Regardless of someone going to check the archives, getting no result is not a service worth paying for.
I imagine it does not take long too do the research, and I think it is quite a money maker by my modest standards. Twenty mins looking at micro fiche for 120chf?
I can encourage you to make a trip to our beautiful Switzerland, book an appointment at the Archives and ask them to show you what kind of work do they have to go through for some watches in order to fetch the information from old books.
That's a kind of an old-school multi-table SQL query they run manually and sometimes it takes much more than twenty minutes to provide with a satisfying outcome.
The average salary in Switzerland doesn't help to get the process cheaper. Wait, they could outsource the whole thing to Pakistan (!) 😀
That’s about $360/hour. Not cheap but not ridiculously expensive, either.
gatorcpa
I can encourage you to make a trip to our beautiful Switzerland, book an appointment at the Archives and ask them to show you what kind of work do they have to go through for some watches in order to fetch the information from old books.
That's a kind of an old-school multi-table SQL query they run manually and sometimes it takes much more than twenty minutes to provide with a satisfying outcome.
The average salary in Switzerland doesn't help to get the process cheaper. Wait, they could outsource the whole thing to Pakistan (!) 😀
I can encourage you to make a trip to our beautiful Switzerland, book an appointment at the Archives and ask them to show you what kind of work do they have to go through for some watches in order to fetch the information from old books.
That's a kind of an old-school multi-table SQL query they run manually and sometimes it takes much more than twenty minutes to provide with a satisfying outcome.
The average salary in Switzerland doesn't help to get the process cheaper. Wait, they could outsource the whole thing to Pakistan (!) 😀
Who would want to get paid in Bitcoin though?
$220 an hour for labor by an "A" tech with full manufacturer training met at an Audi dealer is the highest labor rate I personally know of at this time and can confirm. $360 an hour to look up books is a bit steep in comparison. However, there are a lot of things in this world where the actual labor activity/job (hard work or barely at all) and the amount of money charged in order to complete required said activity do not make sense so I could not make a case for such an argument. I personally see it as a task is worth charging what someone is willing to pay. Consumers will see to that.
In reality you got the information you requested and paid for...which is that there is something amiss with the watch. Its not the info you hoped for, but it is indeed what you paid for and exactly why the service is valuable.
but I didn’t get ANY information, and paid the same regardless. I still own an 861 mvt with a certain serial number and they could tell me what is WAS in even if they disagree that it’s in the case it is in.
I argue that they haven’t done as much work than for a full extract - where’s the nicely embossed certificate in the post etc?
To be honest, I’ve found the customer service to be appalling (9 days avg response time on emails) and arrogant and blunt, and it’s made me think a lot less of the brand than I had previously. And I own three omega watches so really they should consider me a loyal ambassador.
And ultimately, if I was running a company that values its brand perception as highly as Omega, I’d expect higher standards from my team.
for those who wanted pictures:
But an extract with the nice embossed seal will NOT match what your watch is now......replaced back, service dial and who knows what else. They aren't going to give you an extract based on what you have in hand
but I didn’t get ANY information, and paid the same regardless.
I argue that they haven’t done as much work than for a full extract - where’s the nicely embossed certificate in the post etc?
Have you never engaged the services of a solicitor/lawyer in the past. They have some crazy rates.
I do think that the change to the terms and conditions are less than generous. Regardless of someone going to check the archives, getting no result is not a service worth paying for. If you ask a book store to see if they have something in the back, I don't expect to be charged to find out they don't.
You solicit and agree to pay for the research work. The work is done. You don’t like the result so you want a refund? It does not work that way.
What is the problem? You enter a contract and the contract details are clearly stated. They do their work . The result is not matching your details = No Refund. Try that with Rolex. You are not worthy an Answer..... kind regards. Achim
But it always has worked like that until a month ago. I personally think charging full price for a miss match and no issue of a cert is a ridiculous liberty. You are paying for the certificate. If they must reject requests then by all means charge a nominal fee to prevent vexatious requests, £25 maybe, to reflect the effort expended. Or use the new income steam from failed requests to lower the overall fee to something more palatable to lessen the pain for those that get nothing. IMO charging the full fee is very poor from a customer satisfaction POV. I have 2 extracts but I wont be rushing to get one in future if this is their attitude. I wonder if Swatch Stablemate Longines still offer their completely free service or has that been ‘improved’ too. It’s hard to justify a hefty research fee when a closely related arm of the organisation can do it for free.
