Jaeger-LeCoultre

I cannot freeskiing believe it.
I picked up my watch on friday as planned.
With a new dial face. Supposedly...(i'm sure you see where this is going)
Using my naked eye, i could still see a faint mark.
Thinking i was being histrionic, i decided to go home with the watch, concentrating on the positives of having my watch back after 6 months.
Looking at the work sheet, it said the face has been replaced. So there can't be a mark. It's gotta be in my own head.

Over the next few days, i cannot help notice that there still is a mark there.
To put this thought to rest once and for all, i decided put it under the slit-lamp biomicroscope under 8x magnification at work.

There....still......is a smudge.......AND fragments of luminescence around the 1 o'clock mark.

Still cautious, i called my AD to accept his invitation to request the old replaced dial from switzerland which was offered on the day i picked up the watch.
Initially, i had declined thinking it'd be just obsessive compulsive to ask for the face.
If a reputable company like JLC says that they will replace the dial face, it WILL be replaced. Right?

I received a call from the national JLC manager this afternoon.
The story goes - We apologise but we've been lied to by JLC switzerland.
We were promised that the face was to be replaced on numerous confirmatory emails that they have sent but the watch maker has intervened and was cleaned instead as it has passed the 'naked eye at 30 cm test'. (but i can still see it with my naked eye at 30cm!).
Therefore we have tracked down a brand new face in Richmond in HK, where there is a licenced watch maker for the master compressor chronograph and it will be replace and the old dial sent back. We are so sorry.

Can you believe this?
I have documentation from JLC switzerland saying it received a complete service and new a dial face.

I can't stop laughing at the ridiculous situation i find myself in.

This message has been edited by ijl on 2011-06-01 04:06:45

I can't tell you how much this disappoints me.

Everyone makes errors... but to out-and-out lie!

I must confess your experience makes me rethink any JLC purchases in the future. They are currently my favorite brand, but I expect at their prices to stand by their work.

I actually have a blemish on my brand new Amvox 2 dial. I have pointed it out to Seth at the BH store, and we agreed that it's not worth sending in on it's own, but to wait until the first maintenance.....but now I wonder whether I should deal with it now.

This is really terrible of them, and I am extremely disappointed not only on your behalf, but all of ours.

If this is the kind of customer service I can expect with JLC, I might go back to sticking with G.O.-- whose Customer Service is fantastic...

I wonder what JLC was thinking?

One can only say:
- 1/ chin up .. and through !
- 2/ Maybe even consider collecting facts and the docs , maybe document it by pics
and write a real letter to JLC senior Management, supported by your AD.

It might not change the story, but maybe might somehow help you and shaken trust !

After all, imperfection is human but in this case quite strange..

Best, hs

It's the out and out lie on the receipt that is most distressing.

As I said, it makes me re-think JLC as a brand to purchase in future....

it is the receipt that is most distressing me at the moment.
how can one have confidence that what you see is what has been done.
There will always be an element of doubt....

I am so sorry to hear about your experience!

I am in agreement and you should put together a history and write a letter to JLC. 

Hopefully (and at last), I hope your dial gets addressed to your satisfaction. 

Sorry to read of your continued bad luck.  Seems like you might have enough info to write a good mystery novel "The Dark Side of JLC".  Based on your experience I'm sure glad I never sent my EWA back to fix the flawed dial (for which I provided a photo in your last post on this topic).

Perhaps you should just return the watch and get you money back, and wait to buy one that you can actually touch before you buy.

not accepting my AD's offer to refund the money is that they have done so much for me in trying to get this issue fixed.
It's their desire to stand by you, do their best and beyond what JLC has offered to do, that prevents me from making all that effort go to waste.
What's come out of this is, at least, is that my future purchases will most likely be with them.

I do understand your reaction, mine would be the same.

 

 

Best regards

 

Blomman

I would be livid in your situation. I really don't understand this outcome/reponse from JLC. We see this kind of unethical service from time to time in other cliche areas of business, but I find this a bit shocking. It's no excuse, but perhaps it comes down to one person's poor decision at JLC and should not reflect the company. I remain optimistic. Best,

This sounds like a series of unfortunate oversights at the JLC factory.  i.e. by the watchmaker who thought the dial was good enough as is, and the customer service rep who failed to correlate the paperwork and the actual services performed.  I can imagine the paperwork was done separately and in parallel, in anticpating the dial would be replaced rather than cleaned.

Anyway, I hope JLC can learn from this incident and resolve the matter speedily.  As a world class if not one of the top ranked Swiss watch manufacturers, I expect nothing less than perfection from JLC.

Good luck.  Real sorry to hear what happened.  I would react the same if I were you.

Blue  

JLC being one of the top ranked watch companies, I also expect nothing but the best.
When one purchases such watches, one expects the matching JLC's top notch standard of service, and reflection of what they say they represent. ie, you enter the 'lifestyle' that JLC represents. If it's accurate time that i'm after, i can rely on my internet sync'ed clock on my mobile phone.

But good thing you posted this here. It will get sorted out in good time I'm sure.

hard to believe this--please let us know how things turn out

J

Not at all.  I hate when this happens.

 

Hope they fix it soon.

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

Vte

is certainly beginning to become worrying. My brand new master compressor also came with an "unclean" dial, and that was directly from the factory 2 years ago.

