Re: Very Disappointing BALL Quality & Customer Service

[dennis.T]

Salute to All the sifu and master who given their sincere view and advice... I thk none of them ll do 1 to 1 exchange , be it Ball, Rolex, patek, swatch, seiko & etc... Just my 5 cents

[dpkong]

Salute to All the sifu and master who given their sincere view and advice... I thk none of them ll do 1 to 1 exchange , be it Ball, Rolex, patek, swatch, seiko & etc... Just my 5 cents

My grandmother always used a common Chinese saying "your 20sen bigger than car tyre"...

[james]

many companies fb just post their new products and news. but they no entertained any complain and feedback .....

[Enkidu]

Salute to All the sifu and master who given their sincere view and advice... I thk none of them ll do 1 to 1 exchange , be it Ball, Rolex, patek, swatch, seiko & etc... Just my 5 cents

My grandmother always used a common Chinese saying "your 20sen bigger than car tyre"...

Not car tyre....I am sure she would have said "bullock cart wheel".

[contender]

Salute to All the sifu and master who given their sincere view and advice... I thk none of them ll do 1 to 1 exchange , be it Ball, Rolex, patek, swatch, seiko & etc... Just my 5 cents

My grandmother always used a common Chinese saying "your 20sen bigger than car tyre"...

Not car tyre....I am sure she would have said "bullock cart wheel".

Agree on the "bullock cart wheel" ..... but is not 20sen coin ..... "5sen" 

[tonykpk]

Actually Ball watch itself is quite robust built and i still owned 1 out of 2 .  A simple way to rectify this screw coming out problem is not a problem.Get a bottle of clear nail varnish , use a needle to dip in varnish n drop the varnish in the hole where the screw fits in t bracelet and tighten. So the screw cant move to be loosen and come off n when u want to unscrew,  the varnish will just snap with a little more effort using t screw driver.  All gold watches bracelet u need to drip a drop of varnish into the screw hole and tighten . Gold is softer by nature so you cant over tighten it or risk loosing the tread .regards tony

Yes...and inevitably drive down the price of your watch in the pre-owned market due to loose screws that is still under warranty.  Not too sure if those VW owners did the right thing.

[chrisyen]

Ball offered 2+1 yrs warranty (+1 is for u to register urself on their website)
Which is good. The warranty on watches is limited, this apply to all watch brand I believe.

A screw came off from buckle, shd get a replacement screw.
Replaced screw coming off again and again may proof the design proble. A good brand often will upgrade the wrongly design part when u back for periodical service, in case of safety, they shd call back the owner.

I don't think watches is tested for 5-10 yrs before they market it, hence design issue is common.
We hv owners here posted screw came off their AP RO bracelet buckle as well, a top 4 brand in the world, most iconic design, near rm50k 3 hands steel watch.
Must longer waiting time.

In my opinion, no watch brand will change one to one watch likely.
FB moderator surely deleting any negative posting beyond control in their FB
I too hv my comment deleted by Ogawa, tzuk watch forum, etc

Having said that buying a quality watch that with flaw in design/problem is frustrated.

Facing a poor service staff in our country is worst.

[SPL]

Thank you for all the sharing & advice.

To most of the people, having screws came off from the bracelet is considered a small matter in general.

Perhaps we forget about the "value" of the item we purchased?

The defect could be negligible sometimes, but is it really so for a RM10K value? I have certain demand when I buy things. Needless to claim to the whole World that how attractive is your gas tube, or how durable or accurate your watches could be under any adverse scenario, But just get your basic quality control in the first place, down to earth! For just a 6 months BALL gave me such unnecessary defects, so I upset.

I have No Problem to wait for either a month or two since the day I handed my watches for repair. Is just that those defects that disappointed me. And later the feedback from KL service centre that disappointed me again. I have no confidence to them at all from there onwards. BOTH PIC told me this repair would take about 1 month since awaiting spare parts from Switzerland.

But then just after a day or two from the conversation, Watatime called me up to collect my watch since it's done. So what would you feel if you were me?? Are you really confident that you would be getting genuine parts from this? Haha....

I came across many Low Grade customer service from international comp & public listing comp lately.

Just wonder, besides a glamorous packaging that they do for their products, are they putting efforts to their QC & Customer Service??

[chrisyen]

Ur frustration is understandable!

1. QC for Swiss made watches normally quite good! In fact still the best in the world generally.
    Only Swiss qualified watchmaker assembled watch in Swiss can label Swiss made
    Like sifu above said, it's a standard procedure to use a 'glue' to tighten bracelet screw, so if more than a piece of watch hv their screw loosening likely due to design.

