Why pay more for a 177

[vr44]

when we talk about the 'cartel' - howcome they goT banned from here?

It is certainly true about the QC and the less expensive watches. I have done trevor, hont and now tony. I have always had great customer care with them. Trevor had replaced a clasp on a watch once [sent me a whole band for free] and hont shipped me an iwc 1714 that stopped working after two days and needed to be mailed back for fixing [still not 100%]. Honestly if i could do it again @ an extra 20 or 30 on a rep purchase, i would be willing to have it waterproffed and timmed as well as inspected by some one who speaks english. I probably think that $30 is my max though. any more of a price difference and i go with the cheap guy.

 

[dlots]

+1 on what's on with Cartel?? Have I missed anything there...?

 

[Epimetheus]

I wanna know about the Cartel to.

 

[alvinado]

THe cartel has been discussed many many times on this board, they are just not listed here as dealers but are reputable, so no worries about that.

 

[QinetiQ]

I wanna know about the Cartel to.

Just type cartel white lies in the search function and a thread on the whole story should appear

 

[OiRogers]

Just type cartel white lies in the search function and a thread on the whole story should appear

That is going back several years, lots of bad blood between many members and a few forums.
Basics: Dealers were colluding to fix pricing. Dealers were "exaggerating" the features of their offerings. Dealers were pressuring other dealers to raise prices to "approved" levels... these dealers, who had been and remain so, reliable sources were found to be not as friendly to the community as they had appeared.... now they aren't trusted dealers anymore.

End result: We're more informed as a group and several new dealers were able to get a foothold in this market.

 

[wolfwood]

What about WatchEden? Their prices seem to be pretty good especially with the $20 discount and free shipping.

 

[kaniel]

Tony is his own deal, and he's asian7750. I'd suggest staying away from Josh,
staying away from Andrew, and I have nothing bad to say about Tony.

Tony is the cheapest, but his low price comes at a price vs. Lay.

Lay offers you to return your watch to the US for either an exchange or repair
under warranty if you live in the US. or UK if you live in the UK. with Tony and
the rest of the dealers, you have to ship the watch back to China and hope things
go okay. Lay will waterproof watches too and has better qc and communication.

with the frequency of problems that happen with these rep watches, paying a bit
extra to shop with Lay vs. Tony will usually work out in your favor in the long run.
plus you get more peace of mind with Lay and that has its own value.

Idon't live in the USA or U.K. so the return of Lay doesn't mean a big deal to me...

But the Waterproof test soundds interesting...

1)Does hi wateproof all watches or you have to tell him and pay for it?...

2)Can you trust his waterprooffing??...

3)Any other dealer waterproofs watches aswell or just Lay does??...

 

[Dodgy]

Am i right in pointing out the 177M isnt available yet?

 

[alvinado]

ya the 177m is not here yet.

 

[QinetiQ]

Correct. Not yet, but soon

 

[Dodgy]

Damn, would have loved to be wrong!

 

[Member X]

How soon is soon?

It is toooo long