A few months back, my dad had decided to give my his space-view watch that had had worn on his wrist daily since 1968. The watch had definitely seen a lot of wear. Somewhere along the way, he dropped the watch and it had stopped working. I had a difficult time finding anyone local to repair the watch so my online search began. Among other sites, I ran across Bob Piker and mybob.net. The website looked to be the most professional and I liked the story and the sound of Bob taking loving care of your time piece and restoring it to its former glory. After talking to Bob, I was convinced that Bob would steer me correctly.
The communication with Bob seemed to be no issue in the process and we decided that I would go ahead and send the watch for evaluation. I already had a good idea that I would be looking at a coil repair so I knew I would be looking at $225 there plus service at $150. I was considering adding a band but was on the fence with N.O.S. As I wasnt really a fan of black. At any rate I told Bob that I would buy a band locally. I did however ask Bob to leave the twist o flex band off the watch after servicing. I made the assumption that The band had to come off to completely clean the case. Bob received the watch and we again talked about it now that he had the watch in front of him. He gave me the bad news that coil indeed needed to be replaced. We talked about the poor condition of the case and Bob explained to me that he could make it look new again however it would be fairly costly to do so. I wasnt so concerned with the back but I wanted the parts you could see to look good. Bob explained that when he cleaned the watch and buff the case that from the top down it would look like it came from the factory. I also talked about the crystal but bob said mine was not to bad so he didnt seem overly concerned of its looks. That sounded good enough for me as I plan to wear the watch.
To my surprise the watch was actually done at least a week or two before I expected it. Bob didnt give me any update on how things went, I just received a note from the post office that my package was on the way. I assumed I would be so blown away by the end product that no words were necessary. I rushed home to find my space-view waiting for me. I opened the box to find my space-view still attached to the twist o flex band that I asked Bob to leave off. I looked deeper in the box as Bob promises on his site to return any worn parts. No old coil. The inner workings of the watch looked good which is what I expected. To my untrained eye, the case looked no different than when it was sent to Bob. It certainly did not look like it just came from the factory from the top down. I was left with a hohum feeling and was reminded of the joys of doing business over the internet and phone where you are not communicating directly with each other.
Today I happened to luck into a shop near work that happens to repair very high end antique watches while looking for a band. The owner was fantastic and had exactly what I was looking for. I told him the story about my watch and how I just received the watch back from servicing yesterday. As he was replacing the band, he had a bit of a disappointed look and after removing the twist o flex. He brought the watch over. He told me that I should avoid whoever serviced the watch in the future because there was dirt in the lugs and the twist o flex had never even been removed during the servicing of the watch. As I said, I am a civilian, but after spending $150 for a cleaning, I would expect the watch to be... Clean. To be fair, I dont think I gave Bob the impression that I wanted to spend a ton more money however I dont think Bob gave me an accurate account of the services that I would receive. To also be fair I am 97% sure Bob had to replace the coil however I would have been 100% sure had he sent the old one back. Should I be having this conversation directly with Bob??? Maybe. The problem is that I will not go through the trouble of sending the watch back through the mail so why bother talking to Bob about my unhappiness. Bob should also expect that when customers are sending their watches half way across the country that he has one shot to make them happy. If you are looking for a great experience, I suggest you look elsewhere, but if mediocrity is what require, Bob is your guy.
0 comments