Morning all. Another newbie question. I am looking at a used PO with all of the cards but the warranty card has no date. What does this mean?

 

Technically, the authorised dealer is supposed to put the date of sale on the card, but in many cases they don't. They leave it blank so you can fill it in later, essentially letting you decide when the warranty clock starts. As long as the name of the AD is stamped on the warranty card you're ok.

 

It's like getting something good in a Happy Meal box :-p

 

It means you just narced on a dealer. Forums are monitored by the brands, and posts like these are one of the reasons many brands are going boutique-only. You don't even have to mention the AD's name.

 

My apologies. Please delete the thread.

 

Too late - and don't worry about it. Omega has known about this for years and their boutique-only business model is already well underway.

 

^ things like what ULack mentioned as well as dealer discounts is the biggest reason they're tryjng to be a boutique only brand. If they succeed, Omega will certainly be considered a greater equal to Rolex in terms of product vs pricing.

 

We all wish it was that easy to "extend" the OEM warranty on a watch like you describe, but my experience dealing with this tells me a different story. The Manufacturer will ask for a receipt where all the particulars of the watch -model, SN- must be included, and the date of purchase which is the begining of the warranty period.

 

I've actually been told Omega checks AD's sales records every so often, so it's very possible they have it or can easily access the info.

 

I should have clarified in my original response that I don't endorse this practice and find it annoying that dealers think they're doing you a favor when in reality they're watering down the value of Omega products for all the reasons brought up in this thread. Really I was just trying to convey to the OP that the practice is very common and Omega should honor a warranty card with a handwritten date. Asking for a full receipt isn't practical with watches, which are often given as gifts. I've flipped a lot of Omegas over the years and when I get a pre-owned Omega with no date on the card I fill it in with a date - either the original date of sale if known or a guess based on the seller's recollection.

However, I have heard a few accounts in recent years of Omega being difficult about honoring the warranty without a receipt, and I definitely blame dealers being too loose with warranty cards and discounts. There are ways to tighten this that Omega could implement without going full "Boutique only", like requiring the dealer to register the warranty in a database at the point of sale.

 

I agree with all of your points, although the majority of the non-dated warranty cards I've seen have been pre-2005 or thereabouts. I think with the digital archiving of records really starting to gain steam from around early-2000's the practice has been slowly abolished, and good riddance.

 

No worries. I never thought/implied your endorsement.

 

I didn't think so but when I re-read my original reply I felt I wasn't clear enough so I thought I'd elaborate.

One more thought while we're on the subject though: Omega has one of the better warranties in the industry on their in house movements at 4 years, but they haven't updated their warranty cards in any significant way since the days when all their watches had a 2 year warranty. They just, as you mentioned, police it more by responding to legitimate customers with suspicion when a warranty claim arises. They are the ones that send completely blank warranty cards out to dealers, without even the serial numbers on the cards. If they are worried about dealers, buyers or both gaming the system, they could really easily address the issue by pre-stamping the cards with a dealer and serial prior to shipment, the requiring the dealer to activate the warranty electronically upon initial sale. It might be a big investment upfront, but recently they're in a price territory that merits this type of upgrade.

 

I agree. Limiting the number of ADs while increasing the boutiques seems to have helped limit the practice. Though there still seem to a few "open" warranty cards out there on some newer watches on watchrecon.

 

I like your idea and I bet they have already tried something similar, however the electronic activation could also be gamed from unscrupulous dealers. There's really no way to stop the behavior, but there are steps they could implement to just make it much tougher and less worth the dealers time to try such measures

 

Found a Seamaster Professional with both warranty cards but no date or AD stamp. Are warranty cards still valid.

Sam.p

 

Technically speaking the cards were never valid unless the card had a date and an authorized dealers name on them...

 

Thanks