Questionable experience and CC problems

[shinseegae]

Will try to stay completely factual, no emotions. Just received my second order with 3 watches. Two seem to be ok but one of the watches is Cartier Ballon Bleu Ladies 36mm and it came completely botched.

Timeline and details:
- received QC pics for Cartier. All looked good but the beat error (s/d) was little high so I asked for a slight adjustment which their “watch smith” did and Elena later sent just one pic showing the watch (from the side) on the testbed next to the monitor. Beat error was fixed somewhat so I okayed the watch.

- fast forward about 18 days and I open the package. What I see is really bad. The case is scratched quite deeply in the sides. Caseback as well. Worst part, all the screws are messed up, while A) one is obviously crooked by torque forcing it in, just half way in and stuck with its head mingled. B) Another screw is completely messed up and once I just touched it, the head fell off! The screw nest is obviously was mingled as well and has a trace of some residue like someone tried to mask it. Seeing grinding marks around it on the caseback. Sides of the case around these two screws are deeply scratched like the driver skewed to a side while being used. Not acceptable whatsoever.

- I just sent the detailed email with pictures to puretime asking for a resolution of the problem. Hopefully they will demonstrate their dedication to customer service they are being praised for.

Next problem is their CC processors. Two transactions (June and July) and two credit cards replaced as a result. Reason, card hacking. Both times in about a week or two after transaction with puretime, I received the fraudulent charges alerts (Apple store in both cases). Both times requested my CC company to stop the transaction and issue a new card. Main implication here? I get the complications with payment aspect but if you don’t switch to at least a semi-decent credit card processors you are at risk of loosing quite a few customers who will be put off by the prospect of their card being hacked. You definitely should look into this matter.

Bottom line:
1. Waiting for a resolution for Cartier from puretime.
2. Hope that puretime will look into the CC processing issue more scrupulously.

Will try to upload the pictures of botched “in-house watch smithing”.

Thanks for reading this long post and hope that somebody will find it useful.

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[rk2704]

Wow.. to be honest, I am worried now. I used 3 different credit cards.. 2 was 'declined as unsuccessful'.. before my 3rd credit card was accepted.

However, Puretime CS told me that the accepted credit card is still 'pending'.. and my bank told me that there was no attempt to charge any of the 3 cards at all. There was no declines or any transaction attempted.

So your experience is making me worried now..

 

[puretime]

Will try to stay completely factual, no emotions. Just received my second order with 3 watches. Two seem to be ok but one of the watches is Cartier Ballon Bleu Ladies 36mm and it came completely botched.

Timeline and details:
- received QC pics for Cartier. All looked good but the beat error (s/d) was little high so I asked for a slight adjustment which their “watch smith” did and Elena later sent just one pic showing the watch (from the side) on the testbed next to the monitor. Beat error was fixed somewhat so I okayed the watch.

- fast forward about 18 days and I open the package. What I see is really bad. The case is scratched quite deeply in the sides. Caseback as well. Worst part, all the screws are messed up, while A) one is obviously crooked by torque forcing it in, just half way in and stuck with its head mingled. B) Another screw is completely messed up and once I just touched it, the head fell off! The screw nest is obviously was mingled as well and has a trace of some residue like someone tried to mask it. Seeing grinding marks around it on the caseback. Sides of the case around these two screws are deeply scratched like the driver skewed to a side while being used. Not acceptable whatsoever.

- I just sent the detailed email with pictures to puretime asking for a resolution of the problem. Hopefully they will demonstrate their dedication to customer service they are being praised for.

Next problem is their CC processors. Two transactions (June and July) and two credit cards replaced as a result. Reason, card hacking. Both times in about a week or two after transaction with puretime, I received the fraudulent charges alerts (Apple store in both cases). Both times requested my CC company to stop the transaction and issue a new card. Main implication here? I get the complications with payment aspect but if you don’t switch to at least a semi-decent credit card processors you are at risk of loosing quite a few customers who will be put off by the prospect of their card being hacked. You definitely should look into this matter.

