Repair service

[pascal]

Can somebody recommend me a repair service in Europe? I ebayed myself a non working Pulsar Date Command..
http://cgi.benl.ebay.be/ws/eBayISAPI.dl ... 0171118749

[Planet-LED]

I read the Ebay add, and the description reads: " it is presently working perfectly as it should, meaning: all dots illuminating bright and clear."

I would encourage you to contact the seller first. Perhaps this watch was working perfectly when it was packed to be sent to you, and I'm not calling the seller a thief, but these watches are not fragile. You shouldn't have to seek out someone to repair a watch that was "working perfectly" when you purchased it. I think that too many people accept this kind of treatment as a normal part of buying on Ebay.

If the seller won't work with you, and you paid using PayPal, contact them and see if there is anything they can do for you. I see this stuff happen all the time, and I don't think people should just accept this as "normal operating procedure". Good luck with this transaction, and let us know how it turns out.

[pascal]

What can you do? Did not use paypal, made an international payment, so no help there.. Seller refuses to pay me back, he still claims watch was in good working order..it's his word against mine..the only power I have: I gave him negative feedback. He stated that the add and description didn't guarantee anything at all. This is not encouraging to buy any vintage Pulsar on ebay in the future. What guarantee do you have from 100% feedback? None..
If this happens all the time, how do other buyers work this out?

[Planet-LED]

pascal,

Ebay can be a dangerous place. The very first Pulsar I purchased on ebay, I was ripped off. You can't always go by feedback. Many buyers won't leave negative feedback because the seller will retaliate with negative feedback. That is one of the problems with the whole feedback system. Consider getting a PayPal account. They tend to favor the side of the buyer.

You might want to consider buying from one of the sellers listed on the links page. It will probably be a bit more expensive, but buy from a seller who offers a warranty.

[Dal]

To be honest I think you was a bit silly spending that kind of money on someone with only 19 feedback, I might chance cheap items on someone like that, but 265 euros, no way.

[pascal]

So when are you buying on ebay? When somebody got 17.254 positive feedbacks? What's the difference between 19 and 119 pos. feedbacks? What guarantee gives you that?

[Dal]

Did not mean to upset you, and no I dont need a seller to have 17 thousand feedback... personally I think theres a huge difference between 19 and 100+, even better 300+ at least this means they have had to take time to get a higher feedback and therefore want to keep his hard earned 100% reputation..

Dont get me wrong im not saying you cannot get stung by even a 1000+ seller, like has been said feedback is not everything, but spending that sort of money on 19 feedback seller seems a little dumb sorry.

[bruce wegmann]

Here's the other end of the spectrum. About a year and a half ago, a BOXED P1 showed up on eBay. The seller had a feedback score of 3, one of them negative! Needless to say, the bidding was...restrained. Turned out the seller was a college student in New Mexico...had only sold a few minor things, and had problems with one buyer. Then, his father hands him this P1 and says, here, take this, sell it for tuition money. I used the Ask the Seller a Question link, got directly in touch with him [as in, on the phone], and spent a couple hours getting a feel for who he was. When I was satisfied, I went for it, and got one of the biggest bargains since I started collecting [there were no last-second challenges; I guess everyone else figured it was too great a risk]. True, I flew to Albequerque to pick the watch up in person, but that was as much to protect the watch from the perils of the postal system, as to protect my wallet. Anyway, both the watch and the seller were for real. I'm sure this isn't a unique circumstance; things like this are going to pass out of estates into the hands of people who may have little or no selling experience on eBay, or knowledge of what they're selling; the Euro Calculator narrowly escaped being scrapped for gold weight...only a friend [who actually posted the auction], convinced her it might be worth more as a watch. Lesson here is [IMHO]...get to know your seller, if you can; a few questions asked can pay big dividends, or save you from a nasty burn.

[Planet-LED]

I think that you have to look at each situation individually. I bought a Pulsar Date Command about two weeks ago that had the wrong module in it. Someone had put an auto set module in it, which was difficult to see as the pictures weren't the best. The seller had more than 1500 sales with a good feed back rating. I don't believe he was actually trying to deceive me. I think he didn't know Pulsars well enough to know the difference.

I worked with him, and he will refund me, minus the postage both ways. I've bought watches from high volume sellers and had problems, and bought from people with only a few sales that turned out great. I've always believed that the people with only a few ebay sales will go out of their way to protect their feedback rating. If you consider the P1 Bruce bought from a guy who had a positive feedback rating of 66%, it reinforces that you have to take each situation individually.

[CompuChron]

Yes but the huge difference is Bruce made a bargain with this 66 positive feedbacks seller and hi didn't pay top price.

[Dal]

Paying someone when face to face after you have checked the item is completly different to handing over a lot of money the way he did, which was what he was talking about.

