Comparative Review of 7 Dealers

[rooster133]

Here is my comparative review of 7 dealers, most of which are trusted dealers here. I have purchased between 1 and 4 watches from each of these over the past few weeks. I am assessing each of the dealers in terms of my own experience with them. You may disagree with me, but remember that personal experiences can be highly variable, and so are preferences. This is just my honest opinion thinking about the dealings with these guys. The dimensions on which I'm rating them (from 1-poor to 5-excellent) are:

• QC: Does the seller appear to have stringent quality control? Were there any problems with any of the watches?
  Speed: The time from placing the order to receiving the watch.
  Packaging: How well and safely the watch was packaged.
  Communication: Speed of email responses, English proficiency, politeness, etc.
  Website/List: Quality of website and product description provided by the seller.
  Pricing: How competitive is the price?
  

I am not going to sum up the scores, work out an average etc and rank the dealers. This is because the 6 criteria I have used to rate them have all different degrees of importance... It's not as simple and straight-forward as summing up the scores.

So, here we go...

RUBY
QC: 5/5
Speed: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Communication: 4/5
Website/List: 4/5
Pricing: 4/5
Observations: great to deal with. Definitely one of the top sellers.

KING
QC: 3/5
Speed: 4/5
Packaging: 5/5
Communication: 4/5
Website/List: 3.5/5
Pricing: 4.5/5
Observations: good prices, prompt communication and friendly (though not always clear). Some QC issues (but will always try to rectify any problems).

PURE TIME
QC: 4.5/5
Speed: 5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Communication: 4.5/5
Website/List: 5/5
Pricing: 4/5
Observations: the best website out there, also allows for some customisation of your order.

D4ME
QC: 4.5/5
Speed: 4/5
Packaging: 4/5
Communication: 5/5
Website/List: N/A
Pricing: 5/5
Observations: has the best prices, and is a genuinely great guy to deal with. One of the best.

HONT
QC: 5/5
Speed: 4.5/5
Packaging: 5/5
Communication: 4.5/5
Website/List: 3.5/5
Pricing: 4/5
Observations: super guy to deal with. Will go out of his way to help.

PRECIOUS TIME
QC: 5/5
Speed: 3/5
Packaging: 4.5/5
Communication: 3.5/5
Website/List: 3/5
Pricing: 3/5
Observations: the most over-engineered website out there; not a very enjoyable browsing experience. Prices are among the highest. Slow delivery because of the extra stop in the UK.

TRUSTY TIME
QC: 4/5
Speed: 4/5
Packaging: 5/5
Communication: 4/5
Website/List: 4.5/5
Pricing: 3.5/5
Observations: Cartel. Need I say more?

 

[ThreadLocker]

Thanks!

 

[Exploder]

Nice one. Thanks!

Xplodr

 

[swissaddict]

Very pretty looking post, but... what are you basing these ratings on? What's your source data? I'm wondering because, for example, you rate King's prices as better than Hont or Ruby... well I have bought multiple times from all three and that just isn't true. So, again... very nice looking post.. colorful, organized.. but I have concerns about the data integrity.

 

[Exploder]

Very pretty looking post, but... what are you basing these ratings on? What's your source data? I'm wondering because, for example, you rate King's prices as better than Hont or Ruby... well I have bought multiple times from all three and that just isn't true.

And King is Cartel?

Xplodr

 

[swissaddict]

Yeah King is cartel..

This 'comparative review' is not really useful, I think, unless the data set is larger. We don't know what watches were purchased.. if a price rating is given for one watch from one dealer, and that one watch is a noobmariner or Skyland from Josh, then the Cartel's prices are pretty good! If you order one single watch and it arrives in working order.. is that great QC? If it arrives with problems, does that mean the dealer has poor QC? I appreciate the motivation to offer a comparative review of dealers, but this particular thread is just.. poorly executed and I think can be misleading to noobs or anyone who may not question it. I really hope nobody will use the original post as a basis for deciding on who to buy from. :?

 

[rooster133]

Very pretty looking post, but... what are you basing these ratings on? What's your source data? I'm wondering because, for example, you rate King's prices as better than Hont or Ruby... well I have bought multiple times from all three and that just isn't true. So, again... very nice looking post.. colorful, organized.. but I have concerns about the data integrity.

Ha ha! Source data? Hang on... let me check my structural equation model data file...
Nothing scientific here, sorry... Just my personal dealings with these people. Regarding King, I bought 4 watches from her, after comparing her prices to at least another two or three dealers. I remember that at least one of her watches weren't available from the other dealers. As for the others, they were cheaper. Her prices include shipping too. For example I just double checked and on one particular watch (Omega) her price was about $30 less than Ruby and more than $40 less than Pure Time... Now, whether that applies to all her watches, I can't say. Speaking from personal experience here.

And thanks for the compliments... Can't tell if you're being patronising or not, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. :wink:

 

[rooster133]

Yeah King is cartel..

