Rolex scratched after service

[Benjack]

Sorry to hear! unfortunately this things happen, you were smart to take the pictures, it can easily be fixed don't worry much.

[geoach]

rolex could say you took the pics of the case back before you scratched it..........then send it to them then accusing them for it trying to get a free case back from them......just being devils advocate

[sherlock40]

Originally Posted by geoach

rolex could say you took the pics of the case back before you scratched it..........then send it to them then accusing them for it trying to get a free case back from them......just being devils advocate

So let me get this reasoning straight: I own the watch for 5 years, the case back is in perfect condition, I have multiple pictures of the case back taken the day I send it in with date and time visible, take pictures of the sealed box before sent in, again with date and time visible, and I scratch the caseback to get a free one? What? Yeah, that argument fails poorly here.

[123Blueface]

Originally Posted by sherlock40

So let me get this reasoning straight: I own the watch for 5 years, the case back is in perfect condition, I have multiple pictures of the case back taken the day I send it in with date and time visible, take pictures of the sealed box before sent in, again with date and time visible, and I scratch the caseback to get a free one? What? Yeah, that argument fails poorly here.

Rolex inspects, documents and photographs all watches upon receipt.
Bet they do the same thing upon sending them out.
I don’t think you’ll have any issues getting them to take care of it.

[Driver8]

I'm sorry, but I never understand the, "oh well, these things happen" comments on things like this. Yes things like this CAN happen, but there is absolutely no justification for when they DO. And even IF they do, they should be picked up by the watchmaker who did it, or certainly by final QC, and rectified seamlessly before being sent out, so that the customer never even knows. IMO it just shows a lack of care and professionalism, and a lack of respect both for someone else's property, but also for the customer themselves.

I had a similar experience with IWC. I sent in a brand new Big Pilot for regulation - it was running so fast I could've removed the crystal and used it as a fan - and it came back with a huge scuff on the polished bezel, so back it went. Fortunately it was done without query and free of charge, but it's inconvenient and leaves a bad taste.

[gamingdoctor]

Not acceptable. They should fix it for you. Also not sure why people are saying it's not an issue.

[sherlock40]

Originally Posted by Driver8

I'm sorry, but I never understand the, "oh well, these things happen" comments on things like this. Yes things like this CAN happen, but there is absolutely no justification for when they DO. And even IF they do, they should be picked up by the watchmaker who did it, or certainly by final QC, and rectified seamlessly before being sent out, so that the customer never even knows. IMO it just shows a lack of care and professionalism, and a lack of respect both for someone else's property, but also for the customer themselves.

I had a similar experience with IWC. I sent in a brand new Big Pilot for regulation - it was running so fast I could've removed the crystal and used it as a fan - and it came back with a huge scuff on the polished bezel, so back it went. Fortunately it was done without query and free of charge, but it's inconvenient and leaves a bad taste.

[sherlock40]

Originally Posted by gamingdoctor

Not acceptable. They should fix it for you. Also not sure why people are saying it's not an issue.

[sherlock40]

I am really surprised at the number of responses saying it’s not a big deal, just live with it, it’s only the caseback that no one sees and doesn’t change how the watch works, this is to be expected when a watch is worked on, etc. I guess a lot of people have such a low bar for expectations these days and will accept anything. Not me. I am a physician and my work demands perfection in my diagnoses and I embrace that. If I make an error, someone’s life can be ruined forever. I look through a microscope every day to make my diagnoses paying attention to minute details. I know this is a watch we are talking about, but I feel those in ANY profession should do their work as perfectly as possible and strive for perfection. This technician who worked on my watch fell well, well short of this and sent back a watch in an unacceptable state.

[GONZO2LR]

to those that think that it's okay if it comes back to you scratched...you just don't get it and that is hard to even understand....

It's not just a watch, it's a Rolex....an expensive watch...it's not a $25 watch, it's a 5k to a 15k or higher watch....????

I took my sub to an Authorized Rolex Repair Shop , it was running slow..-2, he says..better to run fast than slow...i go to pick it up, the back has a little ping hole. I said, dude..it has a small ding...on the case, it didnt have a ding when i brought it in...you really need to be more careful sir...it's not just any old watch, he looked at it and apologized, i even said..your suppose to be a professional Rolex shop...this is not suppose to happen, you need to really take better care handling our stuff...he said, i will make sure i wrap your watch with a protector shield. It was just a small little ding...serious...but it was a ding, not to be seen by anyone...if it would of been on the outside...i would of blown up pissed off and demand them to do something...I spent money and expect it to come back like i sent it. the next day it was running like 8 seconds fast...i took it back, he saw it and i left it...he called beofre clsoing time and said it was ready, it was all bubble wrapped. and looked the same as i overlooked the hell out of it! Its all good now...+3 in maybe a month...