Bottom line:
1. Waiting for a resolution for Cartier from puretime.
2. Hope that puretime will look into the CC processing issue more scrupulously.

Will try to upload the pictures of botched “in-house watch smithing”.

Thanks for reading this long post and hope that somebody will find it useful.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We investigated and checked with the watch smith, my watch smith has 5+ years experience in professional watch repair who cannot caused those damage to your watch, only unskillful hand could caused those damage. These damages are very serious, there was one screw broken and someone tried to glue it back, the watch case has a giant scratch but we had a platic stand to fix the watch while we do watch service and it could not scratch the watch. I just want to tell you we didnt damage your watch and I trust my watch smith's skill and experience, we would not ship a damaged watch to our customers. So I am sorry we cant provide more assistance on this matter. Thank you for your understanding

 

[puretime]

Wow.. to be honest, I am worried now. I used 3 different credit cards.. 2 was 'declined as unsuccessful'.. before my 3rd credit card was accepted.

However, Puretime CS told me that the accepted credit card is still 'pending'.. and my bank told me that there was no attempt to charge any of the 3 cards at all. There was no declines or any transaction attempted.

So your experience is making me worried now..

Credit card issue is something that we can't control since visa china is more strict than ever and they are blocking lots of our payments.
but it is nothing to do with our service. we've been doing this business for years and have a good reputation. and we believe lots of customers
are satified with our service and products.

 

[puretime]

These are the original QC pics before we ship the watch.

And the bracelet on the customers images shows clear worn marks.

I will let you guys to decide who’s responsibility this is. But I would not ship something like this to my customers.

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[puretime]

Wow.. to be honest, I am worried now. I used 3 different credit cards.. 2 was 'declined as unsuccessful'.. before my 3rd credit card was accepted.

However, Puretime CS told me that the accepted credit card is still 'pending'.. and my bank told me that there was no attempt to charge any of the 3 cards at all. There was no declines or any transaction attempted.

So your experience is making me worried now..

You dont have to worry my friend, our credit card processor is for replica products and some banks doesnt allow payment to go through. But we had no experience that the customers were charged for more than once on their cards. We dont know how our CC processor works but if the payment is arrived then you do not have to worry if your bank charged your card, if they didnt charge you then you can get a free watch!

 

[ExOmegaFan]

[deleted after reading the feedback by puretime]

 

[capice]

Curious who is responsable for the damage,...? Any updates?

 

[shinseegae]

Wow... I am honestly shocked by the response from the puretime...

All as I have written above, first QC pics were fine and after asking to adjust the error Elena sent me just one picture taken from the side angle. No way to see the back again. Fully trusting that they know what they were doing I have accepted the watch and you see what I have received. Please see pictures attached.

Now I am thinking, should I have just waited for their reponse via email and not posted anything here? Would the answer have been different? Not so sure about it... I kind of understand the position of whoever wrote a response on their behlf, defending their reputation and their watch smith ... but still wow...

Would I ever bother opening the case myself?! Why would I do that? I barely have small screwdrivers to adjust the bracelet length. This was supposed to be a present, why would I even try to open them?

Mods, any suggestions?

Guys, I will let you decide before committing to purchases from puretime. Just be advised that things like this can and do happen. $218 is not a small pocket change but perhaps still not worth the fight over here about who did what and who said what... you decide. I am very disappointed. Looks like this TD is on the way to lose its caveated “T” for me.... at least.

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[shinseegae]

As for the CC processing, well, given the nature of the business it is completely possible that the CC processor is doing something that puretime has no control of.

Just fyi, this particular card(s) has been used solely for these purchases and there is no trace of it anywhere on earth except for the card issuer itself and the puretime’s CC processor.


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[shinseegae]

Few more pics of this “watch smithing” in the daylight.

#Raddave, any wise opinion here?

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[shinseegae]

For some reason can’t let it go, keep thinking about how this could have happened. But anyway, following the PT logic, why would anyone try to mask or disguise/hide their mistake using glue to keep the screw head in place? Logic says that it would be done only by someone who either:
A) directly benefits from it... or,
B) afraid to demonstrate their incompetence or,
C) completely disrespects the customer or company policies if there are such at all...

