Walked away on instinct - was I right to?

Gaberdeen

I'm in the market to buy a luxury watch, a Vacheron Constantin Overseas and the specific model I want is available on chrono24 with a POA.

The advert itself has a few photos of the watch, pouch and warranty card at a couple of angles, but did not have any of the box and papers, something that can drastically affect the value of luxury timepieces depending on condition etc.

So, I sent a message asking what the POA is and if they could possibly provide a photograph of the full set being offered.

The reply came, price was as expected but they sent a photo that was practically the same as all the others - Watch and pouch with warranty card.

Thinking there had been a misunderstanding, I reiterated what I understood a "full set" to be and forwarded a stock photo showing all the items I'd expect to be in a "Full set"

"Yes it is a full set" comes the reply. No photo follows, however.

Obviously at this point I'm wondering if I haven't made my request clear so I messaged back saying "That's great, a full set is exactly what I was looking for..... can you please at your convenience send a photograph showing the full set that is being offered?"

The reply was an eye opener and I print it here verbatim;

"As you can imagine we get a lot of requests for additional pictures and different angles etc. we are limited to the amount of pictures we can send in conversation due to chrono24 terms and conditions. As previously the following above is present with the watch"

A few things to unpack here.

1.The seller had 2 listings on chrono24 - one of them had sold, the other was the watch I was enquiring about. If he's had "lots of requests" for other photos, there's nothing stopping him from editing his advert to include additional photos - even if you believe that C24 have a photo limitation policy, which they don't.

2. The only reason you wouldn't share a photo of the box and papers is that you're trying to sell it sight-unseen

I'm perfectly relaxed with the decision to terminate our discussion, it didn't feel right and even before I get into the issue of dealing with obtuse responses to reasonable questions, I was asking myself how a conversation around a problem might go and it wasn't favourable.

From an external perspective - how does anyone else view this?

Grumpy_chap

I struggle to understand why, if you are in the market for a £10's k's watch, you would seek to purchase via unauthorised channels and not the official retail routes.

Even outside of the official retail routes, I would not buy such a purchase sight-unseen over the internet as quality (or even the slightest damage) makes a big difference to the value.  I suspect that enforcing consumer rights if there is a most minor of minor scratches that you notice (or such like) would be challenging.

You have doubts about the credibility of the watch being offered - right thing is to walk away.

Gaberdeen

Grumpy_chap said:

I struggle to understand why, if you are in the market for a £10's k's watch, you would seek to purchase via unauthorised channels and not the official retail routes.

Even outside of the official retail routes, I would not buy such a purchase sight-unseen over the internet as quality (or even the slightest damage) makes a big difference to the value.  I suspect that enforcing consumer rights if there is a most minor of minor scratches that you notice (or such like) would be challenging.

You have doubts about the credibility of the watch being offered - right thing is to walk away.

The watch in question ceased production a number of years ago - the secondary "grey" market is the only place you can buy this specific model and it's this specific model I'm after. I would 100% pay an authorised retailer for a brand new watch with warranty if that was an option, sadly it isn't, so you'll understand why I can't.

Emmia

Have you tried a reverse image search with the pictures provided? I have a suspicion that the reason no more photos are forthcoming is that the whole thing is a straightforward scam.

Gaberdeen

Emmia said:

Have you tried a reverse image search with the pictures provided? I have a suspicion that the reason no more photos are forthcoming is that the whole thing is a straightforward scam.

Believe it or not but yes, I did - I used both google and tineye and the photos were not (to the best of my knowledge) lifted from an old advert / listing.

I don't actually think the watch is a fake or that the listing isn't real - it's just how he's reacted to a very reasonable request for more pictures / information - especially since he has quite a large social media presence and has a lot of incredibly expensive watches for sale, far, far more valuable than the one I'm interested in.


As an aside, I sold a very expensive car last year to a buyer who didn't view the car first - he asked for lots of photographs and details prior to purchasing the car on finance (close brothers) and I of course complied because I had nothing to hide. I can only surmise that the seller is finding excuses not to provide more information because he does indeed have something to hide.

Hard to come to any other conclusion.

Clive_Woody

I understand that when buying through chrono24 you get a degree of protection when it comes to confirming authenticity. That said, a reluctance to send additional photos is a concern and i see no reason why a genuine seller wouldn't send pics when asked for them for a transaction of this size.

Given how common rep watches can be, and how realistic they can look, I too would also be cautious here.