MD2020 Who is dealing with him, I'm worried now!

[Rolexman]

As a watchmaker on this board I can provide some insights in how we work. No watchmaker (who is in his right mind) will ever accept 100 watches for repair, service or whatever in one single time frame. On average we are talking about 20-30 watches at a time for watchmakers who do this for a living. And let me tell you that those numbers are already very difficult to handle for one man. I myself work on 5 watches at a time max. as I also have a day time job. And yes, it requires extensive project management skills and excell sheets to keep everything aligned. The actual watchmaking only takes place on 2-3 watches at a time because you just can't take apart 20-30 let alone 100 watches.... Where do you put all the parts? No, depending on what needs to be done you switch between those 2-3 watches. Waiting on parts for one movement? You start taking apart movement number two or pressure testing watch number three, etc.... The rest of the watches are waiting in que: untouched! At least that is how it is supposed to be done.

Planning, scheduling and communication are key!

[chango]

I'm glad Mike is hard at work and not reading this thread.

[wildbills watches]

I sent him my watch and he got it back to me with in 7 days. Good guy if you ask me

[azuri7]

MD - my project with u is all but complete (Blue SM Omega 300M). I just need a few QC pics (lume shot and bezel shot) and tracking number. Please remember to include all the old parts and new unused parts.

Sorry, didn't want to post here but I really had no choice. No responses my recent PMs.

Thanks for your help.

[denisegold]

I sent my hublot off for relume and mike has been great through the entire process. No concern here.

Edited August 23, 2013 by denisegold

[sgtguk]

Guys this isn't a thread to lynch Mike, far from it tbh   the intention of this thread is for members who have work with Mike to be able to talk to him and each other re the work that is currently in hand, thats all.

 

As an update on my jobs Mike has contacted me today and I've forwarded instructions again on what is needed (5 jobs) to him, waiting on a reply now as he will work on them this week.

 

I'll keep you up to date on how my jobs are going, would appreciate the same transparency from others too. 

[billyfras]

Mike, I don't know if you had any luck locating my part, but please remember that before you send back my watch I need to give you the proper shipping address.

[Aero_Dave]

Guys this isn't a thread to lynch Mike, far from it tbh   the intention of this thread is for members who have work with Mike to be able to talk to him and each other re the work that is currently in hand, thats all.

 

As an update on my jobs Mike has contacted me today and I've forwarded instructions again on what is needed (5 jobs) to him, waiting on a reply now as he will work on them this week.

 

I'll keep you up to date on how my jobs are going, would appreciate the same transparency from others too. 

I don't think a public listing of what Mike is doing for you, updates on the status of the work is really needed. This would only start additional comments that are un-needed.

Example, you post one of your jobs is taking a long time. Others start jumping-on, wanting to know why. Every job is different, and there may be stumbling blocks due to

unforeseen issues with each project. I don't expect to know every detail of each job he's doing for others, but those details would be needed to fully understand the entire project.

What's next, asking publicly what you've paid for your work! Come'on guys, let's be reasonable here. I have 3 pieces with Mike myself. If I want an update on how things are

going, I'll chat with Mike. That's who's doing my work and that is who I'm paying too. What he charges me is no one else's business, nor should it be. How long My jobs are taking

are also no one's business. Again, you don't know the details of what I need done on each piece, parts that may be needed or what Mike & I have agreed to.

Not trying to jump on you sgtguk, just maybe you & I don't see eye-to-eye on this 'Transparency' thing, but that's My .02 cents!

 

Dave...

[carliv]

Understood Dave but "chatting with mike" is the problem as I and plenty of others, still have no reply.

[devilseam]

I think MD2020gate is getting out of control guys.

[FxrAndy]

The issue here in my oppinion is one that all people who woork openly as modders on a board will get unless they strictly control the work load

 

Having 17 watches waiting for work is way to much!