[worldofoyster]

easy polish.

if they didn't take good care of your watch the 1st time, i don't think they would for the 2nd time.

[sherlock40]

Originally Posted by worldofoyster

easy polish.

if they didn't take good care of your watch the 1st time, i don't think they would for the 2nd time.

You know, I agree with this and I have made the decision not to let them handle my watch again. I called the Dallas Service Center a half hour ago and spoke to a lady. I told her the situation of how I have before and after pictures. I told her how this is unacceptable for the watch to be returned like this. I said I would be happy to send my pictures and that I would like a new caseback and not for the back to simply be polished. It went there perfect without needing a polish and that’s how it should’ve been returned. She told me that Rolex did not want my pictures that they needed to compare them to the pictures they took. And, she said they can’t tell me anything about what will be done to fix the problem until they have the watch in hand. I said you can clearly see the scratches on the back that were not there when I sent the watch in. I demanded to see their pictures of my watch when they received it. She said she would send them to me immediately. I have not received the pictures from Rolex as of yet. Not to mention, how can I be certain that the picture I am receiving is of my caseback? How do I know that they didn’t scratch the watch upon initial handling of it before taking the picture? I am NEVER sending my watch to a Rolex Service Center. Thankfully, there are more trustworthy people to handle watches than them. I will be sending my watch to Rikki for a new caseback. It is annoying I will have to pay for this, but I at least know the watch will be in good hands and returned how it should be. Thank you to the member who recommended him.

[Top G]

This happened to me as well. I was pissed off at first, but just chalked it up as another scratch and moved on. Watches get scratched, plain and simple.

[sherlock40]

I agree that watches get scratched. And I don’t have a problem with this, but ONLY if I do the scratching, not someone else carelessly handling my watch. This, I have a major problem with and don’t accept it.

[Top G]

Originally Posted by sherlock40

I agree that watches get scratched. And I don’t have a problem with this, but ONLY if I do the scratching, not someone else carelessly handling my watch. This, I have a major problem with and don’t accept it.

You should see what rsc toronto did to mine lol. 2 nice gashes in the corner of my hulk lug. All they could do for me was offer a free polish, but id rather have it scratched and unpolished. I guess a caseback is easily enough replaceable and I would be shocked if they didn't give you a new one if you caused a big enough stink. But still, I think I'd prefer to keep the original with the scratch and move on. Replaced not original parts take up more space in my head then scratches do

[Devildog]

Originally Posted by sherlock40

I am really surprised at the number of responses saying it’s not a big deal, just live with it, it’s only the caseback that no one sees and doesn’t change how the watch works, this is to be expected when a watch is worked on, etc. I guess a lot of people have such a low bar for expectations these days and will accept anything. Not me. I am a physician and my work demands perfection in my diagnoses and I embrace that. If I make an error, someone’s life can be ruined forever. I look through a microscope every day to make my diagnoses paying attention to minute details. I know this is a watch we are talking about, but I feel those in ANY profession should do their work as perfectly as possible and strive for perfection. This technician who worked on my watch fell well, well short of this and sent back a watch in an unacceptable state.

I'm 100% with you on that.

If you dropped your car into a dealership to get serviced and it came back with scratches, that would not be acceptable, whether they were obvious or not. So why should it be different for a watch?

The scratches do look superficial and should be easily removed by mild polishing/refinishing without removing any significant amount of metal at all, and its something I'd be confident to do myself. That doesn't change the fact that it should not have happened in the first place, of course.

[sherlock40]

So Rolex did send me the intake photos and the caseback is shown in perfect condition.

[Rolex1982]

Same thing happened to my GMT Meteorite. I send it in for warranty work because it had low amplitude and was losing a lot of time. Came back and the caseback was scratched up. It really happens. That’s why I always recommend not to open a brand new watch for trivial things like losing 3spd or so.

[illiguy]

Originally Posted by Top G

This happened to me as well. I was pissed off at first, but just chalked it up as another scratch and moved on. Watches get scratched, plain and simple.

Same here. Irritating it comes to this.

[BMWMotoRider]

This thread is just one more reason I'm unhappy with the 32xx movement problems. My SD43 is now running about 20 seconds slow per day but I'm very concerned about what condition it will come back from the RSC after the "fix." Hopefully it will be ok but still a concern.

Also, I wonder how much additional work the RSC's have with the number of problematic 32xx's that they are so busy and work is getting rushed through. Just a thought.