Could be more other reasons but I don’t want to dive deeper into this. One thing is clear, if PT by way of their response language (see higher posts) implies that it was me who allegedly did the damage, and then tried to hide it by glueing the screw head back, then it simply defies the basic logic. Mind you, I received the watch at about 8pm and sent the claim to them in about an hour or so.

Anyway, that is definitely an alarming bell for a Trusted Dealer to handle a legit claim from a customer the way they did.

I am not totally discounting this as a lost cause... yet... let’s see if PT is capable of standing by its reputation and long term legacy. Their business prosperity almost completely depends on loyalty and trust of this community. Wholesale business is probably a different story but this case could be a litmus test in a way.


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[capice]

normally you try to solve these kind of issues first with the dealer before making a big story about it on the forum..........now you have reached a point for everyone to see that the TD says it is not shipped like this and you say it is received like this.....so now what?

 

[terryj]

For some reason can’t let it go, keep thinking about how this could have happened. But anyway, following the PT logic, why would anyone try to mask or disguise/hide their mistake using glue to keep the screw head in place? Logic says that it would be done only by someone who either:
A) directly benefits from it... or,
B) afraid to demonstrate their incompetence or,
C) completely disrespects the customer or company policies if there are such at all...

Could be more other reasons but I don’t want to dive deeper into this. One thing is clear, if PT by way of their response language (see higher posts) implies that it was me who allegedly did the damage, and then tried to hide it by glueing the screw head back, then it simply defies the basic logic. Mind you, I received the watch at about 8pm and sent the claim to them in about an hour or so.

Anyway, that is definitely an alarming bell for a Trusted Dealer to handle a legit claim from a customer the way they did.

I am not totally discounting this as a lost cause... yet... let’s see if PT is capable of standing by its reputation and long term legacy. Their business prosperity almost completely depends on loyalty and trust of this community. Wholesale business is probably a different story but this case could be a litmus test in a way.


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These issues would have shown up on the QC pics so it is obvious that the damage wasn't caused before the QC pics were taken. The case back screw at around 8 o'clock looks fine in the PT QC pic but mangled in your pic.

This is a one off dispute between you and PT which you should have tried to conclude before rushing to this thread but to be honest, your words, "this case could be a litmus test in a way", indicates some sort of agenda. In fact this whole thread smacks of something not nice.

 

[Ralphy]

For some reason can’t let it go, keep thinking about how this could have happened. But anyway, following the PT logic, why would anyone try to mask or disguise/hide their mistake using glue to keep the screw head in place? Logic says that it would be done only by someone who either:
A) directly benefits from it... or,
B) afraid to demonstrate their incompetence or,
C) completely disrespects the customer or company policies if there are such at all...

Could be more other reasons but I don’t want to dive deeper into this. One thing is clear, if PT by way of their response language (see higher posts) implies that it was me who allegedly did the damage, and then tried to hide it by glueing the screw head back, then it simply defies the basic logic. Mind you, I received the watch at about 8pm and sent the claim to them in about an hour or so.

Anyway, that is definitely an alarming bell for a Trusted Dealer to handle a legit claim from a customer the way they did.

I am not totally discounting this as a lost cause... yet... let’s see if PT is capable of standing by its reputation and long term legacy. Their business prosperity almost completely depends on loyalty and trust of this community. Wholesale business is probably a different story but this case could be a litmus test in a way.


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Not that I don't believe Angus, but he also believed his watchmaker when the guy was faking timegrapher results.

I think if questioned by their boss, no one would admit to doing this on their end, so with that said I think Angus is probably telling you the truth he has been told.

With that said, other people are right, you should start something like this by waiting for Puretime to respond, then if the response is not what you think it should be, you then get a sales mod involved, and then follow the advice the mod gives you.

