therooster

i feel lonely and transparent

where is everyone??

Hang in there mate! I'm sure it'll come...

Hey guys, has anyone heard from Tom recently? He has three watches of mine and he recently contacted me to let me know that two were ready for shipping back to me. I sent him a few PMs since then, but received no response to any of them. Has anyone heard from him, knows if he's away, or else? He strikes me as a nice and professional guy. But you see, I only just received my watches after 3+ months from Jakub, so these days I have a tendency to get nervous when I don't hear after multiple messages from someone who has my watches...

Ha! If he only tried to ask me for shipping costs, I could think of a very good place where I would stick that money. And it's not his bank account, that's for sure! Look, I always had the feeling that Jakub wasn't going to scam anyone and must have had some trouble. And I still feel that he'll come through with everyone's belongings. Probably first the ones that are easy to send back (i.e. the ones received recently, still packaged, or where no work was done), and then later the ones that are more complicated (i.e. the ones that were with the watchmaker, need payment, etc). It's just a question of time, I am sure. While I agree that anyone who had their AR done should still pay for it, I don't see why I have to give him a cent for basically letting him hold on to my stuff for 3 months. Returning my watches for free is a first step towards making amends. The second would be a public apology and explanation on this forum.

Ok, just returned from overseas and was able to check the package. Everything was returned: 4 full watches, 1 watch case and crystal, and a lello datewheel. Nothing was done to the watches of course. Will probably put some of these up for sale soon, as I had replaced some of them already... Hope everyone else gets their stuff back too!! I'm sure it's just a question of time.

Good idea! Do us a favour though... Make him wait 3 months or so for good measure.

Sounds like he may be sending back first the watches that he never managed to unpack and do any work on. Perhaps the ones that were sent earlier, and on which he had started work already (or sent them to his watchmaker), may need a little more time.... Nevertheless, this is definitely a good start. Let's wait and see. Yes, seems like all the hard work to set him straight has paid off!

Mine are 4 full watches and a crystal on case... I think I was probably among the last ones to send something to him. So maybe he hadn't even unpacked them and that's why it was easy to send them back... I also sent them in two separate lots, about a week apart from each other, so maybe he returned only one of the packages... I don't know, I'm just speculating... Also, I'd better not get too excited until I get the package and check its contents!

I seem to have received a package from Poland too (they tried to deliver it but I wasn't home). I'm overseas at the moment, so can't confirm that it's from J until next week, when I return and can pick it up from the post office. But I'm hoping for the best. Maybe this is the end of it???

Hi everyone I just got one of these and it's a truly amazing rep! I think this review was actually instrumental in convincing me to get it. Anyway, now I have a problem. The bracelet is one link too short. Does anyone here have a smaller wrist than mine and took a link out? I would be grateful if you had a spare one and were prepared to sell it.

ok, not quite what i was expecting when i clicked on this thread :o8o

I'm very sorry for your loss. You have obviously lost someone extremely special. Take care.

Nice pics and nice watch! Mine has been with Jakub for nearly two months now and I assume I'll never see it again... I sent it out the day I received it, so I only got to try it on for a minute or two... I remember it felt solid, and huge. My first impression was that the shiny coating made it look like an enormous plastic Swatch though, which was a bit of a turn off at first. But within a minute it did grow on me... You certainly have to like black to like this watch. Look forward to the review.

Yeah let's hope for the best. However, I've just heard from someone who knows him and met him fairly recently that things didn't look so good. This person says it was obvious to him that Jakub had some kind of serious trouble (apparently relating to business partners and/or family) that wasn't going to go away any time soon. He was quite pessimistic in his outlook and felt that Jakub no longer cared. If this is true, Jakub should have just come out with it. I'm sure most of us here would have been more than willing to understand, forgive and help, if only he had communicated with us... But then again, it's hard to know what's really going on when all we have are rumours and hearsay.

Mmmh... The email sounds to me like he's buying time... I'm not convinced, and I haven't been overly sceptical until now... Plus he seems to be contacting those among us who haven't paid yet... The plot thickens. PS: Sql_pl: aren't you getting my PMs any more?

