I sent a vintage Speedmaster to Omega for a service... an UPDATED update tracking number and WATCH!

Evitzee · May 9, 2020

I wouldn't necessarily conclude that your watch has been lost, but they definitely owe you a complete status report now. Unfortunately companies will hide behind the Covid thing for a long time, always saying they can't do this or do that because they are closed or working with reduced staff, blah, blah, blah. It's a great excuse, for them but you'll have to work within that situation.

In situations like this I always find it better to send a physical letter by registered mail laying out your case and spelling out what you expect in return. It's harder to ignore a piece of paper than an email which can easily be flushed from their system. Since the watch is now in Switzerland send your letter to the people in charge of worldwide service, and copy the US people handling your case. I found this on the Swatch Corporate website: Swatch Group accords great importance to customer satisfaction, and has reinforced its commitment by creating a division dedicated entirely to customer service activities. This group is the one that will probably resolve this case. See if you can determine who heads this division and address your letter to him/her.

The Swatch Group Services Ltd
Corporate Customer Service Division
Attn: Omega Service
CH-2504 Biel / Bienne

Good luck.

DaveK · May 9, 2020

JwRosenthal
I hate to agree but at this point I would at least want proof of life. If they can’t provide you with the watch back, either whole or in pieces, then they owe you a watch.

LOL, it would be good to ask for a picture of it beside today’s newspaper

JwRosenthal · May 9, 2020

DaveK
LOL, it would be good to ask for a picture of it beside today’s newspaper

Watch them send you an oily hand and demand ransom for the rest 😲
Sorry, not trying mitigate the serious disaster of customer service here- gotta laugh otherwise we would cry.

asrnj77 · May 9, 2020

I think the take away from all of this is not to send your vintage Speedmaster to Omega for service, right?

I think the only thread I’ve seen with more frustrating commentary was when people send their watches to Gallet for repair.

snarkq · May 10, 2020

I think many people understand that Omega may replace parts you may not want, but to hear about how horrid this customer service is, is a surprise to me. I immediately think what is changing at Omega, even hearing this story I lose trust in the brand. This kind of experience is simply unacceptable.

chipsotoole · May 10, 2020

JwRosenthal
Delays are understandable- lack of communication post deadlines is not acceptable. They are a business, they aren’t doing you a favor- their customer service sucks in this instance. I would be escalating it by this point with emails to upper management in corporate.

+1 on this. I recently had all manner of hassles online banking for about 3 months..the fault being entirely with their IT department. I went through various local customer service assistants and managers who obviously couldn't fix it... One angry but formal and polite letter to the CEO's office later and my problem was solved with a week and I was given 120 UKP for the inconvenience!

Wryfox · May 10, 2020

I don't have experience with Omega yet but here is my experience with other brands within past year:

Total turnaround
Tissot Chronometer sent for mechanical issue: 2 weeks, watch working perfectly, 1 second/day, $180
Rolex vintage Oyster Chronometer two tone service: 2 months, runs fast +20secs/day, $1400
Tag Heuer Chronometer: 3 months, runs fast +15secs/day, $400

Notice all three are chronometers, only one came back running as one....the Tissot. The other two I re-regulated myself after receiving to within 2secs/day. None were returned with a timing cert.

usasuisse · May 10, 2020

My experience with Omega service has been quite wonderful. I only send the watches through my St. Louis Boutique, not directly to any service center or Switzerland. Doing so, has no shipping cost to me. I always get timely updates when I ask, the estimates of return time have been accurate, they have NOT replaced hands or dials or polished when I asked Omega to refrain from doing so, and since I started sending to Omega through the Boutique in 2015, and the return times have been getting shorter and shorter.

Perhaps going through the Omega Boutique is a key. I had tried to deal with Patek Philippe directly through Henri Stern in New York. It was a FUBAR experience. But when I went through my local authorized Patek retailer, everything was smooth and perfect with accurate return time estimates. Interestingly, Patek charges for shipping while Omega does not.

I have sent Omega nearly a dozen watches, all of which, except a quartz Seamaster, have been serviced in Switzerland. The watches that I sent in for servicing are all vintage watches, only one of which was sent back under warranty and promptly fixed and returned.

One time I had a US well known watchmaker and dealer work on a Centenary, but within 6 months it just stopped working. I did not send it back for service by the watchmaker, but to Omega. It came back in a timely manner, and it works great!

Omega even inspected thoroughly a vintage watch I sent in only for an Archive Extract. The tech noticed that folded paper was holding the movement in place on one side, sent me a picture with a red circle around the paper, and returned the watch without any charge to me. With that photo I obtained a full refund from the dealer who sold it to me over 18 months ago. I have never been charged for watches that were returned without my authorizing any work done.

Any other pleased Omega service customers?

Jantar · May 11, 2020

I had an experience with a service in Switzerland I wrote about here: https://omegaforums.net/threads/after-17-long-weeks.88415/page-3#post-1164215

Ultimately, I believe Omega really went above and beyond for me despite the fact it took sometime. I still do not know if my original case was damaged in the first US service center or what prompted Omega to replace my case at no cost, but it was worth the wait. As a matter of fact I happen to be wearing the watch today. I hope the OP is able to recover their watch. I never communicated directly with Omega as I had mine serviced through a local AD and they checked for me when I would call. There were indeed long periods of no communication, but the AD was insuring the watch as I never thought it was lost.

