Nearly had a White Dial Speedmaster

[Jonathan40]

Was lucky enough to be in Geneva this weekend for visit, beautiful city.
Did Patek museum and then Omega yesterday.
Well worth a visit but not as many watches from moon landings as I would have liked. They could do a whole section on the special editions and it would be cool.
Anyway 4pm tour over head over to the boutique onsite and see the white dial speedy on display. It’s only the display model but the lady who welcomed us and was taken with my Aqua Terra, wife’s constellation and my son was wearing my Apollo 11 40th anniversary on an Omega NATO
Said they had it actually in stock. She brought a tray out with the bracelet version, the rubber strap and the leather. Three pieces. We sat down I tried it on was talking about it and my 20+ years love of Omega when there must have been some signal behind because she said she had to leave for a few moments and another woman arrives at the table.
The tray was removed and we were chatting and she went an got the brand new Apollo 8 model out with a tray showing all the cool parts blown up and a guide through the production. I wasn’t interested in the watch but said how lovely it was but too big and not for me. The tray with Speedy on had long gone and she asked if there was anything else I would like to see except the white dial because I’d already seen that. At that point I got up and continued to walk around the store but my son was looking at a something she got out. The First Lady had never left the store and we were talking about children and watches etc and I was dying to ask why the swap took place but didn’t want to make her feel awkward as her colleague was also in earshot. Very strange and left a bad taste in the mouth as we left. Even my wife asked why did they not sell you the watch.
Turns out Omega are just like Rolex in that you can’t buy the latest hype sports models even if Omega have them in stock and your face doesn’t fit.

Edited: Apr 8, 2024

 

[pdxleaf]

Sounds like they were brutally polite. Just takes one person.

I had a similar impression about the lack of watches in the Omega museum.

If you get the opportunity (a bit of back tracking), the Longines museum is fabulous. (Make a reservation online.) They also fed us pastries and coffee. Might help to wash away the bitter taste.

 

[Evitzee]

Maybe they sensed you weren't really going to be a customer and/or the handover wasn't handled smoothly enough. If you were really interested in the white dial you should have spoken up and asked for it to be brought back over, they would have gladly done that. But don't forget the insurance aspect, often stores won't even show you more than one watch at a time these days due to strict insurance policies, having three watches on the tray raises the ante for them. You don't know the stores internal policies, it may be that the original sales person is responsible for whatever watches he/she brings out for inspection, and if they have to leave the watches go with them. Security. It's too easy for a watch to do a walk-about and disappear during a clumsy handover.....salesperson A brings out three watches, has to leave and hands off to salesperson B, does B know there are three watches, or two because the customer just palmed one? It happens. I think you are reading too much into what happened.

Edited: Apr 8, 2024

 

[septentrio]

So… did you ask if you could purchase it?

 

[Fatcat]

I think they was a misunderstanding, actually in the OB in Geneva the White Speedy is delivered at the Director discretion based on a list, i was there Saturday Morning for other things, the watches showed are already allocated , for my example i am 8th in the « good » customer list and will be delivered in about 4 to 6 weeks, but there is not watches avaibility for people passing-by simply.

No complotisme or Rolex way of selling , maybe the first sales woman was not clear .

Paul

 

[Jonathan40]

septentrio

So… did you ask if you could purchase it?

Yes I asked the first girl and she said yes but straight away looked up and then said I will have to check that was when something behind my eye line went on.

 

[Jonathan40]

Fatcat

I think they was a misunderstanding, actually in the OB in Geneva the White Speedy is delivered at the Director discretion based on a list, i was there Saturday Morning for other things, the watches showed are already allocated , for my example i am 8th in the « good » customer list and will be delivered in about 4 to 6 weeks, but there is not watches avaibility for people passing-by simply.

No complotisme or Rolex way of selling , maybe the first sales woman was not clear .

Paul

From what you say Paul I think she did make a mistake in saying it was for sale initially. Still built my hopes up though.

 

[Jonathan40]

Evitzee

Maybe they sensed you weren't really going to be a customer and/or the handover wasn't handled smoothly enough. If you were really interested in the white dial you should have spoken up and asked for it to be brought back over, they would have gladly done that. But don't forget the insurance aspect, often stores won't even show you more than one watch at a time these days due to strict insurance policies, having three watches on the tray raises the ante for them. You don't know the stores internal policies, it may be that the original sales person is responsible for whatever watches he/she brings out for inspection, and if they have to leave the watches go with them. Security. It's too easy for a watch to do a walk-about and disappear during a clumsy handover.....salesperson A brings out three watches, has to leave and hands off to salesperson B, does B know there are three watches, or two because the customer just palmed one? It happens. I think you are reading too much into what happened.

I’ve been an Omega customer for the last 24 years.

