This happens because repair is not a consideration of manufacture. Enough money is made by inexpensive manufacture to allow for the occasional total replacement for during warranty replacement.

When I make jewelry I find it just good business to replace an entire bracelet rather than repair it.

1. The customer likes the service. This is good marketing.
2. Too repair most bracelets requires reheating and softening the metal soldering, hardening, polishing, cleaning and repackaging. About twice the labor plus any additional metal needed.

I will repair if possible jewelry I have made that has sentimental value, a gift from Grandma, first communion, a wedding ring. And were that's impossible, if I made the original and I absolutely have to, I can create so accurate a copy that it is impossible to tell from the original. I have done this only once.

Over twenty years I have replaced maybe six bracelets.

I don't mass manufacture but I understand the problems for those that do. I don't like the fact that we throw away things that can easily be repaired. It makes no sense from the end users position. But for a manufacturer it makes solid business sense in the current climate.
Handle the product once and get it out the door. This type of manufacturing cuts the labor side of the equation by at least 40% and probably more.

If you long for the old days when things came from under the glass counter rather than from off the blister pack rack then do away with the big box stores and crooked cabinet shops like Wal-mart, Home Depot, and Lowe's. Support the local downtown and buy from the corner hardware. Pay to have the kid with zits pump your gas and check your oil.

Me, I miss the Jordan Coal and Lumber Co. a lot.

Don