WYO_Watch · May 22, 2020

I finally received word from Swatch regarding my watch. They told me the issue was that the dial (but also the midcase) did not match the caseback number (which was 100% true). This speedy is an Ed White with an incorrect caseback. I’m not sure what took so long to make this determination, but this was partially my fault (I knew the caseback was incorrect).

So consequently, they are going to replace the midcase and send it back in 4 weeks. If all goes well they will have had it for over a year, but this was a weird year...

_HONDO_ · May 25, 2020

WYO_Watch
I finally received word from Swatch regarding my watch. They told me the issue was that the dial (but also the midcase) did not match the caseback number (which was 100% true). This speedy is an Ed White with an incorrect caseback. I’m not sure what took so long to make this determination, but this was partially my fault (I knew the caseback was incorrect).

So consequently, they are going to replace the midcase and send it back in 4 weeks. If all goes well they will have had it for over a year, but this was a weird year...

This has been a great story- hopefully it will turn out for the best, thanks for keeping us updated.

WYO_Watch · May 27, 2020

At the conclusion of my last phone call with Omega customer service they were going to double check and let me know that my original straight lugged case would be returned. I’m assuming it would, but based on my current experience with them I didn’t want to agree to a case swap if they kept my old case.

Without any update to my service details, a phone call, or email - I went ahead and called to double check. However due to “longer than normal wait times” I gave up after listening to their jingle for an hour.

chronoboy64 · May 27, 2020

I can report that I handed over a watch to my local watchmaker in Oct. 2018 for cleaning. It is an Edox Geoscope 42 near NOS condition that obviously has never seen any work or service. After reminding him about ten times in the past he recently reported that he is still working on finding the right opening tool as he doesn´t want to damage anything. I hope that I will see it again, may sometime ... 😁

BatDad · May 27, 2020

WYO_Watch
At the conclusion of my last phone call with Omega customer service they were going to double check and let me know that my original straight lugged case would be returned. I’m assuming it would, but based on my current experience with them I didn’t want to agree to a case swap if they kept my old case.

Without any update to my service details, a phone call, or email - I went ahead and called to double check. However due to “longer than normal wait times” I gave up after listening to their jingle for an hour.

Man, this is bad, even in this climate. I recall earlier in the thread someone suggesting calling out the big guns and emailing a senior staffer in Omega... After all, it’s not like it’s going to slow the process down?

We’re with you fella!

base615 · May 27, 2020

At this point I think I'd put the comms in the hands of a lawyer.

WYO_Watch · Jun 12, 2020

Although I am still watchless after celebrating my year anniversary of sending it off, I do have some good news.

1. I have an official ETA for the watch. They’ve updated my service page to show an anticipated completion date of July 5, 2020. This may seem insignificant, but I have been staring at a 12/11/19 completion date for a long time.
2. A very helpful rep gave me her “personal” (work) email. She said to email her if I have any issues with anything. This beats the socks off of waiting on the phone for an hour listening to elevator music in order to speak to someone.
3. The very helpful rep told me she would call me back when she received and update, and she actually did call me back within 48 hours and told me the cost of the service has been taken care of as a gesture of “goodwill.”

For the record, I did not demand this from Omega. I did my best to never lose my cool with the reps I spoke to over the last year. The painfully slow process was never their fault and there is nothing they could have done to force answers out of the technicians in Switzerland. I did let them know that I was disappointed with the lack of communication, follow through, and the hours I wasted on the phone. However, we live in a world that needs a little more grace. Excited to get my watch back 👍

asrnj77 · Jun 17, 2020

chronoboy64
I can report that I handed over a watch to my local watchmaker in Oct. 2018 for cleaning. It is an Edox Geoscope 42 near NOS condition that obviously has never seen any work or service. After reminding him about ten times in the past he recently reported that he is still working on finding the right opening tool as he doesn´t want to damage anything. I hope that I will see it again, may sometime ... 😁

If the watchmaker hasn’t even opened the case in two years, you may want to reconsider finding another watchmaker. Your patience is admirable

SpeedyPhill · Jun 17, 2020

Sounds like a good experience... looking forward to photos and info on the parts Omega (normally) ships back with the serviced wristwatch...
☕

Scarecrow Boat · Jul 9, 2020

I have been eagerly awaiting a good result on this story! with July 5th now behind us, do you know if it was successfully completed and sent back?

RonH · Jul 10, 2020

Hopefully you have a tracking number by now. 😉

I sent a vintage Speedmaster to Omega for a service... an UPDATED update tracking number and WATCH!

Evitzee

DaveK

JwRosenthal

asrnj77

snarkq

chipsotoole

Wryfox

usasuisse

Jantar

WYO_Watch

_HONDO_

WYO_Watch

chronoboy64

BatDad

base615

WYO_Watch

asrnj77

SpeedyPhill

Scarecrow Boat

RonH

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