You can ignore the letter and let it go. Or let them know you have no idea what it is, refuse to accept the package, and tell them it shoud be sent back to the sender. This way you avoid lying to their faces or getting into trouble. In any case, if you tell them they're fakes they'll get confiscated; if you tell them they're genuine, you'll get hit with a massive bill. Better pretend you know nothing. Doesn't sound like these watches were worth much anyway (any talk of grades is symptomatic of a rip off), so just tell your GF's dad to give it another shot, perhaps only with one watch to start with, and to do a better job with the custom form next time. Good luck!

Here are mine... I love these oldies...

Nice one! Looks like a bumper auto... or am I wrong? Were they still making them in the 60s? I have a couple of bumpers that look quite similar to that but maybe 10-15 years older. I love it!

Ha! Thanks TT... I guess this thread is attracting the wrong kind of attention... But I don't think anyone here is thinking about lynching or punishing J in any way... Quite the opposite, at least as far as I'm concerned... The crux of my posts here is that I don't believe he's a scammer, and that we should actually have someone over there offer to give him a hand. I'd be happy to contribute towards paying someone in W to go help him sort things out. But finding such a person seems difficult. I really do think we are all just trying to find some sort of solution to such a sad situation, and with only a few exceptions discussions have been mostly constructive. Thank you for all the effort the Admin team is putting into this. Hope something will come unstuck soon.

As I said a number of times already, he couldn't possibly think he'd get away with it, if this is what he meant to do. And he couldn't possibly think that stealing a bunch of reps and crystals is a good idea. First of all, it's probably not worth it. He's got a few reps, some cheap gens, some crystals, datewheels and the sort, that he still needs to convert into cash, and this is not as easy as it may sound. Particularly because he can't use the best distribution channels for these (our forums). Second, it would be quite easy to track him down if he really tried to get away with the goods and money, and if we decided to do something about it. There are agencies that deal with this kind of stuff and they're quite cheap and accessible too. Third, it's many of us (30-40, maybe more?), not just one person, so we are quite resourceful. It would be silly to mess with us for such a minor profit (which still needs to be realised anyway). Fourth, even if he makes 10 grand out of this, then what? He's lost a very lucrative business. Look how many of us he was doing work for. I estimate that he was probably making at least $2k a month with his AR services alone. Why give up that kind of income for a bunch of reps and crystals? Even if he does realise 10 grand out of our stuff, once that money runs out (and it would run out fast) he doesn't have any other cash flow. Again, silly idea. Finally, he could still get into trouble with the authorities, as he not only has goods (not all of which are easily identifiable as reps, such as crystals, and some are gens) but he also has money. Someone [censored] off enough with him not to let him get away with it could still get him into a lot of trouble with the law. And 10 grand is far from enough to retire safely on an island in the BVIs... Of course, you can find all sorts of arguments to suggest I'm wrong. Maybe he's got a gambling debt... Maybe it's drugs... Maybe he's an alien... etc... And indeed, I may be wrong. But this is my gut feeling. I don't know the guy but my inclination is to think that this would be a very stupid crime, and i give him the benefit of the doubt. So I feel he'll get on to it at some stage, and many of us may eventually get their things back... And Bolo666: thanks for your input, but what worries me is that you only just signed up on this forum and that this one here was your very first post. It was also a provocative post, but one that provided very little information. Also, what you say may have been true about Praga once, but I don't know if it's necessarily still true today... So I think you should elaborate a little bit on your story here, please. And maybe if you're for real then you could also lend us a hand...

Yeah we should avoid all calling up and making him nervous. It's not going to help. Can we have one Polish speaking person give him a call again as soon as possible? I.e., before he changes phone numbers?... If any Polish speaker can ring him and ask him for a timeframe or if he needs any help, let us know. And also let us know if you need his contact details. By the way, someone just gave out Jakub's numbers to everyone, so things are just about the get worse as everyone tries to reach him at the same time from all corners of the world... Let's make sure we don't overwhelm him!!

Sql, can you please ask your friend if he could go see J again for us too? How did he find him by the way, given he's not answering the phone? We can all chip in something and pay your friend for the trouble...