From winning to wining…

Ok, so hear this. A guy at a Dutch watchforum buys an Omega Speedmaster Pro and complains it stopped running. In other words, his brand new Speedmaster Pro is broke. Sad enough ofcourse, but a typical case of ‘warranty’. However, he bought the watch in a small town in the east part of the Netherlands and he lives about 150 kilometers from there. So he calls the dealer where he bought it and asks what to do and if he can bring his watch to other dealers as well. Well, since the dealer where he bought it is authorized and filled in the card, he can do this. So he went to the authorized Omega dealer in his city and asks them to help him out. The dealer says that’s ok, but he has to pay for the shippingcosts to Omega’s servicecenter. The buyer feels bad about this and shares his feelings on the Dutch watch forum. He blames the Omega dealer in his city for not taking in his watch for free.

I could feel sorry for this guy, but I don’t. I really don’t. What’s the rest of the story.. when he was still in the queste for this Speedmaster Pro, he went to this local dealer before and tried to bargain the price. The dealer said ‘No’ and off he went to a dealer 150 kilometer to the east, where they do bargain because they have to compete with German dealers (just across the border, about 20km) which have lower listprices. This local dealer now refuses to help him for free, because he didn’t buy the watch at their place. And I can imagine.. this dealer can just as well close his business if he has to pay for shipping/service for watches people didn’t buy at his place because they wanted too much discount.

So where there first was winning (on the price), now there is wining… Sorry pal, just drive 150 kilometers to the east and ask for free service or to have them swap your watch. I would have felt sorry for you if you would be a man and just paid a couple of extra bucks for shipping at your local dealer, now I don’t (I know, no one asks me too, but I am a sensitive guy :-)), especially not when you are blaming this ‘Triade Juweliers’ shop in Almere for coming up for their policies.

Boohoo.