Why Keep This Forum Going?

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by Kip »

hughesyn wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 11:03 am The forum is still valuable to CW, because it shows they are a 'real' company, not just a fancy website.
I bought my first CW after reading the forum, which gave me the confidence to buy.

The company does seem to have a disdainful attitude toward the forum.
They appear to read it occasionaly, but will never post anything.
Lots of young companies like fintechs have forums in which the company and customers are in constant dialogue. It's part CS, part feedback / roadmap development...
If someone posts a complaint, I'd expect a company representative to reply quickly with 'Hi, sorry to hear you're having a problem. DM me your contact details and we'll get in touch to sort this out'. That is exactly the kind of reply you get on social media from almost every other company when people complain. It takes the heat out of a complaint discussion because right from the beginning you know the company is on it.

On the other hand, the FB group seems more fun and less moderated.
See you on FB peeps!
Not sure why you think the CW attitude toward the forum is disdainful. They do read the forum, but as has been stated many times before, they do not post so as not to influence, or give the appearance of influencing the editorial content.

You are probably aware, but for those that are not, CW supports this forum financially and with tech support. I certainly do not see the disdain in that.

This forum is not the complaint department, nor customer service. The CW website has the contact information for CS as well as others. That is where people should be reaching out to for resolutions. They are free to comment on the process here as well as resolutions, but we cannot solve issues that CW must deal with.

If I buy something and have an issue I do not go looking for a for forum to reach out. I reach out to the company I bought from. How difficult is that? Seems like common sense to me.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by what-time-is-it »

I suspect Kip, that customers vent or reach out on here because CW are more often than not slow to respond, or send out generic email responses.
In this day and age people expect to be dealt with or at least have an acknowledgment of an issue quickly - CW's service by phone, email or contact form has declined in 2019.

The service whether you spend £250, or £3500 should be the same and it's not fit for purpose. Personally I don't think it would do any harm if CW did monitor CW issues and pick up problems on here with a PM before the thread gains traction. As a catchall, perhaps mods could flag these up with the owners and be pro-active.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by albionphoto »

what-time-is-it wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:21 pm I suspect Kip, that customers vent or reach out on here because CW are more often than not slow to respond, or send out generic email responses.
In this day and age people expect to be dealt with or at least have an acknowledgment of an issue quickly - CW's service by phone, email or contact form has declined in 2019.

The service whether you spend £250, or £3500 should be the same and it's not fit for purpose. Personally I don't think it would do any harm if CW did monitor CW issues and pick up problems on here with a PM before the thread gains traction. As a catchall, perhaps mods could flag these up with the owners and be pro-active.
I don't think the mods should flag CS issues to CW. Their role is to moderate the forum. I have been told, on numerous occasions and by CW staff, that they do read the forum on a regular basis. Their policy is not to interfere as they want the forum to remain independent. Kip has rightly said that when there is an issue it should be dealt with by the customer directly to CW. If the response, as you say is inadequate, then venting here becomes a natural recourse. However, CS issues should be dealt with by CW and not the mods.

I browse the photography forums quite a lot. B&H Photovideo are a major camera store here in the US. They have a member on most forums called Henry Posner (handle = henryP). Part of his job is to peruse the various forums, find CS issues and try to fix them. As CW expands this may be a role they want to create but this role shouldn't be for the mods.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by Kip »

what-time-is-it wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:21 pm As a catchall, perhaps mods could flag these up with the owners and be pro-active.
It might surprise you, but I have been doing this for years. I do not get involved with resolutions, but will point CW towards issues in case they haven't seen them.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by what-time-is-it »

Kip wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:32 pm
what-time-is-it wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:21 pm As a catchall, perhaps mods could flag these up with the owners and be pro-active.
It might surprise you, but I have been doing this for years. I do not get involved with resolutions, but will point CW towards issues in case they haven't seen them.
No, not surprised but saddened that CW don't appear to take matters seriously - which is tarnishing the forum and damaging their business imho.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by hughesyn »

Kip wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 12:14 pm This forum is not the complaint department, nor customer service. The CW website has the contact information for CS as well as others. That is where people should be reaching out to for resolutions. They are free to comment on the process here as well as resolutions, but we cannot solve issues that CW must deal with.

If I buy something and have an issue I do not go looking for a for forum to reach out. I reach out to the company I bought from. How difficult is that? Seems like common sense to me.
Posting on social media, be it Twitter, Face book or indeed a company owned forum, is how people 'reach out' to a company these days.
Isn't it common sense if you have a problem with your Christopher Ward, to go on the forum owned by Christopher Ward for its customers to post messages on?

Virtually nobody goes on CWE FB group to complain about CW, because CW has their own page.

