zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

Wanted to write in to this forum to tell about the experience I just had with Swiss Watch Service Group (SWSG) out of Clearwater FL, who is authorized by Omega.

After checking on line to see if there were any prior complaints (found none), I sent to them my Seamaster for a full service when it started to run fast. My watch was purchased new aprox 8 years ago and was only used part time due to wearing another watch for my work.

After aprox 5 weeks, the watch was returned to me on a Saturday in a well packaged box. At first the watch looked perfect and wasted no time putting it on. When I went outside in the daylight, I saw that the crystal had a very obvious white scratch beginning aprox just left of 2 o clock, running vertically down and curving towards 2 min past 4 o clock, than I noticed on the backside cover of the watch, a single deep tool gouge at one of the holes that was next to the crown. After seeing this I immediately called them and left a voice message since they were closed over the weekend. First thing Mon morning, I called SWSG and spoke with their Manager, a Mr. Terry Curkan. He told me that there was no way that they could have scratched the crystal, that what probably happened was that the scratch was already there but became noticeable because the crystal was reinstalled in a different position which changed the line of view causing a non obvious scratch to become obvious.

He pulled my work order and told me that prior to any work done to my watch, it was noted that the crystal, bezel and case had numerous scratches. I agreed with him that the watch was not new and had scratches to the case and bezel, but in no way was there an obvious scratch that was so deep that you could feel it under your finger.

He told me to ship it back to him and he would inspect it which I did.

Aprox a week later, Mr. Curkan called me and continued to tell me that there was no way SWSG was responsible for the damage to my watch. I asked him if it was possible that the crystal was scratched when they were polishing the case, he said no because the crystal is removed during this process. I asked him how he could explain the deep gouge to the back side of my watch since this is the first service the watch has ever had. He responded that when he inspected the watch, SWSG had not properly finished, or polished the back cover and that the damage was probably caused by the bracelet coming in contact with the back cover. He further explained that the tools they use are round and not sharp which remove the back cover so there is no way they caused the damage.

Mr. Curkan told me the best that they could do was charge me ½ price for a new crystal at $88.50, and he would replace the seal, install the crystal, polish the back cover, and ship it back to me at no charge. This is on top of the $412.50 already charged to me for the service.

I feel that this is so unfair, that it comes down to my word against theirs, but what can I do? The only other alternative is to not have the crystal replaced but have my blood pressure increase each time I check the Time? I’m sure that there are many previous SWSG customers that didn’t have any problems, but they (SWSG) certainly did not give me good service, returning my watch back to me in worse shape cosmetically.

I highly recommend that anyone planning on getting their Omega repaired or just serviced, get in writing all prior obvious damage (or the lack of) before work commences, especially concerning the crystal and back cover. May be this advice will help prevent somebody out there added charges to their bill and a lot of unnecessary grief.

Sincerely,

M MacLean