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Oscar Liu

Hong Kong customs officers have arrested the director of a company that designs wedding rings for allegedly failing to deliver products before it closed down, with the business named in 57 complaints involving about HK$520,000 (US$67,000).
Senior Investigator Alisagolis Ng Wai-ming of the Customs and Excise Department said on Thursday that the company’s 41-year-old sole director was arrested the day before on suspicion of violating the Trade Description Ordinance.
He added that the earliest complaint was received in June 2024.
“Customs received reports from multiple residents indicating a wedding ring design company had repeatedly and abruptly delayed delivering wedding rings ordered by customers for various reasons,” Ng said.
“By early March this year, [the company] could not be reached. Residents who visited their storefronts found them deserted.”
A source familiar with the case said the company involved was Mary5ive, which had branches in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom, alongside Macau.
Fifty-seven cases involving HK$520,000 had been reported to the department as of Thursday. The largest amount mentioned in a single complaint was around HK$20,000.
The department has already contacted some complainants and begun taking statements.
Senior Investigator Ng said the company had previously taken part in several wedding-related exhibitions, which had encouraged more people to place orders.
“When the company took an order, it said it needed time for customisation and set a delivery period of three months. But when the delivery deadline arrived, it used reasons such as delivering the wrong product or requiring modifications, or many other excuses to delay delivery,” the senior investigator said.
“This situation caused some couples who were nearing their wedding dates to exceed their budgets. They might have rushed to another jeweller for replacements or, in some cases, reached their wedding day without having received rings for the ceremony.”
The department also urged residents who had been waiting on rings from the company to promptly contact customs.
Under the Trade Description Ordinance, which is enforced by customs, a trader breaks the law if payment is accepted with no intention of delivering the product, or if they plan to supply a materially different product, or if there are no reasonable grounds for the trader to meet the promised deadline.

The offence carries a maximum fine of HK$500,000 and a prison sentence of up to five years.
Some Hong Kong and Macau residents also took to social media to share their unpleasant experiences with the company.
One social media user said he ordered his engagement ring from Mary5ive in July of last year at a wedding expo in Hong Kong and was told the company had a three-month delivery period.
“When three and a half months had passed, I had to chase up the company, only to be told it could not make the delivery. I fell for it and allowed it to change the deadline three times,” he said.
“In the end, it still failed to deliver. Throughout the process, the company was unresponsive and did not update me. There was no delivery at all. Now, I cannot even get a refund.”
An internet user in Macau said he placed his order with the company at the end of October last year and received the rings in January after several delays.
He added that some of his friends had set up a victims’ support group and sought help from Macau’s Consumer Council after placing orders with the business.


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Director of wedding ring business arrested in Hong Kong over incomplete orders

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News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Source names company as now-closed Mary5ive, which had branches in Macau and Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom


Source names company as now-closed Mary5ive, which had branches in Macau and Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom.


Macau

Crime

Scams and swindles