Therefore, the CWE FB group tends to be overwhelmingly positive.
Whereas the forum tends to have some negativity.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by Martin »

I think it is hugely in CW’s favour that there has never been any official intervention or contribution to the forum. To do so would be the first step on a very slippery slope. I am sure there have been occasions when temptation to interact, retort or just explain has been strong. What they do get is warts and all feedback on a whole range of issues. Customer service has been a hot topic for a while, something else will come along I am sure. The regional meetings serve a similar purpose and seem to be a development of the old online Q and A sessions.
CW do respond and do take note, of that I am sure. I do not think they should involve themselves directly on the forum.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by 0uatiOW »

^ Agree. Members of CW staff read but do not engage, which is absolutely correct. There have been incidents recently of complaints being posted here and worded as if addressing CW directly, and requests for the moderators to resolve issues.

This forum isn’t a Customer Service portal. If CW were to engage, respond, defend their corner here then this would be a very different place. IMV it would be very unprofessional for CW to engage in a public exchange on a specific customer complaint, and the Mods are exactly right to be advising that the correct course of action is to contact CW directly.

I know it’s typical these days to post complaints in the most public of places, and there can only be one reason to do that, and that is to try to shame the complainee (is that a word?) into resolving the issue to the complainant’s satisfaction. This kind of public shaming is pretty low, but it can work.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by MarkingTime »

0uatiOW wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 12:41 am I know it’s typical these days to post complaints in the most public of places, and there can only be one reason to do that, and that is to try to shame the complainee (is that a word?) into resolving the issue to the complainant’s satisfaction. This kind of public shaming is pretty low, but it can work.
I disagree. Social media has empowered customers and given them a worldwide platform to leverage resolutions that should be forthcoming without any pressure needing to be applied.
These days, customer service is in a rather poor state in my opinion and I for one will certainly use any leverage necessary to get the result I require.
It is all too common for customers to be fobbed off with excuses in the hope that the less bright and informed, will just walk away from the problem.
If customers were dealt with correctly, there would be no need to go public about the problem, because it would be sorted already.

This forum in itself, is a useful platform to get issues resolved and I strongly suspect that problems have indeed been resolved in a much more timely manner simply because of the publicity generated here.

No-one likes their dirty laundry aired in public.
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by gaf1958 »

MarkingTime wrote:This forum in itself, is a useful platform to get issues resolved and I strongly suspect that problems have indeed been resolved in a much more timely manner simply because of the publicity generated here.

No-one likes their dirty laundry aired in public.
You have a valid argument, but I for one can’t understand why the first point of call for some complainants is this forum. Surely halfway intelligent people understand that they bought a watch from CW the company, not from the forum, so why do we see posts complaining about a problem here, before they’ve even contacted the company, or in some cases asking who the hell they should contact regarding a problem.

Now, if they’ve already contacted CW and have not had a satisfactory response ... then they come here; different story and quite understandable - I’d quite possibly do that myself. They can get some advice on how the problem should be approached, raise its profile, all of those things; but surely contacting CW to rectify a problem is the first, and blindingly obvious, thing to do. I know that I wouldn’t like to see this forum become the default complaints department...
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by Mikkei4 »

^spot on, I thought the same and couldn't have stated it better.
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Frankly Not My Problem

Post by scooter »

Well said Gary.

The only reason that the Forum is full of negativity is the number of people who come here purely to whinge and whine about a CW watch that 'has a problem.'

Those same people are quick enough to laud CW to high Heaven once they have got what they want.

Got a problem with a Christopher Ward watch. Go seek advice from CW.

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Re: Frankly Not My Problem

Post by Thermexman »

scooter wrote: Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:12 am
The only reason that the Forum is full of negativity is the number of people who come here purely to whinge and whine about a CW watch that 'has a problem.'

Those same people are quick enough to laud CW to high Heaven once they have got what they want.


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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by Thunder1 »

For Christs sake, you blokes should give yourselves some credit...
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Re: Why Keep This Forum Going?

Post by jimbo »

I have not looked at site for a while, I had to drag myself away to concentrate on work/family/ and getting off the bloody internet.....(it didn't work I am also really into car forums)

Having had a look at various things on here over the last hour or so I think that CW customers or general folk over all have to consider themselves lucky that here is a forum who accepts people like me with little knowledge of watches, yet instead of putting me down explain "stuff" .

I have had first class help on posts I have asked questions on in the past.

I have been to a couple GTG's one where Chris and his team turned up and help promote the latest creation.
I cant's think of many businesses doing the same for a few geeks who gob off on line.

CW themselves must hate the adverse publicity that they may read time to time. i am sure they do their best to sort things out, but as already said, do it through the proper channels.

The customer service I have enjoyed from CW HQ has been second to none, even recently I have contacted them and had e-mails exchanged with CW on a variation of the C65. I couldn't see many other businesses doing the same from a bloke on the other end of a computer. If I had enough support I know they would bend over backwards to try and make it happen

This forum is good

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