The battery in my watch died recently, so I took it in to a local jeweler’s at lunchtime today to have the battery replaced. The watch is a Lorus quartz watch that I’ve had since the early 80’s. Many years ago I replaced the metal band with a leather one. I have the battery replaced every year and a half or so, and always take it to the same jeweler’s to have the work done.
I also needed to get a new leather band for the watch. (I ditched the original metal band in favor of leather bands many years ago.) It’s been getting harder and harder lately to find stores that carry watch bands, so I asked if they had any. She showed me a few and I picked one out. I left the watch at the store while I went to lunch with some coworkers and came back afterwards to pick it up.
The battery replacement was about $8, which is about what I expected, and the new band was $30, which was more than I planned to spend, but I figured since watch bands are getting scarce I’d go ahead and suck it up. While she was ringing me up and I was putting the watch on my wrist, I tried to change the digital display from the time to the date and noticed that the “mode” button was jammed and wouldn’t move. I mentioned to her that the button was stuck, so she took it back to have the watch repair guy take a look. When she came back out front, she told me that he said some debris must have gotten in there when he took the back off, and that’s why the button was jammed. She said I would have to leave it with them to have it fixed, that he would have to take the whole thing apart and clean it and put it back together in order to get the button to work. I asked how much that was going to cost and she said $25. I took my watch and left the store.
So long story short, I take my watch in to have the battery replaced, I get it back in worse condition than when I took it in, and they want me to pay them to fix the damage they caused.
Am I being unreasonable in expecting them to fix the stuck watch button for free? I would have stayed and argued about it but my coworkers were waiting on me and were in a hurry to get back to work.
You are not being unreasonable. If they damaged the watch, they should repair it for no charge. About a month ago I had a similar incident. I took my watch in to have the battery replaced, and while trying to close the case, the guy accidentally cracked the crystal. I was really angry, but they did agree to replace the crystal for no charge. I now have my watch back with a brand new crystal.
Today I needed another battery replacement (different watch), and I took it to a different place. I’m not going back to a place that doesn’t take proper caution, but at least they didn’t try to rip me off for the repairs to the damage they caused.
Why did you ask how much it would cost?
It should not cost anything, as they obviously did not do the work in a professional manner. They’ve broken your watch and now want you to pay them to fix it. I’d give them another opportunity to make this right.
If I was a jeweler I would not touch inexpensive watches. I have replaced many quartz digital and analog watch batteries. You would be shocked how cheap and delicate the mechanisms are. For the few dollars a jeweler gets for the battery it’s a huge risk. It’s utterly unsurprising that the mode button on a Lorus jammed. It is most likely not “debris” but that the nylon frame holding the module in place is out of alignment which is jamming the mode button. Alternatively the pusher on a 30 year old Lorus is probably not in the best shape to begin with and the replacement jostling may have damaged it.
The frame is out of alignment because you have to practically lift the whole damn thing out to change the battery. It’s always puzzled me how insanely involved many watch manufacturers make it to change the battery on quartz watches.
So yes it’s the jewelers “fault” but given the age of the watch it’s not surprising it happened.
If I was a jeweler, I’d do the best job I could and take pride in my work. If something went wrong, I’d never consider asking the customer to pay for my mistake. I’d advise the customer in advance, based on my experience, if I thought problems were likely based on the watch’s condition and let them decide whether it was worth investing in a new battery, strap, etc.
I’d recognize that sometimes the value of a “cheap” item may be much higher than I can see and I would not belittle it. It may have been a gift or family heirloom.
The delicate nature of the work would be challenging, but if I want you to choose my shop, I wouldn’t cherry pick jobs and send you to a competitor when I can impress you with my service. Maybe you’ll buy your pricey new watch from me instead of the guy you’d go to when I refused to change your battery.
That’s a nice philosophy, and workable up to a point, but there does come a point where it works against you. You might find you go out of business not from turning away problematic jobs but from losing too much money on them.
I don’t think you’re being unreasonable at all. They admitted debris probably got in while they were working on it so they should fix it. While that work shouldn’t require a ‘satisfaction guaranteed’ or warranty for work performed, did they offer one?
Recently I had a Tag battery replaced and a cleaning, about $108. I swam afterwards and noticed condensation under the lens and a scratch on the cover. I called to fuss at them and they said the work was under warrenty and to bring it back in. They fixed both issues perfectly, no charge.
Happy customers are cheap advertising for the business. It would have to cost an awful lot not to make creating them worthwhile. Consider them your low-paid marketing reps.
Not meant to be rude but, IIRC, GaryT owns an auto repair shop. Auto repair is in many ways analogous to a watch repair shop. That means he is speaking from reality. If you don’t own a similar business, then you are speaking from theory. No offense, but I’ll take reality every time.
I owned and operated a business, and learned this the easy way.
No, I did not repair large or small metal items made up of many pieces. I’m sure that’s completely different.
Unless the person in question owns multiple shops and operates half one way and half the other, and is able to adjust for differences in location, he hasn’t really been collecting data for useful comparison.
A great way to go out of business is to break a loyal customer’s watch and charge him for you to fix it.
You go out of business your way, I’ll do it mine.
As they say shit sometimes happens. Coincidence does not equal causation.
Example:
Ever since you changed the oil on my car the right rear door lock doesn’t work.
Waaaaaa? We don’t go near the right rear door when we change the oil.
But it worked before!
Sorry, but coincidence does not equal causation.
In this case maybe the shop caused the issue, maybe they didn’t.