Speedmaster Warranty Repair

RMOON28 · Sep 3, 2020

Archer
Until you get the watch back, there’s no need to get wound up about this (no pun intended).

I have no idea what the reasoning was the the technician gave you (what you referred to as a “hypothetical excuse “) but these movements are not difficult to service. I’ve serviced hundreds of them and again it is unlikely that you will have a problem after the second service. But people are human and sometimes mistakes happen. The way you have described your interaction with the boutique and your responses here do make me wonder if there isn’t some push back from the people at the boutique.

Let them do the job and I’m sure it will be right when it comes back.

Yes, I'm almost positive they will get it right this time. Again, my concern was on the hypothetical scenario where they don't. Honestly, if that happens, I'm not dealing with the AD, I would just email Omega directly like some of you suggested here. Fun times! I guess it's part of the experience.

Archer · Sep 3, 2020

RMOON28
Yes, I'm almost positive they will get it right this time. Again, my concern was on the hypothetical scenario where they don't. Honestly, if that happens, I'm not dealing with the AD, I would just email Omega directly like some of you suggested here. Fun times! I guess it's part of the experience.

You mean boutique?

RMOON28 · Sep 3, 2020

Archer
No, it has an inner cover that helps it resist being magnetized, but it can still be magnetized.

That makes sense. Thank you. Again what does it take for the watch to be magnetized? you would think this watch (Having the inner cover) would be more resistant to it than other watches. In fact, I kept this one separate from the others and still got magnetized? The tech said it could've been touching the watch with my phone, but if that's the case, all of my watches would be magnetized, but all of them run perfectly.

RMOON28 · Sep 3, 2020

Archer
You mean boutique?

My bad. Yes, the Omega boutique

Evitzee · Sep 3, 2020

Every watch I've ever sent in for for repair or overhaul is marked as 'scratched case, worn strap' or something equivalent, that's just to protect themselves from people coming back to them saying 'you scratched my watch'. You could send in a pristine watch and they'll note it as worn. That's just the way the system works. Not much you can do about it other than to take some pics of watch right before you send it in.

At this point the best thing you can do is relax and let Omega fix your watch, there is no reason it can't be corrected.

Archer · Sep 3, 2020

RMOON28
That makes sense. Thank you. Again what does it take for the watch to be magnetized? you would think this watch (Having the inner cover) would be more resistant to it than other watches. In fact, I kept this one separate from the others and still got magnetized? The tech said it could've been touching the watch with my phone, but if that's the case, all of my watches would be magnetized, but all of them run perfectly.

It requires getting close enough to a strong magnet - magnetic field strength follows the inverse cube law, so distance to the magnet is very important. There are magnetic fields all around us, so only you can pin down what may have magnetized the watch.

RMOON28 · Sep 3, 2020

Evitzee
Every watch I've ever sent in for for repair or overhaul is marked as 'scratched case, worn strap' or something equivalent, that's just to protect themselves from people coming back to them saying 'you scratched my watch'. You could send in a pristine watch and they'll note it as worn. That's just the way the system works. Not much you can do about it other than to take some pics of watch right before you send it in.

At this point the best thing you can do is relax and let Omega fix your watch, there is no reason it can't be corrected.

I can see why they would do that. I was just curious. it really wasn't a big deal for me as long as they get the movement working properly.

Gruesome · Sep 3, 2020

dennisthemenace
If you bought your watch from an online grey market dealer you are lucky to have the Omega warranty at all.

Why would that be luck? That's one of the first things to check before you buy it, whether it comes with the manufacturer's warranty.

Evitzee · Sep 3, 2020

Gruesome
Why would that be luck? That's one of the first things to check before you buy it, whether it comes with the manufacturer's warranty.

Watches come to the grey market in various ways, often with no manufacturers warranty to protect the AD who sold it to the grey marketer. Jomashop watches, for example, are brand new with all accessories but NO warranty card, the warranty is given by Jomashop. The buyer needs to make sure what he is buying when you are buying from a non-authorized dealer.

Gruesome · Sep 3, 2020

Evitzee
[...] The buyer needs to make sure what he is buying when you are buying from a non-authorized dealer.

