Watches you wear...

[Cecil Terwilliger]

So let me tell you guys about buying a watch.

Found a Tag Heuer online thru the Bay that I liked. Seemed like a great deal too. Several hundred cheaper than Tag was listing as the MSRP on their site in canadian dollars.

Place the order and says it'll ship next day and arrive in about a week. About a week goes by and no watch. Finally get the shipping notification. Another week goes by and it is still stuck in limbo at "electronic information submitted by shipper" meaning The Bay have made a label but haven't yet handed over my watch to canada post.

So I call the Bay 1-800 customer service and some nice guy offers to send me another one for free and I decline (stupidly) and ask for a refund and he says they can't do that. It has to be escalated.

Sure enough, about 2.5 weeks after I order my watch it randomly shows up and magically the shipping status went from hasn't even shipped to delivered in 1 day.

Quick aside, if I said yes place a reorder, does that mean I get two watches? Think anyone at the bay notices they are out an extra rather pricey watch? And if I did get both, what are they gonna do? He told me that to place the new order he'd basically just comp the trx on a gift card. Essentially his order would be just like mine in terms of review after processing. I know I don't deserve a free watch plus another identical one but would have been nice lol. I mention this confusion mostly because of what happened next.

Anyway so I get my watch and after a couple of weeks I realize that I never checked the warranty card. Go to the Tag website and run the serial number and the warranty number. Both indicate that the watch isn't registered.

Call customer service for the second time for this purchase and explain it. They say, after about 45 mins on hold, that I have to call Tag to register my warranty. I know this isn't true. I know this because after I'm done complaining about the Bay, I'm going to tell you about my experience buying my first Tag a week earlier (yes I bought two. it's kinda dumb but they're both budget Tags and I liked them both, whatever I don't have to justify my bad spending habits to you people).

I call Tag anyways. Sure enough they say the authorized dealer has to do it but I already know this. But something weirder happens. They tell me the Bay isn't an authorized dealer at all and that the warranty is void. Having read this thread and other stuff online I'm totally aware of how grey market purchases work. Now I'm super pissed because The Bay advertises right on their website about the 2 year tag warranty. I even check the Tag website for authorized dealers and the bay isn't listed. I'm ####ing livid.

I call the Bay a third time. After another hour on hold the rep tells me that I have to go to the store.

So I drive to market mall and the nice lady there says she has no idea what I'm talking about. They don't sell Tags. She calls over a manager. He says they are for sure an authorized dealer but there are only two Bay stores in Canada that sell Tags.

But neither of them know what to do with my watch and my warranty. They call customer service. The same #### service I've been calling. I explain to the people in front of me everything and all the steps I've taken and they relay it to the people on the phone (after holding for an hour and getting bumped to a supervisor of course).

At this point it hits me. I ask the guy if he knows which stores sell Tags. He has no idea. I figure Toronto and Vancouver. Check Tag site and sure enough Toronto and Vancouver downtown stores are both authorized dealers. No idea why the asshat at Tag Heuer's official customer service told me the Bay aren't an authorized dealer. He even told me no company in Canada can sell Tags online. But multiple authorized dealers do. Anyways I call Toronto downtown store and they bounce me around for 20 minutes and I get hung up on like 3 times. Not for being rude or anything. They are just incompetent. Never has an organization had such consistent customer service training as the bay. Incompetent across the board, even in different cities! (although the 3 people who helped me today were nice enough and one was even knowledgeable)

I call Vancouver downtown. Hi do you sell Tags. Yes we do. And if I buy my Tag from you, can you register the warranty thru the app? Sure can. Sweet mother of god.

I explain to this nice lady at the watch counter in Vancouver my situation from beginning to end. Without hesitating she grabs her ipad or whatever, takes my serial number, my warranty card number, confirms the model of my watch and BAM!! Warranty (that I'll probably never use) is registered.

#### YOU THE BAY, EXCEPT THE NICE LADY IN VANCOUVER, YOU INCOMPETENT ####S!!!!



Now let me tell you about Birks downtown. I called and asked if they had a watch I wanted (different than the bay one). She said there were 2 left in the country. She could have it here by tomorrow.

Next day she calls me, I head down and pick it up. Helped by two people, super friendly, made sure everything was taken care of, registered my warranty via the app on their tablet, talked to me about the watch and getting a different band if I wanted etc etc.

The call and in person experience combined took maybe 30 minutes. They even have a 2 year warranty beyond the Tag warranty.

