KB

Great to have you on board again Ken

Did you try sending the PM to 'Admin'? If you cannot get through try Nanuq or TwoTone Ken

Customs, anywhere in the world, still must follow the letter of the law. The need some kind of proof before they can charge anyone of importing illegal goods, a package sent to your address is not proof. Ken

The problem is that the letter got signed. The best course would have been to deny any knowledge of the watches, they were already seized so getting destroyed anyway. There is no way for customs to prove you actually purchased those watches, they could have been delivered incorrectly or sent as a gift without your knowledge. Ken

Well I am going to come straight out and say yes you got a very good deal. I would have bought it myself if I saw it. Ken

And before anyone says that everything off a plane from China gets the 3rd degree, no again there is just not that many staff. Ken

Not really Mike. People get stuck on the fact that goods from China is the problem but that is only the case if the customs actually read the sender address. Most large hubs receive far too much in the way of packages and general mail for customs to hand check, usually everything will go through a scanner and as long as there is nothing obvious and drugs, animals and arms are at the top of their check lists then all you need to worry about is a small random visual check. Ken

Th op has not updated on if the watch was delivered or not, so it is getting way ahead of yourself estimating the custom fees. The other point is m2m is member to member and has nothing to do with the dealers. Ken

Just as a guy who ships to most of the, difficult, countries I think the point should be made that no Country is safe there are simply some countries eg USA, UK where the incidence of seizure is less. That said your item can never be deemed seized (regardless of what the tracking says) until you receive a letter from customs stating so. So many times I get customers contacting me with concerns about customs activity on the tracking only to receive their goods within the next few days. Ken

Looking through the web yes it is an excellent price. The quoted retail of 14k is high as the highest i found was 8.5k whith the average around 6k So yes a very good buy based on what I saw. Ken

Now this is interesting, has anyone tried it?..... http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/181328522022 BTW good to see you retep Ken

Good to see you around Bill, as it is all the other old timers who have popped up in this thread Ken

Actually it is only 8 years on this forum for Arthur, he was with us on the original RWG too and has always been a stellar member. Congratulations. Ken

When this first happened the thing that struck me was the fact that onboard must have been over 200 mobile phones, iPads, Laptops etc, many of which you would think were being used at the time she went missing. I said to my wife the only explanation I could think of that no message was sent was that the end came too sudden, in other words a mid air explosion. Of course the absence of any debris (so far) seems to make that less likely. If it is a Hijack then they must also have some way of jamming signals, but then again as already pointed out, to what end? The plane has either been on the ground or under the sea for the past week, if it is on the ground then whoever has it certainly is in no hurry to let the world know. Ken

Ok first there are a number of genuine watches with blue screws in the movements and overall it is for nothing more than decoration...... http://swisswatchwire.com/2013/06/why-do-some-swiss-watches-have-blue-screws.html Ken

Juice I have found that it is really far less hassle and far less customer complaints to employ someone to physically QC items. After all are you certain that QC pic's are always the watch you are receiving? Ken

Yes normally I would agree with this Mike, however no one dealer has volume of sales large enough to influence a factory, the closest we see is Josh and Andrew both sourcing from the same place. Through them we have seen, on occasions, slight changes (in these cases the factory shows that their buying power has some standing) but ask yourself this, when is the last time a factory took on board all our suggestions and produced the perfect watch? We really are a small part of the replica watch business and the truly obscene thing is that they make far more from their Canal Street quality worldwide than our high end reps. Ken

Ok just a couple of points. 1. No TD owns or in anyway controls a factory, they are all middle men. 2. Price goes up because the factory pushes them up not the dealer, the dealers (most) are still making the same margins they did 10 years ago, they simply make more through volume of sales. 3. There is another factor that governs prices and that is the very high expectations buyers have now that they get an 'Amazon' shopping experience. Forget this is an illegal hobby, dealers have long ago taken on board all the risks if it is faulty, the wrong item, the wrong colour, the wrong size or seized we replace or repair at our cost. 4. Sure people work hard for their money but I am willing to bet that not many put in the same amount of hours that your TD does. For these reasons it is more important to the dealer than the buyer that you do look closely at the QC pic's as it is the dealer who pays if you are not happy. Recently I have seen customers stating disputes over buyers remorse so we are in fact moving beyond the "Amazon' buying experience and it is now getting very difficult for sellers to stay in business. Ken

spice

Very nice indeed. Ken

http://www.rwgforum.net/topic/120376-watch-cases/ Ken

As Samhouston just stated there is no need to go to any kind of shop, just log into the WU web site. However I should also point of that even here in Australia there is not many (if any) WU outlets, nearly all are done through the Post office or banks. Ken

Not when you are dealing world wide there's not. Ken

Just some feedback I am getting is that customers feel somewhat uncomfortable with WU. Obviously this would be because they simply do not get the protection that Paypal offers, but that is exactly why I will not offer Paypal to new buyers anymore. I think everyone has to understand the situation like this... I have been dealing on this board for 8 years (as well as being one of the boards founders) which means I have a great deal to lose if I should decide to start scamming customers. Most new customers do not even have a single post, there simply is no pressure on them not to use PP to rip off the dealer, the simple fact that these guys go straight to PP without even trying to air their grievance on the forum tells you they know they are in the wrong. So apologies to everyone but I either I take these steps to protect myself or I simply close shop. Ken

Don't worry I have a min buy of $100 usd Ken