WatchBuys had a NOMOS close-out today that went, well, the word 'poorly' doesn't really convey the sense of it. For anybody who knows FUBAR, there you go. If you don't...I imagine you're quite young and will google it.

But seriously, I had planned to buy one-two NOMOS, possibly a third. Absolutely nothing was prepped for the sale to go live, no extra staff, no IT on hand for the extra web-flow, nada. Via telephone, orders generally couldn't be placed because their own employees hadn't been given any seperate access or anything, apparently, to the active stock. This is a quote I just received, copy and pasted from an apologetic and utterly non-helpful Customer Service inquiry I finally ended up sending:

"When you called we too had limited access due to Internet traffic overload, so we were unable to process orders manually by phone."

I won't mention the employee's name, but they go on to say, essentially as the phone rep did, that I was essentially S.O.L. - the phone rep's actual statement was: "...well, um, I mean, a lot of people are going to be in the same boat today, sir..." - also with no alternative solution offered.

Not 'ok we see you did start your order almost an hour ago and since it was our site that failed we'll make good.'

Not, 'we apologize, mea culpa mea culpa, we're all out, here's a 10% coupon for something as a token of our
regret!'

Not, 'I am sorry, and we are out, but maybe I can see if there's something similar.' (Mightn't have wanted it, but would have at least shown a bit of good-faith effort!)

Not even 'Screw you bub.'

Just a version of 'yep, it's our fault, but guess who has to deal with it! YOU, THE CUSTOMER!'

I'm not a yelp/reviewer type of person, and I feel generally businesses should be able to do what they like. But to screw up something so epically, on products that start at over a thousand dollars US each, and offer absolutely no help while fully admitting the problems were on their end?

Even for Sinn, from now on I'll go grey market or import. They have very much alienated me as a customer in the future.

I hope nobody else got sucked into this time-waste, or if they did they got lucky and were able to get what they wanted. If not, feel free to join me in venting.

 

Sounds about how I would expect a close out to go.

 

I've bought a few things from WatchBuys over the years and service has always been good. And I attended one of their trunk shows at a local hotel a few years ago and that was a positive experience. I look at their site about once a month just to see what's going on. I did get the email about the Nomos sale but I wasn't interested so I didn't check what was on sale. It seems they are no longer a Nomos dealer so I assume it was a final closeout of stock on hand. We don't know how many they had for sale, they probably were overrun from folks looking for a good deal and just underestimated the demand. Things sometimes get out of hand with internet and phone sales and I will bet they will reach out to those that lost out with some apology and offer of a deal on some other watch. But it always leaves a bad taste when something like this goes off the rails.

Omega's sale of the SpeedyTuesday LE's was roundly panned for inefficiency and screwed up internet sales portals. It can happen to any company.

 

They are a pretty small company. I am not the least bit surprised they did not have the ability to ramp up their internet provisions, etc. for a sale.

My past experiences with them (Sinn purchase, attending a trunk show they brought to town) were very positive.

 

Having dealt with them let's say I'm not surprised at all...

 

I know Junghan walked away from WatchBuys last year because Junghans wasn't happy with them. Watchbuys seems to slowly be losing clients, it will be interesting to see where they are in the next few years.