Neil perhaps you are right, maybe I am one of the unluckiest ones here.
I don't think so though, when some of the other quiet ones on these forums (I've even heard forum moderators get a little too honest a time or two) get loose lips they sing the same tune so either there are a lot of people around here who just have low standards or there are a few more people around here who just don't bother to complain.
I did report and my review my first several rep purchases last year (on trc) before my fingers got tired.
To your credit Neil the PO I got from you early last year was one of the best reps I have had. At least I didn't have to rebuild your watch like a snap together model and it ran flawlessly and had all the gaskets where the should be and the bracelet was the best quality of any I have seen so far.
I did not mean to imply that the quality has not improved, I have a drawer in my watch toolbox just for the old reps to remind me how far they have come but they really are still no where near even a cheap genuine brand name watch.
to make matters worse I have many brand name watches that came with nice boxes paperwork and warranty that are Swiss powered, assembled in Asia, and cost less than reps. Sometimes half as much especially when you start talking about Swiss 775x chronograph powered reps. So where is all this money going? not into making a rep that is as good as a genuine.
I'm not saying that the reps should be as good as the watch they copy but they should at least come with sapphire when they say they are not sapphire coating and they should at least be real 316 stainless when they say they are and they should have all the gaskets they are supposed to and they should have all the screws tightened and they should not have tool marks on them that look like a three year old has been working at it with a pair of pliers and they should not have foundry dust, leftover lunch, and other crap inside them with the movements either.
All of these things I have seen in replicas I have bought from the majority of our dealers in the last year!
If I had had this kind of experience from just one dealer I would be inclined to dismiss it but I have bought at least one watch from just about every dealer and the problems are pretty much spread evenly so I am inclined to believe it is a systemic problem.
I would love to buy ten or fifteen reps this year and have better than 50 percent garbage rate! Maybe 2006 was just a bad year for me