 

this hapens because we all need work doing and it is hard to turn it down, you get PMs by the thousand, asking for work or advise, and then when you take the work on people want updates, now this is not wrong, you have sent your watch, paid your money and you should be entitled to that update, but we have one example above where the customer says himself he was in touch 2-3 times a day, that all takes time and disturbs you from the work at hand, now if you have 17 jobs waiting for work and every one is in touch 2-3 times a day!!!!!! 

 

MD2020 if you want to survive this you have to get all these jobs and people satisfied and then and only then if you take on more work then

A set limits of what you have in the queue,

B Tell people you will not reply to every PM but provide an update once a week if it is taking longer than expected (and i know it does what with waiting for parts ect)

C Do not take on any work that you are not sure that you can do

D Chose your customers, There are some people on here that i would not work for in a million years.

E do not take on work that you cant afford to mess up, like working on a 1570 that you cant afford to replace any parts that you may break (parts for these are not cheep)

 

I personaly would give this advise to any one thinking they are a modder, or even a qualified watchsmith, the internet and forums may be a great place to get lots of work but one slip up and the world knows about it.

 

So MD, it is down to you now to sort this out, there are no excuses, you enter into a contract with people then honour it, we all know life happens, it happens to us all but we have to honour the contracts we made.

 

To any one who thinks they have to send work MDs way, give him time to sort all the current issues out before you do!

[panerai153]

Andy, that is very good advice and something that Mike should take to heart. I had a couple of PM's with Mike a few weeks ago, about this same general subject. i compared two watch repair folks who have a history on these forums, one infamous, one famous, Redbigjoe and Ziggy. I related to him how RBJ took in tons of work, let a bunch of stuff pile up and then did a very shoddy job on projects trying to hurry them out the door. Ziggy on the other hand was very upfront with his rules, severely limited the number of jobs, scheduled every watch in and required that any new customer be recommended by someone that knew them who was already a customer. Ziggy got burned a few times at first, but he learned fast, culled the customer list, and eliminated the problems. If Mike is to continue as a watchsmith on this forum or anywhere for that matter, he is going to have to become more Ziggy like in his business dealings with customers. there is no harm in telling someone no, I cannot take your watch right now. Better to tell someone, I don't feel comfotrtable working on that particular model, or doing that particular mod, better to tell someone, I won't work on your watches due to you requiring daily updates, or you gave me problems in the past, etc. Until you actually take in the watch, the owner is not a customer, and you have no obligation to them, one they send it to you, the entire relationship changes, now you're hooked. You now have a fiduciary and moral obligation to the customer until such time as you deliver the watch back to the customer and he is satisfied.

Mike, I believe we all want you to succeed, we want you to be successfull in your watch business and have a long and fruitful career working on watches, be they reps or genuine watches.however the ball is now in your court. You can be another Ziggy or another RBJ, that path is up to you. i sincerely hope that you take the Ziggy path.

[relaxman]

Andy, that is very good advice and something that Mike should take to heart. I had a couple of PM's with Mike a few weeks ago, about this same general subject. i compared two watch repair folks who have a history on these forums, one infamous, one famous, Redbigjoe and Ziggy. I related to him how RBJ took in tons of work, let a bunch of stuff pile up and then did a very shoddy job on projects trying to hurry them out the door. Ziggy on the other hand was very upfront with his rules, severely limited the number of jobs, scheduled every watch in and required that any new customer be recommended by someone that knew them who was already a customer. Ziggy got burned a few times at first, but he learned fast, culled the customer list, and eliminated the problems. If Mike is to continue as a watchsmith on this forum or anywhere for that matter, he is going to have to become more Ziggy like in his business dealings with customers. there is no harm in telling someone no, I cannot take your watch right now. Better to tell someone, I don't feel comfotrtable working on that particular model, or doing that particular mod, better to tell someone, I won't work on your watches due to you requiring daily updates, or you gave me problems in the past, etc. Until you actually take in the watch, the owner is not a customer, and you have no obligation to them, one they send it to you, the entire relationship changes, now you're hooked. You now have a fiduciary and moral obligation to the customer until such time as you deliver the watch back to the customer and he is satisfied.

