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Stripey
·In 2019, I took my X-33 Gen 1 into the Omega boutique on Oxford Street in London for a cell and reseal. They quoted the wrong price, incorrectly said it could be done in store, and eventually it went off at a cost of £155. When it came back, none of the alarms or sounds were working. Off it went again and had a service and came back working. It worked until last month when it needed a new battery.
Dropped it in, again incorrectly told it could be done in store, asked them to check with the watchmaker who confirmed it needed to go away. Quoted £150, which sounded about right (I didn’t have the 2019 price right in front of me). Would be 6-8 weeks.
On the way home, I was called to say, actually, it’s £240, so a 55 per cent increase in three and a half years. Batteries and watchmaker wages have obviously risen. I said go ahead, but made the point that it isn’t great that (a) it’s going up so much, and it makes me wary of choosing another Omega, frankly, and can they pass that feedback on (b) that every time I go in that store, I get given the wrong information (somewhere on here is a tale of my battle to get them to even admit that a deployment clasp strap for the Apollo 8 existed, let alone order one).
The email I received back, was, shall we say, not what you’d expect from a luxury brand.
It basically said that the 55 per cent increase reflects increasing costs. Anyone who follows business news or luxury brand strategy knows that it largely reflects a wish to lower sales volumes and increase margins. It also took the line that I was asking for money off (which I certainly did not) and went on to make what the author obviously thought was the rather clever point that I’d had a free service in early 2020.
I pointed out (by now really rather angry) that the only reason the watch required service was because the people who were supposed to carry out a simple battery change actually broke it. I also repeated that I was not seeking a discount, I merely wanted my feedback to go to the people who take these decisions so they can be aware of what customers actually think and ignore or not as they are free to do.
Yesterday the watch came back, vastly ahead of schedule. I don’t know if that’s because I made a fuss or because at those prices they presumably have less and less work in line with their plan. I checked it over pretty thoroughly, and was pretty annoyed to find that the hands weren’t even synced with the digital time.
In short, my experience of Omega’s support is woeful. I won’t be going in that joke boutique again, and will see if the others in London are any better at point of contact. Seems to me they are dreaming if they think they can be a luxury brand. That requires proper attention to detail, and they don’t have it at all. I also don’t think I would buy another modern Omega.
Dropped it in, again incorrectly told it could be done in store, asked them to check with the watchmaker who confirmed it needed to go away. Quoted £150, which sounded about right (I didn’t have the 2019 price right in front of me). Would be 6-8 weeks.
On the way home, I was called to say, actually, it’s £240, so a 55 per cent increase in three and a half years. Batteries and watchmaker wages have obviously risen. I said go ahead, but made the point that it isn’t great that (a) it’s going up so much, and it makes me wary of choosing another Omega, frankly, and can they pass that feedback on (b) that every time I go in that store, I get given the wrong information (somewhere on here is a tale of my battle to get them to even admit that a deployment clasp strap for the Apollo 8 existed, let alone order one).
The email I received back, was, shall we say, not what you’d expect from a luxury brand.
It basically said that the 55 per cent increase reflects increasing costs. Anyone who follows business news or luxury brand strategy knows that it largely reflects a wish to lower sales volumes and increase margins. It also took the line that I was asking for money off (which I certainly did not) and went on to make what the author obviously thought was the rather clever point that I’d had a free service in early 2020.
I pointed out (by now really rather angry) that the only reason the watch required service was because the people who were supposed to carry out a simple battery change actually broke it. I also repeated that I was not seeking a discount, I merely wanted my feedback to go to the people who take these decisions so they can be aware of what customers actually think and ignore or not as they are free to do.
Yesterday the watch came back, vastly ahead of schedule. I don’t know if that’s because I made a fuss or because at those prices they presumably have less and less work in line with their plan. I checked it over pretty thoroughly, and was pretty annoyed to find that the hands weren’t even synced with the digital time.
In short, my experience of Omega’s support is woeful. I won’t be going in that joke boutique again, and will see if the others in London are any better at point of contact. Seems to me they are dreaming if they think they can be a luxury brand. That requires proper attention to detail, and they don’t have it at all. I also don’t think I would buy another modern Omega.
