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While the forums are rightly a good place to complain and seek help when things go wrong I think its also worth mentioning when service is good.
My Steinhart Ocean one GMT was recently sent back to Steinhart due to misalignment of the GMT hand. The watch was a few months out of warranty. After emailing their customer services I quickly received a reply and posted the watch to them via their FedEx account.
They confirmed receipt a few days later and another 2 weeks later the watch was posted back out to me with the misalignment fixed FOC, they even included a bar of chocolate.
Things sometimes go wrong and I think the real test is how companies deal with it. I thought Steinhart was excellent and this seems to be the norm with them.
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I had a similar experience with a GMT limited edition that had the same problem and it was sorted in a matter of days.
However, I knew of at least 3-4 other buyers who experienced the exact same problem and their watches had to go back. I have also heard of several people having stiff bezels on the 39mm divers and having to resort to dental floss and WD40 to free it up.
Whilst Steinhart are good at correcting problems, a little more time checking the watches before they are sent out would save a lot of messing around and usually upset for the buyer as there is nothing worse than having to return a brand new watch.
I would prefer them to get it right first time rather than be good at sorting issues that have been missed in the factory.
I can't argue with that, it must be disappointing to have those issues on a brand new watch. Although I have heard issues on other brands too from new and the post sale service doesn't seem to be as good.
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Me too, but they're competing in the hardest-fought/tightest-margin sector of the market, and I can guarantee they've done a cost-benefit analysis of better QA vs fixing the 1-2% of failures, and knowingly opted for the latter.
Fact is, normal people don't look at forums, or if they do, it's to seek positive confirmation of whatever halfwitted impulse they've already subconsciously decided upon!
Did you buy through the Steinhart website incidentally? I've my eye on one at the moment, just wondering where the best place to source one from is.
There is a GMT Premium on eBay at the moment and the seller has mentioned they've gone through the same process to get the GMT correction done by Steinhart. Even gone as far as picturing the hand dead on every hour to show the problem has been resolved!
Personally I would order direct from Steinhart in Germany. I have heard that if you buy from an authorised dealer like Gnomon or Chronomaster and there are any issues, Steinhart expect you to go back to that dealer and not them. The online service is very good and no add-ons with them being in the EU.
Just buy quickly before we leave 😂
I would certainly endorse their excellent customer service. A bit ago I bought an older Steinhart off SC which I soon realised had a problem. Got a couple of quotes for repair work from here, then decided I would send it back to them. When it was returned (with another Steinhart box as well, as I did not send it in that) it was no charge, and they picked up the postage to and from as well!! Well done Steinhart!!
I know nothing about Steinhart but I always believe that it is customer service that makes the real difference when dealing with luxury (definition variable!) goods. Thanks for posting about your experience. I’ve looked at some of their watches before but never bought. I may do now I know that they look after their customers in the right way.
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Just bought my 3rd Steinhart from Neil at cronomaster excellent services as ever.
[QUOTE=Wallasey Runner; I have heard that if you buy from an authorised dealer like Gnomon or Chronomaster and there are any issues, Steinhart expect you to go back to that dealer and not them.
[/QUOTE]
That wasnt my experiance but I can understand them advising the AD is the first port of call. I think that's fair.
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