[DaytonaAllDay]

Hi sherlock40, the same happened to me TWICE at the Dallas RSC. The first time, my Daytona 116520 had a failed mainspring under warranty and was serviced there in 2015. Since it did not show any significant wear or scratches, they recommended to not have it polished after service. Sadly, it came back with damaged/dented lugs and a scratched caseback. Of course, I complained and was finally offered repair of the lugs and polishing of the caseback. Reluctantly, I agreed, the watch came back looking alright but I could tell it was polished of course.
The second time I had this happen was with my grail watch, reference 116506, that I still own. Again under warranty, it was gaining about 12 seconds a day with a poor overall amplitude average and beat error so it needed to be serviced and they recommended again to not have it polished afterwards. When I received it back after 4 weeks, again I noticed the caseback was scratched and there were some other marks on the bracelet from handling it with little care. While this is sad and in my opinion completely unacceptable, I have learned to simply live with this now and will not have it polished again until I have it serviced again. I am sure all they would agree to at this point is polishing your watch and I really don't believe they will agree to replace the caseback as recommended by some here.

[sherlock40]

Originally Posted by DaytonaAllDay

Hi sherlock40, the same happened to me TWICE at the Dallas RSC. The first time, my Daytona 116520 had a failed main spring under warranty and was serviced in 2015. Since it did not show any significant wear, they recommended to not have it polished after service. Sadly, it came back with damaged/dented lugs and a scratched caseback. Of course, I complained and was finally offered repair of the lugs and polishing of the caseback. Reluctantly, I agreed and the watch came back looking alright.
The second time I had this happen was with my grail watch, reference 116506. Again under warranty, it was gaining about 12 seconds a day with a poor amplitude and beat error so it needed to be serviced and they recommended again to not have it polished. When I received it back after 4 weeks, again I noticed the caseback was scratched and there were some other marks on the bracelet. While this is sad and in my opinion completely unacceptable, I have learned to simply live with this now and will not have it polished again, which I am sure is all they would do at this point and they will do for your watch as well. I don't think they will replace the caseback as recommended by some here.

This is ridiculous that watches can’t be handled responsibly by Rolex technicians. At this point, even if they did offer me a new caseback, I will not be sending it to them. Thanks for your input.

[DaytonaAllDay]

Originally Posted by sherlock40

This is ridiculous that watches can’t be handled responsibly by Rolex technicians. At this point, even if they did offer me a new caseback, I will not be sending it to them. Thanks for your input.

In my opinion they do not care about protecting the watches well enough while disassembling and reassembling them BECAUSE most of them do get polished afterwards anyway. This is a real blind spot especially the Dallas RSC fails to find a solution for.

[Calatrava r]

Assuming everything is true, no way Rolex should have sent the watch back that way. There is no excuse for the watch to get scratched like that in service without some carelessness. It is all about an organized work area and care not to scratch watch parts with tools being used or on the table. In any event it was an easy fix, and the case back should have been polished prior to sending the watch back.

[DaytonaAllDay]

Originally Posted by Calatrava r

Assuming everything is true, no way Rolex should have sent the watch back that way. There is no excuse for the watch to get scratched like that in service without some carelessness. It is all about an organized work area and care not to scratch watch parts with tools being used or on the table. In any event it was an easy fix, and the case back should have been polished prior to sending the watch back.

If you select to not have the watch polished after service, they don't polish it even when they clearly caused the damage to the caseback. It's really as simple as that but doesn't make it less unacceptable for the customer. Only if you complain after the fact, they say: "Oh sorry, we can polish it for you free of charge", even though this should have never happened in the first place.

[Sglider]

Originally Posted by Calatrava r

Assuming everything is true, no way Rolex should have sent the watch back that way. There is no excuse for the watch to get scratched like that in service without some carelessness. It is all about an organized work area and care not to scratch watch parts with tools being used or on the table. In any event it was an easy fix, and the case back should have been polished prior to sending the watch back.

I find most of these stories to be just that. Just my opinion.

[MikeyV]

If you want more scratches from RSC - be sure to send it back!

My Gramps used to tell me - "Quit while you're ahead!"

It does suck - they should be able to do this stuff without messing up your watch.

[csaltphoto]

Originally Posted by DaytonaAllDay

In my opinion they do not care about protecting the watches well enough while disassembling and reassembling them BECAUSE most of them do get polished afterwards anyway. This is a real blind spot especially the Dallas RSC fails to find a solution for.

Definitely a blind spot but a hard thing to track for a production shop. Watch came in well used and with scratches but it should only leave with the identical scratches it came in with... That's tough to parse. Not impossible but tough.

[CaptT]

Originally Posted by Tools

You expect that a watch completely taken apart, moved, handled, measured, parts replaced, reassembled and tested, but it will be in the exact same condition as before.

It appears a majority on the thread here would be perturbed if their watch came back from a service with more scratches than it went in with, as is the case (😉) with the OP.

Larry, for the benefit of the forum members, could you say more about your expectations when a watch returns from a service? The nature of your statement/question seems to suggest that one should *not* expect their watch to return to them in the same condition.

[Seo]

this happens all the time unfortunately. RSC, also other watchmakers have always left me new marks to enjoy. For this reason I look avoid sending watches in unless it’s absolutely necessary.