Wristwatch battery lifetime battery guarantee - a scam?

JJ_Egan

Wider trend how .
The salesman the company the watch manufacturer every supplier of goods ??.

Starting to read your OP different what could well have been a mistake by the original salesperson . Reading further posts sound like yet another compensation cowboy on the prowl.

xanda

wealdroam wrote: »

What might the next step be?

Remember, a guarantee is in addition to your statutory rights, and as such can include terms that you may not consider favourable.
Have you read the terms of your guarantee?

The terms of the guarantee state that the service is in addition to any statutory rights. It is also made clear on their website that the certificate is only valid with the original receipt attached - which it is.

Apart from that there are no other riders, caveats etc.

Hinds accept the certificate is authentic; just that the battery type & serial number does not tie with that recorded on it. By extension, they assert the certificate was therefore issued for another watch (even though it bears the correct watch details). There is also the original receipt, tied to the certificate and shows what was purchased.

Also on the certificate is a service log. The log shows that no claims have been made under the guarantee to date. From their perspective, this ought indicate that the all is bona-fide; otherwise the discrepancy would have been picked up by now.

As far as next steps go, we think there are several options, all equally equitable. These are:-
- Hinds could re-issue the certificate on surrender of the current one on the basis that on balance, they haven't actually lost out under it (no claims made + we are clearly the original customer).
- Or Hinds could just give us our money back for the certificate itself (it's worth £9) on the same basis.

If neither works then we'll likely approach Trading Standards for a decision.

vikingaero

Go to a different branch - staff may be less jobsworth/reasonable.

wealdroam

xanda wrote: »

Hinds accept the certificate is authentic; just that the battery type & serial number does not tie with that recorded on it. By extension, they assert the certificate was therefore issued for another watch (even though it bears the correct watch details).

Leaving aside the battery type for a moment, are you saying here that the serial number of the watch does not match the serial number recorded on the guarantee certificate?

What do you mean by 'correct watch details'?
Do you mean that the guarantee certificate mentions the model of watch which matches the model of watch that you own?

xanda

wealdroam wrote: »

Do you mean that the guarantee certificate mentions the model of watch which matches the model of watch that you own?

The description of the watch on the certificate matches ours although there is no record of its model name or model code. In this case it reads simply as "Ellesse watch, blue face".

So the only numbers recorded on the certificate are the till receipt and the type/serial codes for the battery itself (so Hinds tell us anyway), the latter of which is what Hinds are objecting to.

FOREVER21

xanda wrote: »

The terms of the guarantee state that the service is in addition to any statutory rights. It is also made clear on their website that the certificate is only valid with the original receipt attached - which it is.

Apart from that there are no other riders, caveats etc.

Hinds accept the certificate is authentic; just that the battery type & serial number does not tie with that recorded on it. By extension, they assert the certificate was therefore issued for another watch (even though it bears the correct watch details). There is also the original receipt, tied to the certificate and shows what was purchased.

Also on the certificate is a service log. The log shows that no claims have been made under the guarantee to date. From their perspective, this ought indicate that the all is bona-fide; otherwise the discrepancy would have been picked up by now.

As far as next steps go, we think there are several options, all equally equitable. These are:-
- Hinds could re-issue the certificate on surrender of the current one on the basis that on balance, they haven't actually lost out under it (no claims made + we are clearly the original customer).
- Or Hinds could just give us our money back for the certificate itself (it's worth £9) on the same basis.

If neither works then we'll likely approach Trading Standards for a decision.

How long have you had the watch? and how much is the replacement battery?

Regarding an approach to trading standards the route for this is now via CAB, and I doubt very much that they will judge this serious enough to pass on to them.
Your chance of success would be better if others have made the same complaint andCAB should know this better than a random audience here!

Joe_Horner

In answer to the question in the title (as opposed to the poll): Yes, in most cases these "lifetime battery guarantees" are a scam. They're also not, in any normal sense of the word, a guarantee because that suggests that they believe their batteries should last for the life of the watch, which is patent nonsense. But people buy them anyway.

How it works is this:

You buy a battery and pay an extra (you say) £9 for the "guarantee". 2 years, give or take, later, you go back and get another battery fitted. That will cost the company no more than about £1.50 at cost regardless of what battery it is.

If you're lucky, and haven't lost the paperwork or broken the watch, then you'll go back in another 2 years and get another battery. By now you've cost them £3 in batteries that you've paid them £9 for.

By the time 8 years roll by and you need your fourth battery it's a better than evens chance that your watch will have developed a fault. They'll then tell you that it's not the battery and quote you for repair. At that point your £9 "guarantee" ends and you've had £4.50 worth of batteries out of them.

In order to actually get your £9 worth of batteries out of them, at cost and based on the most expensive (ie: least popular) watch cell out there, you'd need to keep the paperwork and the same watch, and not have any faults develop, for 12 years.

Based on the cost price of the most common watch battery size, bought in bulk, it would take you more than 24 successful battery changes, or 48 years, before the guarantee actually costs them anything!

Meanwhile, you feel tied to going back to them and are likely to also use them for your straps, odd bits of jewellery, or even the replacement watch when they tell you it's not the battery this time. Great marketing ploy but, like all after-market guarantees, not a good deal for most customers.

There are some exceptions of course - watches that manage to keep going for extended times without developing faults, or freezers that actually do break down during an extended warranty in just the way that is covered, but overall these schemes are pure win for the company selling them.