broken Tissot watch.

davethetaller

Hi there,

My wife bought a new ladies Tissot watch in Jan.2007, paying £1200.

She loves the watch, and it is still on its original battery.

However, about a month ago, she went to turn the little knob on the side to adjust the time, but discovered the knob was missing.

Not having treated it roughly, she went back to the original shop with it, and after looking at it, they said it would have to go away for repair, and it could be gone for about 6 weeks.

My 2 questions are, Is the shop in any way liable for the cost, or partial cost, of the repair? I believe that the Sale of Goods Act / fit for purpose section, has a sliding scale of liabilities up to about 6 years.

If I am dead in the water on that, can someone point me in the direction of a decent watch repairer, in the north west, who will charge a fair price?

Thanks in anticipation.

davethetaller

So no one knows then.

Thanks for taking the time to read.

nikflo

i used to work in watch repairs, and back then the watch was under g/tee for 2 years, any thing after this time was always charged.

the part you are referring too is called the crown, and in my experience this kind of repair could be expensive, due to the fact that the watch would need to be cleaned inside (this is called a serivce) as dust and dirt could have got in through the hole where the crown was. also you could well be charged extra for a new crown.

six weeks turn around sounds about right to me, you could ask for an estimate, (you might be charged for this but it should come off the final bill) this way you could find out the whole cost before you proceed, but this would add an extra few weeks to the whole repair.

you could take it to a local watch maker, who could try and fix it themselves, but in my opinon you would be better off letting tissot do the repair.

when i was in watch repairs we had alot of watches with broken crowns bought in this time of year, due to people pulling them out too far when changing the time when the clocks went forward.

good luck and sorry it's not what you wanted to hear!

rsykes2000

davethetaller wrote: »

Hi there,

My wife bought a new ladies Tissot watch in Jan.2007, paying £1200.

She loves the watch, and it is still on its original battery.

However, about a month ago, she went to turn the little knob on the side to adjust the time, but discovered the knob was missing.

Not having treated it roughly, she went back to the original shop with it, and after looking at it, they said it would have to go away for repair, and it could be gone for about 6 weeks.

My 2 questions are, Is the shop in any way liable for the cost, or partial cost, of the repair? I believe that the Sale of Goods Act / fit for purpose section, has a sliding scale of liabilities up to about 6 years.

If I am dead in the water on that, can someone point me in the direction of a decent watch repairer, in the north west, who will charge a fair price?

Thanks in anticipation.

I would also say they and Tissot are not responsible for this, as it's over 3 years since purchase. However it might not be too expensive to get repaired (depending on the cost of the part from Tissot - try http://www.rytetimewatchrepairs.co.uk/ for repair.

RufusA

I can second the recommendation for Ryte Time and also can recommend Cheal Watch Repair:

http://www.chealwatch.com/

I've used both, and would recommend either. Cheal I personally find slightly easier to deal with as they take credit cards over the phone rather than requiring a cheque to be posted up (and cleared) before returning your watch, but YMMV!

Both will offer no-cost estimates (except P&P) by post, and are worth phoning to discuss the issue to see which you prefer. However I would expect the service and repair to cost over £100, although likely to be considerably cheaper than Tissot.

Consumer law wise you SHOULD be able to get recompense from the retailer if you can prove that the watch was faulty when originally supplied. This may be hard/impossible to prove, but worth speaking with Consumer Direct for advice as to what is required.

HTH - Rufus.

davethetaller

RufusA, rsykes2000, nikflo, many thanks for your wise words, and the links supplied.

I don't think when my wife got the watch, she considered that a simplish repair would cost that much !

Many thanks again for your time.

RufusA

davethetaller wrote: »

I don't think when my wife got the watch, she considered that a simplish repair would cost that much !

Don't I know it. I stupidly as a good MSEr bought a swiss automatic watch thinking it would save money in the long term on battery replacements (and replacement watches for water damage when they don't reseal after replacing the battery).

For what I've spent out on mine in servicing and repairs I could have had a reasonable quartz watch for every day of the week and still have change in my pocket!

Rufus.