After 17 long weeks...

ninjamattic · Jan 19, 2019

My Speedy is home. I am overjoyed, elated, and thrumming with happiness... and then, the ceiling comes crashing down. The watch looks amazing, but something peeks out at me in a flash of light. I look closer. A speck of dust under the crystal. I can deal with that. It’s very small. But what’s that under it... SCRATCHES!? The minute hand and chrono second hand have been placed very close together, and when I set the time, it swept scratches across the minute hand. After 17 weeks, do I want to send it back for scratches and dust? Should I bother making a stink? What would you do?

qboa · Jan 19, 2019

In a similar situation before, for a watch about 10K, and I sent it back, had it fixed, and made myself sleep well at night ...

Faz · Jan 19, 2019

100% unacceptable. Regardless of worth, collectibility etc...And yes, I would take issue to this.

Hope it gets resolved.

Falme09 · Jan 19, 2019

This is my first post!
That is outrageous. Send it back and have it serviced correctly. Absolutely unacceptable.

ninjamattic · Jan 20, 2019

Man, of the six months I’ve owned this watch, it’s has spent four in service. You guys are right, it’s just killing me that I haven’t even been able to wear what I’ve paid for.

pdlouche · Jan 20, 2019

Is it just because of the length of time you’ve been waiting? A bad job is a bad job.

Archer · Jan 20, 2019

Unfortunate and will require a new hour and minute hand to fix this (they are sold as a set).

There’s a good stack of hand on the Cal. 1151 based models and you have to pay close attention to the division (spacing) of the hands on these...

3nicewatches · Jan 20, 2019

Oh man that sucks, I would be absolutely furious! I agree with everyone above, send it back and have whoever did this sort it out at no cost. I presume it wasn’t Omega? I had mine serviced by Omega late last year and they did a really nice job.

Anyway, my triple date says Hi to yours. When I bought mine a few years back I was paralyzed at the AD for about 20 min trying to decide between the color I got and the color you got. I still have a blue dial watch on my “to be acquired list”. Anyway, let us all know how your situation turns out.

Pic from last Friday:

STANDY · Jan 20, 2019

Usually only happens to a small percentage so I’m glad you are taking a hit for all of us each time, the Forum applauds you

I can sympathise with you as we have all had it with something over the years.

Mine was with a brand new outboard motor that cost me many a $$ and many more hours of fishing and even missed a day of work, getting stuck 20km offshore not once but twice in a remote part of Northern Australia. That was a conversation with a mechanic that was lucky no one under 18 or female was there to hear.

PhysicsIsFun · Jan 20, 2019

It is a very nice watch & you should make a BIG stink. If you don't take care of it now, it will become the one thing you always notice in the future and you'll ask yourself why you didn't complain. The longer you wait, the less leverage you will have to get them to fix it correctly. Good Luck.

ninjamattic · Jan 20, 2019

It was definitely serviced by Omega. I called them regularly to check the status of the repair. I am going to call them tomorrow and raise a fuss, as I shouldn’t have hands rubbing together on a watch that the manufacturer just serviced. I have the original hands they sent back, and they do not show the same signs of wear, so it was something clearly missed during QA.

qboa · Jan 20, 2019

Hope you can get it fixed soon 👍

3nicewatches · Jan 20, 2019

ninjamattic
It was definitely serviced by Omega. I called them regularly to check the status of the repair. I am going to call them tomorrow and raise a fuss, as I shouldn’t have hands rubbing together on a watch that the manufacturer just serviced. I have the original hands they sent back, and they do not show the same signs of wear, so it was something clearly missed during QA.

That’s awful. Took them 17 weeks and then they still f’d it up! Give them hell and tell them they’d better fix it a lot quicker than it took them to mess it up. Good luck!

Archer · Jan 20, 2019

3nicewatches
Give them hell and tell them they’d better fix it a lot quicker than it took them to mess it up.

I would suggest that staying calm and professional, but firm is a better approach. One can express disappointment without getting upset. No one is perfect at their job, so things will happen that don’t go right. Life is too short to get upset at every little thing that goes wrong.

I can assure you that no watchmaker wants a watch to come back, but we all have them from time to time. I can tell you when it happens to me, I’m far more upset that the customer is...no need to pile on by giving them “hell”...

Evitzee · Jan 20, 2019

Archer
I would suggest that staying calm and professional, but firm is a better approach. One can express disappointment without getting upset. No one is perfect at their job, so things will happen that don’t go right. Life is too short to get upset at every little thing that goes wrong.

I can assure you that no watchmaker wants a watch to come back, but we all have them from time to time. I can tell you when it happens to me, I’m far more upset that the customer is...no need to pile on by giving them “hell”...

