A woman is calling out Pandora after dropping so much dough on its silver pieces, only for the Danish jewelry manufacturer to refuse to exchange it when it tarnished. In a viral clip, TikToker @thebeststormeva, who claims to be a loyal Pandora customer, says she is sorely disappointed with the company’s way of handling its warranty as well as the quality of its sterling silver.
$2K down the drain
“Pandora needs to count their days,” @thebeststormeva begins in her five-minute clip. She shows a sterling silver bracelet as well as various charms on a white rag. The creator says she’s had the bracelet “for years.” However, on a 2024 trip to El Salvador, @thebeststormeva says she forgot to remove her bracelet during a clay mud spa. She took it off and cleaned it as soon as she got back to her Airbnb.
However, her bracelet and its charms ended up getting tarnished. So, after returning home, she took it to Pandora to have them cleaned. The result was not what she had hoped for.
“This is like $2,000 and something dollars gone down the drain,” she says.
The bracelet was still tarnished, but because @thebeststormeva had a lifetime warranty, she figured Pandora could simply replace the bracelet along with the charms.
She was sorely mistaken.
“I was told that it could not be replaced because I had had my bracelet longer than five years,” @thebeststormeva says. “Shouldn’t matter, right?”
Still, she took her bracelet home and tried to clean it on her own to no avail. Then, the TikToker remembered her other Pandora bracelet that had also tarnished. She questioned why the bracelet that hadn’t been exposed to clay from the mud spa would tarnish as well.
She shows that bracelet to viewers, and speculates whether it was “truly silver.”
“The cleaning rag they gave me, I used it, it has not turned back to silver,” she continues. “I’m questioning it, is it really silver?”
Does real sterling silver tarnish?
As a top comment on @thebeststormeva’s video pointed out, sterling silver does indeed tarnish. A Southern Living article breaks down why exactly this type of silver tarnishes. Pure silver is too soft to be durable for jewelry, so jewelry makers use an alloy to make it last longer.
“This alloy, made with 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals (typically copper), is called sterling silver,” the site states.
The site does state, however, that polishing the silver should bring back its natural shine. Other sites also confirm that sterling silver does not tarnish permanently. So was @thebeststormeva’s Pandora jewelry really made of fake silver? Since the TikToker did not disclose what method she used to polish her jewelry at home, it’s possible she did not use an effective method.
However, it doesn’t answer the question of how the bracelet Pandora cleaned still remained tarnished. On its website, the company states that its “Jewelry Care Kit contains a jewelry cleaning liquid, a soft cleaning brush and a polishing cloth made of cotton flannel that is infused with a gentle cleaning solution.”
How to polish tarnished jewelry
As for its method of cleaning its jewelry, Pandora lists out these steps:
- Submerge the jewelry in the liquid cleaner for two minutes, then rinse it with lukewarm water and pat it dry.
- For a deeper clean, use the soft cleaning brush included in the kit is perfect to remove extra build-up and clean around stone settings. To use it, dip it in the cleaning solution and lightly brush your jewelry, using the soft bristles to create suds that clean and restore shine.
- Finally, the company says to buff your jewelry to shine with the Pandora Polishing Cloth.
@thebeststormeva Is pandoras sterling silver really sterling silver? #fypシ #contentcreator #creatorsearchinsights #pandorabracelet @pandora.store ♬ original sound – Caught Up In Storm
Does Pandora have a lifetime warranty?
According to Pandora’s website, the answer is no. Under their warranty information, the jewelry maker says the warranty covers:
- Up to 2 years from the date of purchase for silver, gold, 14k rose gold-plated, and 14k gold-plated jewellery, as well as gold, white gold, and silver pieces from the Diamonds by Pandora collection.
- Up to 1 year from the date of purchase for items made with wood, leather, glass, or strings.
Since @thebeststormeva’s says her paperwork did say lifetime warranty, it is unclear how this happened. The Mary Sue has reached out to Pandora via email to verify. We also reached out to the TikToker via direct message.
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