SLJ Designs - www.sljdesigns.co.uk

A friend purchased a pair of cufflinks for my partner for Christmas from SLJ Designs, from her Etsy shop. The cufflinks were attractively designed but, on first wearing (normal wear, in an office), one of the cufflinks fell apart.

As the cufflinks had been a gift, my partner approached SLJ Designs himself. However they insisted that the approach had to be through Etsy and contain the original invoice plus a photograph of the broken cufflinks. My partner duly jumped through these hoops - embarrassing as it was to have to ask for the invoice for what had been a present. (The giver is an older person and would not have been able to deal with scanning, taking digital photos, uploading, etc.) It became clear, while my partner was putting together the message on the Etsy site, that SLJ wasn't trading there, either any more or for the moment.

The business simply ignored the Etsy message, so my partner had to contact her again directly. This time she said that she was going to be away for a while and so wouldn't be able to be deal with the problem, again saying that everything must be done through Etsy - fair enough, but not if she is going to ignore any message sent through Etsy.

Begrudgingly they offered to "inspect" the cufflinks if they were returned, and then possibly to make a repair. However she would not refund "as the item has been purchased over 30 days ago" (yes - as a Christmas present, so of course bought well in advance, and the rest of the delay is due to them not responding to e-mails). She said that the repair would only, possibly, be done 2-4 weeks later.

Throughout the whole matter they have been unhelpful and discourteous. The cufflinks weren't cheap (£39.50) and, frankly, even if they hadn't been faulty, they weren't worth the money. They're OK, quite a reasonable design, but nothing special.

Avoid a huge disappointment and buy elsewhere.