Seiko Watch Warranty - Issue to be aware of when buying online

[StillShaving]

Most people probably think of Seiko as being a fairly common watch, which is available from many retail outlets, and would not think twice about where they bought it from, as long it was legitimate and sold at a reasonable price. But apparently there is a dealer network, and if you buy from a non-authorized dealer, Seiko USA will not honor the warranty. I bought a SRP309, the latest style orange monster from DutyFreeIsland last fall. But about a month ago it would no longer wind up and stopped running. I mailed it to them, expecting the repair to be covered by the one year warranty but was told that since I bought it from an unauthorized dealer they would not honor the warranty. That the repair would cost $113.22 including shipping back. I had a brief email exchange with them, where I asked a few follow up questions to gauge their level of customer service. I asked questions like:

• Q: How do I know if the shop is an authorized dealer? A: Look for some logo stating they are authorized. (I was tempted to get smart and follow up with: How do I, as a new Seiko customer know a valid logo from an invalid one? And doesn't Seiko know that anyone can paste a photo of any logo on their website if they chose to, that it offers no real protection?)
• Q: When purchased, the watch was not available in USA, only available through a few online storefronts. What is a customer to do in that case? A: no response
• Q: Doesn't Seiko control where their inventory goes to be sold, especially of new watch models which have limited availability? A: no response
• Q: Why is the burden on the customer to know about the authorized dealer network, and to know not to buy from those non-authorized sources. A: no response.

Since I like the watch and still hope to get good service from it, I called Seiko USA to give them payment and the watch was back 1 week later. It is running like new, and now they tell me it is covered by a one year warranty starting from the date I mailed it in (not the date it was repaired). So overall a mixed experience.

 

[Stubblefield]

It is for this very reason that I bought my orange monster (old style) from a US authorized seller.

 

[Luc]

I didn't know about that... I got mine online and do not remember where I got it but it must be more than one year now. It works fairly well so I don't think I got a lemon. That logo thing is new and you are right, anyone can paste a picture. If I would click on those paypal payement links that I keep receiving all the time by email (they have the paypal logo) then I would have a problem I'm sure. Anyways... This is where you got to ask yourself, is it worth it and what would be the difference for a new one?

 

[strop]

Interesting. When I sent in a watch thru a dealer, it took several weeks for the repairs to be done, though I was warned by the dealer that would be the likely scenario. Sounds as if you got yours back fairly quickly.

 

[Larry C in Texas]

Let me try to answer a couple of these, from my prior experience.

Doesn't Seiko control where their inventory goes to be sold, especially of new watch models which have limited availability? A: There is no way Seiko can do this. There is nothing preventing authorized dealers overseas selling their overstock or even current models to unauthorized "gray dealers". Seiko has such a worldwide presence that it would take an army of people to control this. They are not like Rolex, which controls everything in their supply chain to the nth degree.

Why is the burden on the customer to know about the authorized dealer network, and to know not to buy from those non-authorized sources? A: Who else would the burden be on? It has to be on the customer. Seiko can't be responsible for those people that go outside their chain of distribution. In the internet age, all purchases on a website has to be "caveat emptor" and you have to do your due diligence before buying. Would you expect Seiko to provide warranty service if you bought a Seiko from a guy on the street selling out of his trunk?

When purchased, the watch was not available in USA, only available through a few online storefronts. What is a customer to do in that case? A: Do like the rest of us - either don't purchase the watch, or purchase it from a trusted online authorized overseas dealer that offers an international Seiko warranty.

There is a lot of info about this particular issue on various watch websites, and I believe it is the responsibility of the buyer to inform themselves before buying. I know that doesn't help you now, but it will in the future. Some gray dealers offer their own warranty, so you might contact dutyfreeisland to see if you can get the watch fixed through them before laying out cash to have it done yourself.

 

[Ronnie Aloha]

Even Rolex had grey market watches available at Costco. Of course Costco warranted the watches themselves. Same thing happens with higher end camera gear. You have grey market and dealer market lenses. Grey is cheaper but doesn't have the same warranty.

 

[jumper]

It's a grey market crapshoot. You can pay $300 for a grey market OM or $700 to an AD. Other than the headache portion you are still ahead and a fresh warranty. I'm glad your watch is back on your wrist. I have one too and I love it.

 

[rajagra]

How strongly do you feel about it? A few years ago, Sony took a hostile (and spiteful) approach against companies importing their goods on the grey market. I haven't bought a Sony product since.
I'm not sure your problem is quite the same, but at least you know their policy now, and can make a choice in the future about whether to buy Seiko products.

 

[StillShaving]

Let me try to answer a couple of these, from my prior experience.

Doesn't Seiko control where their inventory goes to be sold, especially of new watch models which have limited availability? A: There is no way Seiko can do this. There is nothing preventing authorized dealers overseas selling their overstock or even current models to unauthorized "gray dealers". Seiko has such a worldwide presence that it would take an army of people to control this. They are not like Rolex, which controls everything in their supply chain to the nth degree.

Why is the burden on the customer to know about the authorized dealer network, and to know not to buy from those non-authorized sources? A: Who else would the burden be on? It has to be on the customer. Seiko can't be responsible for those people that go outside their chain of distribution. In the internet age, all purchases on a website has to be "caveat emptor" and you have to do your due diligence before buying. Would you expect Seiko to provide warranty service if you bought a Seiko from a guy on the street selling out of his trunk?