2. After sales service in watch industry really varies from brand to brand, from country to country, from particular service center to another service center... Generally msia nvr good in service industry except 5 star hotels... Living here so long, I nvr expect good service here, to get what I entitle always my priority, if watch faulty nvr repair or replace, I will go to tribunal.

As for ur case, mayb due to the way u demanding, they use other watch's part to repair urs rather than waiting new part from Swiss.

Seriously, I do not think they use aftermarket part for ur bracelet, ball watch bracelet never same as other watch, chance of getting after market parts is thin....

[dpkong]

Dear SPL,

Your disappointment with the quality of the BALL watch bracelet is understandable. Moreover, that disappointment likely escalated to anger/aggravation when treated badly by Service Centre staff who tried to teach you how to wear a watch. Maybe what they were trying to tell you was how to check/maintain it?

And again, your perception of "value of RM10k watch" and other people may differ indeed. Value is of course relative.

So if RM10k watch is defective (although a loose or lost screw could actually be attributed to lack of maintenance and not a defect) and should be replaced by a one-to-one exchange, then what if a RM250k car is defective or problematic? Should it also be replaced in a one-to-one exchange? That is 25 times more in Ringgit value.

I'm very sure if you read the warranty terms of many items nowadays, it is mostly on a "repair or replace at the manufacturer's decision" and even if replaced, it might likely be a refurbished item.

I think the Service Centre may have realised someone treated you wrongly and then offered you a "premium gift" which IMO you should have accepted instead of demanding a new watch.

[el118]

Just like new BMW 3 series F30 owner requesting for a new car once they found out that their RM280,000 car comes with rusted seat bracket & wind noise! It just aint going to happen.

As consumer you can curse, scold, complain but as manufacturer they are only obliged to reinstate the defect, not exchange for something new over such issue.

As the other forumer pointed out, a RM50,000 watch from one of the top 4 watch companies also prone to buckle screw issue, so as long as they attend to your complain and solve the problem for you, let life goes on.

[SPL]

 

[SPL]

Well, so now the screw problems on the bracelet & buckle settled, but another problem came pulak...

When I adjust the 'day' on the screw-down the crown for date adjustment, no response! But the 'date' is OK...

Tsk tsk tsk...I wonder what's next after I get this defect fixed again later!

BALL sxxxx!

[chrisyen]

Well, so now the screw problems on the bracelet & buckle settled, but another problem came pulak...

When I adjust the 'day' on the screw-down the crown for date adjustment, no response! But the 'date' is OK...

Tsk tsk tsk...I wonder what's next after I get this defect fixed again later!

BALL sxxxx!

sorry to hear this...

say position 0 - screwed
                   1- unscrewed/winding
                   2 - half pulled for quickset date clock wise/ day anti clock wise
                   3 - full pulled for time setting / second hack

u mean at the position 2, turning clock wise to set date is ok but anticlock wise for day is not working?

have u set date/day when the watch running between 9pm-3am?

[sidestreaker]

Sorry to hear about your persisting problems with the watch.

I'd just wish they would impose the Lemon Law in Malaysia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_law

[Omnipotent]

i'm sorry to hear your complaints but i for one am a happy owner of the Ball Fireman Racer Classic 42mm. the watch has been keeping accurate time since purchase and resizing the bracelet (done personally cos i don't trust the sales people to do it) a few months back...yes, it's still within 1 minute accuracy according to the time on my smartphone after more than 3 months.

Can't say the same for the similarly priced Oris Diver or the Epos Skeleton which needs a bi-weekly time adjustment.

Also, the bracelet on the Ball is quite resistant to scratches while working on the keyboard as opposed to the Oris Diver but i suspect this is due to the design of the clasp.

Overall, i'm quite happy with my purchase and even my colleague bought the same piece after seeing mine. I also agree with most of the forumers here that it is unlikely that any manufacturer will give a 1 to 1 replacement for small defects (i could argue that the person who resized your bracelet did not tighten the screw properly).

Anyway, i hope you find a better experience in your next watch purchase.

Cheers.

[SPL]

Hi Chrisyen,

Sorry for some clarification here, it was the Date that I couldn't adjust, not the Day.

So it's at the position 2 u mentioned.

Nope, I did it during noon time...

I have not hand it to Watatime for checkin as still away from town for work.

Hope it'll back to normal while I be back to KL later *fingers crossed*

Anyway I do wished that I am a happy BALL watch buyer but unfortunately I am not the one...

[spacewalker]

Hi. From my experience, changing the date/day on mechanical watch is easy but need an extra caution.

