Patek Philippe

I went to the Miami boutique with my watch, which is still under warranty. They accepted it but charged me $300 for shipping it to New York for repair. Is this normal? It’s the first time I’ve come across a company charging for shipping on a product that’...  

I have sent my wife's Harry Winston to SFO and SFO then sends to NYC for battery replacements since 2014 and never paid a dime. SFO boutique even sent a package to me to return to them, every time. Even secondary dealers I worked with, if watch is under w... 

This is the first time I’ve encountered this, so I decided to get other opinions. This is the main Patek dealer we have here in Miami.

Since I’m in the UK I can’t answer your question but I will be interested to hear other people’s experiences. Although the watch is still within the warranty period, is the defect covered by the warranty? If they need to send the watch to New York to diag... 

Hi Jon, thank you for your comment. The thing is, I bought the watch a year and a half ago, and only about a month ago I noticed that the hands are slightly misaligned and do not show the exact time. For example, if you set the minute and hour hands exact... 

Why promise free shipping when the diagnosis that this was a manufacturer defect isn't even confirmed by a watchmaker?

A JLC Reverso and Omega Planet Ocean both needed warranty repair. No charge for shipping.

Thanks for sharing.

As an example which I have already posted about excellent customer service. I have a Limited Edition Russian Red Cartier lighter but no paper work for it and no idea how old this model is but I have had it a over a year and took into Cartier Old Bond Stre... 

Thank you, Marc, for sharing your experience. You had an excellent experience, and I have also had great experiences with various well-known brands, even outside of warranty, when I wasn’t charged anything for service or shipping because it was a factory ... 

Just because Cartier went above and beyond, doesn't mean that Patek Philippe offers "terrible customer service" just because they didn't match Cartier. And there might be a small difference between a lighter and a watch; although yes, I do agree, the prin... 

If I bought a Patek Philippe watch costing tens of thousands of dollars and had a warranty issue and the watch has a worldwide warranty the last thing I would expect on taking it into any official Patek Philippe Retailer is to be charged shipping. Irrespe... 

whether that is normal procedure.

Thank you for your advice; I also think I will do the same.

The warranty covers repairs on the watch. But warranty doesn't cover shipping to the Patek Philippe service center. You have to get it to the Patek Philippe service center; either bring it in person or have it shipped there. The Miami boutique shipped the... 

They didn't charge me shipping from the boutique to the service center (I believe in Seattle?)...

1. Original poster and you both didn't state if you were the original owner of the watch. 2. Both didn't state if you bought it from the same boutique you're sending it for service through. 3. Your Omega boutique may be a franchise or corporate owned. We ... 

My FPJ warranty not only covered the service, but the shipping back and forth to the Miami boutique as well from my residence! I didn't even purchase it at that location. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but maybe I should have! There is, of cou... 

But I do realize, those stores were all "trusting me" that my "alleged complaint" about the watch was accurate and if it were accurate then it would be a valid warranty claim. What if my alleged complaint was inaccurate and the Service Center realized I h... 

But the OP stated they went to the brand boutique… it isn’t normal in my experience either.

Let's say I'm a new Patek Philippe boutique in an expat-filled city; am I really expected to eat the cost for shipping hundreds of watches a year - especially if none of these watches were sold by my boutique? That's not scalable. The original poster also... 

Anecdotally, we took my wife’s inherited Datejust to the Rolex boutique in Vancouver. They sent it to Toronto free of charge and when they wanted to replace all the sentimental pieces we declined the service. They returned it to the Vancouver boutique fre... 

I would say that this store went above and beyond the call of duty. That's great. But that can't be expected be very store all the time. You yourself said you were pleasantly surprised that you weren't charged for shipping and you saw this as a "bonus." A... 

That is my expectation for a large luxury company, as I stated previously. Sometimes when you give a little you get a lot, nickel and diming at this level doesn’t feel right to me.

We only know what one side has told us. And there are a lot of missing details. And we're also making an assumption that what we are told is accurate. We really shouldn't pass judgment on Patek Philippe Miami without knowing the full story. In these kinds... 

we don’t know the whole story, but I can’t see that people are saying the dealer is wrong. I see people sharing their views and expressing their feelings about their expectations. I think it boils down to communication (and policy). I tend to agree with t... 

I don't quite agree. If there’s an official PP representative in the city and I go there with a warranty issue, I don’t expect to pay extra for resolving it on a nearly new watch — that’s what the local representative is for. If someone cannot physically ... 

From Patek Philippe's own guarantee paperwork: "The Guarantee covers all manufacturing faults and material defects as confirmed by an Authorized Patek Philippe Service Center only." This means that you are responsible for getting the watch to a Patek Phil... 

you are not their client. This is not to say that this is right but it might be their reasoning. If you bought the watch there, or any Patek there, it would seem to make a much stronger case that they should cover the shipping and do it with a smile. I th... 

