Jewelry justice? Case solved in Santorini

By Anita Dunham-Potter

Travel columnist

updated 2:11 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2008

Anita Dunham-Potter Travel columnist • Profile • E-mail

Last April I told the story of Courtney Thompson, who spent $24,000 on jewelry for his wife while on a cruise stop in Santorini, Greece. When Thompson returned home to Florida, two appraisers valued the jewelry — a necklace, a bracelet, a ring and several pairs of earrings — at less than $9,000. As Tripso's cruise ombudsman, I looked into the case for Thompson, but I was unable to help. Recently all that changed.

In October, I received a phone call from Thompson saying that the owner of the jewelry store had contacted him to work out a resolution. Thompson was thrilled. He had waged a battle with the jewelry store, the cruise line, and the cruise line's shopping partner, Onboard Media, since June 2006 — and had gotten nowhere. But recently my story, which had been picked up by msnbc.com, made its way to Greece and set some waves in motion. Here are the results.

The jeweler's side of the story
A few days after hearing from Thompson, I had my first conversation with Alexandros Rogavopolous, owner of Alexandros Jewellers in Santorini. I had tried to contact Rogavopolous many times before the first story was published, but he never returned my messages. Now he had a lot to say.

Two reasons for the earlier lack of communication immediately became clear: There is a big language barrier, and Rogavopolous' store closes for the season from the end of October until April. Rogavopolous feels that both factors contributed to his employees' failure to pass along my messages and Thompson's.

Still, why did it take more than 18 months to solve this problem? The problem was that Rogavopolous felt he had no problem at all.

In fact, Rogavopolous thought he had taken care of Thompson's issues a year earlier, four months after Thompson made his purchases. He says there was a price error on the necklace and that it was a simple case of "price tag misplacement." Rogavopolous claims that two similar necklaces were marked incorrectly: the one with more diamonds was marked lower, and the one with fewer diamonds (the one Thompson purchased) was marked higher. He says that as soon as Thompson lodged his complaint, the store audited the price list and the invoices and confirmed the mistake.

"My store does inventory in October and I discovered a tag problem with Mr. Courtney's necklace," Rogavopolous explained (Rogavopolous always refers to Thompson as "Mr. Courtney"). "Since our firm was directly responsible for the mistake, after an agreement with the customer, we instantly returned the price difference of $3,500."

Indeed, there had been a credit on Thompson's credit card for $3,500 (2,800 euros), but Thompson didn't know the credit was from Alexandros Jewellers because American Express did not list the credit as such. Thompson thought it was a courtesy credit from the card company for the jewelry dispute. He still had a beef with Rogavopolous, but Rogavopolous thought they were done. "After October 24, 2006, I thought I had no problems with Mr. Courtney," says Rogavopolous.

Though he was happy they had settled their dispute, Rogavopolous still had a big problem with Thompson's two certified appraisals. Rogavopolous makes one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces that he considers to be works of art. "You go to local jeweler and they are not going to appreciate what I make," he says. "You buy jewelry at Cartier and you take to local jeweler and they are going to appraise it at half price. Mr. Courtney's appraisals were ridiculously low." Still, Rogavopolous felt that he had to put Thompson's issue behind him. So, on November 1, 2007, Courtney Thompson received a check for $12,500.

A relieved Thompson says, "I am just glad the matter is put behind us both."

Mistakes were made
Rogavopolous wants to clear the air on two other matters that arose in my story last year. First, he was very upset that Thompson said his store was closed when Thompson ran back to the store to question the sale before the ship left port. The ship's jeweler had advised Thompson that the jewelry was not worth what he'd paid for it. Finding the store closed — and before the posted closing time — Thompson thought he was a victim of fraud.

But Rogavopolous faxed me several time-stamped sales receipts indicating that the store was not closed at all. When I told Thompson this, he conceded that he had been completely exhausted from running up the hill into town and that it was "quite possible" he had gone to the wrong store.

The other matter Rogavopolous wanted clear up was why he left Onboard Media's group of recommended merchants in Santorini. "I was not kicked out of the program," Rogavopolous says. Indeed, he says he left voluntarily, because was it was costing him too much money.

Onboard Media contracts with Celebrity Cruises to run its "Guaranteed Shopping Program" in Santorini. According to Rogavopolous, Onboard Media gets 10 percent of every sale made to cruise passengers, plus an additional 5 percent to cover advertising costs on board the ships. "Every time the ship come in I send them [Onboard Media] a check for $5,000, $6,000 — sometimes more," Rogavopolous complained. "Onboard Media are pimps to the cruise tourists."

Print this Email this Blog this  IM this

MORE FROM CRUISING

Cruising Section Front

Bigger is better Carnival’s ‘Man’ attraction Help! My cruise has been flushed away Fabulous far-flung cruises A tale of two crossings Cruise-onomics: 12 money-saving tips Central Park goes to sea Luxury cruising is the next big thing The world's most expensive cruises Crazy themed cruises to hit the high seas Cruising Section Front   Add Cruising headlines to your news reader: