Options/Thoughts re watch purchase and subsequent fault...
Discussion
All – I could use a few views if possible… (suspect I have zero options but worth exploring)
Last summer I bought a watch, for a not inexpensive £1450. Seven months in this watch has failed/died, and because it’s a little specialised, it has to go back to the manufacturer in Germany to be looked at. (Still under warranty thankfully) I’m guessing from other customer experiences with this manufacturer I’ll be without it for a while, very best estimate is 5 weeks, worst seems to be 6 months.
The supplying dealer is a well-known in the watch world I would say, and my view of them isn’t great. Brilliant as a simple ’transactional’ sales style, but lacking in any customer service. (days to respond to emails, nonchalant approach to calls, just don’t seem to have any energy or concern etc.) I have no confidence that they’re doing their utmost to resolve the situation on my behalf.
I presume I’m well past any form of rejection as not fit for purpose? The watch has a 2 year warranty, can the dealer influence the manufacturer to reset this? (it may end up being in their care for months)
So, I have a feeling I need to suck this up – it’s still within warranty so could be lot worse. What would you do? I’ve no confidence in the dealer, and obviously my confidence in the product is shaky, ironic given it’s meant to be a ‘wear and forget’ fairly hardcore thing!
For those wondering, this is the watch in question.
https://www.jurawatches.co.uk/collections/sinn-wat...
Last summer I bought a watch, for a not inexpensive £1450. Seven months in this watch has failed/died, and because it’s a little specialised, it has to go back to the manufacturer in Germany to be looked at. (Still under warranty thankfully) I’m guessing from other customer experiences with this manufacturer I’ll be without it for a while, very best estimate is 5 weeks, worst seems to be 6 months.
The supplying dealer is a well-known in the watch world I would say, and my view of them isn’t great. Brilliant as a simple ’transactional’ sales style, but lacking in any customer service. (days to respond to emails, nonchalant approach to calls, just don’t seem to have any energy or concern etc.) I have no confidence that they’re doing their utmost to resolve the situation on my behalf.
I presume I’m well past any form of rejection as not fit for purpose? The watch has a 2 year warranty, can the dealer influence the manufacturer to reset this? (it may end up being in their care for months)
So, I have a feeling I need to suck this up – it’s still within warranty so could be lot worse. What would you do? I’ve no confidence in the dealer, and obviously my confidence in the product is shaky, ironic given it’s meant to be a ‘wear and forget’ fairly hardcore thing!
For those wondering, this is the watch in question.
https://www.jurawatches.co.uk/collections/sinn-wat...
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/...
Everything is described in that link.
I don't think that there is a legal definition of what is a reasonable repair period. Personally I'd say anything over 6 weeks is unreasonable.
Two days to ship to Germany.
Two days of work in diagnosing and making the repair.
Seven days to order parts (they should replace the entire movement if they can't get the specific part in that time.)
Two days to return the watch to the UK.
Given that I've totted up a maximum of 13 working days there (three weeks), anything over double that ought to be considered unreasonable IMHO.
That's a battle you have to fight with the dealer. Note that your contract is with the dealer, anything they tell you about their hands being tied by Sinn is irrelevant BS, it is simply the dealers problem, not yours.
Everything is described in that link.
I don't think that there is a legal definition of what is a reasonable repair period. Personally I'd say anything over 6 weeks is unreasonable.
Two days to ship to Germany.
Two days of work in diagnosing and making the repair.
Seven days to order parts (they should replace the entire movement if they can't get the specific part in that time.)
Two days to return the watch to the UK.
Given that I've totted up a maximum of 13 working days there (three weeks), anything over double that ought to be considered unreasonable IMHO.
That's a battle you have to fight with the dealer. Note that your contract is with the dealer, anything they tell you about their hands being tied by Sinn is irrelevant BS, it is simply the dealers problem, not yours.
I think you're stuck with letting them fix it unless you want to try and get legal. That might be problematic with the manufacturer doing the repairs based in Germany, as the retailer will just be able to point at them and say "That's how the warranty works and any delays are not due to us".... leaving you with the option of pursuing legal action in Germany.... which may or may not be successful.
Also, £1700 for a quartz watch with only a 2 year warranty?? What were you thinking. Also, that is not a pretty timepiece, IMHO, of course.
Also, £1700 for a quartz watch with only a 2 year warranty?? What were you thinking. Also, that is not a pretty timepiece, IMHO, of course.
mikeveal said:
http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/regulation/...
Everything is described in that link.
I don't think that there is a legal definition of what is a reasonable repair period. Personally I'd say anything over 6 weeks is unreasonable.
Two days to ship to Germany.
Two days of work in diagnosing and making the repair.
Seven days to order parts (they should replace the entire movement if they can't get the specific part in that time.)
Two days to return the watch to the UK.
Given that I've totted up a maximum of 13 working days there (three weeks), anything over double that ought to be considered unreasonable IMHO.
That's a battle you have to fight with the dealer. Note that your contract is with the dealer, anything they tell you about their hands being tied by Sinn is irrelevant BS, it is simply the dealers problem, not yours.
I would say you are correct, up to a point, however I would say the reasonableness would be against their paid service/ repair work. It would for instance be unreasonable for a warranty repair to take 6 weeks but a paid repair to take 6 days. Everything is described in that link.
I don't think that there is a legal definition of what is a reasonable repair period. Personally I'd say anything over 6 weeks is unreasonable.
Two days to ship to Germany.
Two days of work in diagnosing and making the repair.
Seven days to order parts (they should replace the entire movement if they can't get the specific part in that time.)
Two days to return the watch to the UK.
Given that I've totted up a maximum of 13 working days there (three weeks), anything over double that ought to be considered unreasonable IMHO.