This 'comparative review' is not really useful, I think, unless the data set is larger. We don't know what watches were purchased.. if a price rating is given for one watch from one dealer, and that one watch is a noobmariner or Skyland from Josh, then the Cartel's prices are pretty good! If you order one single watch and it arrives in working order.. is that great QC? If it arrives with problems, does that mean the dealer has poor QC? I appreciate the motivation to offer a comparative review of dealers, but this particular thread is just.. poorly executed and I think can be misleading to noobs or anyone who may not question it. I really hope nobody will use the original post as a basis for deciding on who to buy from. :?

Relax mate. I could post this as 7 separate reviews under Dealer Reviews and no one would say a thing... Most of the reviews here are based on a sampe of one... I tried to put this in one thread only and you're getting all fired up about it. How many disclaimers and caveats do you want me to put on this?? Most people are not idiots. As I said, it's just my personal experience. If you want a sample of a friggin million do it yourself.

 

[Xaval]

Good post and info. As subjective as it can be, price and speed are pretty objective, or at least, could be! :?

 

[swissaddict]

I was sincere in that I appreciate the motivation .. I also think 3 weeks experience may not be enough to offer comparative reviews. Maybe if you left numbers / ratings out of it, that would be much better. You're right, it's not scientific or even accurate.. so if you just subjectively describe your experiences with each, that would be more accurate and not misleading. I really do appreciate the intent, though.. I think it would be great to have a real rating comparison of dealers.. like a "consumer reports" review of rep dealers..

Edit: I also really do like the color scheme and how you laid everything out

 

[rooster133]

Good post and info. As subjective as it can be, price and speed are pretty objective, or at least, could be! :?

Thanks! Yes it's quite subjective of course, and the objective dimensions are still based on a limited number of purchases... Just sharing my personal experiences, not trying to provide a guide of any sort.

 

[doctorron]

Good job with this review. I will keep it in mind. Thanks for taking the time.

 

[rooster133]

I was sincere in that I appreciate the motivation.. I also think 3 weeks experience may not be enough to offer comparative reviews. Maybe if you left numbers / ratings out of it, that would be much better. You're right, it's not scientific or even accurate.. so if you just subjectively describe your experiences with each, that would be more accurate and not misleading. I really do appreciate the intent, though.. I think it would be great to have a real rating comparison of dealers.. like a "consumer reports" review of rep dealers..

Ok, thanks. I guess you just need to take it for what it is: concise personal feedback on about a month worth of purchases. And I think the cross-sectional aspect is ok here, as prices do fluctuate over time - no need to compare a year worth of purchases. Also, instead of using paragraphs, I am using numbers. If anyone needs any clarification on what determined a certain score, I'd be happy to elaborate, of course. I don't think I need a paragraph to say "communication was perfect" - a 5 out of 5 will do that for me quite well.

 

[flyby75]

Thanks for sharing your experiences...

 

[speedster]

If you want a sample of a friggin million do it yourself.

LMFAO at this comment. :lol:
Fluckin 'el how many watches have you bought already rooster me man!?

Nice post, Ive read lot of good about ruby but not bought from her yet. I tried to get her to match silix price on a watch :lol: but she wouldnt do it :lol:

 

[2poor4real1z]

Great post and info. Much appreciated....

 

[Exploder]

If you want a sample of a friggin million do it yourself.

Listen. How friggin hard can it be? You could use any simple stat program, even the DOS-version of EPI-info, to make a power calculation. I would guess buying about 100 watches from each dealer would give the power to detect a 10% difference in any of the given variables. However, some of the variables are likely to interact, for instance web site and communaction, and you will therefore need to do a multivariate logistic regression analysis. I would prefer a Cox proportional Hazard model but that is of course up to you. Such an analysis would in a much better way enable all idiots to make a more well grounded decision on where to buy their reps. Or we could just buy at the cheapest place...

Xplodr

 

[rooster133]

If you want a sample of a friggin million do it yourself.

Listen. How friggin hard can it be? You could use any simple stat program, even the DOS-version of EPI-info, to make a power calculation. I would guess buying about 100 watches from each dealer would give the power to detect a 10% difference in any of the given variables. However, some of the variables are likely to interact, for instance web site and communaction, and you will therefore need to do a multivariate logistic regression analysis. I would prefer a Cox proportional Hazard model but that is of course up to you. Such an analysis would in a much better way enable all idiots to make a more well grounded decision on where to buy their reps. Or we could just buy at the cheapest place...

Xplodr

Ha ha, then would we send it in for double-blind peer review?

 

[daytona4me]

The effort alone is something that most do not go through.. much appreciated and thank you for throwing my name in the hat.

Thanks for using the forum for what it was designed for.. providing information to others.. good job! :mrgreen:

 

[mickeypro]

this is a good opening post.... i am curious since most dealers in the game drop ship QC would be hard to rate. Maybe a rating for after delivery follow up