Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

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Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by TPS10 »

I thought I’d share with you the story of a new (to me) watch and the journey it has been on to become the watch it is today. In true Hollywood blockbuster film style I’ll be introducing you to a few characters including; the main character, Superhero #1, Superhero #2, a nasty villain and a mysterious as yet unidentified figure. But will there be a happy Hollywood ending?
This may be a long story, so apologies in advance.

Main Character
The main character is my Christopher Ward (CW) C65 Trident Classic LE Blue. I’d been after one of these watches for a while, on the brushed steel bracelet. As they very rarely come up for sale, I was prepared to buy one on a leather strap and buy the bracelet seperately direct from CW. I had checked with CW that I could buy the bracelet which they had confirmed I could. Anyway, it turns out you can’t, I had been misinformed. I wrote a thread about that experience in this post:viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51252
So I was left with a braceletless watch, scarred from a fight it had no chance of winning in trying to attach to a bracelet that was never going to fit. What were my options? Was this going to be a quick painful end to the story? We’re my dreams of having this watch on a brushed bracelet gone?

Superhero #1
One morning whilst crying into my porridge, holding my naked, braceletless, scarred watch ( a bit of artistic licence here, as the watch & bracelet were actually back at CW Towers now, with them trying to find a solution) Superhero #1 came into my life. A PM popped up on this forum from a fellow member BJH (Brian) offering to help. Brian had the very bracelet I was after, which he didn’t use and would be happy to swap for my polished bracelet that CW had incorrectly advised me would fit. Fantastic news. After a few messages back and forth Brian changed his mind and didn’t want to swap the bracelet, he wanted to give me the brushed bracelet! I was taken aback by this kind and generous offer. Brian sent me the bracelet, which I forwarded on to CW to fit, who had still not offered a solution. I wanted to repay this kind offer, but all Brian would accept is a promise that ‘if I ever get the opportunity to pass the favour on’ I would do.
BJH (Brian) you are an absolute gent, your kindness and generosity are greatly appreciated and I hope one day I can do likewise and help out a fellow forum member in need. I have also enjoyed sharing the rest of the story with you while it unfolded.
This is also testament to the relationships that can be formed on a forum like this and restores your faith in humanity.

Superhero #2
So now my watch and Brian’s bracelet are at CW getting fitted, it’s only a matter of time before I have it back and ready to wear. This is where Superhero #2 comes into my life. Out of the blue I receive an email from someone I don’t know with the menacing opening line “ you don’t know me, but I have your watch”! But wait I hear you say, surely this is the nasty villain who has kidnapped your watch and is demanding a hefty ransom for its safe return? No, this is another CW customer, we’ll call ‘D’ who has been sent my watch in error. And to keep the Hollywood theme going, he lives in California! Yes that’s right my watch has been sent to California, USA in error. Not only has he been sent my watch, he’s also been sent all my personal details; email address, home address, mobile number etc. A massive data protection breach! Thankfully ‘D’ was a gentleman who treated my watch and personal detail with the greatest of respect, but I do worry about what could have happened if this had all been sent to a less than honourable person.
’D’ if you’re reading this and I’m not sure if you are a forum reader, a big thank you for looking after my watch and personal details and for dealing with returning my watch to CW. Again, faith in humanity restored.

The Nasty Villian
Now I’m probably being a bit harsh here and maybe a “bumbling fool” may be a better description, but to keep the Hollywood theme going they’re going to be the Nasty Villian. Ladies & gentlemen, I give you CW Customer Service & Logistics Team.
Now I fully appreciate that genuine errors can and do happen, but a a catalogue of continuous errors and how they’re dealt with define a customer service team. My list of issues is as follows:
  • Being given the incorrect info on my original bracelet request.
  • Not coming up with a solution to my original issue and not offering any real help
  • Sending my watch to the wrong customer, the other side of the world
  • Sharing my personal data with a complete stranger
  • Once having my watch back at CW, taking a further 16 days to get it back to me
  • 7 days after confirming my address for return, my watch still hadn’t been dispatched
  • Being promised a next day delivery, which then failed and took a further 4 days to arrive with me
  • Me phoning 4 days running, sending 2 emails and still to this day not having received an acknowledgment or response to any of them
I will balance this by saying everyone I did speak to at CW we’re very polite, knew who I was, said they’d take action, but I never had confidence that it would happen, which brings me on to my next character.....

The Mysterious As Yet Unidentified Figure
I’m going to call this character the Customer Service Manager (CSM), the person who ultimately heads up the Customer Service Team. Does this character exist? Is he an urban myth like the Lochness Monster, Bigfoot etc? A made up character to fool us into believing he exists? To this day I still don’t know, the mystery continues. I have received emails from the CSM, but have never been able to speak to him.
  • Fri 1st March - I receive an email from the CSM offering me compensation and saying he’ll call me on Monday
  • Mon 4th March - no call received from the CSM
  • Tues 5th March - I call CW to speak to the CSM to be told “he’s expecting your call and he will call you back”
  • Wed 6th March - I call CW to speak to the CSM to be told “he’s expecting your call and he will call you back
  • Thurs 7th March - I call CW to speak to the CSM to be told “he’s expecting your call and he will call you back
  • Thurs 7th March - I email the CSM to say I’ve tried to call him 3 days running with no response
  • Fri 8th March - I call CW to speak to the CSM to be told “he’s off today but he has asked me to call you”
  • Thurs 14th March - I email the CSM
As yet I have not received an email or phone call to any of the above requests, although I have received a level of compensation.