That is exactly what I was saying: it's not luck, it's due diligence. First (ok, maybe second) thing to check. If you leave it to luck, you are doing something wrong, in my personal opinion.

Regarding magnetization: It might be less prevalent now (switch to solid state drives), but many laptops used to have their disk drives with pretty strong magnetic field (from the head positioning mechanism, I believe) right below where your wrist would go. As Al said, the field falls of pretty rapidly with distance, it's 1/distance cubed once you are several magnet sizes away (far field). But while typing your watch would be right above the magnet.

Iceter · Sep 3, 2020

I keep hearing that the boutique or AD has no vested interest in helping a customer who didn’t buy the watch from them. Some even implied they shouldn’t have to. But the fact is that it would be good business practice to provide the OP with exemplary service—maybe even bend over backwards to help him.

The boutiques sell service. They help support themselves with the premium they charge by adding service and a personal relationship to the sale. The OP is a perfect prospect for them. He likes and can afford an Omega, and he bought a gray-market watch that has issues. There is no better opportunity to demonstrate to him hat their store is the best option for his future purchases. This is where they should be shining—the implication being that if he had bought from them, he wouldn’t be having any issues. And if he did, they would make the issues disappear.

Instead, they act as though they are following the letter of the warranty only because they are bound by Omega to do so.

In a business where customer service is the only thing that separates them from a random eBay seller, they certainly don’t seem to understand the distinction.

Evitzee · Sep 3, 2020

Iceter
I keep hearing that the boutique or AD has no vested interest in helping a customer who didn’t buy the watch from them. Some even implied they shouldn’t have to. But the fact is that it would be good business practice to provide the OP with exemplary service—maybe even bend over backwards to help him.

The boutiques sell service. They help support themselves with the premium they charge by adding service and a personal relationship to the sale. The OP is a perfect prospect for them. He likes and can afford an Omega, and he bought a gray-market watch that has issues. There is no better opportunity to demonstrate to him hat their store is the best option for his future purchases. This is where they should be shining—the implication being that if he had bought from them, he wouldn’t be having any issues. And if he did, they would make the issues disappear.

Instead, they act as though they are following the letter of the warranty only because they are bound by Omega to do so.

In a business where customer service is the only thing that separates them from a random eBay seller, they certainly don’t seem to understand the distinction.

Perhaps, but those who go grey market for watches in the Omega price range probably aren't going to pay full price at an OB the next time they want an Omega, they'll go the same grey market route to save money. You can hope that a boutique might flip their behavior, but they probably won't.

Archer · Sep 3, 2020

Iceter
He likes and can afford an Omega, and he bought a gray-market watch that has issues. There is no better opportunity to demonstrate to him hat their store is the best option for his future purchases.

I think it can cut both ways. If you get all you issues resolved quickly easily and by the boutique, even if you but at a discount from the grey market, why would you bother coming to the boutique next time?

Not sure it is as straightforward as you are implying...

Iceter · Sep 3, 2020

I'm sorry,, but it IS very straightforward. Going above and beyond has the potential to win new customers. Giving mediocre service guarantees that they will NOT win that customer. There is only one winning move in that game.

If you live and die by the service you provide, and you can't compete on price, then there is only one way to be competitive. Lackluster service is not the answer.

Archer · Sep 3, 2020

Iceter
I'm sorry,, but it IS very straightforward. Going above and beyond has the potential to win new customers. Giving mediocre service guarantees that they will NOT win that customer. There is only one winning move in that game.

If you live and die by the service you provide, and you can't compete on price, then there is only one way to be competitive. Lackluster service is not the answer.

I understand. My entire business is based on the quality of the service I provide, not competing on price. But the idea that a boutique or AD should go after everyone who buys a grey market watch at a discount, isn’t necessarily good business.

The concept is great in principal but I don’t think it matches reality. Many people do not care for the boutique or AD experience in the first place (all they want is the watch) so they are going to be very difficult to convert.

Evitzee · Sep 3, 2020

Iceter
I'm sorry,, but it IS very straightforward. Going above and beyond has the potential to win new customers. Giving mediocre service guarantees that they will NOT win that customer. There is only one winning move in that game.

