The Breitling Watch Source Forums

I am sharing my first vintage watch purchase experience which was a total scam and a huge disappointment. I saw an ad on ebay from the German seller Luxus-Freund24 / Luxus –Scout24 who was selling a vintage Breitling Chronomat Chronograph. His ebay ratings were very positive and had a good rating on chrono24 so I bought the watch from Felix (owner of Luxus-Freund24 / Luxus –Scout24) after some negotiation.

When I received the watch, firstly it was different from the image posted on the auction. The strap was not the original strap (as claimed in the auction) and the watch hands and face was different. I emailed my concern and Felix replied to say that the watch was original but was only another building year from the dial. As the watch was for a gift, I had to quickly present it to my friend. After she received it and tried to adjust the time, it could not be adjusted. I sent Felix another email with the fault and did not receive any response from him.

I then sent the watch to my local Breitling service center and to my horror, they informed me that the watch face had the Breitling labeling but the inside movement did not, so they could not determine if it was authentic. To make things worse, they told me that the internal movement of the watch was all corroded and faulty hence my friend was not able to adjust the time. In order to fix the watch, the cost would amount to almost $2,000 that was close to the price I had paid for the watch.

After getting back the watch, I sent Felix an email with the comments from the service center and as expected, he did not reply even after emailing him twice. As such, I have decided to share my horror experience with everyone here and caution not to deal with this seller. It is a great disappointment that my first watch purchase experience was a nightmare.

Being a first timer, I was coaxed by the seller not to deal directly through ebay to avoid transaction fees for him hence I am in limbo on whether I can make an appeal to ebay. I have lodged a dispute with paypal and hopefully, something miraculous may happen. In the mean time, I just want to share my bad experience and hope that no one has to go through this.

This is the company details of Luxus-Freund24 / Luxus –Scout24

MPRESSUM
Luxus-Scout24© GmbH
Dipl.-Kfm. Felix Kölbel
MBE
Ernst-Toller Str. 15
06110 Halle Saale

Phone:01578-5296563
Email:info@luxus-scout24.de

Welcome to BreitlingSource and sorry to hear the story. Post pictures of the piece in the vintage section (dial, inside and outside of caseback and movement) and we'll soon tell you if it's real or not, and do not under any circumstances let Breitling work on it. Aside from the fact that it's a different company today than the one who produced the watch and they don't have the expertise they will charge you way too much. If the watch is real then our tame watchmaker here will be able to help you out for far less.

The information give from this customer is not right. He never contact us and also did not send some informations about a defect. the customer paid with Paypal and had 45 days to open a claim and did not do. Why did you not contact us in this time.

Just as an fyi for everyone, luxus-freund24 has PM'ed me demanding deletion of this thread, which I have no intention of doing. Ordinarily I would invite luxus-freund24 to post in this thread to present their position, but they have already done so.

let me add that there were several comments to this case posted in another forum, all confirming rather questionable activities by this seller, both as friend and scout.

Luxus-Freund24 / Luxus–Scout24 sell "vintage" from our expert friend Michael M...

We won't delete this thread, but It would be prudent to get more information from the original poster since right now its a he-said-she-said kind of situation. The original poster created an account, posted this topic a month later, and NEVER visited our forum again. This is somewhat odd behavior as well unless his sole purpose was to tarnish the reputation of this seller.

He never provided the photos that Roff requested either.

Watchfred did mention there are other claims against this seller on another forum, so people please do your due diligence.

_________________
BreitlingSource Admin
http://www.breitlingsource.com - http://blog.breitlingsource.com

Hi everyone, thank you for keeping the post in the forum. I have shared my unpleasant experience with Luxus-Freund in this forum as well as several other reputable ones to warn other potential buyers. Luxus-Freund has PMed me on another forum which I have replied (in Mar 2013) but have not heard back from them since. Personally, I was liaising with Felix from Luxus-Freund throughout the watch deal and he has not replied to any of my emails to him (even after several reminders) or even after mentioning his name in the forum message reply to Luxus-Freund. It's been a while since this experience and I am still trying to put this bad experience behind me. I will still be happy to share correspondences (privately) or pictures if there is still any chance to get a refund for the watch. Thanks.

Dear Sir,
I had never had personal contact with you in this claim. I never got an e-mail from you or a phone call what has not been replied. You posted our detail informations, but never contacted us. Feel also free to contact us now to solve this issue.

And why did you not contact us within the 45 days period you could file a claim in Paypal. Nobody who would get a watch was described from you would wait to long and dont file a claim in Paypal.

You are free to contact us, I never got in contact with you and even dont know and which buy you could refer.

All the best.

Thanks
Felix

Yep Felix is a scammer.

Got me too. Seems his trick is to claim he's not yet received the item you return (in my case it was a breitling aerospace bracelet - he sent me the wrong one) until the 45 day window to open paypal case is expired.

Made me go through the trouble of getting Australia post to contact Duetch Post and after they eventually got the POD (which showed he had received the bracelet 2 months prior), then he admitted
he received it and said he would issue the refund but did not, then stopped replying to me emails.

I still have the emails evidence where he admits he has the item, and will refund me but because its too late to open a case he thinks he can get away with it.

What a horrible excuse for a human being. Knew exactly how to work the system, keep delaying until it's too late.


Buyers beware.

Uhren-Kölbel GmbH
Geschäftsführer: Dipl.-Kfm. Felix Kölbel
Ernst-Toller Str. 15
06110 Halle Saale
Germany
Telefon: 01578-5296563
E-Mail: info@luxus-freund24.de



Cheers....

Al.

alrsv1, I have deleted your duplicate thread, please don't double post.

The last message from alrsv1 is not true,
it is right that there was made a mistake in shipment.

Through long return shipping from Australia to Germany, there was delay in refund.

In the end refund was done.

Hi, I found Luxus-freund24 on Ebay because i was looking for a new band for my B1. After checking internet i found this messages about them. The Ebay reviews were ok. So i decide to aks them to replace my battery and polish or replace my band. The band was bad! After a check up they could polish my band and replace my battery for only 120€ included shipment back to The Netherlands. I got it back in a box with sealed plastic around. In the box was a metal luxury box with my B1. In the box was a certificate and a test print for waterproofment. It look like brand new (even the watch is polished) and im so happy again with my B1. Excelent service from Felix. It was so easy to sell me a new band for +/- 600€. So if you read those messages dont worry we have a excelent experience. Best regards Marcus (Netherlands)