I know he can be tough to reach some times, but it has been 6 weeks or so since I last heard from him, and despite a call and 2 e-mails this week, I am not getting any responses.

If you know what's up, or if you've heard from him, please let me know.

He's got four of my watches and at the very least I'd like to get them back . . .

 

Let's see. His last e-mail to me was on 7 April, 2014. I responded on 11 April.

On 10 May, and again on 20 May I e-mailed him for an up-date. I called him this morning, and I PM'd him through this site this evening. No responses at all.

On his member page here it says, "Last seen 10:43 AM", but it doesn't indicate what day. His last post on this forum was 9 March, 2014.

The last of my watches got to him on 18 January, 2014.

I don't want to seem like an alarmist, but when someone doesn't surface for this amount of time, I start to worry, especially when four watches worth between $2K and $3K are concerned.

As far as I know at this point, he might have keeled over at his bench at home, and my watches are now part of his estate . . .

 

Lol I bet you're a riot at parties.

dropping dead and rotting way at your workbench sure beats losing a watch or 3. Haha

 

I've had a couple of watches serviced by steve N2FHL and he is a trustworthy guy.
that being said, I' emailed him a week back and no response either!

 

You know what would make this situation a whole lot funnier?

If they were your watches, and he wasn't responding to you . . .


By the way, I am not doubting his trust-worthiness as he's done a few watches for me in the past, but I do reserve the right to be concerned when communication stops for this length of time.

 

I'm having the same problem. Last communication was March 2 despite several attempts to contact him.

 

I had lunch with Steve this past Monday. He's V E R Y busy and has dozens of watches. That's how it is with good watchmakers who are in demand. If you don't have the patience to wait for them to be done correctly, tell him that and he'll gladly lighten his workload by your 4 watches.

ps - he has 4 of my watches too.

 

It isn't really about patience. If he would just communicate with me once and give me something to go on. If he told me he was busy and the watch won't be ready until October I'd be cool with that. What is not cool is to do business with someone and totally ignore attempts to communicate.

 

I've responded via PM.

 

Like I wrote: life of the party


you sort of missed the point there, sparky. A well respected member of this forum, "dsio", responded to your public rant with soothing information for your troubled mind and in your very next post you're writing about this Steve guy being dead and his estate taking possession of your property.

I was making fun of you for being a shake box. Do you know what a shake box is? I didn't write anything about your predicament being "funny". Just trying to lighten things up a bit.

Why would it be "a whole lot funnier" if they were my watches? I don't get that. Are you a generally spiteful person? Besides, anything of any substantial value of mine is insured so I pay little mind to these sorts of things.

I'll give you some free advice: put me on your ignore list and you won't have worry about my harmless teasing anymore.


I hope everything works out for you and you get your watches back in good condition. I've never heard anything but high praise for this Steve the watchmaker guy. I'm pretty confident everything will work out fine for you. Maybe you could use this as a teaching moment and maybe send out (1) watch at a time until you regain your confidence?

Have a nice evening.

 

Life of the party? Public rant? Shake box? Sparky?

You are 100% correct. The best thing I can do is place you on my ignore list . . .

 

Ah, there's nothing like a thread with complaining about first world problems and trading insults, is there?

 

Guys,
I think we all have good points and I have been on both sides.

eelpie and KC, my Homey,
Steve is a proven, trusted friend who is not a great PR man, but is a great person and a great watchmaker.
He can get less done if he is holding hands instead of fixing watches and that is the path I feel he chooses.
When his work and his family take all his time, they take all his time!
I have been where you are at and I understand your concern. I was nervous as hell.
I would trust him with $100 or a $Million.
I firmly believe you will be happy in the end and that you will feel that the wait was worth it.

Rich, Mike and others,
Your experience and expertise gives you such a great advantage over the newer members.
Thank you for offering your help and please bear with us and all of us that don't really understand or see the big picture yet.
You offer huge opportunities, but it may take us a while to realize these opportunities.
Forgive our predictable responses and PLEASE continue your interest in helping us.

 

Steve has done excellent work for me in two different occasions on four of my watches...I have no doubt about about his watchmaking skills but his reputation for responding to emails is another story if you cant wait or live w/o your watches for couple of months, I suggest you find another qualified watchmaker!

 

Can you imagine what this thread would look like if it was a Zenith restoration by the European specialist? Some of these guys heads would explode over the length of time that takes!

 

I've learned over the years that all the best watchmakers are much more like true artists as opposed to just highly skilled craftsmen or tradesmen.

And, by artist, I mean the cutting off your own ear - locking yourself in a room for 2 weeks straight - Maude Lebowski painting naked from a giant sex swing - artist.

My new best pal eelpie felt I lacked empathy for his torment. Au contraire! The un-returned emails. The ignored phone calls. Passive-aggressive goes full aggressive. A very familiar plot indeed.

I love, love a good rant. It just seemed a little over the top to picture Steve being dead and his family stealing his watches after dsio was very clear that Steve has a poor customer service department and Steve's customer complaint file is the round metal can next to his desk.

From now on I'm minding my own business instead of winning friends and influencing people.

i'll show them!

 

I don't think anyone is complaining about the length of time it takes as I said earlier. I have just never conducted business in this fashion. I understand Steve is trusted and a great watchmaker. I also respect the opinion of the senior members on this board. I was initially frustrated when I never received a response from Steve. I really did figure he must have had medical issues or some kind of tragedy. I decided to just wait it out. I saw eelpie's post and weighed in with my experience. I still don't think responding to customers emails would be considered hand holding and takes all of two minutes to do. I also don't think we are being alarmist in our concerns. If these concerns were not raised we would have never been reassured by the members of this forum who know or have dealt with Steve. I think what I have learned is that this is just the way he operates, I should chill out and it will all work out. I'll do that and I'm sure it will work out. Besides,what other option is there?