trade Scams - Scrap Metal Refining

Call me Jack

Well, it would seem that even Jack's personal friends can get totally scammed. About a months ago we went to dinner with two other jewellers we have known for a few years. They had a particularly distasteful story to tell.

They are a husband and wife team who own a lovely shop in the East Midlands where they make bespoke wedding and engagement rings and other handmade jewellery. As such, they produce a certain amount of waste metal, which we in the trade call scrap.

So. What do we jewellers usually do with this scrap? We don't throw it away as its precious metal. We sell it to a bullion refiner, similar to those who offer money for scrap or broken jewellery on the high street. Normally, you would sell it back to the bullion dealer who sold you the metal in the first place as they will likely give you the best price on your account. However, in this case, my friends were cold called by a company called Recycling Trading Company (RTC) whose offices and refinery is in New Bond Street, London. Nice and safe, wouldn't you have thought? No - not at all - quite the reverse actually, and a scam that I am starting to hear more of committed by who we all think of in the trade as highly respectable companies.

Anyway. RTC cold called my friends and asked if they had any scrap for refining. Of course my friends initially said they always sent the metal back to the bullion merchant who sold it to them, but RTC said they could better the price. So, of course my friends said they we welcome to send their agent to collect a bit of silver scrap they had.

The agent arrived, my friends gave her just over a kilogram of scrap sterling 925 silver, which they would have sold back to the bullion dealer for around £200 on account. On the high street, from any shop taking scrap metal, you can get between £160-180 for this amount of scrap 925 silver in cash on the spot. RTC said they would pay around £20 more than the bullion merchant - so it seemed a sensible deal to my friends, who had already told RTC twice about their existing deal with their bullion merchant - so there was no mistaking the money that was expected for the goods.

Great - so if you can get an extra 10% on your silver through RTC, what can yo get for your gold and platinum? My friends were naturally expecting a cheque for £220, approximately, but to their horror one arrived for £57.50. At first they thought it was a mistake, so they phoned the company - they got a brick wall at the receptionist who wouldn't pass them on saying that all queries had to be put in writing. My friends are persistent though, so they eventually got a manager of RTC to phone them back - he said the silver melted down to around 250 grammes and that is what they had paid out on. But there was over a kilogram to start with? So what has happened? RTC stood their ground, saying that there was only 250g of actual silver in the sample. So the money remained as is, and that was that. Put any complaints in writing. Blunt as that!

As a jeweller myself, I know this is not right. I told my friends that refining has several processes to get back to pure metal: firstly a burning off of all the non metal solid particles (dust, any plastic or paper in the sample, etc) typically losing 5-10% of the weight; secondly a higher burn to melt all metal solids, losing up to another 5-15% of weight and then a separation burn at a very high temperature to separate all the alloys - now this one can bring the weight of actual precious metal (in this case fine 99.9% silver) to 35% of its original weight. A quick calculation suggested that this had been the process used.

Why is this a scam you ask? Well, on the high street you can get instant cash for 925 silver scrap of £160-£180 per kilogram. This is because the bullion refiners don't have to go past the first burn to refine it. Therefore you are going to end up with about 950g payable scrap at worst from solids or perhaps 850g if its dust. RTC must know this as they are refiners. Usually a company like RTC would pick up metal waste from dentists and so on, where precious metals have been used in fillings and are mixed with non precious metals or other materials. This sort of refining needs the high prolonged burn. Still, I'm pretty sure that RTC wouldn't pass up on getting maybe £275 a kilo for 925 sterling silver from any of their colleagues who will just refine it and sell it back into the market at treble that ... c'mon ... wouldn't they? They should know their business shouldn't they? I'm sure they do!!!!

SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM. RTC, you are the lowest of the low. worse than insurance companies by far - your industry is shrinking due to the recession so you are preying on the trades you reply on to pick up your sales and SCAMMING them, ripping them off and then not dealing with their complaints.

I have been since told by my friends that despite 3 letters to RTC, who it turns out are owned by a French parent company called Norphone have got them nowhere and now they are considering legal action, not for the money, which is only £150 or so, but for the principle. What if it would have been gold and not silver? Their losses could have been thousands.

Shame on you RTC, Recycling Trading Company, Norphone from New Bond Street !