Nightmare In-Warrenty issue with Tourneau

[superdog]

Originally Posted by 904VT

I get why you would defend Tourneau, but the bottom line is they voided the OP's manufacture warranty without the OP's expressed or written consent. Completely unacceptable and something that should never be done.

Well, to be fair, I am not really defending Tourneau. I have had good and bad dealings there. But I am by no means a fan.

I am just saying this is really a non issue.

I get that a lot of people like to get their panties in a twist over things. We are kind of trained that way as a society. Everyone always seems to want to complain about something.

And some people think some things are big while others think they are little.

To me, I personally think this is something so small that it is not worth calling it a "nightmare".

[904VT]

Originally Posted by superdog

Well, to be fair, I am not really defending Tourneau. I have had good and bad dealings there. But I am by no means a fan.

I am just saying this is really a non issue.

I get that a lot of people like to get their panties in a twist over things. We are kind of trained that way as a society. Everyone always seems to want to complain about something.

And some people think some things are big while others think they are little.

To me, I personally think this is something so small that it is not worth calling it a "nightmare".

Fair enough

[sleddog]

Personally, I think it is deceptive of Tourneau.
They should at the very least, inform the customer with a choice of who services the watch while under the 'manufactures' warranty! If it is outside that warranty, then no harm in using the inhouse repair center.
For me, it's just yet another case against recommending the dealer chain to any family/friends!

[superdog]

Originally Posted by sleddog

Personally, I think it is deceptive of Tourneau.
They should at the very least, inform the customer with a choice of who services the watch while under the 'manufactures' warranty! If it is outside that warranty, then no harm in using the inhouse repair center.
For me, it's just yet another case against recommending the dealer chain to any family/friends!

I too would not recommend Tourneau.

That said, do you think it is deception or a mistake? Seems like they don't benefit from this. No real need for any deception. Sounds more like incompetence.

[japenney]

Originally Posted by Etschell

im shocked anyone would. do you take your car to a 3rd party mechanic under warranty to fix an issue?

I don't buy cars under warranty. They are too expensive :).

Sent by my pet Gekko

[Etschell]

Originally Posted by japenney

I don't buy cars under warranty. They are too expensive :).

Sent by my pet Gekko

i dont believe that.

[sleddog]

Originally Posted by superdog

I too would not recommend Tourneau.

That said, do you think it is deception or a mistake? Seems like they don't benefit from this. No real need for any deception. Sounds more like incompetence.

Perhaps a bit of both Seth. The customer needs be informed of the stores service intentions. Anything less is a poor service toward the consumer.

[flyingtiger85]

Originally Posted by Wcdhtwn

Probably not much you can do now. Perhaps get someone from RSC on your side to ask Tournneau what they are thinking going outside of the proper warranty channels. I smell a rat... and I'd wonder if they sold you a legit piece.

When you get it back you should return it to Tournneau for a full refund, see if RSC will advocate for that result on your behalf. If their watch work and warranty are so great then they should have no problem selling it. My only other advice, which is too late now, is avoid Tournneau at all costs. The one in Houston closed and it made me happy based on my terrible, terrible experiences there.

I just walked by the one in the Galleria and it was open

[mactruck]

Forced engravings, warranty fraud..ok, but discount a watch and loose your rolex license. I don't get it.

[Shaky]

Being in a different continent the chances of me using the store are low, however if I did get the chance to deal with them I definitely wouldn't. All I have ever heard about them is negative. The term Turdno is something I have heard before and seems to sum them up.

I am with the OP on this and my suspicions would be raised as to why they never sent it back to Tudor. Why get your own people involved when it could just been sent off ??

[johnnyjazz]

Originally Posted by Devildog

This ^^^

It may well be different in the US, however in the UK and Europe, if you take your watch, car, or any other item to a manufacturer authorised retailer for resolution of a problem under warranty, your manufacturers warranty remains intact. That's the whole point about them being "authorised". If that authorised retailer doesn't follow manufacturers protocol then that's an issue between the retailer and the manufacturer and does not affect your statutory rights. The manufacturer has to honour the warranty.

I'll caveat what I'm about to state by saying again that it may be different in the US, but there seems to be is alot of mis-information and "scaremongering" on this forum about subjects like these.

I agree with you Devildog. Cars are another thing altogether. My brother in law bought a new vw from Arnold Clark, while they drove it out of the showroom they damaged the bonnet. They fixed it and re-sprayed the bonnet like new but according to VW, the rest of the car still has 10 year paint warranty but the bonnet has only Arnold Clark,s 2 year warranty.

