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Chunghwa Post halts sale of controversial jewelry

State-owned Chunghwa Post Co announced yesterday that jewelry manufactured by jewelry designer Wu Chia-chen's (吳家溱) company, which was displayed and sold in its post offices nationwide, has been removed from the shelves amid controversy over the quality of the products.

Starting tomorrow, consumers who have purchased the company's red crystal diamond set will be able to return the product, and they will be entitled to a full refund so long as they present receipts and original packaging.

Chunghwa said, however, it has no way to assess the exact number of people who are entitled to a refund.

The announcement came in the wake of a story published by the Chinese-language Apple Daily News, which said that one particular item of jewelry produced by the company, the red crystal diamond set, contained less than 1 percent gold.

The company's brochure stated that the product was 14 karat gold, meaning it should be a little more than 50 percent gold.

Chunghwa's vice president Huang Shu-chien(黃書健) said the company has never given the postal firm a detailed report about the exact composition of the jewelry. In the order request forms distributed among employees, on the other hand, the company said the gold purity of its jewelry is slightly higher than 2.8 percent.

Huang said that all food and cosmetics products need to be examined and tested before they can be sold in post offices. However, jewelry is exempt from the requirement since it poses no threat to human health. Since April, it has started asking jewelry firms to turn in a report within three months.

Chunghwa told a press conference yesterday that it plans to present Wu with a claim to cover the potential losses owing to the withdrawal.

It will also turn the case over to the Fair Trade Commission to arbitrate on the issue.

The company's spokesman Sheng Yu-ting (沈宇庭), who is also the designer's husband, said yesterday that the company has never overstated the purity of its products, adding that the brochures were distributed by competitors who were attempting to drive the company out of business.

"We never claimed that our products are 10k, 14k or even 18k," Sheng said, "The purity is 2.8947 -- exactly the same as we mentioned in our advertisement."

Chunghwa began selling the jewelry in 2004, including necklaces, bracelets and rings. The red crystal diamond set had been on sale since last year.

Sales of Wu's products in post offices over the past six months have exceeded NT$10 million.

The 35-year-old jewelry designer created the brand using her own name in 2001. She claims to have designed jewelry for some of the biggest celebrities in Taiwan.
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