If you live and die by the service you provide, and you can't compete on price, then there is only one way to be competitive. Lackluster service is not the answer.

The old saying, 'the customer is always right' is wrong in many cases. Some businesses cannot afford to deal with some customers, they are a drag on the system and produce no revenue or benefit to the business. The sooner they offload these 'customers', the better. There are many people, some on this board, who will NOT buy from an AD or boutique, they buy used or grey. It makes no business sense to try to cultivate these people as potential customers, it's a waste of time and effort.

Gruesome · Sep 3, 2020

I would argue that anybody who has already bought at least one watch in the Omega price range, no matter what brand, no matter through which channel, is a very good lead. Or at least a much better lead than a random visitor to the boutique, or a random watch magazine or watch internet group reader, or a random person with the right level of disposable income.

We also shouldn't forget that Omega boutiques serve more than just the single purpose of being a point of sale: if an interaction in a boutique leads to a sale somewhere else, it is still a benefit to the brand. You could argue that that is even true for secondary market (used) sales.

I am certainly going to recommend the Omega boutique in the Rue de Sevres in Paris for its pleasant, knowledgeable and extremely helpful staff who helped me identify the particular Omega I was looking for, even though at that point it was only available used.

I'm not sure the OP is going to make a positive recommendation based on his boutique staff interaction.
Actually, just from the existence of this thread, I would say that the boutique he interacted with already succeeded in making a small but measurable negative contribution to Omega's goodwill.

Archer · Sep 4, 2020

If the OP's characterization of the way the boutique acted with him is accurate, they certainly could have handled it better. But again we only have his side of the story.

But for converting him as a customer remember this is someone who apparently has a boutique "near his house" and yet chose to buy from an on-line source at a discount anyway.

Not being critical of the OP by saying that - I am one of those people who would never buy at a boutique, because they generally don't discount. I've never paid full price for a watch in my life, and don't intend to ever do so.

RMOON28 · Sep 4, 2020

Iceter
I'm sorry,, but it IS very straightforward. Going above and beyond has the potential to win new customers. Giving mediocre service guarantees that they will NOT win that customer. There is only one winning move in that game.

If you live and die by the service you provide, and you can't compete on price, then there is only one way to be competitive. Lackluster service is not the answer.

I will have to agree with this statement from strictly a personal perspective, but I really think it would have the same effect in others. If they would have treated me like one of their customers and go above and beyond to solve my problem in a way that would just impress me, I can assure you I will spend the additional $1,500 - $2,000 on my next watch just because I was mesmerized with the experience. In fact, I would even feel bad buying from the grey market again, I will even go as far as choosing another omega above any other brand.

To Iceter's point, they could have milk the situation to win a loyal customer instead of loosing one completely. You would think the Omega boutique can afford to take that risk. If you think like a sales person you can rationalize that an individual spending over $4k on a watch can surely spend a bit more for the experience, what better time to give the consumer a taste of that experience to let him see what he is missing?

Archer · Sep 4, 2020

RMOON28
I will have to agree with this statement from strictly a personal perspective, but I really think it would have the same effect in others. If they would have treated me like one of their customers and go above and beyond to solve my problem in a way that would just impress me, I can assure you I will spend the additional $1,500 - $2,000 on my next watch just because I was mesmerized with the experience. In fact, I would even feel bad buying from the grey market again, I will even go as far as choosing another omega above any other brand.

To Iceter's point, they could have milk the situation to win a loyal customer instead of loosing one completely. You would think the Omega boutique can afford to take that risk. If you think like a sales person you can rationalize that an individual spending over $4k on a watch can surely spend a bit more for the experience, what better time to give the consumer a taste of that experience to let him see what he is missing?

Can I ask why you didn't buy from the boutique in the first place?

Speedmaster Warranty Repair

RMOON28

Archer

RMOON28

RMOON28

Evitzee

Archer

RMOON28

Gruesome

Evitzee

Gruesome

Iceter

Evitzee

Archer

Iceter

Archer

Evitzee

Gruesome

Archer

RMOON28

Archer

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