Longines - good quality or not?
Discussion
I am writing this from the position of someone who has just been presented with a sizable estimate to repair a non funtioning ladies Longines quartz watch ( model L3.126.4)
- I am after some opinions with regard to the siuation I am now in.
The watch was purchased in Dec 2007, all was fine for about 6 months, then it mysteriously died, so was returned to the retailer, who in turn sent it back to Longines for a warranty repair, this took over 2 months, but it came back working, but with no explanation as to what went wrong.
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago, the watch again dies for no apparent reason, I take it back to the retailer.The battery is declared healthy but as its now out of warranty (2yr warranty by the way) -the retailer decides it will be fixed in house(ie generating them income) low and behold, it requires a service and 'a circuit'. When pressed as to what is wrong, they could not answer, merely told me the estimate was in fact cheaper than most they see for Longines ( 315 cad plus tax, so about 355 bucks all in)I should be happy.
My question is, is this a try on by the retailer, or are Longines watches that unreliable ? Its a quartz watch at the end of the day, so am amazed it has required attention twice in 2 years.
I have looked at the Longines website, it states service requirements are 4- 5 yrs depending on usage, I am looking at less than 3 yrs on a watch that cost about 900 bucks, that my good lady wife treats as if made of glass, hell it doesn't even get wet !
Am I right to feel a little aggrieved ? Or should I just suck it up, as they all cost this ?
- I am after some opinions with regard to the siuation I am now in.
The watch was purchased in Dec 2007, all was fine for about 6 months, then it mysteriously died, so was returned to the retailer, who in turn sent it back to Longines for a warranty repair, this took over 2 months, but it came back working, but with no explanation as to what went wrong.
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago, the watch again dies for no apparent reason, I take it back to the retailer.The battery is declared healthy but as its now out of warranty (2yr warranty by the way) -the retailer decides it will be fixed in house(ie generating them income) low and behold, it requires a service and 'a circuit'. When pressed as to what is wrong, they could not answer, merely told me the estimate was in fact cheaper than most they see for Longines ( 315 cad plus tax, so about 355 bucks all in)I should be happy.
My question is, is this a try on by the retailer, or are Longines watches that unreliable ? Its a quartz watch at the end of the day, so am amazed it has required attention twice in 2 years.
I have looked at the Longines website, it states service requirements are 4- 5 yrs depending on usage, I am looking at less than 3 yrs on a watch that cost about 900 bucks, that my good lady wife treats as if made of glass, hell it doesn't even get wet !
Am I right to feel a little aggrieved ? Or should I just suck it up, as they all cost this ?
My wife always wanted a Longines watch as her dad had one all his life, but hers broke in under a year (winder cap fell off).
I took it back to Selfridges dept store and they said they'd have to send it back to Switzerland and it will take 4-6 weeks for 'diagnostics' to determine whether it will be classified as accidental damage (the guy in the shop said they normally decide this was the case) and will then issue an estimate (I was told it will be expensive - despite being under warranty) and it will then take up to 11 weeks before it is returned from Switzerland.
Seems the brand, whose high price is based on a reputation for reliability, is not what it was as they must have an overwhelming backlog of broken watches to fix. Either way, I am less than overwhelmed!
I took it back to Selfridges dept store and they said they'd have to send it back to Switzerland and it will take 4-6 weeks for 'diagnostics' to determine whether it will be classified as accidental damage (the guy in the shop said they normally decide this was the case) and will then issue an estimate (I was told it will be expensive - despite being under warranty) and it will then take up to 11 weeks before it is returned from Switzerland.
Seems the brand, whose high price is based on a reputation for reliability, is not what it was as they must have an overwhelming backlog of broken watches to fix. Either way, I am less than overwhelmed!
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