Very Dissapointed with IWC serivce center

Greetings

I have just had a experience with IWC service that I wish to share with the community.

Last year around this time I purchased my third IWC in 10 years. The first was a Mark XV. This time, I chose a Big Pilot. A watch that since it was released was on my radar. I purchased from an IWC AD outside of North America and the watch came with the two year international guarantee. I liked the Big Pilot so much I went and bought the White gold version a month after this one. That is over 40K in IWC watches.

As a small collector I have had many nice watches pass through my hands in the 15-20 years I have been into the hobby. I take care of my watches. The only mechanical time piece I wear involving any sort of sport is my trusty Rolex Sea dweller. My other watches, I only wear when I know there will be no chance of exposing them to any sort of stress. They live in their boxes or my watch drawer when not in use and I take note of their condition often.

While in Las Vegas last month, on the 3rd day of my trip I noticed/heard a metallic scratch sound coming from w/in the case as I lifted my wrist to see the time. Obviously anytime one hears a sound like that you know it is not normal. Having just been to the IWC boutique the night before to see the new pieces I immedialty returned there and showed the guys the watch. They agreed something was wrong and we promptly shipped it off to IWC. I faxed them a copy of the warranty card when I returned home the following Monday.

After 5 weeks, the boutique calls and says they have heard from IWC and the estimate to fix is $300 and change for a broken post that holds the rotor. They determined that the watch had been exposed to severe shock and noted a dent in the case. Now, as I said I take care of my watches. Hairlines scratches are part of the deal wearing a watch and I know this, so is the occasioanl nick. But, a dent is different. Part of the joy of the hobby for me is looking at and over my watches. I own a loupe and often will sit and check out dial work etc. I have NEVER noticed, felt, or seen a dent or even a nick in the case of the Big Pilot. and believe me, I look often.

Furthermore I have not knocked or dropped that watch ever. I would know it if I did. I have banged my Sea Dweller on doorjambs a couple times and dropped it once accidentally. Each time I was terribly worried that I had done damage and thankfully did not. The point is each time I knew I did it and examined the watch and checked it against time.gov for accuracy after the event. It has never happened with my IWC.

I wear the IWC under a dress shirt while working. The roughest day it has seen is desk diving in a pile of papers.

The boutique were very gracious and tried to help on my behalf to no avail. i then called IWC today and was told in no uncertain terms that I had exposed my 10 month old Big Pilot to severe shock, broke it, dented the case(which I have never seen even a small nick ANYWHERE on that case) and I am responsible for the charges.I disagreed and asked them to fix it under warranty which they will not do. If I had knocked it or dropped it I would have no problem sending it in and telling them what happened and paying for it.

My brother recently bought a Portuguese 7 day in SS in no small part due to my advocacy of the brand.

That's over 50K in IWC watches between my brother and I. If nothing else, as a token of good will, I feel IWC should do the right thing and fix my watch.

I am seriously considering leaving the brand after I get my watch back.

Customer service is the name of the game and I feel that I have been treated very poorly by IWC in this interaction and am very disappointed.

Thanks for listening.

Sorry to hear this, but service issues really aren't a forum topic. I'm not sure what motivates anyone to post them on IWC's own forum, but the simple fact is that we're unable to evaluate them electronically. There's a lot of "he said/she said" on repair problems.

I very much wish you well, but this is the wrong venue.

Thank you for the reply, Michael.

I posted here because it IS the brands forum. what better place to bring an issue out into the public regarding an experience with a brands service than the actual brands site? I am not trying to stir anything up, merely sharing my experience. Believe me, I wish it had been different. If it had been, i would be here praising it.

I cannot believe what I read. I am appalled.
If not here, where else? Are collectors (customers) not allowed to talk about problems?

Agreed. I truly sympathize with the thread starter as I too have been exposed to the dark side of the service experience. Part of IWC's strength has always been in its digital strategy vs. other brands that do not have a strategy at all. That's how the brand has been able to capture and convert so many followers both old and young via its 'netpromoter' tactics and word-of-mouth advocacy in the social sphere. The forum should be a place for clientele to share their true sentiments, both positive and negative. In fact, it increases accountability, since we 'prosumers' are also involved in accessing the value chain.

The fault may lie with the courier, the middle man, or IWC. Needless to say, the company and brand offering such a costly service should be fully responsible as the single point of contact for the customer. Quality control should be applied throughout the value chain, even if there are cross-party players involved, instead of engaging in blame culture.

Still love the brand though... as nothing is perfect. But more should be done with respect to QC.

On a same note I thought to share my experience (with a purpose to improve IWC service)
I'm new to IWC and to this forum. But I owned quite few other Swiss prestigious watch brands. Unfortunately my experience with IWC started on a wrong foot. I felt in love with Portofino Hand-Wound Eight Days, but... discovered couple of issues when I finally received it, and I was advised by the local dealer to repair the watch under warranty. The QC is questionable. The biggest issue however is the repair time... up to 7 months as I was told! I tried to check with IWC Service & Support if anything can be done to expedite this, but no answer. (I'd like to talk to them directly, not through the dealer).
So: I gave up on other brands in favor of IWC, payed not negligible ;-) price for a flagship of the Portofino family, and I'm staying now with a naked wrist for more than half a year.

