Figured I would start a new thread here to track my warranty process.
Bought an Ocean 1 Premium in March 2015. Now it has stopped working in my sleep and sometimes dies on my wrist. It is not holding power. Not a cheap watch. Comes with 2 year warranty.
"After sales" was emailed on Monday January 4 at 9:44AM EST. Emailed them advising of the issue. That I'm under warranty and what was the next step in the process. Today is Thursday. Still no response whatsoever.
Only two emails are offered. One for sales. And one for after you have purchased your watch. One can only assume "after sales" is who you contact in regards to your warranty concerns.
I will update this thread at each step of the game to let you all know the progress and the crap I've dealt with. This will be great information for those thinking on purchasing this watch and if you ever need to claim warranty what to expect.
Resetting a watch every morning and winding it and then having it die on my way to work and re setting the time again has become quite annoying. If I paid $200 I would have smashed this watch on the sidewalk by now.
Received email this morning. It states the following:
Dear Dave,
We apologize the defect on your watch and also our delayed answer. We were closed and just got back yesterday.
It seems, it will be the best way, to send the watch back to us. Our professional watchmaker will take care and repair.
Please write a short note (or better a copy of the emailing) that shows what exactly is wrong with your watch and put it into the parcel. Please make sure that you follow the instructions strictly cause if some copy or information are missing the package will be stuck at the customs office and sometimes it will not be delivered.
Outside of the parcel there has to be a copy of the original invoice and the pro forma invoice with the value (please not higher than 50 KAD, cause we have to avoid additional fees and taxes/Canadian custom is very strict) from your watch in KAD. The pro forma invoice is an invoiced value of goods. In addition to that, please write on the air bill the following: "for repair (repair goods)".
The pro forma invoice and the air bill - you'll get from FEDEX.
Please use our FEDEX account: "287546xxxx" with the option "international priority", so you don´t have to pay for the shipping. You have to order FEDEX to your home and give them our account number. Please ask them which documents you need for shipping and afterwards you'll receive it from FEDEX. Please explain this to FEDEX by phone before.
ATTENTION:
There may be markups by customs for deliveries abroad. Customs duties are generally borne by the owner/buyer.
To avoid taxes please contact the local customs authorities before shipping and clear with them if any additional documents are needed. Moreover, please name the package as a "return for repair". Furthermore, you should inform the customs that your package will be sent back to you, so that you don't have to pay the taxes!
!!!!!!! Please make sure that you follow the instructions strictly, cause if some copy or information is missing, it could be possible that the package will stuck at the customs office and sometimes will not be delivered, Costs will be incurred, that you have to pay !!!!!!
Just for your information: A proforma invoice expresses sentimental value of the goods. The purchase procedure has been completed and tax and customs duties were paid but nevertheless the customs authority requests an indication of the value of goods shipped.
I hope I could have helped you, don´t mind to ask for any further questions and get in contact with me again!
Yeah it was complicated at first. Then I read it 5 times.
1. Attach original invoice to front of box
2. Mark the value as $50KAD
3. Mark the box as repair.
4. You provide FedEx with corporate account number for Steinhart
5. Attach that other form they requested but fedex does that. I phoned and they know the process inside out
6. Make sure you have written what the defect was.
My additions:
1. Ship in watch box with warranty card.
Took roughly a week to hear back. But I ain't paying shipping.
Email sent about warranty on Monday. Thursday they were closed. Received email this morning at 4:26AM EST. All and all response time was not bad.
Not having to pay shipping is good. I had to pay $12 USD for shipping back my Orient on a warranty repair, but that stayed here in the US. Shipping to and from Europe would be much more steep.
EUROPEAN offices close for a couple weeks for holidays. A nice practice for mental,family, and spiritual health. Would be great if we did that in USA.
STEINNY supplying fed x number is generous & classy.
WE know STEINNY makes a value tool.
The owner of STEINHART has posted that he likes to run on lean staff in order to provide excellent value. He has stated he takes a few days to respond to e-mails. His policy is reasonable IMHO.
I am sure his watch makers will be trained & talented.
So far I'm pretty impressed. I didn't have to send a second email. I was going to this morning. Watch is being shipped out today. Finished work late. Didn't want to go to FedEx before closing and have someone screw it up cause they want to go home on a Friday. Plus the lady I spoke to knew everything and how to do it so she'll be back tomorrow in the morning and that's when I'm gonna get my watch shipped out.
Update:
Today is Saturday. Watch is now officially at FedEx. Did it first thing this morning. A little nervous. And a little sad. Guess my fossil watch will get a battery today.