I too think the response from Puretime was most likely in response to the post, even if your post was not extremely critical, which to your credit it wasn't. I still think you should contact a mod and ask for help in getting some sort of resolution with this. Good luck!

 

[shinseegae]

Alright, a short version of my TL;DR post, in chronological order:

1. Watch ordered
2. QC received. All good visually. Asked to adjust the beat error (s/d)
3. One QC picture received after adjustment by in-house watch smith (side view only, no caseback or closeup side shots, see pic above)
4. Watched okayed
5. Watch received with the damage to the case back and case as pictured in original post.
6. Customer disappointed.
7. Claim sent via email, concern thread placed on forum to expedite the issue. No gripes, just a claim asking to resolve this.
8. PT declines its responsibility and shoots back alleging that it was customer’s fault.
9. The rest is up in the earlier threads.

I hope that anyone who will try to accuse me of wrongdoing here will not be in my shoes ever, anywhere i.e. pay for a good or service and get a damaged or crooked one while being denied a right of claim; adding an insult to an injury, being alleged that it was your fault.

Peace guys! I am not going to fret over this, not the end of the world but make your own decisions. It is always good to be an educated customer. Hopefully it will help somebody someday.

It is a simple claim matter, no drama here. No hidden agenda as someone might presume. Cheers.



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[shinseegae]

Not that I don't believe Angus, but he also believed his watchmaker when the guy was faking timegrapher results.

I think if questioned by their boss, no one would admit to doing this on their end, so with that said I think Angus is probably telling you the truth he has been told.

With that said, other people are right, you should start something like this by waiting for Puretime to respond, then if the response is not what you think it should be, you then get a sales mod involved, and then follow the advice the mod gives you.

I too think the response from Puretime was most likely in response to the post, even if your post was not extremely critical, which to your credit it wasn't. I still think you should contact a mod and ask for help in getting some sort of resolution with this. Good luck!

Thanks. I was simply shocked by the condition of the watch. Minor scratches and some minor manufacturing flaws would have been acceptable but not such a dismal state of the watch. Only this has prompted me to alert PT boss(es) of the way their employees send the goods and make sure that it is an isolated incident. If nobody ever raises a question about the problem, the problem will never go away. If someone on inside managed to get away with poor performance once, what in the world would prevent them from doing it again. That next watch could be yours. What would your reaction be? Now someone will know that their poor job was flagged and became a known possibility for anyone. Hopefully that someone will refrain from doing it again.

As I said, it was my second transaction with PT, was totally fine with the first one and two watches from this order. I have no hard feelings over this. Just very disappointed and quite an unexpected turn of events. As I stated a few times, if there is a way to remedy this, I will not object placing orders with PT in the future. Nothing personal.


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[tripdog]

See, if something goes wrong, this is really not how to do it.

You have 9 posts, 7 of which are you complaining about PT - I'm already sick of reading your posts.

This is what you should have done - contact PT, explain the problem and wait for an answer - this could take a few days. Then, if the answer doesn't resolve the problem, you contact a senior Moderator. He will dialogue with the TD and try to resolve the situation. If the Mod has difficulty coming to an arrangement that suits both parties, then maybe you could post your thread.

The way you've done it, the results are the opposite of what you want - the TD is pissed, he's not really motivated to help now, after your shitty thread ( you thought it would pressure him into sending you a full refund/a new watch etc . . .) The mods won't be very impressed either - look at the shit storm you've started because you can't wait a couple days.

And the members who read your thread, either ask, or wonder aloud, why you just didn't wait for the dealer to reply. . .

Post a pic of the watch after it was adjusted by the TD - the one pic taken from the side.

trailboss99

Raddave

 

[shinseegae]

Hey, if there is going to be such a negative perception by some members of this fine community and mods deem this an inappropriate approach to the matter, I have zero objections for the mods to completely delete my thread.


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[tripdog]

Hey, if there is going to be such a negative perception by some members of this fine community and mods deem this an inappropriate approach to the matter, I have zero objections for the mods to completely delete my thread.


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Post the QC pic of the watch after it was adjusted by the TD.