Watchfinder.co.uk

[numerus]

Hi all, I thought it would be good to share my experience of watchfinder.co.uk as i'm sure many of you have seen their website.
Anyway, part of my business consists of buying and pawning watches. We buy between 2 and 5 watches per month, all high end. I didn't want to set up my own website to sell them so I contacted Stuart Hennell by mail. No response. A few days later I phoned but he was busy so I left a message. No response. I emailed again. No response. At this point I got fed up and forgot about it. 4 weeks later I suddenly get a reply: we deal with many pawnbrokers in the UK, we can help you, have a look at this presentation. It looked ok and as they do have the most attractive web platform I have seen in the trade I thought I'd give them a go. I emailed him and explained that if we were going to send them all our watches I would like to have a regular contact person and talk to them over the phone before sending anything. No response. So I phoned again a few days later. Busy. Left a message. No response. I emailed again a week later. The same thing as before. Either this guy was so busy he didn't have time to do his job or else he was just disorganised. I left it alone for a few weeks, obviously heard nothing back, and by then had 5 watches to sell so I thought I'd give it one more try. I phoned and explained my story again to someone else and was told to contact Jonathan Brett, purchasing manager. The same thing happened with Jonathan. It took 3 weeks to get to speak to him and every single attempt to communicate with him came from me. I emailed 4 times and phoned 4 times. One day, 3 weeks later I get a call from Jonathan "We're very busy, so many people asking for valuations online and they never sell anything, most are time wasters". Fine. I told him I understand but he could have known I wasn't a time waster, if anything he had been wasting my time. I explained what I wanted and he said Sam Beer would be my dedicated contact. Great. I called Sam the next day, not available. I emailed him. No response. Amazing! At this point I started wondering if this was not the result of some IT problem. I kept phoning and eventually spoke to him. He was friendly, all good, so we sent some watches. A Rolex GMT, A Rolex Submariner, a Rolex Oyser Date and an Omega Seamaster... and waited.
Then their wonderful web platform kicked in and I got emails acknowledging receipt of the watches and a few days later an email outlining the costs of repairs the watches required. The Rolex GMT was new, in the box never been worn and they wanted GBP220 before being able to put it on sale. The Oyster was GBP400 the Omega GBP550. Wow. I mean we buy these and we take a pretty good look at them but this makes us look incompetent. Anyway, they were there and we wanted to try the sales procedure. So they were fixed, slowly. Then I got another email saying the watches were now on sale. Finally. I think it took 4 weeks.
Then I get a call from Sam to say that the Oyster Date needs additional repairs! Hmmmm. It has been checked and fixed already I said but he was adamant. I agreed on the condition that I would be able to revise the sales price we had agreed before. So they fixed it again and put on sale. Then they sell it for the lower price!
I complained as between repairs and commission they had taken all my margin. I was offered a GBP50 rebate on the 10% commission. Next thing I get an email saying that in a few days the watch will be sent to the buyer. Then another email saying it has been sent and in 7 days they will pay me. Then another mail saying they are going to pay me and it will take 3 to 5 working days. Except the amount was wrong and still based on the lower sales price... tiresome. Anyway, I give them my bank details and 2 days later I get another email saying my bank details are incomplete! I resend the same information. 5 days later still no money.
I phoned and spoke to Jennifer Fairweather who was arrogant and spoke to me as if I was a moron and that if there was any problem at all it must have been down to me or my bank. I can't remember the last time someone spoke to me, a customer, like that. If I were Stuart I would not have her anywhere near a customer or a phone.
But Stuart is too busy to care. As is Jonathan. And Sam.
Anyway, this is the story of just one of the watches but I had problems with every single one...! I emailed and phoned and never got a response. I emailed the Directors, no response! It made me furious. How stupid can I be? Having seen how these people work to go ahead and send them watches? The problem is the web platform had me sold - but everything else is a complete mess.
I also had my suspicions about how they make their money, besides the obvious "repairs" and commissions. I asked a friend to make an offer on one of our watches and guess what... they passed on a lower offer than he had made. Now I would think this borders upon being illegal. They pocket the difference if you accept.
Anyway, I could go on and on and on but I'll cut off here. Buyer beware. Seller beware. Customer beware! Great platform, disgraceful and inefficient and rude staff and management. ;)

[RichMJones]

I purchased a Rolex Submariner from this company on the promise of their website which supplies, and I quote; 'All our watches are in the best possible condition both internally and externally' under the heading of 'Just Like New', and in other copy on their website they claim that 'all our stock is as good as it can be before we sell it'.

On receiving the watch it had a damaged bezel (which they had told me was being replaced - only the insert was actually replaced), scratches to the rear of the case where the strap had been attached and the tool had slipped on both sides, a chip on the glass and a very poorly finished bracelet clasp.

The company did offer me a full refund. However, during the lengthy correspondence they also offered an interesting insight into how the quality of the watches they sell are, by their own admission certainly not in the ‘best possible’ condition.

They told me (via eMail correspondence) that they would not honour their website standards and refurbish my watch to ‘just as new’ because (in their own words):

1. The glass was assessed by their watchmakers, and they felt that its condition didn’t justify a new glass
2. Replacing the gold bezel would have substantially increased their sale price
4. They are under no legal obligation to replace parts where the cost involved would be unreasonably disproportionate to them
5. Their 'Just As New' statement did not appear on the advertisement for my actual watch
6. There is no reference to 'Just As New' in their terms and conditions
7. The watch is 9 years old and has been brought back to a reasonable standard. Funny but I always thought ‘reasonable’ and ‘best possible’ were rather different?

So, if you do buy a watch from them and it’s refurbished to a less than ‘best possible’ standard, just bear in mind that yes, you can have a full refund, but your deposit (in my case £2950) will potentially be tied up for weeks (in my case 4, whilst it was being refurbished), and you may not get a watch that has bears much relation to the standards their website claims. You may consider it a risk worth taking, but I certainly won’t be buying from them again and neither will any of the friends (both prospective and past customers) that I have told.

Oh, and if you are expecting ‘the highest standards of customer care’ then you may wish to consider that after just one eMail exchanged between myself and their Sales Manager, my complaint was passed to their Legal Counsel. I did send an eMail collectively to their Directors, but that was also passed back to their Legal Counsel. Interesting approach to achieving the ‘highest standards of customer care’ don’t you think?