AD Watchmaker polished my watch against my express wishes—how to resolve?

Alright @Evitzee @tyrantlizardrex @Archer @cvalue13, I've decided to follow up on this by drafting a letter to Oris' chairman Ulrich Herzog. Have also posted this on my instagram, feel free to share. I'll keep y'all posted here.

Well, I seems to me the hive-mind here helped you to construct what is, at least, about the most compelling version of such a letter in terms of points made. Hope it brings you some resolution, one way or another.

Must fit in one page. Good luck!

I think I would trim it even further @jaspers

I brought my watch in for a service through an Oris AD, they sent it to your local service center, who despite being told not to polish my watch, have polished my watch. If this was done to a good standard, I would be annoyed that my instructions had not been followed and perhaps would go no further. However, it has been polished so poorly, that the case no longer retains its original shape. The staff at the Oris AD have told me that case polishing is standard procedure, however I find it incredibly hard to believe that anyone at Oris would sanction such poor quality work to be carried out in their name.

As my case cannot be returned to its former cosmetic condition, which I was quite happy with, and has now been damaged by the incompetency of your representatives in the Netherlands, I ask that you take responsibility for the actions carried out in the name of you and your brand, and replace the case of my watch.

I am aware that you may think both this letter, and this request to be an inconvenience, but I was left with no other recourse than to contact you, as your local representatives have refused to accept that they are at fault and appear to believe that a poor quality refinishing job is what you, the Chairman of Oris, and the Oris board and senior management team expect to happen to every watch that is sent for service.

The cost to your organisation of remedying this situation is probably less than $200, your representatives have damaged my watch whilst it was in their care, the responsibility to put this right lies with you.

Please be the brand that I know that you are, rather than the brand that your representatives in the Netherlands are telling me you are.

Love a good “drafting by committee” session…


*sarcasm*


😁

I’m under the impression the OP sent the letter prior to sharing it here, with us. Considering they stated they had already posted it to their Instagram and asked us to share it:

And ended with

So while it’s been really awesome seeing everyone to help construct a more concise letter, it may have already been too late.

It’ll require an engagement letter, and my firm’s rate for me is US$1,950/hr

👍

Yes, it's great, reminds me of why I retired from work...

So yes I already sent it. You seemed to have such a good time tightening it up, and at some point everyone was in too deep for me to intervene. Now you have collectively produced the best ever unsent letter of complaint. It can serve as a template, where the sender can fill in the brand and spit out this letter 😁

Sorry this happened to you OP.

You spent your passion, love and money on this brand. In return they give you corporate BS.

Hope the letter works. All the best of luck.

*new update*

The Oris regional manager mentioned in the above letter just called me, as its content had trickled down to him. The pictures of the poorly polished side made him realize they had been at fault after all. I can hand in my Oris at the aforementioned AD, and they will send it to the service center to be outfitted with a completely new case. I'm relieved they have come around on this, and very much look forward to having my Oris back in its original state. Will keep my fingers crossed while it's gone, and will let y'all know once the whole process has been completed satisfactorily.

So for now, thanks for all your help, sympathy and kind words. Turns out that with the help of the community, as a consumer you can make a difference.

When I see problems like this I wonder why people don't use their trusted independent watch marker. Cheaper and you often speak directly to the person doing the work