Austin's Watches

[pkbragg1]

Hi,

Does anyone have any info on Austin's Watches in Los Angeles? They have a lot of stuff on the chrono24 site and I'm wondering if they are good to buy from?
Thanks!

[rohanpatel]

Looking at the same vendor. Some input will be very nice

[JuanBigBurrito]

Did either one of you end up buying from them?

[sghaskell]

I just had a terrible experience with Austin's Watches. Here is a breakdown of what happened.

I called them mid-day on a Friday inquiring about a pre-owned Rolex Sea Dweller 16600 listed on chrono24 and spoke with Jeron. We discussed the watch for 5 minutes and I asked if they could give a better price than listed. Never hurts to try, right? Jeron said it was their best price and mentioned that he was probably going to raise the price given the market. The watch was priced at $5750.00. I'm in sales as well, so I get the technique. I told him I'd think about it. I called back 30 minutes later and said I wanted to purchase the watch. Jeron said he didn't have the watch on hand and needed to send someone to their warehouse to verify the watch was there and he'd call me back in an hour.

Two hours later and no call. Mind you, this is Friday and I'm trying to wire these guys money and complete the transaction. I called Jeron back to make sure we didn't cross our wires. He said nobody was available to check on the watch but he had me, "in his notes" and he'd call me back. He took my number and that was that. Both calls lacked any eagerness to get a deal done and it seemed like he was either working another deal on the same watch in parallel or just didn't want to sell to me to increase the price. He also seemed annoyed that I called him back to follow-up that Friday. It was almost as if I was wasting his time.

They are closed on the weekends so I emailed them Saturday evening thinking they'd be responsive to email since I've had another dealer contact me on a Sunday while out with his kids.

Fast forward to Monday (today) and I get a generic email back from Jeron saying he sent his assistant to the warehouse but the watch was not available. He said the inventory was not updated.

I find it hard to believe that a dealer is so sloppy that they can't get their inventory straight. I went to their website and the watch is listed at $6200. It's still listed on chrono24 at $5750, but my guess is that will change soon.

If I'm wrong and they truly are awful at tracking their inventory, it was still awful customer service. If the watch was mis-priced given the market, I understand that as well. Just tell me up-front and don't cover it up with excuses about your inability to properly track inventory. At the very least, have the courtesy to call me and tell me over the phone.