Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Discuss Christopher Ward watches
Mikkei4
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Mikkei4 »

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:13 pm
Alex r wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:04 pm A mistake would have been nice but Vallen is sticking to £150 for a quartz service and battery change says the prices went up 6months ago. Give it another 6 months and it will be cheaper to replace a watch than have it serviced.
It has got to be a mistake!

I have my Sister-in-law's C7 COSC IRR in with CW as it had 'stopped'.

Diagnosed, only last week, as new battery required.

Cost £20 plus return postage.

Mind you; since I got the diagnostic and cost email from Katrina on Tuesday last week and I replied within 20 mins to say "OK, I'll use PayPal to pay, please send me an invoice" I've heard nothing. Not even after a chase up email to Katrina and Customer Service last night.

Any suggestion, that as a member of the Admin Team I might get preferential treatment (which has been hinted at from time to time) is phat.

We are not immune! :shock:

Guy
As you say Admin Team are not immune so what an excellent example to pass onto Mike France and Scott Callaway to show what is happening with the black holes in CS that many emails and watches are falling into.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by STodd »

Bahnstormer_vRS wrote:
Alex r wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:04 pm A mistake would have been nice but Vallen is sticking to £150 for a quartz service and battery change says the prices went up 6months ago. Give it another 6 months and it will be cheaper to replace a watch than have it serviced.
It has got to be a mistake!

I have my Sister-in-law's C7 COSC IRR in with CW as it had 'stopped'.

Diagnosed, only last week, as new battery required.

Cost £20 plus return postage.

Mind you; since I got the diagnostic and cost email from Katrina on Tuesday last week and I replied within 20 mins to say "OK, I'll use PayPal to pay, please send me an invoice" I've heard nothing. Not even after a chase up email to Katrina and Customer Service last night.

Any suggestion, that as a member of the Admin Team I might get preferential treatment (which has been hinted at from time to time) is phat.

We are not immune! :shock:

Guy
I got a call earlier today (my C4 has been there for a while Image) - there may have been a PayPal issue, but apparently sorted now...

I await my invoice - 2 months in.........


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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Lavaine »

Alex r wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:04 pm A mistake would have been nice but Vallen is sticking to £150 for a quartz service and battery change says the prices went up 6months ago. Give it another 6 months and it will be cheaper to replace a watch than have it serviced.
I wonder what the justification is for charging the same for a quartz service as an automatic service. I'm guessing most watchmakers could probably swap in a new movement and seals, and test WR, for less than the cost of a service. It doesn't make any sense.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by H0rati0 »

Lavaine wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:44 pm
Alex r wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 5:04 pm A mistake would have been nice but Vallen is sticking to £150 for a quartz service and battery change says the prices went up 6months ago. Give it another 6 months and it will be cheaper to replace a watch than have it serviced.
I wonder what the justification is for charging the same for a quartz service as an automatic service. I'm guessing most watchmakers could probably swap in a new movement and seals, and test WR, for less than the cost of a service. It doesn't make any sense.
Perhaps another phone call to discuss the justification and enlighten us all? Makes no sense to me either.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by nordwulf »

I was curious about this myself and exchanged some emails with CW. More info in this new thread: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=52282
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Essex Paul »

^^^^^ these great changes Mike France has promised clearly haven’t kicked in yet.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Bahnstormer_vRS »

Essex Paul wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 8:34 pm ^^^^^ these great changes Mike France has promised clearly haven’t kicked in yet.
They have in part Paul.

In the Customer Service - Response from CW topic, part of Mike France's response was;-

"any watch received back from a customer will be logged into the system, inspected by a technician, allocated to the appropriate route, a quote communicated to the customer where necessary and passed to the relevant department for action – all within the same day."

Well; I guess CW met their target of dealing with the above 'same day', but its then no good if they don't respond to me to arrange payment.

The 1 - 2 weeks initially quoted will now, I'm sure, be 2 - 3 weeks and ticking. :grumble:

@STodd - thanks, Steve, for the comment about CW having issues with PayPal and this now being fixed. I recall this being mentioned in one of the recent threads (was in an email from CW to a customer?).

