Girard Perregaux

MCG (Markus)
3573

• Show profile
• Show other posts

GP Service - questionable...

Dear GP community and moderater,

probably it is not in your interest, that I post this here, because it is not really positive for GP. Decide yourself, if you want to delete this thread again or if you want to people see, how GP treats their clients...  Kind regards - Markus

Girard Perregaux Service Complaint

Dear GP Service

Unfortunately it seems that you lose a fan and sponsor of your brand now!  I am fed up! I am not willing to further support your greediness and – friendly speaking – arrogant and inacceptable way on how you treat customers. Not to mention your Service Quality, which is – and I am sorry to say that – lousy! Especially for a watch “manufacture” that you are – with a long lasting wonderful history, it is a shame if I compare quality / price relationship.

But, I don’t want to simply blame – I am a fan of facts, and here they are.

·         Bought the stunning watch – GP Seahawk GP 7000 in 1993. I loved it, not only for its classy design but also because it was my first “really expensive” watch: 2’900 CHF – was a lot at that time. Especially if the movement is “only” a finely decorated ETA2892, with a heavier rotor - with false writing on it. It was written 38 jewels on the rotor – instead of 21, the correct Nr. for an ETA2892 movement. I insisted on a correct labeling, but GP did not have a rotor with correct labelling, they used the same rotor with same labeling as they used in the GP 7000 Modul-Chronographs. GP solved the problem by using an old ETA rotor of the 70-ties (with the old GP Logo with frame).

·         In 1998 I made the 1. Service of the movement. Because the winding mechanism was not efficient, the upgraded the rotor / winding mechanism to the ETA2892A2 standard with better efficiency – which I found the right thing to do.
The cost of the service was affordable 200 CHF!

·         1999: Traveled to La Chaux de Fond – visited the manufacture. Collected every GP item I could (for many years to come) – kept all the catalogs, bought books of the brand etc. etc…

·         2002 I made the 2. Service.
Cost: 400 CHF.
The watch came back – on the inside of the sapphire crystal were finger marks of the “watch maker”. I sent it back. After another couple of weeks the watch came back to me. The crystal was clean now, but, even worse, there were dozens of little gold particles – probably from the GP logo writing of the dial sprinkled all over the dial!!
GP said, that this came probably from the transport.

·         Meanwhile I bought a couple of other watches, among them Omegas, Breguet, Zenith, Panerai, Ebel, Tag-Heuer and Hublot…
So I did service the GP watch less regular because my GP got less wrist time and also modern oils do not alter or dissolve anymore. Also I keep a track record of every watch on how often I wear them and how much they differ in accuracy from the master watch.

·         2015 I wanted to service the watch again: I went to my distributor (Les Ambassadeurs in Zürich – which is extremely friendly and competent!) and asked them what to do. Because of my bad experience with GP I wanted to service the watch at Les Ambassadeurs directly. After all they are a GP distributor and it is a simple 3 hand movement – as mentioned a ETA2892A2. Les Ambassadeurs offered me the service for 550 CHF.

However, GP wanted not to provide the glass-sealing and the GP crown – because “it is an old watch” that needs servicing directly at GP offices. They offered me the service for 990 CHF!!! And it will take 5 months!
I need to say, that I treat my watches with extreme care – there is e.g. no need to polish the body of the watch. After asking GP for a partial service only, the answer was simple: NO.
This is what I really call customer service, transparent and fair pricing! Well done GP!

That’s it. So, dear GP customer service: Please send the watch back to Les Ambassadeurs. I will service it there – without a new GP crown and without a new glass-sealing.  Meanwhile I don’t care that much anymore. I still love the watch, but I don’t think that I buy a GP watch anymore…

One last thing:

I wrote these facts and bullet points in “third person” and in English, because I will send this letter also to GP management and will post it in various watch forums. I want watch enthusiasts in the world to know about your pricing policy and how you treat your customers.