Reply With Quotethat is what you get when you deal with sharks.
I have never once dealt with them and never will.
Having dealt with a few dealers Watchfinder, BQ watches to name but two :)
I have noticed certain sales tactics eg
(1) That watch isn’t particularly popular and doesn’t hold its value very well, so we can only offer £x
( this watch was a mint Tudor heritage black bay S&G)
(2) We have examined your watch and decided it needs a service (even though the sent watch was keeping time perfectly)
(3) We examined your watch and decided it needs a polish, costing £200 ( I always examine my watches before sending and this case it was a brand new watch and when I said this they changed their mind)
(4) On receiving the watch you get offered the lower price for no reason and when challenged revert to the higher price.
I wonder if all the sales reps have a crib sheet on ways to get more money for the dealer
Does anyone have any other experiences ????
Last edited by odyseus10; 30th January 2022 at 14:10.
that is what you get when you deal with sharks.
I have never once dealt with them and never will.
BQ were at least 4k less than what I achieved for my gold Sub when I traded for a Cermit and a Pepsi. I think 4.5k less, come to think of it. Literally outrageous. I have found the Newcastle blokes at Watch Trader to be very competitive. There are all sorts out there, good, bad and indifferent. BQ were by far the least reasonable, at least during that trade.
I have had the watch needing a polish routine after sending it. Told me that it had a non OEM finish to it (i.e. had been refinished at some point but not correctly). Also quoted £200 for this funnily enough. I told them to return the watch and they decided they would pay the price originally agreed after all. I was told I would get pictures to show the incorrect finish - they never materialised. Also never did see the watch up on their website as I wanted to see if they had refinished it before sale.
When purchasing a watch I was told it had everything with it, including the warranty card. I then spoke with them to confirm the warranty card was dated and stamped by the AD that sold it originally. I found out it wasn't and had been left blank. This was on watch less than a year old. They then tried to convince me that not all ADs have stamps or stamp the warranty cards. I cancelled the purchase at that point. I appreciate this is a tactic relating to purchase but I would assume they knocked something off the purchase price when it came into them due to the non stamped warranty....
Can’t imagine any of this behaviour is a surprise to a WIS. Watches are now just a commodity to be traded so if you are a dealer you buy as cheaply as you can and sell for as much as you can get. Personally I share your view that the situation is very disappointing, but it is what it is and unfortunately I can’t see it changing anytime soon.
It's just taking advantage of distance buying.
Easier to make up crap when not looking the seller in the eyes......................
midgetda, just following on from a quote you made regarding warranty card not being stamped and dated by AD. I’m just in the process of waiting for a watch from a grey dealer, the watch is delayed apparently found faulty prior to shipping so a new one is being sent out from the manufacturer. Re a card not being dated and stamped what significance would this have on a purchase of say a new watchOriginally Posted by midgetda
I don’t think the physical card being dated or stamped matters. The AD does need to have activated the warranty though.
As i understand it, a warranty card that has not been completed means the manufacturers warranty has not been activated and is not valid. This was on an Omega. It was something I was not comfortable proceeding with as any omega supplied by an AD will have this completed. I cannot see any reason why an AD would not complete the card.
Thanks guys, will be keeping a close eye on how things proceed, also have emailed the grey to ask the same question
If a dealer resorted to shady practices I would take my business else where
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
My favourite was calling blowers for a Rolex on their website. Guy thought I was trying to sell and says sorry, we have three of those already and low balls me. I clarify that I want to buy the one on their website and then he replies that actually they don't have that in stock.
ROFL!
Dealers use the techniques as We Buy Any Car .com then.
Echoes what so many in the UK would do...................
But so many, when they have an intermittent issue with their car or bike........... Trade it in.
I LOL-ed.
I don’t at all doubt the above tactics are commonplace, but I’ve sold to Watchfinder only once and they offered exactly the mid-point of the price range they quoted before delivery (the spread between their lowest & highest offer being £200).
No messing around, they arranged & paid for the courier and the money was in my account the next day.
Really pleased considering the watch itself was a hard model to shift (it wasn’t a Rolex!), it had a broken date function and numerous cosmetic issues.
I suppose it helped that I clearly documented everything before sending it in.
Even with all that, the price they paid was nearly a grand more than a well-known & reputable bricks & mortar dealer offered and better than the majority of past sales results on Sales Corner for the same model on here.
It was my Dad’s watch that I was trying to help him move on, so,I was delighted to help him out and land a good result.
Another tactic - something Paul Thorpe complained about, was advertising stock that doesn’t exist!
I saw a “new” 2020 RootBeer on the Watch Philosophy website and was told it was sold and they would update their website.
I then found three on Chronoexpert and again was told they were sold and then magically disappeared from the website :(
I've also had this with personal number plates. I've seen a plate that I own for sale with a dealer so I guess they would try and buy it from my if someone was interested?
This is hilarious!
Private sellers may also have failings.
When describing a watch they wish to part-exchange, they might say "...almost perfect, worn only three times."