When purchased, the watch was not available in USA, only available through a few online storefronts. What is a customer to do in that case? A: Do like the rest of us - either don't purchase the watch, or purchase it from a trusted online authorized overseas dealer that offers an international Seiko warranty.

There is a lot of info about this particular issue on various watch websites, and I believe it is the responsibility of the buyer to inform themselves before buying. I know that doesn't help you now, but it will in the future. Some gray dealers offer their own warranty, so you might contact dutyfreeisland to see if you can get the watch fixed through them before laying out cash to have it done yourself.

Thanks for all the responses from everyone. I will admit I was naive and thought that only high end brands like Rolex or Omega went so far to protect their dealer network or had price fixing to protect the brand's prestige. I think of a Seiko automatic as a functional watch without an pretensions, which was part of its appeal. Where Seiko earns its margins and it's retailer network is responsible for their own margins, neither of which would be that great.

After telling me that the repair would not be covered by warranty, and me asking some of the questions above, Seiko suggested that I contact DutyFreeIsland for the warranty repair. I thought to myself what?, those two statements don't make sense together. So I asked another follow up question as to whether they were suggesting that I should send it back to Indonesia or Japan for warranty repair, to which they did not reply. I did not try to contact DutyFreeIsland, but went ahead a paid for the repair service, as I did not want to give the person a bad time, but I did want to understand why they would not honor the warranty as I think many of their customers would be in the same position.

 

[Grumpy_Bottom]

Thanks for all the responses from everyone. I will admit I was naive and thought that only high end brands like Rolex or Omega went so far to protect their dealer network or had price fixing to protect the brand's prestige. I think of a Seiko automatic as a functional watch without an pretensions, which was part of its appeal. Where Seiko earns its margins and it's retailer network is responsible for their own margins, neither of which would be that great.

After telling me that the repair would not be covered by warranty, and me asking some of the questions above, Seiko suggested that I contact DutyFreeIsland for the warranty repair. I thought to myself what?, those two statements don't make sense together. So I asked another follow up question as to whether they were suggesting that I should send it back to Indonesia or Japan for warranty repair, to which they did not reply. I did not try to contact DutyFreeIsland, but went ahead a paid for the repair service, as I did not want to give the person a bad time, but I did want to understand why they would not honor the warranty as I think many of their customers would be in the same position.

The same applies to cars; brands protect their dealer networks, it's just that simple. It's the price you pay for buying out of market; regardless of whether it's offered in your country. I've purchased 4 Asian only Seikos, and done it with the knowledge that if something goes wrong, it's either pay or send it back to Japan - simple, maybe not ideal (esp. since the one I bought as a gift for my boss seems to have the spring over pin issue already, but the nature of the beast...), but I knew it would happen. Think of this as a relatively inexpensive lesson learned for the future.

 

[cb91710]

I think the point is that Seiko made the thing (as long as it's not a counterfeit)... why does it matter where the customer purchased it?
Seiko made it, and they shipped it to their distributor.

I understand protecting their dealers... but why take it out on the customer, who doesn't find out about their protectionist policies until after the purchase is made?
The pain should be dealt to the distributor who released the product into the grey market. The serial number tells them who they shipped it to. The customer tells them who he purchased from.
Two phone calls can either confirm or deny the chain of custody to determine whether action should be taken against the distributor, or some local dealer that he shipped to, who then moved the product to the grey market dealer.

 

[StillShaving]

I think the point is that Seiko made the thing (as long as it's not a counterfeit)... why does it matter where the customer purchased it?
Seiko made it, and they shipped it to their distributor.

I understand protecting their dealers... but why take it out on the customer, who doesn't find out about their protectionist policies until after the purchase is made?
The pain should be dealt to the distributor who released the product into the grey market. The serial number tells them who they shipped it to. The customer tells them who he purchased from.
Two phone calls can either confirm or deny the chain of custody to determine whether action should be taken against the distributor, or some local dealer that he shipped to, who then moved the product to the grey market dealer.

You summarized it better than I did. Given that the watches have a serial number it should be relatively easy for Seiko to figure out its grey market path. But I think Seiko doesn't care enough and are somewhat happy with the arrangement. DutyFreeIsland prominently displays many different Seikos models on their website as well as other brands. Before I purchased from them, I signed up to get notice of when the item would be back in stock. As the new Monster in all 5 of its color combinations was sold out quickly a few times. Perhaps DFI only received a few watches each time, but from the outside it looked like they were a relatively high volume retailer for Seiko.

I am not trying to knock DFI as they provided good service, but I was disappointed by the attitude of Seiko. I would have been happier if SeikoUSA had said that the watch was not intended to handle the shock of spanking the side of a coffee grinder with the palm of the hand (to dislodge coffee stuck because of static cling), which my best guess of what caused it to fail. But which I think should be within its normal operating limits.

 

[Krona Kruiser]

I have a new gen Monster myself from Dutyfreeisland. This is great information to know. I've been very happy with the prices from them but I do recognize that these kind of situations occur when buying from a gray market dealer.

 

[rajagra]

why does it matter where the customer purchased it?

Because he never did actual business with Seiko. In Europe (and most of the world?) the law is that you enter a contract with the persons you bought the item from. Your legal rights are with the seller, not the manufacturer. This makes perfect sense. Any manufacturer warranty is a bonus and usually not needed.

Of course a manufacturer warranty is worth having, and customers are free to judge the manufacturer by how good the warranty is and if/how they deliver it.

Not disagreeing with anyone, just pointing out how things are done outside of the U.S. - which obviously affects how international business is done.