Is this legal from Bucherer?

K Kbjohn

In the U.K. houses are priced by the brand or developer who builds them. After that, the market decides.

I suppose we better boycott all vintage watches that trade above original msrp too?

In all seriousness, in my opinion, the issue here isn’t the fact that these guys do this. It’s the way it was handled. To have it in front of you, and then have extra steps put in place at the last minute is wrong. It should have been made clear from the outset.

dennisthemenace

I wish I owned a house, I wish a lot of things at the moment and arguing with dickheads is stopping me doing the important things I should be doing.

orlis

you don’t understand basic market rules and try to prove your point. As some of the members already stated. Bucherer is an authorized distributor of Rolex and hence have a distribution contract. They can sell watches at RSP or below, but can’t charge premium. Period. That’s why they try to sell watches that nobody wants to increase their profit. You cannot compare it to selling vintage watches or the used market.

P percymon

I suspect this is purely a local store decision, perhaps they have enough interested parties to chance their arm and see if one person bites. If the reseller market is that strong, it makes you wonder why one of the staff, or a friend of the staff, hasn't bought it to sell on. Either way it's probably a poor decision to turn away a historical customer.

K Kbjohn

They also have the choice for who gets to buy these watches. They want to reward customers who buy other pieces from them. When demand is high and supply is low, it’s their choice who gets what.

Davidt

I get all that. So why not be up front from the start and simply say "we'll add you to the wait list, but in all honesty we look after our repeat customers and those who have bought from us in the past or start buying from us now, will get priority when desirable models come in" ... Nevertheless, it stinks. If you're going to be a toe-rag. At least make it clear from the start. Don't entice people in with false promises, dangle the item of desire in front of them and then pull a Columbo as they're reaching for their wallet.

K Kbjohn

god forbid anyone for selling something for market value.

I suppose you would sell your house for the same price you paid for it to be fair to us looking to get on the ladder.

kkt

If told that he'd have to purchase mutiple low margin watches, maybe he could have checked with a grey market dealer and seen how much it would cost to buy them at MSRP and then sell immediately to a dealer. Or through private sales, if he wants to go to the trouble.

dennisthemenace

D

Yeah, try selling a day old DJ at anywhere near what you just paid for it

Travelller

I'm sorry to hear about the Op's terrible experience 🙁 The practice is abhorrent and this is certainly one of the more acute examples I've read about given that the OP's a "repeat customer".

What I don't quite understand is the assumption by most of the posters in this thread that the practice is limited to Rolex and / or Bucherer... 😕
Do we really think it's going to be a different story with a Patek SS Nautilus from any number of Patek ADs...?

I'm also curious about those referring to consumer protection laws; I think I managed to read all the posts but I'm still not certain in which Country the Bucherer branch (or franchise...?) is located. Finally you would have to track backwards to determine who actually condoned the policy - the local branch, Bucherer's head office, Rolex... .

In the Op's case, we are talking about a store manager / deputy, which certainly makes the whole story even worse. I'm aware that in some countries / stores, sellers get commission on their sales and so for other cases, it could have been down to a single greedy seller.

Most importantly, I sincerely hope that the OP manages to get his son something very special - all the best to you, sir! 👍

K Kbjohn

If I was another AD, seeing all of this stuff being spread about publicly would make me not want to sell a watch to you. It’s really sad that people can’t get the watches they want, but these watches are trading for big premiums on the secondary market and the retailers know that very well. A few people on the internet talking about it doesn’t make a difference. There are tens of thousands of people looking for these watches. There are 282 Hulks offered on Chrono24 alone. The cheapest is around £6000 more than retail. The next person on the list, who is prepared to buy other things to make it closer to secondary market value, will.

The biggest Patek AD in the U.K. now require you to buy two non sports models in order for you to be allowed to go on the waiting list for a Nautilus. I personally only wish to own one Patek, so I know that I likely won’t ever be able to get one at retail and I can’t pay the £60k+ they’re trading for, so I just won’t own one.

If and when the market changes, AD’s will have a hard time and will have to revert back to giving excellent service, but at the minute they have a few very very hot models and they can kind of do what ever they want. With some references they are doubling your money as soon as you walk out of the door. Even if you don’t ever intend to sell, you still use this as a justification for purchasing.

To be clear, I don’t agree with this practice at all, but it’s hardly the biggest injustice in the world. These desirable sports models are basically free money at the moment. Why should the AD lose out on huge margin so someone else can make it?