Sorry for your loss. Without having proof of purchase the management was correct there is no way to verify if it was purchase there. With you saying they should know their merchandise would you remember what type of material a piece of clothing or what every little thing you bought over 3 years ago well you should know it is yours. Same thing. Customers like you expect employees to know everything. Most employees dont work there a long time. Management changes over the years. With anything in life if you dont have proof there is nothing that can be done.
To state that JCp sells defective gold without proof it was purchase from there is wrong.

So the merchandise was and if bought from JCpenney over 3 years ago. My suggestion try to call the credit card company and get a copy of the bill that the date it was purchased. But can you actually know the date it was bought? (since you know it came from there)That is the same as saying they should know there merchandise over 3 years ago.

I believe undisclosed must work for management at JC Penney. No I don't believe it is unreasonable to expect a company to know its merchandise. It is not wrong for it to be said that JC Penney sells defective gold. It is a known fact to me because I know it came from there and they can't prove that it didn't. I don't expect employees to know everything, but I do expect a company to stand behind it's merchandise.

I think you're probably right about undisclosed working for JC Penney. They haven't written any reviews on this site, all they have done is left comments to anyone who has said something negative about JC Penney.