[Wcdhtwn]

Originally Posted by flyingtiger85

I just walked by the one in the Galleria and it was open

Interesting... did you go in? In December they told me they were closing and negotiating heavily on their current stock, they were adding no more. The sales person told me they were done in January. Maybe it was a sales tactic...

[mfm22]

Just a thought , similar to cars under warranty .
Dealer performs any work under warranty [ as well as recalls] - who do they bill ?
They bill the factory for full pop .

Maybe Tourneau works the same - do the work charge back Rolex for warrantied work . Mak'n money!
Send it out - mak'n zero

[psv]

Tourneau is one of the worst ADs out there. It owned by private equity group, which has trying to sell it for years but there are no buyers.

[brandxbrand]

Originally Posted by mfm22

Just a thought , similar to cars under warranty .
Dealer performs any work under warranty [ as well as recalls] - who do they bill ?
They bill the factory for full pop .

Maybe Tourneau works the same - do the work charge back Rolex for warrantied work . Mak'n money!
Send it out - mak'n zero

Rolex/Tudor warranties are not like health insurance cards where you can pick in-network providers and have them figure out the billing with your provider.

The only company authorized to do any in-warrenty work is Rolex/Tudor is Rolex/tudor. Anyone else touches it, the factory warranty is void. Rolex certified technicians are certainly out there in their numbers, but their sole purpose is to tend to watches that have expired factory warranties.

They are called Rolex certified because they have access to factory parts, not because their work is guaranteed by Rolex

[JnmEaton]

at least you didn't send it to KENT

[JacksonStone]

Originally Posted by JnmEaton

at least you didn't send it to KENT

Yeah, good thing. The warranty would be expired by the time Kent got around to taking it off the shelf.

[vladamir15]

Originally Posted by Wcdhtwn

Interesting... did you go in? In December they told me they were closing and negotiating heavily on their current stock, they were adding no more. The sales person told me they were done in January. Maybe it was a sales tactic...

I went a month ago and it was open. From what I hear from my sister and her fiancé, they are suppose to be closing down, but have not thus far. I also went in and asked and they confirmed it.

[Chiboy]

Originally Posted by japenney

I don't buy cars under warranty. They are too expensive :).

Sent by my pet Gekko

I saw on another forum that you bought six new cars at once to try out and see if you liked any of them!

[Ravager135]

I get it. I get why you're upset. I think Tourneau often assumes too much regarding their position in the horology world and this is a classic example of that. In the long run, I don't think you'll suffer. Sure, they should have sent it to Rolex/Tudor, but I am sure whatever the issue is you will be made whole by Tourneau staff. As long as their warranty includes replacement if an issue cannot be corrected, I can't see any path in which you are not made whole.

[Ravager135]

Originally Posted by superdog

Well, to be fair, I am not really defending Tourneau. I have had good and bad dealings there. But I am by no means a fan.

I am just saying this is really a non issue.

I get that a lot of people like to get their panties in a twist over things. We are kind of trained that way as a society. Everyone always seems to want to complain about something.

And some people think some things are big while others think they are little.

To me, I personally think this is something so small that it is not worth calling it a "nightmare".

Well said. See above comments.

[Rocket_Man]

Originally Posted by bondtoys

Seems not to be the same to me.

Work has been carried out at an AD (Tourneau) by a Tudor certified repair centre (Tourneau) - so I don't understand the issue there.

.....

The positive for the customer would by doing that would be saving time compared to the RSC.

Tourneau is not an authorized repair center for Tudor. Only an RSC is. It may be different in Europe.

Originally Posted by brandxbrand

My concern is this related to 3 main issues

1. Without my authorization, they took it upon themselves to transfer my factory warranty onto their own. I alerted them to the fact the work must be carried out my Rolex/Tudor 6 days ago. It was not even registered as a warranty claim with the manufacturer. I bought from an AD, not grey market, so do not expect grey market tactics or service.

2. The watch had factory warranty time remaining... A full year pretty much. If their service department cannot do something as simple check to see the current status of the factory warranty to decide if it should be sent to Rolex/Tudor for overhaul, or handled out-of-warranty at their own facility, I don't have much confidence in displaying anymore professionalism in correctly diagnosing and fixing the issue long term.