Birks is the antithesis of the Bay. A+ for Birks at the Core. Paid full retail but it was totally worth it.


Regardless, both watches are awesome. I'm normally really bad for buyer's remorse, no matter what I buy be it a car or a house or a friggin lego set, but I love both these watches. Super happy. #### the Bay.



TL;DR Don't EVER buy a watch from the Bay. Ever. Just call Birks or another local store who specialize in high end watches/jewellery.

[stang]

All that text.... and no pics of your new watches.

For shame

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I'm a little hesitant. I think I'm gonna get roasted for both my choices.

Just look up men's Tags, find the cheaper ones and pick the two that you think are the tackiest. That's the two I bought lol.

[stang]

Oh sheesh... It doesnt matter what anyone else thinks. My daily is a $50 amazon cheapy, and I get a lot of compliments on it.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Hack&Lube]

Hey, if Tags float your boat, that's all that matters. Looks like Bay is selling them for around $1500. For that kind of change, my personal choice would be looking at buying a vintage Omega Seamaster or Longines.

I bought my first watches from the Bay last month, probably the first time I've shopped at the Bay in 20 years. I bought three G-Shocks that were on sale @ Market Mall because they actually threw them all in a bin so I could touch and see them. I hate looking at watches behind glass. Lesson learnt though, inverted LCD watches are impossible to tell the time on. They were good deals at 40% off that one Saturday (even beats Amazon) but I am thinking about returning at least 2 of them. The GA-100 is going back for sure because I can't read the damn screens even when indoors.

I'm probably keeping the GLS-5600CL-5 G-LIDE because it came with an integrated 22-24mm strap adapter which is actually OEM instead of 3rd party. I did order Jay & Kay's bullbars for it as well and that's coming in the mail. It's also a rare module for the 5600 style because it's designed for low-temperatures so I guess that makes sense for Canada? I guess they wanted people to take these hiking and snowboarding?





I figured I needed some G Shocks in the line-up since I have a ton of automatics and dress watches so I needed something for sports, outdoors, construction, moving, etc. that was rugged. I'm still looking for the perfect G Shock.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by stang

Oh sheesh... It doesnt matter what anyone else thinks. My daily is a $50 amazon cheapy, and I get a lot of compliments on it.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ok fair enough. Strangely I feel that it is both a bit gauche to post about buying $3k in watches and at the same time conscious of the fact that they aren’t even expensive watches by comparison to some of the stuff people post in this thread.

Spoiler!

They are basically the same watch in different colours but I couldn’t decide which I liked best so I just bought both. The bottom one is a red bull racing formula 1 special edition and comes in a cool unique box. Both can fit a brushed stainless steel bracelet if I want to make either of them a bit more grown up and less sporty.

Spoiler!

[I-Hate-Hulse]

I rather like Tag Heuer myself, and those look great.

The strap colors in the first picture however.... they're..... Oiler colors?

[stang]

Nice watches, I don’t think I’ll ever own a $1000+ watch

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

I rather like Tag Heuer myself, and those look great.

The strap colors in the first picture however.... they're..... Oiler colors?

Oh god. You’re right. Never even crossed my mind.

I’m gonna pretend I never read that.

[stang]

looks great!

[Titan]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

The strap colors in the first picture however.... they're..... Oiler colors?

Just in case you missed it...

[Patek23]

Edit-nm

[VladtheImpaler]

I am thinking this as an X-mas present to myself... The price seems good. Any reason why not?

https://www.costco.ca/Montblanc-Time...100390009.html

[burn_this_city]

It's a good price for that model, its $1,900 US on jomashop, retail claimed at $3,100.

[jayswin]

Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler

I am thinking this as an X-mas present to myself... The price seems good. Any reason why not?

https://www.costco.ca/Montblanc-Time...100390009.html

It's looks kind of stuck between classic and modern, but I have no taste so it probably looks great!

[VladtheImpaler]

Originally Posted by burn_this_city

It's a good price for that model, its $1,900 US on jomashop, retail claimed at $3,100.

Yeah, I saw it on amazon for 2 and 2.5.

[Patek23]

I was trying to post some photos of my collection but photobucket charges now I guess. Is there any free ways to upload pictures to post?

[OMG!WTF!]

www.postimage.org

Let's see them fancy watches.

[bomber317]

Nice watches Cecil!

Those Tags look awesome.

[Patek23]

Picked up this bad boy couple weeks ago, going to have to learn how to dive now.

Spoiler!

And got this one couple years back. Glad I got a 41mm when I did.

Spoiler!