I have had four watches sent to IWC through my AD over the past five years. Each was fixed satisfactorily and the added benefit was they came back looking like new.
So, based on my account, IWC has a perfect service record.
And that is why service issues are not appropriate on this Forum. Every story is anecdotal. For all the good ones there are some bad ones. And the bad ones get the press.

Adding to Alan's comment, we are guests in the IWC house. I am sure, if you were at a friends home for a nice dinner and the food was not to your liking, you would not bring up the subject at the dinner table. Your comments,if you felt compelled to speak, would be done in private / off air. The members of this forum cannot solve your concerns, real or not. I understand your frustration, but the best place to resolve the issue is by your personal contact with the company / AD, who can help.

Seriously?

Is my post supposed to uniformly praise IWC because I am in it's house? This isn't dinner and I am not in somebodys house.

IWC is part of a multi-billion dollar company who sells very expensive luxury goods. Yesterday, one of its customers, who has been loyal to the brand, bought multiple timepieces, and is responsible for at least 3 other people I know buying IWC time pieces based on my recommendations, had a very unpleasant multi-call experience with IWC and it's customer relations reps. I was in no uncertain terms told I did this damage to my watch and also told there is a "Dent" in the case of a watch that i know to be in 99% mint condition. As I mentioned in my OP I take good care of my watches and as most WIS are I am a bit anal about their care. I have not banged, dropped, or otherwise "dented" my Big Pilot.

FYI I tried contact with the AD and with the company to no avail which is why I came here. I understand that forum members cannot solve my problem. However bringing problems to light is often a catalyst for a company to change its ways or take a look at how they can service me, the customer, better.

From a customer service standpoint this is an amazingly easy fix. If they are charging me $300 to fix, that means their cost is probably closer to $100-150. Now, I have spent over $40K on their product recently, add in my brother and its over $50K. So, for $100 they could have a happy, satisfied customer instead of someone leaving the brand? I know which path i would take if I were them. If I had answered that phone yesterday and listened to my customers version of what happened, I would have fixed the watch gratis and THANKED him for his business. In this little thread alone we now have two people who have left or may leave the IWC brand because of shoddy service, and in my case $100 fix.

Thanks

Alan,

I am glad to hear you have had multiple positive experiences with IWC service.

What has stopped you from coming here and posting a thread about a positive service experience? On other watch forums, I see both positive and negative posts all the time.

I am having a hard time understanding why service related posts are not appropriate on the brands website in question? Not just IWC, but any brand? To me, there is no better place than the source.

There are several reasons for the policy. There is only one side posted to the story, and IWC cannot respond. Not every poster (and I'm not accusing you) is honest or even with honest intent describes the situation or problem correctly. And some posters even have other intentions than being constructive.

Before moderating here 11 years ago, I was one of the founders and first moderators of another large watch site. We had several people who tried to pressure watch companies for free repairs and even developed a few cyberspace lynch mobs. In one case, the guy really wanted a different watch model, and claimed a scratch during service. He did not know, until I checked, that the company had photographed the watch before and after, and could prove the claim was an outright lie. Also, in some cases we --at the other site-- even suspected sabotage: another company or dealer (undisclosed as such) may have been raising issues in order to diminish sales. Difficult to prove, but the Internet in many ways is like the Wild West.

The primary reason, however, is that IWC can set the standards for what it wants (or doesn't want) on its own forum. It pays the bill and we are all guests here. I don't necessarily agree with every policy or product of IWC, but that's fine too. On the whole it's a great company --in my opinion the best in the industry. We can respect what it would like, even if we think we're smarter or know better.

I really don't want to debate forum standards or service issues here. Feel free to e-mail me if you have further comments. If this continues further online, I will have to consider whether to unpublish this thread at some point in the future, which is not something I'd prefer.

Thank you.

Michael,

Thanks for the reply.

I tried to email you at the address in your post but it bounced.

JonnyZ --try michael.r.friedberg@gmail.com...sorry about that.

Just for the record I did indeed post positive accounts of service issues, but not for that purpose. In each case it was more of an account of how thrilled I was to get my watch back and how I missed it after two months or whatever.

So if I understand you correctly, you did post that you had positive experiences with IWC even though you have stated this is an inappropriate venue to do so?

And that is different from my post how? because you were thrilled to have your watch back? and I am less than thrilled to have my 10 month old $14000 watch malfunction and be told by IWC that I must now pay for it even though I have a two year warranty?

Thanks Michael, I will forward my email to you shortly.

Hi Jonnyz1245,

I am not going to try and point the finger anywhere but the AD should have given you a full report of the watch's condition prior to sending it off. Each time I have dropped one off, they have gone into very verbose detail to list the issues / defects/ scratches / markings, dents etc etc etc, quite often pointing out things that you yourself may not have noticed - kind of like the report you get when you hire a car - "there is a small dent on top at 9 o'clock, scratch on rear at 6, wearing on case end of top strap etc etc etc".

In all fairness to IWC, they can only deal with what they know about - if a watch is presented to them with a dent, a broken internal component and there is nothing to say that it wasn't caused by you, then the only stance they can take is that it is your responsibility.

If you do have a full condition report from the AD prior to it being shipped back, then carefully check it and if your dent isn't listed, then it has happened somewhere between the AD and IWC - is it is listed, then you may just have to grin and bear it.

Cheers,

Ben

I think you are totally missing the point of this Forum.

We've got to stop this debate...no more posts here please. Everyone's has made his points.

Thank you.