THIS IS NOT ABOUT PURETIME
FWIW I have received promises of items being in stock and ready to ship from a range of dealers prior to sending funds, only to be told there is not only no stock, but none available/ no longer being made and to choose something else.
I believe everyone has stories of this nature to tell, where dealers conduct themselves in this manner.
Those who know me, would know I am a very small-time buyer of watches (only 8), but have bought more than 60 pens from a dozen or so dealers/factories in the past 12 months.
In both ventures I started out searching for the cheapest price etc. but was soon largely cured of that, not because it wasn't successful but because my tastes became more refined. The best pens I have came from a Chinese factory directly. The best watch came "through" timeshops of all places, but not without considerable struggle to do with 'real' stockholdings.
I now assume no dealer has stock of anything unless it is like toro bravo's ultra limited edition AP Montauk Highway or similar. This may be overly cynical, but it lowers expectations and helps me breathe while sending and receiving no fewer than 30 emails JUST to get the correct two pens from a certain dealer. (which I still don't have, since ordering in early November) .... no QC pics of course though there are watches that cost less than $70 that I have received QC pics of.
It may not always be "hit and miss" but if you want to avoid grief of this nature, get another hobby. Even the gen world isn't immune to major problems ... just yesterday I was in a boutique watch shop in Melbourne where a customer who claimed to be a lawyer was demanding a refund for a watch he bought for his father - his reason was that his father has a skin condition which resulted in a reaction with the watch's strap, THEREFORE the product was not 'fit for service' - he was rather animated about what action he intended to take if he didn't get satisfaction, but the owner simply said a refund was never going to happen on that basis but he offered to replace the strap with anything up to the full rrp value of the original. I left before hearing more.
It's hard enough to communicate clearly when we share the same first-language. When at Uni I worked part time as a technical interpreter for international students - I once had to explain the following:
"Calculate the moment of deflection of the beam in cantilever where the length is X and and the load is Y applied at point Z. Be cognisant that the ambient conditions will affect performance of the base materials used in the beam's construction i.e. steel reinforced concrete of ABC formulation ...... seriously, I am a native English-speaker, trained in engineering & architecture and all I could say was "I'm sorry, what?"
imagine the challenges faced when trying to ensure understanding when a common language is not the case
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyuS8GcENfQ"]Fawlty Towers - We are Orelly Men - YouTube[/ame]
BTW I am married, so clearly all the grief I experience is clearly my fault alone.
