1/5
So this is about my mom’s watch. She is passed. My sisters and I each got one of her watches. I took mine in to Dakota Watch in the Louis Joliet Mall along with another watch, a Michael Kors watch that was a gift from my son, as both needed batteries. I dropped them off and returned a half hour later to pick them up. The clerk had to inform me that he had shattered the crystal on the watch that was my mother’s. I really strive to be a good person. And so I held back from getting upset. I assumed the clerk likely felt bad enough already.. And I was nothing but polite inspite of the situation. So he told me he would put it with a note for his manger. So I returned a few days later to check in the situation. The same clerk was at the counter talking to a gentleman. So I stood there and waited. Their conversation seemed casual and not related to business. But I didn’t interrupt. At some point he asked if he could help me. I said I was checking on my moms watch. He pulled it out of the cabinet and looked at it and said his manager hadn’t looked at it yet. He was very short with me, and no longer the apologetic person he was the last time. And he gently tossed my mothers watch back into the cabinet. I cringed at how he was handling my precious momento. And I mentioned it to the manager when I spoke to her. She told me they have to send it out for a few weeks to get the crystal replaced. Again, I was nothing but kind. And when I picked up my mothers watch, he manager was kind enough to remove a couple of links so it would fit me better. I didn’t wear the watch but a couple of times. And then I realized that the hands were loose and falling down. So when I had time, I took it back. But they weren’t at the kiosk. I eventually went back and the manager was there. She wanted to charge me $25 to repair the hands. And I told her that I do not wear the watch when I’m doing activities. I only wore it a couple of times. She wanted to charge me. And I reminded her that I had told her how the other clerk tossed it back into the cabinet. (Although the crystal was replaced after that. So it was likely not repaired with the quality of care a watch should receive.) She ended up fixing the hands. And these months since, I typically wear the watch to church then take it off. And I occassionally will wear it to my office.
But tonight I went to a prayer vigil. And as I stood with my right hand over my left wrist and my hand over my mom’s watch, the crystal came off in my hand. My mother had this watch for years and the crysta never came off! This crystal was not damaged when I first went into Dakota Watch. I went in for a battery. And this is what has become of my most valued possession out of everything I have of my mother’s. My mom wore a watch every day of her life since I was a child. This watch has many years of being worn for hours daily. And NOW that it was left in the care of Dakota Watch it has been damaged and falling apart.
I am not one who likes to write bad reviews. But there are no excuses for this much to go wrong at the hands of the employees with one watch!!!
I expected that a place that specializes.I’m watches to give my watches far better care than anywhere else. But I was wrong.
And now I will have to go elsewhere and pay the cost to get this watch repaired or possibly have the crystal replaced….when there was NOTHING.wrong with the crystal when I first went in. I am beyond disgusted!
*** UPDATE: I chose not to contact Dakota as was suggested by their response to this review. Instead, I took it to a jeweler to get a quote to put the crystal that was replaced by Dakota, that had fallen off. Not only was there no gasket holding it on plus old glue that wasn’t cleaned off. But Dakota replaced the shattered glass crystal with a round plastic crystal. Cost to me to repair the damage caused to my mothers watch and put it back to its original condition $110.
