Adeodatus

First, I'd like to say that I'm sorry to hear of your bad luck Ade. I guess it's good that you seemed to have dodged the bullet with customs though.

Second, I'd like to comment on those that mention how long Ade has been a member and how many posts he's made. That logic is ridiculous. I've seen guys on this forum who have been members for many years with thousands of posts and their posts are generally useless and annoying. Ade's posts are some of the more entertaining and genuinely useful posts I've read, and this one is no exception. The big message here is to use caution, be specific and perhaps think through how you would react to this scenario should it happen to you. If he doesn't want to share the TD's name, that's his prerogative. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that if he had mentioned the dealer's name he would have been blasted with more criticism than he's getting here now.

It's posts like this that really help other people. I know some would like to know who it was, but I just know that I'm going to be very specific in my direction of how to ship. And if I ever get called in to the post office to sign for something that says "watches" I'm going to tell them I did not order any watches and please return the package to the sender.

Thanks Ade for a great post!

Thanks, S. As long as this thread helps even one member here to be more precise with his or her request, as I should have been, and be on guard regarding the transaction, packaging, shipment and customs, my deed is done.

We should always remember that this is a shady operation and our dealers make mistakes. A lot of them. Sometimes, as it was demonstrated in the recent events with the factories and Chinese authorities, dealers take the heat, and sometimes it's us, the buyers. Ultimately it is also our responsibility to protect ourselves. Fortunately I have some dough, a good lawyer and a bit of experience, but the other guy may not have. All in all, combined with idiot dealer and reckless buying this may lead to very unpleasant results. This is the reason I posted about it.

The weird thing is that I have never even heard of this kind of mistake from any dealer. The only thing I can think of is that it may be another example of a TD having grown his organization too big and losing control of his minions or it somehow relates to his specific concerns about your country. I have never seen one be so stupid. But I also have to say you live in an odd country who has you sign for the package first before telling you what there concern is. Do you live in a communist or Arabic country. That sounds literally like a set-up. In most Western countries they tell you what their concern is and then you refuse delivery.

"Odd country" would be an understatement of the century in my case, but I must assure you that I live a democratic state, with personal freedoms and equal right for women, minorities and rep collectors.

At first this is exactly what I thought: a setup for me, because I've purchased a number of reps in the past, but my lawyer believes that it was due to the recent changes in taxes and customs being super vigilant during this period. I must say that I have no idea and frankly I don't want to know. I'm just glad it's (kind of) over.

On the other hand (and this may also answer ExtraExtra's comment) I have never heard of such a mistake from the dealer as well. Moreover, I have never received a watch not in a "regular packaging", if you know what I mean, and I think it's a definite case of growing too large. The reason for me not disclosing the dealer's name is that besides this incident he's been very helpful and trusted and helped a lot of members here to get their dream watches. I don't think that this incident should in any way label him or his operation, loosing clients or, god forbid, money over an idiotic mistake. Although he has lost my business, I don't think he should loose more. I don't want to have on my conscience.

Hopefully he has understood his mistake and will learn from it. I certainly have.

A chrono watch is ... like buying a used Aston Martin as your first car. Maybe it's perfect and maybe it needs $6k of service.

LOL, my new sig!

Just to ease some concerns here, I'm not from US nor EU, as the matter of fact I don't believe the are any fellow countryman here, not active ones afaik, but I'll leave it as that.

@Tom and all the other neysayers: I've been a member of this site for 4 months and posted regularly, some useful posts and some total bs just for fun. Pardon me for being prolific and loving this place. Being 4 months on a forum doesn't make me an idiot, I know who I buy from and know how this "business" works. If you find this thread useless your are more than welcome to move along, I'm sure you can find other useful threads here. The sole purpose of my original post was to warn members and allow everyone to learn from my bad experience about dealing with dealers, not to start a witch hunt on any one of them. As I said earlier, if you are interested I'm more than willing to share information with anyone via PM, just as I shared it with one of the Admin team members, when this saga has started a few weeks ago.

@cougar Yeah, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was as if "Note to Customs:Suspicious Package" written with big red bold letters all over it. :sigh:

Sorry guys due to obvious reasons I like to keep my location sealed for now. Lawyer says keep it low.

You are right Ronin, the TD's name maybe important but I wouldn't want this thread to turn into witch hunt. The TD has made a mistake and tried to avoid taking the responsibility for it, but on the other hand this could have happened with any TD. When this whole ordeal started, i have informed an admin team member, so they have yhe tds name on record. If you feel that you absolutely need to know, pm me.

Some of you are aware of this story already since it was going on for a couple of weeks now...

In short I've purchased a couple of watches from a trusted dealer a few weeks ago. All went smooth as usual with TDs and I was excited to drool over my watches, in person.

In my country we recently were given a huge deduction in customs taxes for imported goods and I was really excited that I will not have to pay more on the package upon arrival. I received the watches a few days after I placed the order, but to my amazement they contacted me asking to pay some extras in order to release the package. It was alarming, but I went to post office to see what it was all about. They told me I had a package on my name and I have to pay taxes to release it. Knowing our TDs and their shipping practices I was confident in that package, paid the tax and received the package. To my surprise, the watches were wrapped in a simple air cap, with slip stating "watches" and the price of $400. That meant that I had to pay around 100$ in taxes, almost a price of a decent Explorer 1. Not a biggy, but you can imagine how p!ssed I was. How hard could it be to staff the watches in a usual "package" and slap a 20$ value on it? Also I felt that the whole situation was pretty dangerous, but since the package was released I didn't pay too much attention to.

