I want to share my awful experience I had with Time Palace Jeweler. I had to call the police for…read morecivil standby to retrieve a valuable Cartier watch that was handed down to me.
I went to Time Palace after reading good reviews and one where a Cartier watch was revived. My watch was given to me by my father and had a lot of value for me. I went for a battery replacement. Al looked at the watch and opened the casing. He found that the battery was corroded and said a new battery would not fix the watch. He said he would have to clean the corrosion and determine the extent of the damage. I asked him how much it would cost. He said $800 to clean the watch and then there would likely be additional charges if the quartz mechanism needed further parts. He said he was a 'master watchmaker' and he could repair it for less than Cartier who would probably need parts from abroad and it would take weeks for them to fix and could cost up to $2500. As he seemed like he was experienced and I badly wanted the watch working, I agreed to the price and the work. Later that day, I wanted to learn more about the corrosive damage caused by the battery. To my surprise, an AI research revealed that if the Cartier quartz movement is compromised by a battery leakage, the quartz mechanism is replaced as the time and cost involved to clean the watch is not cost effiicent. Furthermore, if the circuit board is compromised, there is no need to clean the watch, a new mechanism is needed. When i put into Google gemini that Mr AL was charging me $800 just to clean the watch.. I was strongly recommended to halt all work and retrieve my watch from AL. He would ultimately be charging me 4-5x the cost to repair the watch with Cartier ... Seeing this, I contacted Al that evening and he told me he spent 5 hours cleaning the watch and that I would need a new circuit board that would cost me $450 because he had ordered it for me, despite no agreement for this on my part. I told him I would be picking up the watch the next day and to halt all work. He let me know that I could pick it up disassembled and that I had to pay CASH. At this point, I was not feeling confident of the intergrity of the service he was providing and I did not wish to pay cash, but rather have the consumer protection of a credit card. Regardless, my cartier was very valuable and i had to get it back from him. I also contacted Cartier who offered to evaluate the damage of my watch. When I went to retrieve my watch, I let Al know I would not pay him for the circuit board he ordered, which I did not agree to. But I would however, pay him the $800 through my credit card. He refused, to accept my credit card payment. I let him know he can't keep my watch if I am offering him payment as he told me earlier I could pay with credit card but with his 5% surcharge. He refused and told me to get out of his store harshly. He said I was trying to take advantage of him ... Thus I walked out, and called the police for a civil standby. Al had my very expensive Cartier watch and was refusing to give it back to me, despite my willingness to pay by credit card. The police did come tho the store, and a conversation ensued. An agreement was then reached where I would use my Debit card to pay the $800. I thought about refusing to pay by cash or debit and take him to court. But the watch AL was holding was very valuable. Thus, I ended up agreeing to an $800 charge to my debit card and Al tacked on his 5% surcharge which is actually illegal.
I was able to take the watch to Cartier immediately after I left the store. They said it is not uncommon for a leaking battery to damage a cartier quartz mechanism, but that it could be overahauled for $450, just as Google Gemini said.
Al, the master watchmaker, knew all along what Cartier would do perhaps, and he decided to tell me he could do the work for less, charge me an unecessary $800 cleaning for 'rust damage' and then order me a circuit board that would cost me $450, not including the labor. Cartier said that once the battery damages the quartz mechanism, it is too costly and inefficient to clean the watch to repair it. Yet, AL the master watchmaker decided to take the expensive and inefficient route with my Cartier watch.
PLease be safe out there.
addendum: Response to Al, I thought you had pride in your work and service at first. I was proven wrong. You lost me whenI realized i could not trust your pricing and your assessment. I got my second opinion from Cartier which supported this conclusion. It is what it is. All your
talk of being a 'master watchmaker' is useless when you cannot be trusted by decent, hardworking, people.
