Since for some inexplicable reason my standby and favorite local jeweler packed up shop and vacated his premises, I was in dire need of locating a new facility to replace watch batteries for me.
I had been to Solid Gold Jewelers years ago; however, I was under the impression that they liquidated and went out of business. Since they are only a few doors down from several other local businesses that I frequent, I was shocked when I saw that they were once again open for business. Score! Or, kinda, so I thought.
I brought in two watches to have batteries replaced: one was an old watch that was given to me that probably contained a battery that died a good 10 years ago. The other was a gold dress watch; despite the fact that I had received it as a gift multiple years ago, I do take great care of it. It probably was older than the other watch I brought in, but had been used regularly with the battery replaced regularly. The current battery in it had most likely been dead for 4 to 6 months.
A quick replacement of the first watch battery was effortless. Sweet! Now the dress watch: not so good news, according to them. I was told the battery had been left dead in the watch for too long and it had corroded and therefore had harmed the internal circuit board of the watch. Curious, I thought, since both watches were likely of equal age, and one had a dead battery in it for far longer with no corroded circuit board. However, I'm not a jeweler, so without expertise to draw upon, I left it at Solid Gold for them to repair. They told me it would take about a week and the cost would be approximately $35. Sounded reasonable to me.
After one week, I hadn't heard from them. So, I called. "Yeah, it's not ready yet. We'll call you when it's done." Three days later I called them. "The part's not in yet. Give us a few more days. We'll call you." So I call back two days later. "Not ready yet. It will be done tomorrow or the next day. We'll call you." Wow. This is sounding like a brush off.
Three days later -- it's now been two solid weeks -- I call them, because I've received NO phone calls from them AT ALL. "Yes, it's done."
In the meantime, the first watch that had the battery replaced does not keep time at all. I wore it to work one day and realized that I was 2 hours behind everyone else (what a disconcerting feeling) and have been watching it ever since -- no matter how many times I reset it, it's off. I know this as I go to pick up my gold dress watch, for now I just want my watch back in my possession.
I'm given my watch, which I quickly tuck in my purse. Total cost: $37.89 with tax. I'm told I have a six-month guarantee on it.
The watch is now sitting on my dresser on top of the receipt. I'm monitoring it for the next week or so to determine if it continues to run, for I'm not particularly hopeful that it will. If it quits, rest assured that I most likely will not take them up on their guarantee considering that it took them two weeks with NO communication to repair my timepiece. I looked for it to be treat as a treasured piece of jewelry and instead I felt as if were treated like it was a Timex throw-away to me.
That's not what I'm looking for in a jeweler. read more