Complaint Review: Burdeen's Jewelry

On July 11, 2005 Burdeens Jewelry replaced the battery in my 8 year old Seiko watch. It was 5 minutes until closing but they said they had time to replace it. It took just a couple of minutes. I was charged $6 and paid cash. No receipt was issued. No warnings were given as to whether the watch would continue to be waterproof or not. Indeed, I had had the battery replaced at least 5 times before by other jewelers with no problems and no such warnings were issued.

On July 5, 2005 before the battery was replaced I swam with the watch and had no problem. On July 23, 2005 I again swam with the watch. This time water leaked into the case.

On July 25, 2005 I brought the watch to Burdeens. They said that the seals on a watch as old as mine could fail and offered to repair it for a minimum of $50. They did not open the watch to inspect it.

I took the watch to an independent watchmaker. He said that when he opened the watch there was no gasket, which was the reason it had leaked. He also said that since the watch movement was so badly rusted it needed to be replaced but that no replacement movements were available due to Seiko having discontinued that model.

I returned to Burdeen with the watch. Upon presenting the above facts to them they took the watch to have their watchmaker look at it. On, January 23, 2006, they returned the watch to me. They said they could not find a movement for it. I offered to accept a used watch similar to mine and they have refused to replace it.

In Burdeens response to my Better Business Bureau complaint they said, When someone comes in for a battery we offer them two different services. For $6.00 we will change a battery with no guarantee on water proofness, for $50.00 we will send the watch to our watch maker to water seal the watch and then we guarantee water proofness. Mr. Ellary chose the $6.00 option, which is appropriate for his watch; which has value under $50.00. Gaskets get old and dry rot, and even degenerate, which is what probably happened to Mr. Ellary's 8 year old Seiko watch. While it is unfortunate that Mr. Ellary's favorite watch is ruined and un-repairable, we cannot be responsible for the water proofness of a watch unless we send it to our watchmaker to be re-sealed.

I was not offered the $50 option to water seal the watch when I came in to have them replace the battery. Nor was I told that there was no guarantee that the watch would be waterproof if the battery was just replaced. And finally, I was not told that there was anything wrong with the gasket, which someone competent enough to replace a battery ought to have known.

In their response they state "Gaskets get old and dry rot, and even degenerate which is what probably happened to Mr. Ellary's 8 year old Seiko watch." The key word here is "probably". Burdeens doesn't know what condition the gasket was in because the gasket was not in the watch when they had their watchmaker inspect it.

No one opened the watch case between the time when Burdeens replaced the battery and the watchmaker inspected it. Also, I swam with the watch just a few weeks before they replaced the battery and it did not leak.

This watch cost me $250. I take the watch to a jeweler to have the battery replaced so as to maintain the water seal in the watch as well as my investment. I trust that the jeweler will do a proper job. Burdeens failed to do so.(I apologize for the age of these events as I just found this web site).

Ellery queen
Buffalo Grove, Illinois
U.S.A.