Shipping costs are real. Insurance costs are real. Also, a store isn't always able to make the determination that a watch is defective. Let's say the hands were misaligned. Sure, everything would suggest that's a factory problem. But who knows, maybe the ... 

Omega's warranty does mention shipping is covered for warranty repairs. So it's safe to say some brands cover shipping charges and some brands don't. Patek warranty doesn't mention it. So we cannot assume it's covered. So, by contract, there's no obligati... 

We don't know what's going on. Maybe Patek hasn't determined if the watch is actually a manufacturer defect. And maybe once they did, they'll cover the shipping charges. All we know is that the watch has been dropped off and a shipping charge was charged.... 

I feel that from a customer relations standpoint and long term financial standpoint: if a client of an AD buys a Patek from that AD and the watch develops a problem during the warranty period the AD (unless the warranty specifically states that the client... 

As I mentioned before, if there were a thousand people who all expected free shipping to be paid for by Miami boutique, that would not be scalable for Miami boutique. And this is also the problem when you have dealers/franchisees as your main points of co... 

I consider these to be details and service-related issues. As a consumer and a client of various renowned global brands, this approach certainly raises many questions for me. In the 21st century, where customer service is often as important as the product... 

I hear you, and I get the logistics side of things. But here's the thing, this isn't someone calling from the middle of nowhere. The client actually walked into a major Patek boutique in Miami with their watch. Charging $300 to ship something domestically... 

To increase speed for the customer, a jewelry store will generally ship the watch immediately to HSWA, often the same day. This is done to minimize delay for the customer. For instance, if the jewelry store shipped weekly, then the clients would have a po... 

I absolutely agree with that.

The watch was purchased from a Patek Philippe AD in Illinois. That's a good idea. I will definitely do that with HSWA (Patek USA).

And I think if you had empathy for the store's position, you might come to the same conclusion. It's a scalability issue... if a thousand people came to the store in Miami and asked them to send their watches for warranty work... It's not scalable. And Mi... 

And even if the watch were returned to the same AD, that AD is still not obligated to send it back for free because they can't make that determination that it is an actual warranty claim. Sure, they can take the client's word for it. But that's a risk. Su... 

it didn’t. But you made a strong argument that makes a lot of sense. Well done!

Here's the truth. Almost all the respondents are jumping to conclusions based off of assumptions. For instance, this watch is ALLEGEDLY suffering from a manufacturer defect - that's not a fact yet. We don't know if that's actually the case or not. Also, o... 

Marc

Let's say you're in a city like Shanghai or Beijing. About a decade ago, Shanghai and Beijing saw lots of Patek owners who bought them externally. And at one point they're getting floods of watches for warranty claims. This really did happen.

for shipping? Or was it free?

…my daughter wants them, otherwise they’d be long gone. Thank you but no, thank you.

You are a wonderful father for your daughter, keeping such things for her.

Have had a few watches serviced and shipped overseas for servicing and have never been charged a shipping fee. It’s best to call up H.Stern and see if this is a mandatory practice.

Thank you for your advice, I will definitely clarify this situation.

Outside of warranty there is always a shipping charge, once the issue is identified you get an estimate that you can accept and get the watch serviced, or refuse and get it returned to you. My guess is that someone at the AD messed up confusing the two si... 

It seems very likely, because the lady who accepted the watch told me that mine were covered by the 5-year warranty since they were purchased in 2024. However, the 5-year warranty only applies to watches purchased starting from May 1, 2024, while mine wer... 

I’ve had montblanc (which got sent to Switzerland), VC, and breitling all sent for warranty work no charge and they covered shipping from my house to them and back. They all were purchased at boutique 🤷‍♂️

This is ideally how it should be in such cases.

warranty or not. u want to be considered class, act like one. that is a five figures toy at minimum and u decides to nickel and dime your customer on $300 SH 🤣🤣🤣

Handling can be very subjective sometimes! Also, AD does have to pay for insurance (they have an overall business insurance - like a big umbrella - that covers all business operations including shipping, this they would have to pay regardless, but it woul... 

Definitely nothing shady in Patek Philippe USA. For Patek Philippe, in USA, any watch for warranty or service always goes to HSWA in NYC and comes from HSWA in NYC. If it needs to go to Geneva, it is still routed to Geneva from HSWA and sent back to HSWA ... 

I think if the ADs truly operated as PP boutiques, they should cover shipping as many owned brand boutiques do. If charging for shipping, I very much disagree with charging for the round trip up front because there's no telling where I may be 6 months fro... 

I don't think of boutiques as specialists in handling service. Convincing me to leave money behind, yes, but service, no.

I called the Miami boutique and two other Patek Philippe stores in the "Southern Region" of America. I explained to all stores that I was an editor collecting information for a watch blog, and I had a hypothetical problem that I was convinced would be cov... 

This was an interesting research on your part, sir, which may help clarify the situation for the entire group, while at the same time giving food for thought, as the human and personal factor plays a significant role.

We got the consistency part answered. Still not feeling terribly great about the $300. But at least there's some consistency there.