I contacted the TD expressing my disappointment a few days later, but nothing more than that. At first he denied everything and said that my customs are "playing games" with me and he never wrote "watches" nor the sum on the slip. But it was definitely his mistake, because the slip was in a sealed envelope, same ink, same hand writing etc. A few emails later he offered me a free shipping on my next purchase (Like I'd ever buy from him again....!)

Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. A few days later I got a phone call from a guy, who introduced himself as a customs officer, saying that they have information that I had received a package with counterfeit goods and that they have it recorded and have my signature on the slip etc. Obviously I told him to go to hell, denied everything, even him being a customs officer, me being me, existence of god and earth being round . He hang up, but a few days later I got a formal letter stating all the facts, our conversation etc. Pretty sneaky of them

At that point I contacted my lawyer to figure this out and luckily just now I got a call from her and this matter is settled, mainly due to me being able to present an invoice of purchasing toys, not watches. Unfortunately, in any case, I'm on the radar now and my lawyer said that I'll will need to keep low profile for now and avoid purchasing reps for a while.

The reason I'm posting this is to try to alarm good people of this forum and especially noobies of dangers of this hobby and remind that not everything runs smoothly all the time. I will not publicly reveal the TD's identity, because it's irrelevant to the moral of this story:

1. Learn your local customs laws and act accordingly.

2. Always specify how you want your watches to be delivered and verify that appropriate actions are taken. Never trust a TD to follow your request, always verify.

3. Always have your invoices handy and make sure that it's for any item except for "watches"

4. NEVER admit anything.

5. Have your lawyer handy.

Happy buying.

EDIT: Note that the reason for Customs to open the package was due to its high(er) value.

I was there. They also arrested your entire family, burnt down your house and gunshot your neighbor's cat, not before they tear-gassed the neighborhood. all true.

Yes. please stop....

Ebel, definitely Ebel.

I love this damn Vac 5004

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You are missing the crystal!

Chocolate

Can`t compete with anyones car... I HATE mine..

My dad used to have this car http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/1386800.jpg for years. Love Škoda

Balkan Beat Box !

etc etc...

@slask

Looking at it is not enough. You need to remove the balance and inspect the staff and upper and lower jewels for cracks or dislocation with a 10x loupe.

I did, I did. Obviously, I wasn't just looking at it ... Nothing to report, though. Like a freaken mystery

Look for a broken balance staff or dislocated balance cap jewel or spring.

The balance is ok as far as I can see and the cap jewel is fine as well. Damn it.... I'm screwed...

PAM288K

Great watch, isn't it, White? I simply can't get enough of it as well. It's almost blasphemy for me to say this, but I like it even better than IWC Portu.

@slask!

Now thats [censored] nice or photoshoped

Yeah i think that is a pic

looks legit...

Flying with my Spitfire today

[inspired by slask]

Need a bit of advice.

I dropped my A2892 Spitfire the other day. It fell flat on the back, and miraculously there are no dings or dongs. No I'm noticing that it runs +5 mins a day, though. I tried to regulate, checked the hairspring and the bridges, but nothing. Today I noticed that it stopped working, so I opened it up again and the balance was sort of stuck. I gave it a nudge and the watch started ticking again.

It definitely needs a repair, but I was thinking about doing it myself, if I will not need parts.

In that light where would one look for issues in this case (watch dropping flat in its back), especially the least obvious places?

Help me to help my poor patient, dear doctors...

The recent batch from the cartel has some very nice pearls.

Because until all this QC pic [censored] started, people paid their money, got what they were given, and it was either occasionally DOA (and the dealer would replace it) or in the majority of instances, absolutely fine. Personally, I don't know, and equally don't care, what the watches I receive measure at on timeographs. As long as they run with reasonable (in or near COSC standard) accuracy, that's all that really matters to me, and when people want babying over what should be a simple transaction, it's a bit disheartening to see

The QC is there to protect the dealer as well as the buyer. No one wants to be sending the watches back and forth, especially for movement problems. Personally, I don't understand what is so simple about these transactions. The awkward processing or paying 400-600 hard earned $$ for a faulty product? People are buying reps not just because they are some pretty man jewelry, some actually need the watch running and showing correct time.

We all are obsessed by incorrect bezels, lugs, fonts, hands, you name it, but for some reason we accept being sent a watch with faulty movement.

if this watch is indeed fine, as some have stated here, the dealer should be able to demonstrate it easily. For his own sake, if not for the sake of his customer.

I really do not understand your responses, guys. Why would a buyer accept a watch that is definitely needs servicing? If the buyer wants to service it, fine, but why would he get a watch that is problematic in the first place?! The dealer should find a better one in the first place, just like with any other issue, cosmetic or otherwise. Whould you approve a PO with incorrect bezel or dial - those can be changed later as well? I really don't understand the logic of this.

Edit: It's great that you service your watches left and right, but some people just don't have this luxury. Some people expect the product they buy to at least function properly upon arrival.

Frankly speaking I'd ask for both watches changed. The one with 328 is somewhat acceptable, if they can't find a better one, but the 202 is definitely no-go. definitely.

I don't think you are a qualified watchsmith to say that.

oh, my... :sigh:

someone needs a slap on the nose.

What's up with our dealers lately?

I think that pic just scratched my cornea ....