I apologize for the length of this post but feel it is necessary to relay the depth of the saga, a simple watch purchase has become. The long and the short of this is that my wife purchased a $700 Tissot watch from Jared as a Christmas present. She even went so far as to purchase Jared's extended warranty shortly after Christmas to further protect her investment in my watch. It was found to be malfunctioning in the first weeks of wearing it. Jared took the watch in, misdiagnosed it and sat on it for 3 weeks while it was supposed to have been being repaired.
They then misdiagnosed the watch again at another location until finally the issue was observed by one of their managers who sent the watch off for a repair. I have explained that my wife did not pay for a broken watch (which she was given) nor did she pay for a refurbished scratched watch (which is what were given after the repair) and that all we wanted was a watch that worked as intended out of the box. They have thus far refused any requests to swap the watch for an identicle watch, refund her money or even upsell me a different one from the very first time I reported the issue.
They have, in affect, moved the problem of selling a faulty watch from the manufacturer or reseller to the customer even though it was malfunctioning from day one and purchased through them. I understand that now and again something will come out of the box malfunctioning. What measures the quality of the retailer who sells it is how they handle it. Jared's handling of this situation thus far has been abysmal. The full story is below. To understand why I am so frustrated with the store, you may wish to read it.
In December my wife visited the Jared's Northlake store in Charlotte, NC to purchase a watch as a Christmas present for me. She explained that she wanted a replacement for my kinetic watch which had recently stopped working after several years. She even purchased the $90 Jared extended warranty in early January which covers things the manufacturer will not (according to the sales pitch).
After receiving the watch on Christmas and wearing it for 12-14 hours each day, I noted, in the first few weeks of wearing the watch, that it would frequently stop running between the time I took it off at night and in the morning when I went to put it back on. I did research on the internet and consulted the manual for what I may have been doing wrong for 2 weeks before I contacted a representative at the Concord Mills Jared location via phone to ask about this issue. He assured me that they should retain a much longer charge than just a few hours from normal wearing and that I needed to manually wind the watch once in addition to wearing it. I did as he instructed but the issue manifested itself repeatedly afterwards.
Three weeks after opening the watch for the first time, I brought it into the Concord Mills Jared location (much closer to my home) and described what was happening. The representative (who was billed as their watch expert) assured me that Tissot was a quality watch and that the issue should not happen. I asked if I could swap the watch out for an identicle watch since I was having problems with it. I was told that they had to determine if the watch was indeed having isues and if it was, they had to send it off to Tissot which could take up to 6-8 weeks.
I asked if a refund was possible as I did not think I should have to wait 6-8 weeks on a watch that I've only had out of the box for 3 weeks total. This was also refused. I was very unhappy at being told I would have to wait but thought that if they observed the issue first hand, I could at least get them to swap the watch for one that worked. So having worked with customer service in my previous life, I gave very detailed information to him on how the issue was inconsistant, how to look for it, and that it may take a day or two to observe.
He said he would put it on "the winder" and see what happened so I dropped it off with them. A day or two later, the same representative called me back stating that he'd checked the watches ability to keep correct time and found no issues. I reminded him that "keeping incorrect time" was not the issue I dropped it off to check and again instructed him on what the issue was and how to look for it. He stated that he would take it "in the back" and look at it again and send it off if necessary.
After receiving no follow up for 3 weeks, I called the Concord Mills location again to check on the watch to see how much longer it would be before it returned from Tissot. I found that the watch had been stuck in a drawer after the last phone call with the repair ticket 3 weeks prior with notes that the watch kept good time after being on the winder. The representative did not recall anything about our conversation on the phone call other than that he called me and he incorrectly assumed the call was for me to pick it up.
Assuring me that the watch was fine, he wound it for me the day I retrieved it. He said he found no issue but could send it off to Tissot for me to make sure at an additional 6-8 weeks. Not wishing to leave the issue in the hands of a person who had mishandled it so far, I agreed to pick it up and try it out. I wore it for 5 additional hours before taking it off for bed.in the morning, it had again stopped running.
I then took the watch to the Northlake (where it was purchased) location where I spoke with one of the managers about the situation. It was now in mid to late Febuary and at this point, Jared had retained possession of the watch for longer than I had since it had been out of the box. She assured me she would contact customer relations and see what could be done. She contacted me the next day and told me that she had the watch on the winder and it was keeping perfect time. After explaining once again that "proper time" wasnt the issue, she agreed to keep it on the winder all day and take it off at night to see if she observed the issue.
My wife received a call when the manager came back in saying that that the watch had indeed stopped as I'd described many times and they had sent it off to Tissot for repair with a possible 6-8 week wait. On explaining that one of their own employees had observed the issue as well, I requesting a swap or refund again, from the location as well as Jared's corporate customer relations via email. I was told that Jared's hands were tied by Tissot's policies concerning repairs.
Upon calling Tissot, I found out that 1. Tissot does require all of their items to be sent to them for repair, however, it does not prevent in any way, the retailer's ability to swap out faulty items. 2. They had received the watch from Jared and that there was indeed an issue with the movement which would be fixed. And 3. The amount of time quoted for the watch retaining a charge between wearings had been exadurated by multiple Jared employees. It should be noted that the watch was not even coming close to the numbers quoted by Tissot either.
Jared contacted me and let me know Tissot had sent the watch back. It was now mid March (remember this started in January). I tried to explain to a different store manager at the Northlake location that my wife had purchased a watch with the understanding she would be given a new, correctly working, non-refurbished item. So far, we'd been given a faulty time piece and now we were expected to take ownership of a repaired or refurbished item which had been scratched (more on that below) after being without the watch to close to two months of the three it had been out of the box.
I explained that since December, we have not received what we have paid for and that all we wanted was a new, unblemished, properly working watch. I even noted that if the current watch were not avaialable I'd be willing to pay the differnce on a slightly more expensive watch. The manager then showed me the watch which had obviously been worked on as there was scratching around the backplate where it had been damaged prying it off. Upon showing this to her, she offered to have her jeweler buff it out. She then directed me to customer relations because she said they had told her nothing was wrong with the watch.
After speaking with customer relations on the phone the next day, and explaining all that had happened so far including the discussion with Tissot and the scratched backplate, they said that if there had been a problem with the watch, Tissot would have told them and as far as they knew the watch was fine. I repeatedly asked how this could be resolved and was told that they would have to "fact check" everything. I asked them what they needed in order to reach a decision given the situation providing everything I'd told them checked out.
Again, I was given the run around and they would not answer my question. I've been told by managers and the customer service rep on the phone that the amount of time that elapsed between the time I opened the package and the time I brought it into the store for repair was not an issue. I am at a loss to understand why they would not give a customer what they paid for.
I then contacted Tissot with the repair ticket number. They were very helpful and faxed over the repair ticket which clearly stated that the watch's movement was not performing within factory specifications and that maintenance had been performed on its movement. I also spoke with a representative at Tissot's repair service who confirmed I was properly understanding what was on the invoice. I have scanned and emailed this invoice over to Jared's corporate customer service department as proof that the watch was indeed faulty and was also repaired. I am awaiting a call back that was promised today, March 22 from Jared's customer relations. We will see what they come up with this time.
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