Review the CCTV before allowing this employee to represent Rolex again
One star because zero stars is not possible.
On 29 August 2026 at approximately 12:00, my wife and I entered the Rolex Boutique operated by Schaap en Citroen in Amsterdam.
The entire conversation lasted only three or four minutes.
Those three or four minutes were enough to create the most arrogant, insulting and humiliating experience we have ever had in any Rolex boutique anywhere in the world.
Our 22-year-old daughter was not with us.
She stayed at the Mandarin Oriental, where we were staying, because after her previous experience at the Patek Philippe boutique operated by the same retailer, she was genuinely afraid and deeply uncomfortable about entering this store again.
That previous experience had already left her feeling rejected and humiliated when she tried to understand how a young client could begin a relationship with Patek Philippe in Amsterdam.
Schaap en Citroen responded publicly to our previous review, apologised, stated that this did not represent their standards and explicitly invited us to return.
My wife and I accepted that invitation in good faith.
Our daughter did not have the courage to come with us.
We now understand that she was absolutely right.
Because the Patek Philippe area was under construction, we entered the Rolex boutique on her behalf.
Our daughter has recently moved to Amsterdam. She works, earns her own money and wanted to begin building her own independent relationship with Rolex in the city where she now lives.
She was interested in a Lady-Datejust 28 in Oystersteel.
Not a Daytona.
Not a GMT-Master II.
Not an impossible or highly speculative professional model.
A normal ladies' Rolex that she can afford herself and that could have been the beginning of her own history with the brand.
I asked the employee how her interest could be registered.
His answer was:
"We do not take orders."
I explained that I was not asking for a guaranteed delivery or a conventional order.
I told him very clearly that the terminology was completely irrelevant.
He could call it an order, a wishlist, a waiting list, a wish, an expression of interest, a client request or anything else.
I did not care what he called it.
My question was extremely simple:
How can a 22-year-old woman who has recently moved to Amsterdam begin a relationship with this boutique and eventually purchase a Lady-Datejust 28 in steel?
He did not answer the question.
He repeated that they do not take orders.
I asked again.
I changed the wording.
I explained again that we were not requesting a guarantee.
I explained that this was not a Daytona or another exceptionally allocated model.
I explained that our daughter wanted to purchase a watch she could afford herself and begin her own relationship with the brand.
Still no guidance.
Still no process.
Still no interest in understanding the client.
Eventually, he stated that the boutique only sells whatever happens to be physically available in the store.
I asked whether this meant that our daughter would have to keep returning to the boutique and repeatedly ask whether a Lady-Datejust 28 in steel happened to be available.
He said yes.
I asked whether she therefore simply had to keep coming back and be lucky.
Again, he said yes.
At that point, my wife and I were already standing approximately one metre from the exit.
We were effectively leaving the boutique.
However, the answer was so absurd that I genuinely believed I must have misunderstood him.
I therefore asked one final time before walking out.
I asked whether I had understood correctly that there was no order, no wish, no waiting list, no expression of interest and no process through which our daughter could leave her details for a Lady-Datejust 28 in steel.
I asked whether she simply had to keep coming back to the boutique and hope that one day she would be lucky.
He confirmed it again.
He then told us that this is simply how it is in Amsterdam.
That final sentence was the perfect summary of the arrogance we had just experienced.
There was no misunderstanding.
I repeated the question several times.
I used every possible expression precisely because I wanted to remove any misunderstanding.
The name of the process did not matter.
The only question was whether a process existed for a young local client who wanted to begin a relationship with the boutique.
According to this employee, there was no process.
No order.
No wishlist.
No waiting list.
No registration of interest.
No client request.
No guidance.
No relationship.
Just keep coming back and hope to be lucky.
This was not professional management of limited availability.
This was not an employee politely explaining that a watch could not be guaranteed.
This was an employee refusing to engage with a genuine prospective client and making us feel foolish for asking one of the most basic questions imaginable.
Our family has collected watches read more