Mike, I believe we all want you to succeed, we want you to be successfull in your watch business and have a long and fruitful career working on watches, be they reps or genuine watches.however the ball is now in your court. You can be another Ziggy or another RBJ, that path is up to you. i sincerely hope that you take the Ziggy path.

Well said.. Thankfully however I was one of the lucky ones with RBJ and still talk to him to this day.

[panerai153]

Well said.. Thankfully however I was one of the lucky ones with RBJ and still talk to him to this day.

I'm glad you did as many of us had pretty bad results. having said that I don't think that Joe is a bad person, and I certainly don't look at him as a scammer, he just got in way over his head. Took in too many watches, took on projects that he knew he wasn't capable of completing satisfactorily, and then when the house of cards stared collapsing, he resorted to a litany of excuses. Unfortunately, excuses wear thin after a while.

[chango]

Andy's post reminds me of sound advice I got from an old-timer when I first started a business venture. He told me "it's better to have no clients than bad clients."

Boy was he right.

[woof*]

This phenomenon is not just related to watch work. I have seen countless times in other hobbies and avocations the same thing. A guy is good at repairs and mods..word gets out, and then is overwhelmed.

Then you have the type of people that need almost hourly updates, and no patience....they grew up on instant gratification and think they have ordered something from Amazon...and it all crumbles. I have seen it in electronics, guitars, firearms. just tons of things. The Zigmeister had it right, and if I had the skills to develope a small cottage business I would study the way he worked. I really feel bad for Mike now and hope he really is able to get back to his business.

 

There is a guy I know that makes guitar amplifiers. His terms: You gotta play for him and prove your worthy, 20k down as deposit, two years until completion, and if you call, email, or in any way try to contact him for an update.....you lose your deposit, amp, and he will never build one again for you. He is well known in the pro world and his used amps go for 80k plus.....and yes, I had one in the early 80's 

Many have scoffed at this, made fun and said horrible things about this man. The fact is, he got good at something..got overwhelmed, and made a decision to qualify customers, and make terms that worked for him. He's been successful since the 70's.

[fraggle42]

the customer says himself he was in touch 2-3 times a day

*boggle*

 

A customer who is in touch 2 or 3 times a week is a customer to avoid like the plague, 2 or 3 times a DAY?!?! Get them banned from the forum!!

[Tonyyammine]

I was the guy in touch with MD 2-3 times a day that was not all the time. It was because we were having a conversation. I wasn't busting his balls. He would pm me and I would pm him back. I wasn't asking him if this was done or anything like that. Mike was a a real nice guy to me and He did work for me before. . It's just that all of a sudden I never heard from him again and I wanted to know why. I dealt with plenty of modders before and I bought lots of watches at ADs before. To the person that has nothing smart to say, you know the ban this person or go to an AD and pay 5x the price well just to let you know I have plenty of gen watches and for you to say misinformed things like that well that's being foolish. You want to be a baby and go and say stuff I really don't care about the Internet dummy talk. I just care about my watch being done and that's it.

[mil04]

@Tonyyammine It's just cracks me up when I read: I have plenty of gen watches. The question to you: so who is repairing your gen one's? Or you just repairing the reps??

[panerai153]

This phenomenon is not just related to watch work. I have seen countless times in other hobbies and avocations the same thing. A guy is good at repairs and mods..word gets out, and then is overwhelmed.

Then you have the type of people that need almost hourly updates, and no patience....they grew up on instant gratification and think they have ordered something from Amazon...and it all crumbles. I have seen it in electronics, guitars, firearms. just tons of things. The Zigmeister had it right, and if I had the skills to develope a small cottage business I would study the way he worked. I really feel bad for Mike now and hope he really is able to get back to his business.

