necklace repair (NOT)

I took a necklace in to my local Hinds shop to have it repaired. It was a necklace with metal balls and tubes over a gold chain, not a cheap necklace but not thousands I have had the necklace for 15 years which was a present for my birthday from family, not brought from Hinds luckily. Whilst I was wearing the necklace at home the chain broke and the balls and tubes fell into my lap, I managed to catch the chain before all the balls and tubes fell off the chain, I was pleased as this would show the pattern to the repairers for when it was put back together so I taped the ends of the necklace ready to show the repairer. I took the necklace to be repaired to Hinds, the assistant asked me if I had got all the balls and tubes, I said I thought I had but could not be 100% sure but to the best of my knowledge I had got them all. The male assistant then proceeded to pull the end of the chain out of the tape to measure it, but in doing this he let the end go and dropped all the tubes and balls over the floor (these are tiny) I was not pleased and voiced my dissatisfaction. He said he had got them all, I said how could he be sure as they were dropped from a height on to a glass counter and hard floor, then when I looked at the tape which had the other end in it still, there was a small piece of chain stuck in it where he had pulled the end out and broken a piece off, he said it didn't matter because I would only be charged for one repair,I was unhappy and asked to speak to the manager, who wasn't there, the under manager wasn't there so I asked to speak to who was in charge, a young girl said she was in charge so I asked her what she was going to do about what had happened, she said she couldn't do anything if I would not leave the necklace there to be repaired,which I did not want to do, so I asked for the manager to get in touch with me, she said she would but I had to ask her to take my name and phone number. I then phoned their head office and I was told I would have to send the necklace for them to see. I then wrote a letter saying what had happened but I received a letter back 2 weeks later saying that I would have to send the necklace to them because it could be a fault with the metal, I did not want to do this and said I would send it to a third party for it to be inspected because Hinds could say what they liked about the metal and I wouldn't know if this was fair or not,I don't understand what that has to do with anything, they broke the small piece of the necklace and they should pay for that to be repaired, I have had another letter asking again for me to send the necklace to them because the metal could have a fault in it. I am not going to send the necklace so I will have to send another letter, their staff could do with more customer service training, as the staff got quite aggressive with me when I was complaining in the shop and I still have not heard from the local shop.I really do not think they care and it feels like they are just palming me off I do not want them to do the repair and now feel that I should go and see a solicitor which will cost money and I think that Hinds rely on people not wanting to go to the expense of a solicitor over something so small.