EBay Authenticator Fail

I purchased a 1965 Seamaster De Ville 18k off eBay. The Seller gets 5 Stars and I would buy from him again.

However, eBay's Authenticator and the support team get a solid Grade F and I am pretty pissed. My watch was mishandled by eBay's inexperienced watchmakers who claimed it was glued shut. After I provided recent original pictures from the Seller showing the opened watch, they still contended that the watch was glued shut and I should return it. I then provided links to websites explaining the common case opening tool #107 and method for opening monocoque Omega cases. Only after I provided this information did they finally have success opening the case and complete their Authentication. During the entire 5 day period of back and forth, eBay stood by the Auth guy's statement that the watch was glued shut even after seeing seller's recent photos of the case open.

Apparently, while opening the case they damaged the crystal, leaving a sliver of crystal behind inside the case. It is still there rolling around interfering with the second, hour and minute hands. I wonder how much damage was done to the tension ring, movement and even the outer bezel as they struggled to open my watch. And, while the watch runs, I have demanded that eBay pay for a full, overhaul of the watch to ensure any damages get repaired.

I find it unbelievable that I as a collector have more knowledge about servicing expensive Omega watches than eBay's authenticator. It is unforgivable that given the problems they had, they didnt carefully re-assemble the watch, missing the sliver of acrylic crystal readily visible on the surface of the dial.

EBay needs to do a lot better. They tried to force me to return the watch, harming the Seller's eBay Rank. After lodging this complaint, eBay now states that since I refused to return the watch, they have no responsibility for any damage. I argued that I only accepted the watch on their word that it was exactly as described. Imagine how pissed the Seller would be to lose a sale, get his Rep tarnished and have to accept a potentially damaged watch in return.

I cannot recommend buying expensive watches off eBay to other collectors after this experience. YMMV

Good Luck!

You might need to call eBay with very strong feedback. But suspect you’ve already one that. They called me before program rolled out I flatly told them it would not make sense (for me) and why.
Sorry you had this experience!!

Authenticator sand eBay clearly don’t know what they’re doing.

In my experience Ebay only pretends to listen to buyers' opinions on purchases with authentication. No matter how compelling the argument, they always side with the authenticator.

Oh man that is terrible practice. My one experience was with a modern DateJust and that must be bread and butter for them. Thanks for sharing and I will stay clear from now on

I also gave my opinion to eBay in the years before the program rollout. This exact scenario is one of the reasons why I told them it wouldn't change my buying habits and might inhibit them. Who would be responsible for damage caused by the authenticator? They didn't tell me then and it seems like they don't have a policy in place to address, evaluate, or otherwise handle the situation now. Good luck and I hope you find satisfactory resolution for yourself and the seller.

The visual of him attempting to open the watch each time before the "glued shut" conclusion is making me cringe!

Exactly.

The next email from the eBay drone was "they managed to remove the bezel..."
I imagined a flat head screw driver digging in between the bezel and case. I can say now that after my personal inspection it doesnt show any damage to the exterior but what happened after?

EBay was going to burn the Seller to cover for the Authenticator. As a 2 decade seller myself, this really pissed me off. I have had to eat buyer damages to the tune of $30k dollars over the years. Some were like a broken Lalique the buyer droppedand some were flat out theft. EBay should protect sellers over buyers IMHO

I heard about eBay Authenticator but never use it and i think i will not use it in the future after i read this..Regards.

Ebay, regardless of their claimed intentions, is just a giant used car lot. Their authenticators were never put in place to serve the buyer and seller, but just to cover eBay's ass because they had developed such a shoddy reputation for having so many fakes on their website. Doing our own due diligence is the key to making good decisions on eBay.

Why on Earth would you use an " eBay Authenticator" in the first place???? Seasoned collectors struggle to keep pace with the ever accelerationed Rolex parts fakes..... Whereis it mentioned and written , that one of these guys has to be a trained and known Watchmaker ? They would not have time for such nonsense or upset their own clients.... Strange.

So, in other words, situation is normal over at eBay.

Where? In the USA? Where else?