Timpson: Don't let them near your watch!

barbiedoll

teddysmum wrote: »

Lot's of jewellers are now difficult about changing batteries in gold watches and want to charge a fortune to send them away.


Goldsmiths wanted £20 several years ago, stating the sending away as their excuse, so I went to H Samuels the next few times, paying about £5 (/).


At the end of last year, I went to Samuels, again, to be told that they now send away, too, with a large mark up.


I saw a notice in the Timpson's kiosk, outside Tesco, advertising their on the spot service but decided against risking my watch with the teenager working there, especially as jewellers don't feel able to do the work.


Luckily , I was chatting to a group of ladies, we mentioned watches and one recommended a small local , oldfashioned 'watchmender' type jeweller, who charges from £3 depending on the battery required.

Goldsmiths and Samuels aren't "jewellers"....they are shops which sell jewellery, which isn't really the same thing. Any more than selling car parts and accessories, makes Halfords a "garage"

Timpsons are a shoe repair and key cutting franchise, why on earth would anyone even consider giving them a (presumably expensive) gold watch to repair?!!

BIB: Yes....that's what jewellers do!

Joe_Horner

barbiedoll wrote: »

Goldsmiths and Samuels aren't "jewellers"....they are shops which sell jewellery, which isn't really the same thing.

More than this, watch repairs aren't really what jewellers (even "proper" ones) are about. It's a specialised trade in itself.

I do the odd ring resizing or polishing because I have the basic skills to do so as part of my trade but anything beyond that you'd want a specialist jeweller. Don't trust me to re-set your 5ct solitaire diamond or remodel your antique Tiffany necklace!

Similarly, most jewellers can do a competent job of fitting straps or changing batteries on mainstream watches but anything beyond that....

codger

Timpson's isn't a conventional firm, as its founder / owner John Timpson repeatedly makes clear. It is an 'entrepreneurial' business, with each location operated by an 'entrepreneur' who profits, or loses, according to the site's turnover. Thus: the service -- and, more importantly, the ability -- of the provider at one Timpson's location may vary considerably from the calibre of service and ability at another.

We don't use Timpson's for anything other than the occasional shoe repair and doorkey cutting. Watch batteries we certainly wouldn't purchase; they're not cheap anyway. We instead go to our local market hall (indoor) that's been there for many a long year, within which various stallholders offer everything from watch battery replacement to mobile phone unlocking. Etc etc.

Unbeknownst to one such stallholder, we discovered that he was the man to whom the staff of major trinkets-and-clocks retailers (think Goldsmiths, think H. Samuel) in our town turn when a customer is daft enough to go back to them and ask for a watch to be cleaned, or have its battery changed.

My wife has a Raymond Weill watch, much cherished, which Goldsmith's sent away every time it needed a new battery (every couple of years or so) at £30 a time. Once we discovered our little guy down the market, who said, with a grin, that he couldn't possibly comment on the 'commercial customers' he might deal with, we've let him change the battery every two years . . . at £3.50.

My wife also has a Cartier watch from 1988, which finished up for too long in its box and. . . died. It was bought at Cartier, not Goldsmith's, but we took it into Goldsmith's anyway and asked if someone could have a look to see if it needed a new battery. Someone did, and reported that the battery had leaked inside. To their credit, they said we would need to send it back to Cartier. We didn't. And that was that.

Some years later though, having discovered our little guy down the market, we remembered the defunct Cartier lying in its box in a drawer somewhere in the house. We asked him if he'd look at it. He did. Said he could see what was wrong with it -- I can't remember what, it was all very technical -- but that he simply didn't have the tools for so delicate a repair. However. . . he knew of a local jeweler (a 'proper' jeweller) in the city centre, who knew of a watchmaker / watch repairer (again, a 'proper' one) and recommended us to go there.

We did. The jeweler took the watch in, sent it away to wherever this specialist watchmaker / repairer friend of his happened to be, and a fortnight later we had the Cartier back: cleaned, repaired, working perfectly again -- at last! --and guaranteed for 12 months. Cost? £47. (Likely cost at Cartier? I've no idea. Can only shudder.)

Moral of the story, then: don't ever make the mistake of thinking that trinkets-and-clocks outfits like Samuels and Goldsmiths are jewellers, 'cos they're not. And don't think, either, that every Timpson location will have a resident watch expert: it won't.

Try, instead, the middle route, which we did: cheap and cheerful though a watch battery stall may look in a traditional indoor market, you may well be confounded by the good old-fashioned genuine service you get -- and the value-for-money price you pay.:)

JBR*

barbiedoll wrote: »

Timpsons are a shoe repair and key cutting franchise, why on earth would anyone even consider giving them a (presumably expensive) gold watch to repair?!!

I think the only thing I'd ever visit a Timpson store for would be a pair of shoe laces.

And even then, I'd expect them to snap within a couple of weeks.

asifinholland

I've just had this same issue. I had my watch battery replaced a few weeks ago & I wore my watch out in the rain & now it's steamed up...I'm furious...even more so now I can see the seal is exposed. The shoddy workmanship...this could have only been done by a complete idiot or deliberately...I wish I could upload a picture here.

asifinholland

Hi,

Please could you let me know how this worked out in court.....if I get this nonsense I'll be doing the same.

They say this on the website.

We can even replace the battery in your water-resistant watch. Every branch has a pressure tester enabling us to test your watch & guarantee that you can use it in water. For many watches this is done as a while-you-wait service.

Thanks

ARandomMiser

I have used Timpsons on a couple of occasions to replace batteries in cheap day-to-day watches and have never had any problems (I usually use a local watchmaker who is cheaper but I have a lifetime battery replacement card for one of my watches with Timpsons).

For my 'good' watch I send it away and it comes back fully serviced and looking like brand new - it is more expensive, but you get what you pay for.

MABLE

I usually just get a battery for £3 and put it in myself. Timpson wanted £10 and that was 2 years ago. Also wanted some yale keys cut and they wanted to charge about £4.50 each but a found a local trader who only charged £1.50. To me they are very expensive.

Robert_James

Oops Timson’s incompetence strikes again, just had a gentleman come in with his TISSOT T-Sport which had stopped initially he went into Timson’s for a new battery which they fitted after talking him into a lifetime battery change for £40

After a few days he noticed it was losing time quite badly so he returned to Timson’s asking them to have a look, they proceeded to tell him it would need a new movement. After a quick phone call to myself he brought it in for me to look at and give an opinion, on removing the case back it was obvious what the problem was, wrong battery fitted so it was not making full contact as it moved around I fitted the correct size and all is well.

Then the gentleman asked me to change the battery in his dive watch, again as soon as I removed the case back I noticed something wasn’t quite right and asked who changed the battery last time to which he said Timson’s, I checked the technical details for the movement and again it had the wrong battery fitted.

That is three wrong sized batteries fitted by these people which I have had to deal with in less than seven days.

How do they get away with this sort of service, they should be ashamed of themselves, if they don’t really care they shouldn’t be doing it.

photome

Pollycat wrote: »

My watches are either Citizen Eco-Drive or Seiko Solar so happily I don't need to take them anywhere for a replacement battery.

So are mine, but my understanding is that the eco drives dont last forever