Exactly right. Keep it professional, giving them hell, or making a stink won't advance the cause very much and may just set up an adversarial situation. I had an Audemars Piguet (manual perpetual calendar, ca 1992) that I bought about four years ago. I sent it to their SC in Florida for a complete overhaul and that was the start of my problems. It first began stopping so it was sent back for an adjustment, then it came back with timekeeping at +90 seconds per day. Back and forth it went, either to FL or Switzerland, but each time it came back running +90 seconds per day. They were very apologetic and were determined to make it right, and I started to call it my project watch. I was finally patched through to the chief watchmaker and we concluded that the next step was to replace the balance bridge assembly and that fixed it, now it keeps perfect time. But at no time did I yell and scream at the Client Services Manager and I never paid a dime for the back and forth FedEx shipping (5 total trips over 3 1/2 year period). Just be firm and indicate your disappointment and expectation for it to be made right in an expeditious manner (ie, it goes to the head of the queue) and properly QC'd by the chief technician.

3nicewatches · Jan 20, 2019

Archer
I would suggest that staying calm and professional, but firm is a better approach. One can express disappointment without getting upset. No one is perfect at their job, so things will happen that don’t go right. Life is too short to get upset at every little thing that goes wrong.

I can assure you that no watchmaker wants a watch to come back, but we all have them from time to time. I can tell you when it happens to me, I’m far more upset that the customer is...no need to pile on by giving them “hell”...

Yeah, you’re right of course. Apologies. I didn’t literally mean to rant and rave at them, any craftsperson can make mistakes. It was more of a suggestion to insist they try to rectify it faster than the initial service took them.

3nicewatches · Jan 20, 2019

3nicewatches
Yeah, you’re right of course. Apologies. I didn’t literally mean to rant and rave at them, any craftsperson can make mistakes. It was more of a suggestion to insist they try to rectify it faster than the initial service took them.

P.S. Al, your unwavering ability to always be the voice of reason is really annoying 😉

ninjamattic · Jan 20, 2019

3nicewatches
Oh man that sucks, I would be absolutely furious! I agree with everyone above, send it back and have whoever did this sort it out at no cost. I presume it wasn’t Omega? I had mine serviced by Omega late last year and they did a really nice job.

Anyway, my triple date says Hi to yours. When I bought mine a few years back I was paralyzed at the AD for about 20 min trying to decide between the color I got and the color you got. I still have a blue dial watch on my “to be acquired list”. Anyway, let us all know how your situation turns out.

Pic from last Friday:

I ADORE the Day Date, and as my first Omega, fulfilling a lifelong dream, I'm very satisfied with the selection 😀. Wear yours in good health!

ninjamattic · Jan 20, 2019

So, I know this is pretty worst case scenario, but IF some reason, Omega decides that the issues I've discovered aren't a result of the service, would taking the watch to a reputable watchmaker to clean out the dust and replace the hands prevent Omega from accepting the watch for service going forward? I'm going to work with Swatch Group, as it was their service center in SoCal that did the work. I want to give them first crack at making it right, but at this point, I am 100% not ok with waiting another four months. Granted, the first time they did a full service and refurbishment, so there's no way it should take that long again, right? I'm hoping they can point me to an authorized service center within driving distance I can take it to to reduce the whole transit time thing from NorCal to SoCal. I'll keep everyone updated.

3nicewatches · Jan 21, 2019

ninjamattic
So, I know this is pretty worst case scenario, but IF some reason, Omega decides that the issues I've discovered aren't a result of the service, would taking the watch to a reputable watchmaker to clean out the dust and replace the hands prevent Omega from accepting the watch for service going forward? I'm going to work with Swatch Group, as it was their service center in SoCal that did the work. I want to give them first crack at making it right, but at this point, I am 100% not ok with waiting another four months. Granted, the first time they did a full service and refurbishment, so there's no way it should take that long again, right? I'm hoping they can point me to an authorized service center within driving distance I can take it to to reduce the whole transit time thing from NorCal to SoCal. I'll keep everyone updated.

I don't think that there's any chance they will deny it was caused by them - they did install the new set of hands after all. I would also hope that they will fast track the fix, because it should be very quick and easy for them to rectify. When mine was serviced, I dropped it off at an OB in NYC and if there had been any issues then the OB would presumably have mediated on my behalf (they usually want to keep their customers happy, especially those like me that dropped off a watch for service and bought a new one the same day!). Anyway, if you went through an OB or an AD, let them help you out. But even if you dealt with the service center directly, I'm sure you'll be fine.

I don't think having someone else service a watch would stop Omega from working on it in the future - but someone more knowledgeable might want to weigh in. The only exception I can think of would be if it's still under the initial warranty period, because having someone else open it up would void the warranty. But obviously your triple date, like mine, is long past that initial warranty.

After 17 long weeks...

ninjamattic

qboa

Faz

Falme09

ninjamattic

pdlouche

Archer

3nicewatches

STANDY

PhysicsIsFun

ninjamattic

qboa

3nicewatches

Archer

Evitzee

3nicewatches

3nicewatches

ninjamattic

ninjamattic

3nicewatches

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