For me, I'm always pull the crown to second click where we could move the hour and minute hand, rotate the crown to move the hour hand past "12" until the date/day change automatically.

That means it is 0000 hours/ 12 am.

 Then, you need to rotate the crown again to the 0600 hrs/ 6.00am where the hour hand point at 6 o;clock .

 After that, it is a safe for you to push the crown the first click and change the desire date/day. At this moment, the date/day mechanism is "free".

Just to share my experience. sorry to hear about your Ball watch. Hope you can solve the issue immediately.

[contender]

Buy the watch without date one lar .... SubC no date/Base PAM/Black Bay ...... so many choices    problem solved.

Just sell the BALL away and get another watch, what so difficult  .... admit it was mistake on your part (for chosing BALL) and move on

Anyway, Wattatime having big BALL watch fair at KL Pavilion ....... 

[chrisyen]

Hi Chrisyen,

Sorry for some clarification here, it was the Date that I couldn't adjust, not the Day.

So it's at the position 2 u mentioned.

Nope, I did it during noon time...

I have not hand it to Watatime for checkin as still away from town for work.

Hope it'll back to normal while I be back to KL later *fingers crossed*

Anyway I do wished that I am a happy BALL watch buyer but unfortunately I am not the one...

its not when you adjust the date but the watch time!

this is mechanical movement watch.
when the movement run till 9pm ( not actual time, but watch time ), the day date wheel start engage together with time, till pass through ard 12, then fully disengage ard 3pm...

so if you quickset day/date between 9pm-3am watch time, then the engaged wheel can be damaged!

this is the most common issue.

[sshark]

I must say the bracelet is dirty ( visible stain). Were those stickers left overs?

[SPL]

Thank you all for your sharing...

However I have no idea about this 'watch time' thingies mentioned by Chrisyen. Please share more if possible.

Anyhow, I tried again yesterday. Before I adjust the date, I stopped the stop watch. This time, thing is OK, I managed to adjust the date.

Then in order to ensure it is real fine, I tried again this morning. But this time I couldn't adjust the date again.

Well, I was thinkin, if such 'watch time' thing is so particular, it shld have been highlighted in the user manual. Too bad I couldn't find any e user manual about it online.

Guess by hand the watch back to the service centre is all I can do now after I back to town later *sigh*

[wealthbowl]

Users are encouraged not to adjust the date when the hour hand is (pointing) within 9, 10, 11, 12, 1, and 2. Adjusting the date when your hour hand is within this time frame may, as what I believe others meant, damage your watch.
If not mistaken, certain watch restricts user from adjusting the date within these time frame, ie date will not move even if you rotate the crown to change the date.

Before adjusting the date, adjust your time to make sure that the hour hand is somewhere between 3 to 9.

**
I could be running off topic here, but am just sharing my experience when I have some date adjustment issue last time.

The best is to point hour hand at 6, set the date one day before the actual date, and rotate the hour hand until the date changes itself to reflect the current date, and adjust the hour/minute to reflect current time.

Thank you all for your sharing...

However I have no idea about this 'watch time' thingies mentioned by Chrisyen. Please share more if possible.

Anyhow, I tried again yesterday. Before I adjust the date, I stopped the stop watch. This time, thing is OK, I managed to adjust the date.

Then in order to ensure it is real fine, I tried again this morning. But this time I couldn't adjust the date again.

Well, I was thinkin, if such 'watch time' thing is so particular, it shld have been highlighted in the user manual. Too bad I couldn't find any e user manual about it online.

Guess by hand the watch back to the service centre is all I can do now after I back to town later *sigh*

[contender]

Thank you all for your sharing...

However I have no idea about this 'watch time' thingies mentioned by Chrisyen. Please share more if possible.

Anyhow, I tried again yesterday. Before I adjust the date, I stopped the stop watch. This time, thing is OK, I managed to adjust the date.

Then in order to ensure it is real fine, I tried again this morning. But this time I couldn't adjust the date again.

Well, I was thinkin, if such 'watch time' thing is so particular, it shld have been highlighted in the user manual. Too bad I couldn't find any e user manual about it online.

Guess by hand the watch back to the service centre is all I can do now after I back to town later *sigh*

Well that is common knowledge on the date adjustment on automatic watches ..... you have a manual for a reason 

Don't go blaming others ....  Lesson learnt hope that you have ..... no one from this forum is gonna buy your watch now 
 

[SPL]

Thank you Wealthbowl for the sharing. Now I learned some thg..

As to Contender, guess you used to sell damaged watch without other ppl knowledge huh?

I won't do this, and if other does, it's a willing buying and willing selling matter either.

Also I do not plan to sell it also, as it's a wedding gift