I really start to wonder if they are really using trained watchmakers in every step at the factory (r&d ... probably, but what about assembly and service departments?). Of course it may really boil down to how quality is perceived differently between individuals, but if so then the company has quite the task ahead of them to instill some common sense of quality among the employees.

I am really starting to dread the fast approaching date of service for my Ultra Thin, a part of me just want to keep this amazing piece until it completely stops working. The watch is now perfect, and God knows how in what state it will return...

Please keep us posted on your decision and how JLC acts on this.

Regards,
Richard

Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, I have a blemish-- a line radiating out at exactly the 7 o'clock position on the silver part of the original Amvox 2 dial. It's really only noticeable in direct sunlight, but it is over 1/4" long!

I'm wondering if I should have it fixed while Seth is still at BH..... Who knows where he will be when I put the Am2 in for its regular swrvice in 3 years or so???

service with JLC.
what else do i need to endure?
I really do sincerely hope that JLC sorts the after-sales issues out.

when i first got the watch brand new and i posted here.

anyway yea i totally understand ur worry... plus some of the horror stories i've read here can add to your worries. :-P

You frustration and your anger are very understandable. On the well known french watch forum called fam, a member described his more than bad experience alongwith JLC Switzerland where because of an email problem as well as other administrative problems,it took a year to jlc switzerland to repair his 68 tribute to polaris where normally it should have taken three months at best to do it.

A watch with a pricetag that is that high should have been received with no scratch or whatever. But this not only immune to JLC, it also happens with brands like OMEGA, IWC and others. The main problem is that you can't give high end timepices to young watchmakers no matter how well trained they are. I would rather stick with a very qualified and certified independant than the official repair service centre damaging my watch.    

Not only are the repairs not free but the quality of these leaves a lot to be desired.

Unacceptable for a brand like jlc.

This message has been edited by georgeszaslavsky on 2011-06-02 16:50:44

would be close to 7~8 months if i accept the 'second' watch face replacement...
I agree whole heartly, it's not acceptable from brand like JLC....

will translate to more watch purchases.  

and in general, that bad service just affects the whole higher-end watch category as a whole.

"it's hard to service/repair that thing 5 years down the road... i'll just stick to my regular moonwatch"... there you go, people stop at certain comfortable price points because of these types of risks.  worse, people get scared to try more complicated pieces because they're unsure about after sales service... and NOT BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE THE MONEY.

they should start realizing that people don't also mind paying a premium for GENUINELY better service.

now we need to reword a bit that old saying... "it it ain't THAT broke, don't fix it".

hope you're able to sort it out soon and thanks for sharing your experience 

with this experience and your statement that people 'stopping' at certain price point, indeed has made me re-think about working my way up to a more complicated watches in the future. I was aiming for a tourbillion watch or two in the future, but i do not have the faith in overhaul/repair services any more. It's sad say but i see what you mean.

Sorry to hear of your experience. This sounded all too familiar to one I had with Richemont (IWC) a couple of years ago, in particular the reference to the visual check.

I had an Aquatimer refurbished and in the process the bezel was changed for a used one that was in worse condition than the original. When I queried this I was informed that their Quality Department visually checks the cases, after the refurbishment, at a distance from 20 - 30 cm (with naked eye) and if scratches are not visible, it is within their tolerance. In my view this is not acceptable, particularly as I could see the scratches in the replacement bezel and I haven't got very good eyesight!

I hope it works out to your satisfaction

I have several watches going for their routine service in the past and they all came back with either minor problems that I just put up with or scratches and dings on the watch cases.  I can polish those dings and scratches off myself but I have to put up with those minor problems (eg: bend hands, chrono hands don't return to exactly zero, a bit of play with the minute hands/gearing and the watch would be - 5mins after a week even though it is accurate/precise, etc) rather than sending them back for another repair because I fear it may come back with other problems.  My JLC perpetual calendar is due for a full service very soon and I'm not looking forward to it.  I hope that it has to be send back to Switzerland and hope the watchmakers will do a better job than the local ones here. 

Your experience seems to be what many of the watch afcianodos are experiencing and my experience is another that adds to that list.
I believe, sending a watch back for a full overhaul is something that one looks forward to, because you know it's going to come back 'rejuvenated'. Not the other way around, where one has to worry and have to put up with minor problems.

please, richmond and high end watche houses, i hope things can be improved.
Otherwise, i'll have to stick to quartz watches!
My tag heuer s/el that i used to wear when i was a high schooler still ticks strong till this day.....

I have only had one watch go in for service-- my G.O. Navigator, which was losing 5 mins a day about 2 years after I bough it, and I took the opportunity to replace the caseback with with display back (not sure I should have, but...)

Anyway, it was a perfect experience, and the service level out of New Jersey was quite high. The watch came back as advertised, and within a timely manner.

So it CAN work right...

I'm sure that JLC will read your post, and take note of your observations on what happened to your watch.

I'm so sorry for you.

Keep us updated, please.

Best,

Nicolas.

thanks nic.
Do JLC monitor forums like this?
If they do, i hope they take notice of what aficianados are complaining about and make some changes.
Plus, if they are monitoring, my AD's service and the upper management has been exceptional. I highly and personally recommend it.

will keep you updated.
I hope i can post something positive soon.

And I'm sure they are not happy with what happened.

Best,

Nicolas.