However, playing devil's advocate, it does then (if true) beg the question of why was PayPal offered as a payment method if CW could not fullfill it. I would have happily phoned and paid, but just felt that its easier to receive an email and, a few clicks later, payment is complete; in a fraction of the time for both me and CW that a phone call would take to deal with.

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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by McDaWisel »

I feel there is an issue with their email system. I submitted a form to do a return under 60/60 and called 3 days later to ask why I had not heard back. They said they did email me within a day of me submitting the form. Apologised and said email requesting details would go out again in a minute.

Didn’t get anything for another 48 hours. Called again and was told again that they can see the email did indeed go out within minutes of my previous phone call.

They then collected my details over the phone instead and I had a confirmation from DHL within seconds for a pickup.

Definitely an IT email issue...
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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

McDaWisel wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:31 pm Definitely an IT email issue...
Just a thought. If the email shows up as delivered on the sender’s system, and it hasn’t been bounced or returned undeliverable, could it be that the recipient’s server is treating it as junk?

I had this problem at work recently, and got very frustrated when the travel company I use for my residential trip to France appeared to stop sending me emails. Eventually our IT boys investigated and found a pile of emails that didn’t even reach my personal junk folder – our system had just taken them out.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by johnnysharp2 »

Most of my emails from CW for whatever reason go into my junk folder - so maybe it's the same the other way around!
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by H0rati0 »

Amor Vincit Omnia wrote: Thu Jun 20, 2019 5:00 am
McDaWisel wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:31 pm Definitely an IT email issue...
Just a thought. If the email shows up as delivered on the sender’s system, and it hasn’t been bounced or returned undeliverable, could it be that the recipient’s server is treating it as junk?

I had this problem at work recently, and got very frustrated when the travel company I use for my residential trip to France appeared to stop sending me emails. Eventually our IT boys investigated and found a pile of emails that didn’t even reach my personal junk folder – our system had just taken them out.
Gmail also decide what is junk, no option to pass through and I would lay odds that the other giant providers are similar.

But if it's free you are the asset so better to run one's own personal email, it's not difficult. Obviously not an option at work.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by monkeymax »

For the record, my C6 Kingfisher Quartz was fully serviced in Nov 2016 for £90 at CW towers (I treated it as it was its first service). Last October it needed a new battery again (less than two years!) and CW charged me £22.95 all in. (£15 for the actual job, rest was shipping) If it will cost nearly £100 again I'll take it elsewhere (I need the watch pressure tested when its opened as it often gets wet!).

I was debating contacting CW for a new bezel ring for mine (I bashed mine last week :( ) just in case they have any at the back of the sofa, but also am very interested in the MK3 Trident to replace/update the C6... Think I'll hold off on both those for now! I've had CWs since 2009 but am not a big watch collector so appreciate that I'm not 'that interesting' to them as a customer. But when I compare the customer service now (my own experience last October was not stellar, but what is visible on the forum these days is bad) to 2011-ish, it's quite different and not for the best... :(
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by shaw »

UPDATE
Received my "repaired twice" watch on 26 June 2019, this time there's no repair order form inside the box, so no idea what's been done, only with a QC film wrapped around the watch head and a wrinkly card says it's been tested.
So I fully wound it up and wore it two full days without taking it off, and it still stopped, not auto-winding!!
For almost five months in repair (sent back twice), and still not fixed. I wonder how QC test
the winding problem or did they?
I'm really not keen to repeat this loop for five years.

BTW, thanks to everyone of you gentlemen who's being supportive from the beginning.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Hammy85 »

These stories are unbelievable. Feel very sorry for those who've gone through such experiences. Ring CW and demand to speak to the CEOs, ask for a free and imnediate replacement and something extra by way of compensation. Or a full refund to buy something better elsewhere.
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Re: Bad experience with Christopher ward watch and it's customer services

Post by Caller »

shaw wrote: Sat Jun 29, 2019 3:09 am So I fully wound it up and wore it two full days without taking it off, and it still stopped, not auto-winding!!
For almost five months in repair (sent back twice), and still not fixed. I wonder how QC test
the winding problem or did they?
I'm really not keen to repeat this loop for five years.
Not good.

What do you plan to do next?
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