 

There is a guy I know that makes guitar amplifiers. His terms: You gotta play for him and prove your worthy, 20k down as deposit, two years until completion, and if you call, email, or in any way try to contact him for an update.....you lose your deposit, amp, and he will never build one again for you. He is well known in the pro world and his used amps go for 80k plus.....and yes, I had one in the early 80's 

Many have scoffed at this, made fun and said horrible things about this man. The fact is, he got good at something..got overwhelmed, and made a decision to qualify customers, and make terms that worked for him. He's been successful since the 70's.

i had a very similar experience with a master gunsmith. I contacted him about restoring and old LC Smith shotgun that belonged to my grandfather.  I visited with him at his shop, and he had some amazing and very valuable shotguns in his safe and on his bench. His rules were similar to the amp guy. he told ne that the repairs would take from 12-15 months, as some of the work like the case hardening and and lock blueing was sent out as there were guys that could replicate any of the old brands case colors. He told me approximately what it would cost, and if he ran into anything unusual, he would call me before proceeding. He told me in no uncertain terms to not call him, he would get in touch when it was done, i asked him sort of jokingly what happened when folks called. His answer was " i put their shotgun back together if i have started work on it, and send it back, no second chances! I was impressed. Never called and about 15 months later he wrote me that it was ready, i could come by and pick it up. Suffice to say, it looked better than the day my grandfather brought it home. If you set the rules and stick to them, people will respect you more, and the ones that won't comply are probably people you don't want to deal with anyway.

[fraggle42]

To the person that has nothing smart to say, you know the ban this person or go to an AD and pay 5x the price well just to let you know I have plenty of gen watches and for you to say misinformed things like that well that's being foolish. You want to be a baby and go and say stuff I really don't care about the Internet dummy talk. I just care about my watch being done and that's it.

Did the person who mentioned "2 - 3 times a day" give all the other details you mentioned? No.

 

I commented on what was said, which is all anyone can do.

 

Present your facts like an adult, grow a skin, and don't go bitching at the wrong person.

[Tonyyammine]

@Tonyyammine It's just cracks me up when I read: I have plenty of gen watches. The question to you: so who is repairing your gen one's? Or you just repairing the reps??

I never had to have a rep repaired. I have frankens built and i have parts added. The watch i have with MD now is a 1655 its a base model he added a swiss gmt movement, he did the orange hand mod and i sent him a ingod dial. This is the reason why i got into this hobby. I like that you can buy a watch and upgrade it. My gens i usually send to the ADs in nyc. Last time i sent my IWC and got charged 500 buxx for a simple service. Thats not money i would like to be spending just servicing watches. Look im not here to argue with anyone. Im just trying to have my watch get done and ill go back to reading up on watches. Thats all i want.

[Tonyyammine]

Did the person who mentioned "2 - 3 times a day" give all the other details you mentioned? No.

 

I commented on what was said, which is all anyone can do.

 

Present your facts like an adult, grow a skin, and don't go bitching at the wrong person.

Just read the comments buddy instead of giving smarty remarks. This topic is for people that have work going on with a good guy that for some reason more than 5 people feel theres a problem. They, i included have reason to question and worry. No one cares about the witty remarks your making so like you said before just "sod" off no one cares about you.

[fraggle42]

No one cares about the witty remarks your making so like you said before just "sod" off no one cares about you.

I never realised you are a spokesperson for the whole of RWG.

 

When was the election held? I must have missed it.

[wiseguy1481]

No one likes witty remarks in general.... come on guys... lets bring this back to the real issues... which this is a REAL issue. No reason to start drama and other issues that don't need to be there.

This thread was created to call out people that have been having issues with MD... no reason to hijack the thread by inserting comments that have nothing to do with getting the issues resolved. It just causes unneeded drama within the group. We are all here for the same reason(s)... our watches.

Its Friday... Cheers.