Raw Deal from Watchfinder

Numerus

Hi all, I thought it would be good to share my experience of watchfinder.co.uk as i'm sure many of you have seen their website.
Anyway, part of my business consists of buying and pawning watches. We buy between 2 and 5 watches per month, all high end. I didn't want to set up my own website to sell them so I contacted Stuart Hennell by mail. No response. A few days later I phoned but he was busy so I left a message. No response. I emailed again. No response. At this point I got fed up and forgot about it. 4 weeks later I suddenly get a reply: we deal with many pawnbrokers in the UK, we can help you, have a look at this presentation. It looked ok and as they do have the most attractive web platform I have seen in the trade I thought I'd give them a go. I emailed him and explained that if we were going to send them all our watches I would like to have a regular contact person and talk to them over the phone before sending anything. No response. So I phoned again a few days later. Busy. Left a message. No response. I emailed again a week later. The same thing as before. Either this guy was so busy he didn't have time to do his job or else he was just disorganised. I left it alone for a few weeks, obviously heard nothing back, and by then had 5 watches to sell so I thought I'd give it one more try. I phoned and explained my story again to someone else and was told to contact Jonathan Brett, purchasing manager. The same thing happened with Jonathan. It took 3 weeks to get to speak to him and every single attempt to communicate with him came from me. I emailed 4 times and phoned 4 times. One day, 3 weeks later I get a call from Jonathan "We're very busy, so many people asking for valuations online and they never sell anything, most are time wasters". Fine. I told him I understand but he could have known I wasn't a time waster, if anything he had been wasting my time. I explained what I wanted and he said Sam Beer would be my dedicated contact. Great. I called Sam the next day, not available. I emailed him. No response. Amazing! At this point I started wondering if this was not the result of some IT problem. I kept phoning and eventually spoke to him. He was friendly, all good, so we sent some watches. A Rolex GMT, A Rolex Submariner, a Rolex Oyser Date and an Omega Seamaster... and waited.
Then their wonderful web platform kicked in and I got emails acknowledging receipt of the watches and a few days later an email outlining the costs of repairs the watches required. The Rolex GMT was new, in the box never been worn and they wanted GBP220 before being able to put it on sale. The Oyster was GBP400 the Omega GBP550. Wow. I mean we buy these and we take a pretty good look at them but this makes us look incompetent. Anyway, they were there and we wanted to try the sales procedure. So they were fixed, slowly. Then I got another email saying the watches were now on sale. Finally. I think it took 4 weeks.
Then I get a call from Sam to say that the Oyster Date needs additional repairs! Hmmmm. It has been checked and fixed already I said but he was adamant. I agreed on the condition that I would be able to revise the sales price we had agreed before. So they fixed it again and put on sale. Then they sell it for the lower price!
I complained as between repairs and commission they had taken all my margin. I was offered a GBP50 rebate on the 10% commission. Next thing I get an email saying that in a few days the watch will be sent to the buyer. Then another email saying it has been sent and in 7 days they will pay me. Then another mail saying they are going to pay me and it will take 3 to 5 working days. Except the amount was wrong and still based on the lower sales price... tiresome. Anyway, I give them my bank details and 2 days later I get another email saying my bank details are incomplete! I resend the same information. 5 days later still no money.
I phoned and spoke to Jennifer Fairweather who was arrogant and spoke to me as if I was a moron and that if there was any problem at all it must have been down to me or my bank. I can't remember the last time someone spoke to me, a customer, like that. If I were Stuart I would not have her anywhere near a customer or a phone.
But Stuart is too busy to care. As is Jonathan. And Sam.
Anyway, this is the story of just one of the watches but I had problems with every single one...! I emailed and phoned and never got a response. I emailed the Directors, no response! It made me furious. How stupid can I be? Having seen how these people work to go ahead and send them watches? The problem is the web platform had me sold - but everything else is a complete mess.
I also had my suspicions about how they make their money, besides the obvious "repairs" and commissions. I asked a friend to make an offer on one of our watches and guess what... they passed on a lower offer than he had made. Now I would think this borders upon being illegal. They pocket the difference if you accept.
Anyway, I could go on and on and on but I'll cut off here. Buyer beware. Seller beware. Customer beware! Great platform, disgraceful and inefficient and rude staff and management.

Pollycat

Numerous
just a couple of points:
It's considered spam to post the same thing more than once on the forum.

Paragraphs & spaces make long posts easier to read.



ETA
I would edit your posts to remove the names of the people you have dealt with.

wealdroam

Numerus wrote: »

Hi all, I thought it would be good to share my experience of watchfinder.co.uk as i'm sure many of you have seen their website.
Anyway, part of my business consists of buying and pawning watches. We buy between 2 and 5 watches per month, all high end.
<snip the rest>

This is a consumer rights board.

Whilst interesting to read, your problems are clearly resulting from a business to business relationship.

Alpha58

To throw in my two penn'orth...

I have bought three watches from Watchfinder since December 2008 and not had a problem. The first two were bought from them as they could source the brand (not going to be vulgar and name it) cheaper than a "proper" retailer plus they arranged the VAT refund process for me (I was foreign resident at the time). They no longer stock this brand as "new" because (I gather) the manufacturer will not let them be an authorised retailer. The third watch (different brand) was no problem.

WF sell watches below RRP as they have low overheads. Yes, the premises in Maidstone are not Bond Street, but surely you get what you pay for? If you want full-price service, go to a high street retailer!

stolt

just wish i had read this thread and several others across the internet before buying a watch from them, its for my birthday and my wife spent her hard earned money on a watch for me, it was described as a few months old and nearly new. There was a split on the strap and obviously over time would cause failure and the watch fall off my wrist. they offered a watch strap but i would have to pay for it, i asked to return the watch and they said i could but i had to book and appointment. overall a bit of sour experience, i would have preferred that the advert stated there was a split in the strap or a new strap but i havent got either. really bad experience