Hi all

I've posted a little about this before. I am now done with Swiss Time Services (STS). My experience has been a mess.

The watch in question is a near perfect Omega Constellation Deluxe from 1956.

I sent the watch to them to service the time and remove some scratches from the crystal. When I received the watch back after the servicing, the scratches had been removed, but the timekeeping was worse then when I sent it to them.

I sent the watch back to get the timekeeping fixed. When they returned the watch they had left a black dot (piece of metal?) on the dial, so I had to return it again.

I have now gotten the watch back and it can't be wound. The crown is stuck.

This entire saga has gone on for over half a year.

Their customer service team are friendly and professional but there is something rotten in their servicing department.

 

Hi

Very unusual & certainly not my experience - have you spoken with the Head of Service dept ?

Best - Neil

 

I have dealt with the owner and many different customer service people. They have all been very pleasant.

I have never spoken directly to someone in servicing.

At this point, I am done with them. I am not sending the watch to them for a 4th time. What new problem will they introduce?

 

Certainly not my experience and I would hope a one off. I have had two watches repaired and serviced by STS and would recommend them highly as you will see a great many others on this forum would.
I am sorry to hear of your problems and hope they are satisfactorily resolved.

 

The first problem I put to a one off, but it's three problems in a row.

Perhaps they have recently changed staff, or have changed their quality control process?

 

Hi

In answer to those questions....No ( Simon left over 1yr ago - previous Head of Service ) & No.

If you drop me a PM with your details , I'll put you in direct contact with who you need to speak to.

HTH's

Best - Neil

 

Thanks Neil.

But what's to be done? I am not sending the watch to them again. So far they have a 100% track record of screwing up the service.

 

Certainly not my experience although I had to return my Flightmaster after there was an issue but it was all sorted. I hope you resolve the issues soon.

 

I personally would contact them again, you’re paying for a service it should be fixed. You probably need to speak to someone higher up the chain. I’ve used them several times and had no issues at all, perhaps you’ve e just been unlucky.

 

Very surprised to hear of issues though I understand your frustration. STS have serviced a number of watches for me, personally. In however long I've used them I have never had cause to complain about their service or standards. One watch had a mainspring break some many months after service. That watch was returned; the spring replaced; and, the movement overhauled, free of charge.

I'm sure you have spoken at length with STS but I would urge you to talk to them further.

 

I’ve used STS for many of year and found them to be very professional . I’m sorry to hear about you ongoing problems .

 

The last (and it will be the only) Omega they serviced for me went back twice. First time for out of spec. regulation (coaxial 2403 A) and a grinding from the crown. The second time it just stopped. Needed a replacement co-axial wheel apparently. In all that time, because I have loads of watches it probably got worn for less than a week so you'd have expected experts to have spotted the co-axial wheel problem and replaced it when they serviced it if they checked it over thoroughly ?

The second time I returned it, they refunded the return postage, but not the first time.

In both cases considering the amount of time they had it, although they were very polite and pleasant, it clearly just went into their normal queue with no priority. I got none of the replaced parts returned except for a crown and gasket the first time they had it in for the service.

I stand to be corrected, but returning replaced parts and providing timing and pressure test results are supposed to be part of doing an official Omega service which is what they claim to do. They claim to be an authorised
Omega service centre, and they charge standard Omega prices.

They don't routinely give you timing reports or pressure test reports - at least they didn't for me. The second time it went back I asked for them specifically. I got the pressure test printout which I could understand, but the timing report was beyond me - turns out Archer on here couldn't deduce much from it either because it was useless.

There's a whole thread including inputs from me about my experiences with STS and some comments from the most qualified people on this forum. It's quite lengthy, and you may have to read between the lines a little to figure out what some of them really think. It is, though, completely factual. Starts on page 2 (I think). NB- I didn't start the thread, my comments were in response to the experiences of another STS customer *

https://omegaforums.net/threads/wha...-expect-to-get-after-a-servicing.70557/page-1

Anyway - STS - they did sort the watch out in the end, but I'll never use them again.

PS - the first and second time they had it, Mr Freese (spelling ?) was still in charge. Third time, it was fixed under their current management; but I'm not sure you can deduce much from that.

* Edit - Ah, Mr Perrier - didn't click at first, but I thought the name was familiar. Sorry they are continuing to mess up for you. I'd cut my losses and send it somewhere else - preferably a small company or individual with a good reputation who will work on the watch in person.

 

Certainly not my experience with Swiss Time Services. I was given a tour of their service department and it looked like a very professional set up.

As mentioned by others, I found Tony Coe to be very helpful.
I contacted him with one or two questions, following a 321 Speedmaster service. He reassured me that, if I had any concerns
The watch could be returned and any issues would be investigated.

 

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Something keepitsimple said struck a chord with me: "In both cases considering the amount of time they had it, although they were very polite and pleasant, it clearly just went into their normal queue with no priority."

It really seems like this. You would think after screwing up the repair three times they would make extra effort to ensure the watch is working correctly.

1. First repair, the timekeeping is worse. OK, I can accept this as something somewhere went wrong.
2. Second repair, the dial is dirty. This reeks of a lack of care and quality control.
3. Third repair, the crown is stuck.

As I said, this has been going on for 6 months. There is clearly something wrong with their current process. I fully accept things may have been better in the past.

 

Sounds like they are a victim of their own success.
Somebody is not doing their job, good business practice is when a repair is returned it is attended to immediately and checked by someone who becomes responsible for the job and the pr.
Obviously this is not happening.
It takes years to get a good reputation, months to loose it and hard to get back.

 

Semantics don't mean much with your generalizations when we are talking a factual incident . Either there is a problem or there isn't. STS will not be affected by an isolated incident, lets hope that that is the case and more than likely it is.

 

This isn't merely sementics. There's a watch here that is not working. The owner of that watch is frustrated. That's all we readers truly know.

We're not talking about a new watch either but a Constellation from the 1960s. One that, from reading around this thread, I see was dropped and damaged prior to service. So, this is not about a watch that was serviced and came back damaged; but a watch that had gone unserviced for a period of time; was damaged; and, then sent half way around the world for a repair and service.

There are three sides to every story, folks. His side; their side; and, the truth.

 

Jinx

 

The facts of the matter are STS sent the watch to me 3 times (after servicing the watch) and on all 3 occasions introduced a new problem.

There is obviously a problem with their quality control.

I spoke to Tony on the phone after the second failure and he wanted me to meet him in London so he can fix the watch personally. That wasn't possible, so he told me to send it to him and he will take care of it.

So he solved the dirty dial problem and introduced a new problem.

Am I supposed to keep this quiet because a few people here like STS?