Steinhart is taking my watch via international priority. I did have to pay for a shipping box and packaging. That was $12CDN.
They should have the watch by Wednesday. I hope I did my paperwork correctly. I don't want the CDN government to charge me duties on the way in or the Germans to charge Steinhart duty on a repair. And I hope my watch isn't held at customs. I am real nervous about this. On how it could go south quickly. Also this morning my watch was running. It didn't die in my sleep. Almost didn't send it away. But the problem is there. It's been messing up for a week and problems just don't fix themselves lol.
New update. Watch just cleared German customs in Cologne.
Ship on Saturday. Guess I did the paperwork correctly. Had me
Nervous that I was gonna have to pay duty going into Germany. Now lets hope they fix it and ship it back without any duty.
When it returns you should have no problem with Canada Customs as long as the paper trail is there.
You did everything by the book. The government likes paperwork so you should be all good.
I bet you have your Steinny back on your wrist well before the end of the month.
Be prepared to wait, however they will send a FedEx account number to pay the cost of returning to Germany. They took two moths to repair my Ocean One GMT for the same issue. Now they have my Ocean One Premium Blue for a scratch on the face caused by the hour hand. Sent that one in December 23, they said i will get it back early February.
It's not about how long it takes to do the work but the backlog the service person may have and when he or she will get to it... Unfortunately.
They need to allocate more resources to non sale areas IMHO.
Steinhart doesn't seem to have changed much in terms of post sales service with email and reaped delays
Hope you'll get it back soon and it's 100%.
Good news to all of you. Woke up this morning. I have an email from Steinhart. Watch is on its way home. However they did not say what was repaired in the email. I hope to god something was fixed and they provide a write up in the package or else I will be angry. Reason being, it's been over 2 months and I haven't heard squat other than your watch is now done and coming home.
Now would I ever buy another Steinhart? I don't think so. Costed me about $700 Canadian after the duty and conversion. And then 2 months in a repair. Let's say I'm not overly happy
It's about $735 delivered before taxes today.
You got a great deal I think.
As long as it's fixed and serves you well from here on. I think they took proper care of
you the customer. 2 months is a bit long but not outrageous IMHO.
2 months is a long time but Steinhart is small and they probably had a backlog
of service/warranty work after the holiday break. At least they did give you a heads
up that it would be up to 5 weeks after they received it.
Two months is not that bad to send a watch to a different country and get it repaired. Heck send one to Kobold in the US and you would have a hard time getting anything done. Send it to MKII and it could be at least 6 months to get it back and this is all for warranty work.
I have to agree with the other comments from Toxic and Zed. My Orient took several weeks ... both times, and that one stayed here in the US for repair. Steinhart, from what I'm gathering as I don't own one, makes a great quality watch for a good price. As with any mechanical or electronic product you will have a certain failure rate. When your failure rate is low and your profit margins are what Rolex's are (in terms of cost to produce vs. profit made at sale price) then a company just does not have the financial resources to provide skilled staffing to turn around the fixing of those failures at a super fast pace. Two months and you'll get your watch back probably in better mechanical order in which it came I'd say is worth it.
If I had the money for a Steinhart knowing all I know today, I'd pull the trigger without hesitation.
It's officially back in my hands. Had an issue with customs. Has to pay duty again. I freaked. Then they waived it. Story is longer than that. I'm tired. I haven't unboxed it yet. Hopefully they gave me back my watch box I shipped it with and a write up of what was broken.
Will edit this post when I actually take out my watch and look it over for any damage.
So I have it on boys. Feels good. Damn it's heavy. Totally forgot how it felt. May need to add one more link feels a bit tight. Yikes.
What was done was the following and I hope someone can tell me how this needed to e done after a year and what the repair actually means:
1. Escapement cleaned and reoiled.
2. Movement controlled. I understand this one basically recalibrated the watch.
But how was my watch dying after an hour not on the wrist over an oil issue?
The escapement is a very important part of how the movement operates. If not oiled properly, the watch can stop.
As far as how it happens after a year? Don't have an answer to that. Maybe the watch or movement was sitting for a good while before you bought it, maybe it was not oiled properly when they assembled.
It's like a car you bought brand new and 6 months later you have to bring it in for a repair.....it happens.
Fortunately it is back in your hands and working properly, and they took care of it as they should.
That they did. I am a happy guy again. Just hope it doesn't break down for another two years haha. Then again the repair itself would have only costed 44 Euro anyways.
Glad to know it was fixed and there was an actual issue oppose to me going crazy haha. I wonder how much better to keep time from before. Before it broke was about 6+ sec a day.
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