Happy Ending?
Well yes! I love the watch it looks and feels great on the brushed bracelet. I love the fact that when I look at it it reminds of the great kindness and generosity shown by both Brian and ‘D’. When I see the scratches, (which are minimal, but I know they’re there) it reminds me of the scars my watch has gained in its battles and journey to be mine. If you’ve ever read my SOTC viewtopic.php?f=64&t=50885 you’ll see I like my watches to have a bit of a story and a meaning to them and this watch certainly has a story.
How do I feel about CW? If I’m honest at the moment, I don’t know. I do feel disappointed in the service I have received, but worse things happen. Being without a watch for best part of 3 months while it travels around the world is hardy a hardship, after all, I have other watches I can wear in that time.
Will I buy another CW? Again at the moment I don’t know. Possibly? Probably? I love the quality of CW, I love the attachment I have (had) to the brand. It wouldn’t surprise me if in 2 years time I have another 2 or 3 CW watches, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if I’d moved them all on in the pursuit of other watches. There are currently no watches that I want, but that may change with the Trident MkIII. I don’t like the new logo (I won’t labour that point here) and don’t have any watches with the new logo, so maybe I have come to the end of this journey and another journey awaits elsewhere? I just don’t know and probably too early to tell.
Thank you reading my story, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and apologies for the length of this post!! I suppose I should end with a photo of said watch, so here goes.
5AA9FB1E-ACDA-41FB-BDAB-CF21AA74B08F.jpeg
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by Thegreyman »

A very interesting tale of your C65 Classic LE, a lovely watch which I used to own myself.

I'm glad to hear everything has worked out and kudos to the generosity of Brian and to D for taking the time to get in touch and return the watch to you.

The story of the CW CS doesn't read too well and sounds very sloppy. You hope they read these posts and try to improve their processes accordingly.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by StrapMeister »

A very interesting read albeit one hell of a saga!
Unfortunately, the sending of watches to the wrong customer along with personal details (on the invoice/packing slip) is not an isolated case.
This happened to me whereby I received a CW watch for someone else.
What made it worse was that it was a wedding gift and engraved as such - the date being for the Saturday.
The problem was I received it on the Friday.
Initially I wasn't sure what to do but decided to send a text message to the owner to at least let them know.
They were understandable upset but, at the same time, grateful for my message.
The watch was subsequently returned to CW.

Anyway, I'm glad you had a happy ending and you have a lovely watch.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by what-time-is-it »

A tale of great generosity, honesty and calamity. Shame on you CW customer services, which in my recent experience is getting worse and they need to address it.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by statto »

An epic saga, well told. I hope the frustration levels never reached danger point!

I seriously doubt that there is any organisation in existence that has a pure gold 100% error free distribution record, but it is how those errors are rectified that make the difference between awful / bad / ok / good / great / outstanding service. Compounding errors with more errors is not the way to achieve excellence.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by KevinB »

I'm glad for a happy end and the congeniality of this forum, but the CSM should be fired on Monday. I'm patient and nearly always give the benefit of the doubt, but I run a development and tech support team and if I saw this feedback I'd be livid. That is a shocking disregard for a customer. A profuse apology and some recompense for that should be forthcoming. That's customer service 101.

That is what so frustrates me. I love my two watches and am seriously look at the new Pepsi GMT, but these unforced errors by CW make me question another purchase. My C60 has been back once and if I were in the UK rather than US would go back again. The movement was supposedly dirty and was regulated. Dirty? In a new watch? Regulated left me -20" which seems a poor effort after a return for an offset GMT hand and running slow.

I work in a small business and I know it has challenges, but service is where you earn your reputation. How CW can let the service fester eludes me. All the best looking high value watches aren't going to keep the brand going if they can't provide after sale support to the very people who might go on to buy more watches. I know this is a limited community and often people join just to complain and leave, but the thread through all of those is that CS isn't calling back same day, stubbornly refusing to reply promptly. That runs through nearly every complaint. One employee a day should be responsible for returning the Americas and Asia emails. When you run a global business you respond to your emails at bed time and when you wake up. I've spent my entire 25 career this way. It is the job. I can't understand how they do not understand this.

I just wish the people that could change the ethos would read this and understand it is after the sale where loyalty is forged.

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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by TPS10 »

KevinB wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2019 12:19 am I'm glad for a happy end and the congeniality of this forum, but the CSM should be fired on Monday. I'm patient and nearly always give the benefit of the doubt, but I run a development and tech support team and if I saw this feedback I'd be livid. That is a shocking disregard for a customer. A profuse apology and some recompense for that should be forthcoming. That's customer service 101.

