I did not have a positive experience with J Brown Jewelers in Baltimore (Pikesville) Maryland during my recent Breitling purchase.
This week I picked up my new SOHCLE after waiting about 6 weeks for it as apparently it was on back order. That was actually ok, as the AD told me it would be 10-12 weeks which I was gladly prepared to wait.
As far as the purchase goes, there are 2 ADs in Baltimore (actually in the suburbs of Baltimore) one is J Brown Jewelers – from whom I purchased my watch.
The sales person, a knowledgeable young lady, was great to deal with. She helped me work my way through the multiple models I was considering, and gave me about 3 hours of her time over 3 or 4 different visits to the store. The final deal we arranged, with the in-person approval of the store manager, was for the SuperOcean Heritage Chrono Ltd Ed. on an Ocean Classic mesh bracelet, and an Ocean Racer black rubber strap on deployant clasp for a price I thought was very good. When the sales person printed my receipt I pointed out to her that the bracelets were not mentioned in the product description. She indicated not to worry, that they were a very professional store and I would get exactly what we agreed on. Nevertheless, I asked her to add the info, so she hand wrote (onto the receipt) the fact this transaction included the bracelet, band and deployant for the rubber band and signed her name.
A few days later, I received a phone message from the sales lady indicating the manager did not realize he had sanctioned the transaction to include the deployant on the Ocean Racer and that since this item cost about $300, they would not be providing me one unless I added another $130 to the transaction. This was aggravating since the transaction was already complete and I had paperwork indicating the deployant was included. It appeared this AD was not ready to honor our written agreement.
So I decided that this was the sort of thing that my credit card company would side with me on (especially since I had paperwork backing me up) and I could easily have Visa withdraw my deposit to the dealer. Before I did this, I went to the other AD in Baltimore and spoke to the sales manager in charge of their men’s jewelry and watches. I explained everything and asked if they could honor the original deal I had with J Brown. If they would I planned on switching ADs. After 2 trips to this AD and a few phone conversations (during which I learned I was not the first customer to come to this AD after experiencing problems with J Brown Jewelers) I was told that this AD could not meet the price I had received. They were close, but still about $200 away. They did indicate that unlike J Brown, they could get the SOHCLE in 3 weeks not 10-12. This was interesting since they share the same Breitling rep…
So after doing some internal planning about my options, and connecting with a buddy who is a lawyer, I returned to the sales person at J Brown. She told me that she spoke to the manager and had every intention of meeting her promise to me even if it meant the manager would take the $130 he wanted out of her salary. She said that after she stood up to him, he relented and agreed to let the transaction stand – so I was ok. I was still worried that once the watch showed up, upon pick up they would renege on the deal yet again. They did not, and the watch pick up went flawlessly, but I was worried.
So, after all that I got a good deal and a great watch but definitely got treated like crap and didn’t appreciate the extra work I had to do to possibly put up a fight against this dealer. Luckily I didn’t have to, just like I don’t have to deal with them again, and I don’t have to endorse them as an AD people should consider purchasing a Breitling from.
As I wrote this post, I thought about the fact that recently people have been sued by companies over comments posted on the internet, and considered slanderous by those companies. With that in mind I kept this post completely accurate and factual with no embellishment at all – just the facts – you be the judge!
One last thought. It’s interesting that a Breitling distributor/rep can indicate to one AD that he can get a watch in 10-12 weeks (although ultimately it arrived in about 6) and a week later he can indicate to another AD that he can get the same watch in 3 weeks.
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