3. God forbid I have another mechanical issue in the next 12 months, whose to say Tourneau don't try and claim the issue was caused by my own fault. Their reputation as we know (and is case in this exact situation) not exactly A*. I have more comfort in knowing I am completely covered by Tudor/Rolex's guarantee of workmanship, who ONLY work on Tudors and Rolex's than I do with a 3rd party service center that deal with dozens if not hundreds of different brands and models with out of date factory warranties.

Exactly what authorization did you give them? Did you sign something that said they would send it to an RSC? Or just for repair? This has happened before when someone drops off a watch and in their mind they assume the dealer is sending it to the RSC but there is nothing in writing that says it. Normally this is for work that is NOT covered by a warranty, but the store is charging the customer RSC fees but getting it repaired by an independent under some side deal and pocketing some of the fee.

I've never used an AD to send my watch to an RSC. I'd rather do it myself, or if I choose an Independent instead, I'd send it directly. Why use a middleman? Just another opportunity for something to go wrong.

In this case you may or may not be coming out on top. Your watch's warranty only had a year left and now you have a 5 year warranty. But you have a 5 year warranty from a shop you can't trust. But if something else goes wrong with the watch you can always send it to an RSC. If it is after the Tudor warranty expired you'd be paying for it anyway. But maybe Tourneau will honor their longer warranty and surprise you. Or they may take your watch in and try to charge you an arm and a leg.

The deed has been done at this point. Not clear if you have suffered a loss or not. You won't really know until something happens to the watch again. It is an ETA based movement so these are not hard to service.

But too many stories like this is why I would not buy from Tourneau.

[JacksonStone]

Originally Posted by Rocket_Man

TYour watch's warranty only had a year left and now you have a 5 year warranty.

Actually, he had a five-year warranty from the start: the standard two-year Tudor factory warranty, plus a supplementary three-year Tourneau warranty. In other words, at this point, he still would have had four years left - one with Tudor, and three with Tourneau. So, Tourneau extended the total coverage by one additional year, but in the process deprived him of one year of factory warranty coverage.

[brandxbrand]

I’m conscious of reviving old threads but felt like I should provide an update and closure to this issue should anyone stumble across this at a later date with a similar scenario, or is simply just curious of the eventual outcome.

So…. Despite my initial concerns about the repair work being done in their own facility rather than being sent back to Tudor/Rolex, they still went ahead and completed the overhaul and sent the watch back to the store for my collection as if nothing was wrong.

Of course I refused to take ownership of the item so the issue was escalated to Tourneau management who eventually acknowledged seriousness of the issue after I mentioned I further involve Tudor/Rolex and seek additional council on the matter if they did not amicably correct it for me. Quickly I was offered a new replacement of my Eta 79920n for the new In House movement 79230n but unfortunately, the updated 2016/17 model as many know carries a few hardware upgrades I found very undesirable (crown logo face instead of the heritage rose, riveted bracelet instead of the simple polished edges, thicker case back). I had made it clear I would only accept an exact replacement of the 79920n on stainless bracelet, or wished to receive a full refund. I was leaving on my honeymoon 3 days later and for obviously reasons did not want this hanging over my head while away on my trip. A 48 hour deadline was given to find resolution of either identical replacement or full refund and the ball was in their court.

The next morning I received a call to let me know they had found one last brand new stickered 79920n in their stock, located in Florida. The caveat was that it was on the leather Tudor deployment strap, not the stainless that mine had that went into their shop, however they were willing to let me take ownership back of my original bracelet in addition to keeping the deployment strap. I agreed and the watch was shipped next day for collection at their store, along with my bracelet. I received the BNIB 79920n with new 2 year Tudor factory warranty, all supporting paperwork, boxes and came out with a nice new Tudor OEM strap and clasp that probably would have cost me close to $400 if I was to source myself.

The diagnoses? While I’m still not entirely sure what actually happened to the watch, they were able to tell me that specific location shipped close to 15 watches to Long Island that day (collected over the weekend), varying from in warranty related issues, to crystal changes, to battery replacements. Multiply that by god knows how many T stores there are around and you have a lot of incoming that likely wasn’t sorted properly. Obviously now I know if I ever had an issue like this again, regardless of where I purchased, the watch goes back directly to the manufacture!

Thanks for the multiple pieces of advices (legal and emotional). Much learnt here by myself and I hope by Tourneau too.

[Ryuden]

Awesomeness happy ending.

Congrats again on the new replacement incoming.

[vladamir15]

Great! Congrats! Good news