I just wish the people that could change the ethos would read this and understand it is after the sale where loyalty is forged.

Kevin
Just to be absolutely clear, as it may have got lost in the length of my original post, I was offered and have received a form of compensation.
I absolutely would not want the CSM to lose their job, but there does need to be some learnings from what seems to be regularly occurring issues. They need to look at some of their processes and understand why they’re failing and how they can improve them. Things will always go wrong and human error will always exist, any reasonable person can accept that, but it’s about minimising these and taking more responsibility for what is in your control.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by KevinB »

Perhaps the Jameson's got the better of me last evening and I was a bit harsh. I completely agree with your thought that they need to look at the processes that cause these failures. Hopefully they'll step up tomorrow!
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by Caller »

I think CW should take a long hard look at the risks associated with personal data breaches and their processes and procedures in place to ensure they don't happen in future. Judging by the above excellent report and response, this wasn't an isolated incident. Should a complaint be made to the ICO, they could find themselves well in the poo.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by TPS10 »

I have a question please, primarily for the senior members and high volume posters of this forum.

As a relative newbie, I just want to understand why only 6 members saw fit to comment on the incredible generosity of a fellow forum member, namely Brian?

If I was a senior member of a forum and that platform had been responsible for such an act of generosity between 2 members that could only be brought together by the forum, I would be celebrating and acknowledging this from the rafters. And the fact that all Brian wants in return is the favour to be passed onto another forum member at some stage, anyone on here could be the recipient and benefit from Brian’s generosity.

At my company we have a saying “we deal in facts and check assumptions”. I have assumptions as to why the silence has been deafening, but I want to check these and hear the facts. So please, admin team, senior members, anyone, please explain to me why you didn’t feel Brian needed congratulating for his incredibly kind act.

If you do not want to comment on here, please feel free to PM me, as I’m keen to learn and understand.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by Thermexman »

Well, I confess that I had read this post but clearly didn’t reply. It wasn’t because I didn’t spot Brian’s kind gesture or privately acknowledge his generosity.

It was because the nature of my interactions with posts has changed. I used to get a lot of opportunity to log in on my work’s pc and post from work but that has changed and I rarely get chance to do more than a quick peek on my phone now. My main posting is done on my iPad in front of the telly box.

My post count has slowed right down as a result. I probably read this particular post whilst at work and on my phone. Hence, I didn’t respond.

Brian, whoever he is? Is, indeed a good un! :clap:
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by H0rati0 »

TPS10 wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 9:49 pm I have a question please, primarily for the senior members and high volume posters of this forum.

As a relative newbie, I just want to understand why only 6 members saw fit to comment on the incredible generosity of a fellow forum member, namely Brian?

If I was a senior member of a forum and that platform had been responsible for such an act of generosity between 2 members that could only be brought together by the forum, I would be celebrating and acknowledging this from the rafters. And the fact that all Brian wants in return is the favour to be passed onto another forum member at some stage, anyone on here could be the recipient and benefit from Brian’s generosity.

At my company we have a saying “we deal in facts and check assumptions”. I have assumptions as to why the silence has been deafening, but I want to check these and hear the facts. So please, admin team, senior members, anyone, please explain to me why you didn’t feel Brian needed congratulating for his incredibly kind act.

If you do not want to comment on here, please feel free to PM me, as I’m keen to learn and understand.
I think that's a fair question and I'll chance an answer because I was certainly one of those who did not comment.

Frankly, such generous behaviour is not so unusual here, this is a relatively intimate place - though please understand I am not in any way belittling Brian's outstanding gesture.

Whilst I would not go so far as to expect such, it was in no way outside my experience within a relatively small, enthusiast community.

Nevertheless, hats off to Brian, a thoroughgoing gentleman.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by Mikkei4 »

I’m not giving excuses here, just some possible reasons in response to your question.

Not everybody reads every post.
Some like to read but not get involved with commenting.
You apologise up front about the length of the post but some people are put off reading lengthy topic content.
The amount of time that people can give over to the Forum may have prevented them reading or replying to that topic.
A big generalisation but human nature tends to be critical but less ready to give compliments.
There’s a lot of info in there so people might pick different elements of that info to comment on.
If a few people have already commented then some people will not bother writing the same or similar comment.

Personally I remember seeing the post but either skim read it or stopped reading part way through. Probably due to a mix of my first 4 points.

For my final comments after reading the original post today - It is heartening to see that there are still people like Brian and D that are generous with their time and thoughts - A belated "Well Done" to them. I will say that as far as I'm aware their actions are not unique within this Forum - I've seen and read plenty of generous thoughts and actions.

I hope you are still enjoying the watch and freebie bracelet.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by neilj568 »

I've had two less than pleasurable experiences with Customer Services over a C8 PRC. I got a refund both times but I would have preferred the watch I'd ordered and as a result of these experiences another CW purchase is not imminent.
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Re: Story Of A New Watch - It’s Not An Explorer, But It’s Certainly Been On A Journey

Post by Jenks78 »

Very interesting read, for someone who's thinking of their first CW purchase it is good to read both good and bad sides to the watch buying process.

Thank you
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