On receipt, it is clear that those three times were 1998-2007 while working as a dry-stone waller, 2008-2014 while clearing barbed wire in a desert environment and 2015-2021 while wrestling a gorilla with a live soldering iron in a touring circus.
You’re just to fussy🤪🤪
"Minty"
"......and it's got an authenticity certificate from a highly respected expert."
Where's that then? Is it behind this worthless tat from [ insert discredited seller of choice ] ?"
They're on ch24 for £25k so I think £24500 is reasonable.
"The girl at Goldsmiths said I could expect to get at least £8,000 for it."
Last edited by Haywood_Milton; 9th February 2022 at 14:45.
"Ive been offered 20k at another dealer so if you beat it you can have it"
"Cant beat it, sell to other dealer"
"Could you buy at 14k?"
Or as I had last week:-
Dealer 2
‘Will give you between 101 and 103 depending on inspection’
Me:- ‘been offered much more so you won’t be able to get near it. But thank you for your time’
Dealer 2
‘Tell me how much them’
Me:- “ok - 125”
Dealer 2:- ‘I will match that’
Me:- ‘sorry but I prefer to deal with dealer 1 who put his best foot forward and didn’t try and steal it from me’
Note to all:- Dealer 2 has some of the most expensive stock around but what is a mystery it seems to be sold very quickly.
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Verv will be able to shed some light on this but I’m not sure why some dealers insist on say having a 10k margin on a 40-50K watch
Surely better to secure the watch with a 5K margin rather than not getting it at all.
I suppose dealers only have x amount of money for stock so will put that into stuff with the best margins
Did the dealer ask you how much you wanted for the watch in the first place?
No. I asked for market price. Supplied photos in response to the request. Impossible for me to value the market for the watch in question.
I work on the basis Chrono24 was fantasy prices but the value had a clear upward trajectory and I appreciate the dealer has to make a profit. But such a low bid and then an immediate jump up to what I was prepared to take left a sour taste and I preferred Dealer 1 to make some profit
Sent from my iPhone using TZ-UK mobile app
Depends tbh.
The biggest margins aren't necessarily tied to the popular bits.
If they're buying to stock and it might not shift quickly, better to have a bigger margin in case it sits and you can price drop until it moves, particularly if niche.
If they intend to sell it to trade, then the margin is usually mid point between buy-in and end user price so not as big.
Or sometimes they just dont want to secure the watch so aren't chasing for it.
Loads of different factors really and all quite variable depending on the weather.
Ahh I see.
Well got caught out again by an well know online dealer…
I wanted to sell a less than 6 months old Tudor and was offered £2200 to £2600.
Sent the watch and a young woman rang me up to say she was happy to offer £2400.
So I asked what was wrong with the watch for her to offer £2400 and not £2600?
Her reply was “absolutely nothing at all wrong with the watch”
I again asked why the offer of £2400 and not £2600?.
She then waffled on how that she had just looked at prices on Chrono24 and decided that my watch was only worth £2400 and I could take or leave it and it wasn’t a particularly popular model and was only doing me a favour as a returning customer.
I said why didn’t you check prices before making me an offer but she just apologised and said they have to make a profit etc..
I guess I should have asked for it back, but accepted the offer - for their part they effectively knocked 10% off and if they do this for every customer will soon add up!!
I’m pretty sure they offered my watch (same model and year) a week or so later for £3500 and described it as “un-worn”.
Ouch!
Sent through the ether by diddling with radio waves
Did they say the range in the valuation was based on condition?
To be honest if I was told between 2200 and 2600 I would have expected an offer of 2400.
Yes they said range was subject to condition etc and accepted that watch was in perfect condition.
As I said the girl told me she had a closer look at the Chrono24 prices (after receiving my watch) and told me she thought that the watch was only worth £2400.
WF will give you a range and more often than not, offer the md valuation. But when you challenge them on why they always (in my case anyway) offer me the top value.
I guess it comes down to whether you think you would have got more elsewhere. If so then best bet presumably is the ask them to post back (which may trigger a 'new' offer on it's own). If not, well then you're getting what it's worth so fair enough.
Them describing as 'un-worn' to the next customer is not on at all though, as presumably it's simply a lie.
I had a recent experience with BQ watches. I thought I would see what they would do on a part exchange on my 2005 16610 Submariner, full set, for a similar age 16710 GMT, non full set, they had advertised. They offered £7,000 on the Sub which you could argue was a bit low, but the bit I didn’t like was that they said that the GMT had gone up by £1,000 from the advertised price. For me, if you advertise a price you should stick to it. Needless to say I didn’t do the deal.
Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
Shady behaviour with the sudden increase in price! I wish dealers would honour the prices shown on their websites...
Not sure if this is allowed on this forum but if you want to sell your 16610 to an enthusiast I would be interested!
Thanks, but I’m only interested in trading up.
Sent from my iPad using TZ-UK mobile app
That sounds really underhanded, some retailers truly don't get how customer services works. You could have been back to drop £35k on a Daytona for all they knew.
Posting Permissions