That's a battle you have to fight with the dealer. Note that your contract is with the dealer, anything they tell you about their hands being tied by Sinn is irrelevant BS, it is simply the dealers problem, not yours.
5 weeks is not unusual for watch repair, my IWC was 8 weeks, including the 3 weeks it took for an estimate. Some of the high end brands are even longer 3-4 months is not unheard of.
I think a LOT of the horror stories of watches taking months to service come from the US and are perhaps as much shipping related as the manufacturer taking the pee.
i think the chances of rejecting as not fit for purpose is slim to 0, I would imagine on a year old watch it has an iffy battery fitted at manufacture...
my watch is in the shop at the moment, as the radium came off one of the hands.
Having a service at the same time.
So, a week for them to estimate what needs doing, then i approve. They do the work, then let it run for a few days, make sure it's keeping time. If not, they start again. Until it's within the tolerance.
It's at least 6 weeks - could be a lot longer. But I did know this, and accept it's what is needed to get the watch to where it should be.
Having a service at the same time.
So, a week for them to estimate what needs doing, then i approve. They do the work, then let it run for a few days, make sure it's keeping time. If not, they start again. Until it's within the tolerance.
It's at least 6 weeks - could be a lot longer. But I did know this, and accept it's what is needed to get the watch to where it should be.
Its a quartz watch, they will just pull the workings and stick a new one in it, i doubt that its ever worth fixing a quartz as they are so cheap to buy.
I guess you send it to dealer, they check it out, then if broken it goes somewhere to be fixed, then back to dealer, then back to you, so i can see why it will take a while. Out of interest if you don't like or trust the dealer what made you buy it from them?
I guess you send it to dealer, they check it out, then if broken it goes somewhere to be fixed, then back to dealer, then back to you, so i can see why it will take a while. Out of interest if you don't like or trust the dealer what made you buy it from them?
nikaiyo2 said:
5 weeks is not unusual for watch repair, my IWC was 8 weeks, including the 3 weeks it took for an estimate. Some of the high end brands are even longer 3-4 months is not unheard of.
I agree. But usual does not mean reasonable.There is no legal definition of reasonable. I've given my opinion, you've given yours. We differ, but technically neither of us are wrong.
This is something that the OP will have to
nikaiyo2 said:
i think the chances of rejecting as not fit for purpose is slim to 0,
I agree. Poop occureth.nikaiyo2 said:
I would imagine on a year old watch it has an iffy battery fitted at manufacture...
Hadn't twigged it was quartz. They won't be repairing it then, just a gubbins swap.Thanks all, looks like some waiting on my part!
I think part of the wait is that Sinn only have a small numbers of techs working on their oil-filled stuff, last I read. So whilst it may be a simple fix on most of their quartz range, something tells me this will be a tad more complicated.
Here's hoping it's just a duff battery.
I think part of the wait is that Sinn only have a small numbers of techs working on their oil-filled stuff, last I read. So whilst it may be a simple fix on most of their quartz range, something tells me this will be a tad more complicated.
Here's hoping it's just a duff battery.
matjk said:
Out of interest if you don't like or trust the dealer what made you buy it from them?
I had a good experience buying a cheap Suunto from them, probably because it was in stock on reflection. There are only 3 Sinn dealers in the UK, so not a great deal of choice. Frustration began to set in 6/7 weeks into the "2-3 weeks" delivery time; usual story of endless delays, no emails, "it's on the next shipment, honestly this time" stuff. Some Guy said:
spookly said:
Also, £1700 for a quartz watch with only a 2 year warranty?? What were you thinking. Also, that is not a pretty timepiece, IMHO, of course.
Totally agree. I would expect a decent automatic for that price
The looks I can understand, they're subjective. However, five minutes reading about Sinn, and the UX range in particular and you'd see it's not exactly a run of the mill, typical off-the-shelf Casio quartz beater And I'm not sure what you mean by decent, but if you're looking toward the likes Breitling and Omega, you're still 1k away on a good day
I do wonder why we have an obsession with mechanical. My £150 Sunnto is more capable, more accurate 1/20th the cost my of Breitling. The Breitling will, in 8 weeks require about £500 to overhaul and repair, whilst the Suunto just keeps on going, and I can change the battery with a 20p coin and 5 minutes, it's remarkable.
Inside the Sinn:
And inside a random diver of around half the cost:
The first is a doddle to engineer, it's very easy to create something that accurate with a quartz oscillator.
The second is a completely different ball game. Making a mechanical movement track time accurately, whilst driven from a varying source of of torque over a wide range of temperature and physical positions is a difficult engineering task. Not only is that managed, but enough pride is taken to embellish and decorate the finished movement.
The first is accurate and repeatable, every unit produced will be identical.
The second is less accurate. It certainly isn't repeatable. Each unit produced will be different.
The first is a clone.
The second has soul and personality.
And besides, the jerky movement of the second hand on quartz movements grates on your nerves, and they don't make that deliciously rapid "tick-tock".
And inside a random diver of around half the cost:
The first is a doddle to engineer, it's very easy to create something that accurate with a quartz oscillator.
The second is a completely different ball game. Making a mechanical movement track time accurately, whilst driven from a varying source of of torque over a wide range of temperature and physical positions is a difficult engineering task. Not only is that managed, but enough pride is taken to embellish and decorate the finished movement.
The first is accurate and repeatable, every unit produced will be identical.
The second is less accurate. It certainly isn't repeatable. Each unit produced will be different.
The first is a clone.
The second has soul and personality.
And besides, the jerky movement of the second hand on quartz movements grates on your nerves, and they don't make that deliciously rapid "tick-tock".
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