 

[septentrio]

So this is a ‘I could not buy immediately while I wanted it there and then’ type of rant topic. They corrected themselves after a maybe overly impulsive first response of an inexperienced staff member. These luxury products have waiting lists these days. I would suck it up and move on.

 

[Evitzee]

Jonathan40

I’ve been an Omega customer for the last 24 years.

Yeah, but they didn't know that in the Geneve OB, and what difference would it have made? It sounds like the saleslady misspoke when she said it was available when it actually wasn't. I've had that happen a couple of times, annoying but that's life. This isn't like they said a Snoopy or Ed White 321 was available in front of your eyes, and then pulled it away, it's a new, openly available model which is in a bit of short supply now but won't be for long.

 

[ErichPryde]

septentrio

So this is a ‘I could not buy immediately while I wanted it there and then’ type of rant topic. They corrected themselves after a maybe overly impulsive first response of an inexperienced staff member. These luxury products have waiting lists these days. I would suck it up and move on.

No, it's a 'the salesperson told me I could purchase it and then for some reason I could not' topic. It sounds like there was a misunderstanding, which is no fun for the customer. Then, @pdxleaf put it perfectly when he said that they were "brutally polite." They should have acknowledged their mistake and did not.

 

[septentrio]

ErichPryde

No, it's a 'the salesperson told me I could purchase it and then for some reason I could not' topic. It sounds like there was a misunderstanding, which is no fun for the customer. Then, @pdxleaf put it perfectly when he said that they were "brutally polite." They should have acknowledged their mistake and did not.

I wasn’t there, and I guess you weren’t either. Nuance can easily get lost and we all interpret things in certain ways. Shaming an AD on the basis of a begrudged client one-sided story just does not sit totally right with me.

 

[ErichPryde]

septentrio

I wasn’t there, and I guess you weren’t either. Nuance can easily get lost and we all interpret things in certain ways. Shaming an AD on the basis of a begrudged client one-sided story just does not sit totally right with me.

I wasn't there. And I agree that shaming an OB or AD unnecessarily isn't a good practice, but I don't really see this as that at all, this reads primarily as legitimate frustration. If we extend the benefit of the doubt to a poster who has 7 years and over a thousand posts here, then the customer service could have been handled better. If I were the manager I would have wanted to handle this more directly and apologetically with a family that was clearly so Omega dedicated. If they initially told him he could purchase the watch and never corrected that misunderstanding directly, it is on the OB to do a better job of communication in the future.

Edited: Apr 8, 2024

 

[Jonathan40]

ErichPryde

I wasn't there. And I agree that shaming an OB or AD unnecessarily isn't a good practice, but I don't really see this as that at all, this reads primarily as legitimate frustration. If we extend the benefit of the doubt to a poster who has 7 years and over a thousand posts here, then the customer service could have been handled better. If I were the manager I would have wanted to handle this more directly and apologetically with a family that was clearly so Omega dedicated. If they initially told him he could purchase the watch and never corrected that misunderstanding directly, it is on the OB to do a better job of communication in the future.

Thank you, I wasn’t intending to shame anyone or any boutique. I would have worded the thread very differently had I intended that.
I’ve certainly moved on as I’m back home in UK tonight. I just thought for once in my life I’d got lucky and even luckier when this initial response was yes.
It would have been the perfect end to a great weekend and it’s my birthday on Wednesday.
Next time.

 

[ErichPryde]

Jonathan40

Thank you, I wasn’t intending to shame anyone or any boutique. I would have worded the thread very differently had I intended that.
I’ve certainly moved on as I’m back home in UK tonight. I just thought for once in my live I’d got lucky and even luckier when this initial response was yes.
It would have been the perfect end to a great weekend and it’s my birthday on Wednesday.
Next time.

Exactly how I read this thread originally. I trained customer service and management, and customer identification came with that (and the stuff I was training to sell wasn't anywhere as expensive or prestigious as Omega). My customer identification in this case would be that I have a customer who is clearly on vacation, highly excited for the brand was just at the museum, whole family is wearing Omega watches. If I tell them yes and actually sell them this watch they're excited about, I can literally make their entire vacation, possibly their year. they're probably going to tell everyone how awesome it was. If I tell them no, but do it as politely and professionally as possible and tell them why, they'll probably be okay with it because they clearly love the brand. What happened was neither of those things. The worst time to leave a bad impression is when someone is in the middle of really enjoying themselves and having a special experience.


Good on you, OP, for moving on and not holding a grudge for the mistake.

 

[Mam]

Jonathan40

I’ve been an Omega customer for the last 24 years.

Was it your first visit to this boutique? If it was your first time this explain what happened. From expérience, Omega boutique will give Priority to their local clients.