Bruce got a very good bargain no doubt, and is proof not to discount low and poor feedback, as long as you can check stuff out.. but I still think my point is valid as that is a different situation than paying blind 265 euros, and by the way that 19 feedback was just from buying, the watch was the first thing he sold.

[Planet-LED]

CompuChron wrote:

Yes but the huge difference is Bruce made a bargain with this 66 positive feedbacks seller and hi didn't pay top price.

Read Bruce's post again. The seller didn't have 66 positive feedbacks.

The seller had a 3 feedback, one of them negative!

So this seller had a positive feedback rating of 66%. While that would scare most people away, he took the time to learn a bit more about the seller, and that is what I am trying to say. I've been burned by sellers who have sold thousands of items, and had nearly perfect feedback, and I've done well from sellers with a relatively low number of total feedbacks with some being negative.

If in doubt, ask questions: How long have you had the watch? How long has it been running? Does it have the original module? How many links are in the band? What if it is DOA? etc? It probably won't take long to figure out if you want to do business with the seller. If he doesn't respond to your questions, you've got your answer.

I'm not saying that you should pepper every seller with a lot of needless questions, but it you have doubts about a particular watch, don't be afraid to ask questions. I got burned on a recent transaction because I got lazy and didn't ask any questions. It was a P3 that was poorly photographed. I showed the listing to a friend, and he spotted, almost immediately, that the module wasn't original. I could have saved myself postage both ways had I asked the seller if the watch had the original dot segment display.

[bruce wegmann]

CompuChron, I would differ with you; the huge difference was, I made the effort to find out who the seller was and what the story of the watch was. Only when I was satisfied that the situation was real, did I put my money on the line [and that was not after the first conversation, either; there were several]. The bargain part was a by-product of the fact that other potential buyers apparently weren't interested in spending the time finding out what the story was, feeling there was too much "risk", and just let it go. And to clarify, the sellers' feedback was not 66, it was 3 [66% positive]. He was just a newbie seller with an extremely high-end item, and almost nobody took it seriously... I'm just saying, there are going to be situations where it's going to take some effort on the part of the BUYER to make a transaction go smoothly, or happen at all. If the kid with the P1 had declined to talk to me, or given me less than satisfactory answers, I probably would have passed, too. And the buyer has a responsibility to protect themself; as much as I dislike PayPal [I mean, it does put even more money into the pockets of people who are already BILLIONAIRES], it does give you some recourse if the transaction goes bad...

[CompuChron]

I bid on items sold by 0 or bad feedback seller only if i make a bargain otherwise, if I'm ready to pay top price (265 euros-almost 400$ for P3 unboxed is top price)I buy from a reputed seller who will refund my money in case something goes wrong.
But that's no insurance , just experience..

[Planet-LED]

We've gone in the direction of dealing with non working watches bought on Ebay. Everyone, including me, has missed the obvious--what is wrong with the watch? Does it not light up at all? What is the watch doing?

[pascal]

This is the thread where I asked for help but in the meanwhile Higgie had an expertlook at it and said he couldn't repair the module..So I will have to send it to retroleds for repair..
http://dwf.nu/viewtopic.php?t=2481
Final thoughts on ebay: it's not the promised land for trading.....

[CompuChron]

I think it's like bicycling , at first you fall down and after a while you can ride it like daddy.

[Clive]

Not wanting to step on anyones toes but I can't believe that nobody in England never mind Europe can fix with these type of watches, I realise there's a lot of expertise needed but sending watches to the US or Canada always makes me uneasy for the shipping alone.

[CompuChron]

I have done it hundreds of time with 1 watch lost (always unregistered).
I've lost more stuff with french post alone in less trades...
Piotr is doing the repairs in Poland , that's europe!

[Clive]

I have done it hundreds of time with 1 watch lost (always unregistered).
I've lost more stuff with french post alone in less trades...
Piotr is doing the repairs in Poland , that's europe!

I'm paranoid about posting anything valuable, the watch I just got from the States took 17 days to arrive including weekends and Easter, I start getting a bit nervous after a week

I've had good work done from a guy in Canada but they sometimes get stopped at customs, I'd love to find someone in England to fix them, I'm not sure I'd trust Polish mail(no offence)

[Fitron]

I've had the pleasure of dealing with Piotr twice, the Polish mail can be a little bit slow but both times were trouble free. I would not hesitate to send a watch to him. Hey I sent one of my more expensive watches to him and got it back safely. No point in having a watch you can't wear...

[charger105]

You guys are lucky !
It normally takes at least a month for anything to get from USA/Canada or Europe to Australia.
Combine this with the fact that my Post Office is physically located within a major hospital, and is only open during business hours, and I'm the one who should be complaining.........you've got to walk right through casualty to find it.

Rgds.