Very dissapointing experience with IWC

[shamrockbaby]

10 months ago my wife bought me a Portuguese Chronograph with the blue strap and blue arabic. About two months after purchase it would stop running. I thought that I was bending my wrist and hitting the top button and accidentally stopping it. Or, I thought, I wasn't wearing it enough and it was winding down. The problem got progressively worse until the watch failed completely. We brought it back to the retailer and they sent it to IWC. IWC then responded that we had damaged the watch through a "shock" or "trauma" and refused to cover the repair under warranty. They also claimed that we had dented the case, bent one of the pins and other damage. We were outraged. All we had done was wear the watch. Finally, after much back and forth, with IWC by the way NEVER RESPONDING to repeated contacts to their Swiss website, they agreed to fix the watch under warranty. It will take about two months. This company, in my opinion, is a complete fraud that does not stand behind their products. Never. Ever. EVER would I buy another watch from this company.

[India Whiskey Charlie]

Sorry to read of your experience. Along the years I have learned that there is always two sides of a story like yours. I for one, have had fourteen IWC's since 2000 and my experience with them has been nothing short of pleasant. Good luck with your next watch purchase.

[shamrockbaby]

Sure there are. Yep. Case # 3460581. Maybe you can get IWC's side. Because the only way to communicate with them in Switzerland is through an e-mail within their website which they do not respond to other than a form response saying they will reply. Which they don't. Maybe they feel like they don't have to. The repair facility in New York also does not respond to phone contact. Let me know what you find out.

[chris]

do you mean that you leave the chronograph running all the time. that's probably not something you should do since it will add to the wear and tear on the movement and the chrono parts in particular, since the chronograph wheel bearings aren't jewelled in many chronograph movements, the 7750 on which your watch is based included.

[shamrockbaby]

Chris--The watch never ran without the chronograph function engaged. Now we find out that they don't have the parts and the watch won't be ready until the end of November. Texas is the repair facility.

[shamrockbaby]

We finally have our watch back and everything seems to be working as it should. I must commend our retailer, Lussori, for helping us with this. They took care of the repair and returned the watch to us with a brand new strap, something they did not have to do. My understanding is that they are still in discussions with IWC over the warranty issue. I would like to state that IWC did an exceptionally poor job of handling this. I received one e-mail from Patrizia stating that my complaint would be responded to and we never heard from an IWC person during the entire time. We were without the watch from August until just before Thanksgiving and again, NEVER heard from anyone at IWC. I am new to a luxury watch. But as a business owner I do know something about customer service and this company is bereft of any. Inexcusable.

[davidjewels]

In my opinion it is always better to have the retailer where you purchased the watch from handle the matter with the watch brand. This is a much much speedier process as the retailer will really get on the case since he is the direct conduit. sorry this happened to you and don't let this discourage you from IWC.
It's the same story with chicks. If one bites you in the ass, don't let it stop you from seeing the next hottie!!

[omega564]

I beg to differ about making contact through the retailer .You never know what kind of relationship the retail has with the manufacturer or whether or not the AD is relating the info accurately .I have even known AD's who have not sent watches in to the company upon reciept from the customer and have waited WEEKS to get around to it . If you do use the AD get a repair number so you ca check yourself .