Q: Can I take legal action against a pawn shop that gave me false information?
I paid $1000 for a diamond wedding ring from Zales. We were in a desperate situation and needed cash fast. We looked into Pawning the ring but they said it was only worth $100 and that they could only sell it for $300 at most. They told us we were lied to about the value from where it was purchased. It's been a year and we finally inquire about getting it back from them and they said that they would sell it to us for $1000. We feel like we were scammed by a con artist. Even if we weren't they are not taking responsibility for false information that affected our lives. There are no efforts being made to make that right. Can we take legal action?
A:
Hi,
First off, let me say I am sorry for the situation. This can be extremely frustrating especially if there is sentimental value attached to the item.
I am assuming you sold the ring rather than pawned it (you got a loan from them using the ring as collateral). If that is the case, you lost all rights to the ring when you sold it unfortunately.
This was an enforceable and legal transaction. You got $100, they got the ring. The Courts will not intervene in this situation. The courts have intervened when someone purchased a valuable baseball card for $100 instead of $10,000 because the seller didn't realize the tag said $10,000, but this isn't one of those cases.
You knew what you purchased the ring for, so you didn't walk into the transaction blind. Unfortunately, I don't think you much of a case. Pawn shops make their money by knowing more about the value and resell value of items better than their patrons. In addition,l you can't prove that the ring won't sell for $300 as far as you know the ring hasn't sold for $1,000. Maybe they have priced it too high.
Again, I am sorry you are dealing with this, but honestly, I don't think you have a case.
I hope this helps.
Wes
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