The Microbrand Store Reviews 

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Sep 11, 2024

Hi Matthew,

Thank you for your kind words!

We're always happy to hold any shipment for a couple of weeks if a customer is out of town, so can't sign for their package. Customers can just let us know via our online chat at https://the.microbrand.store (bottom right of the screen) when ordering.

Now that you have your new timepiece, we hope that you enjoy it!

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Jul 8, 2024

Hi Caleb,

Thank you for your order! We hope you had a great 4th and are enjoying your new timepiece.

We particularly wanted to let you know that you are completely incorrect regarding the warranty situation, and in the unlikely even you do have an issue with your watch, it may be beneficial to know that we're an authorized dealer for all of the new watches we sell, which all come with the full manufacturer's warranty, just as if you purchased the watch directly from the microbrand. The watch you purchased through us came with a full two year manufacturer's warranty.

We also provide our own supplemental warranty on top of that as well. This covers exactly the same kind of manufacturing defects that manufacturer's warranties cover. It is a secondary coverage that kicks in on new watch purchases when a microbrand doesn't honor their warranties. On a very well established brand like say Zelos, this isn't something you'd ever expect to use, but it has sadly proven to be invaluable when it comes to numerous smaller microbrands (particularly those on their first releases) that haven't planned or budgeted to keep spare parts or watches, or have an arrangement set up for watch servicing. We have experienced microbrands with fantastic watches that just completely ignored all manufacturing defects reported to them and close up shop after completing sales on a new release. In these situations, we have stepped in and taken care of any issues directly for our customers and would be happy to point you to some well known examples if that would be helpful. Please just drop us a line if you want more information on this.

Generally however, most of our customers do not need to recourse to a manufacturer's warranty since unlike other retailers, we inspect and test every watch right before shipping. You'd be surprised how many microbrands don't test or inspect their own watches, and just rely on their factory to do this, often with disastrous results. We tend to discover a few rejects in the majority of batches we receive from all of our microbrands, even the good ones, and we make sure that those do not go out to customers. Your watch was both inspected and tested, including testing on a timegrapher. We noted that at the time of shipping it was running extremely well with an average accuracy of +3 seconds per day dial up, a near perfect amplitude of 296 degrees, and a perfect 0.0ms beat error. In short, you had a very healthy watch, running extremely well, with an excellent accuracy.

To respond on some of your other points, we checked the tracking of your shipment for you and see that it went out at the end of the day around 5pm on the 20th June local time, and you received it around 1:15pm on the 26th June, so we're looking at roughly one week door to door. For free shipping traveling between two continents, including clearing customs, we think this is very reasonable but do respect that your opinion may differ. Typical shipping times to your locale vary from between 4 days and a week. Our free shipping was via an airmail service that is tracked and with a signature required on delivery for our customers' peace of mind. We also pay extra to have all of our packages insured for the full purchase price. Expedited shipping is also available at a subsidized price for customers who don't want to wait a week or so for their shipments.

With regard to the pricing, we're glad you were able to get the cheapest pricing through us. The higher price we struck out was the retail price this watch has been selling at when we set up our listings converted into USD. It's entirely possible that the microbrand may have temporarily or permanently lowered their prices without letting us know, or there may have been some significant movement in the exchange rate, which can often make quite a difference. We'll review the RRP on these shortly to see if the RRP needs updating, and appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Updated Jul 2, 2024

Thank you for your order! We're very happy you had an easy experience and may be looking to become a repeat customer, and hope that you enjoy your timepiece now that you have it.

If it's helpful to know, we did pay for free shipping to you, so the only charges you'd be responsible for paying to the shipping company would be those relating to getting your watch through customs, once it arrives in the UK. i.e. VAT/customs duty, plus a nominal fee courier services tend to charge to act as your customs broker unless you choose to do that yourself, which can be an option in some locales. The carrier fee you mention would have been to act as your customs broker. More information is available on that here:
https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/receiving/how-are-customs-fees-calculated

With regard to getting the best USD-GBP exchange rate, we can thoroughly recommend setting up a wise.com account as a good option, and getting a Wise card to use for international purchases. This has always been the cheapest approach for us when making purchases in other currencies, and is much better than bank exchange rates or typical credit card exchange rates/fees. We do have an affiliate link we can share that allows for a fee-free transfer if you use this link to sign up:
https://wise.com/invite/dic/neilc144

We like to be transparent with our customers, so please note that we can also potentially benefit if the above link is used by a number of folks to sign up for the Wise service.

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Jun 16, 2024

We know as a fact that this watch was shipped to the customer since it was assembled, tested and packaged personally by the store owner and handed off by him to the EMS staff at the shipping center, and he remembers this clearly for various reasons, (such as having to fit the spring bars into the straps was tight work, it was the very last watch we had of this model, and it was also difficult to fit it to the cushion in the presentation box, and he wanted to take care of this repeat customer.)

The package weight we recorded shows that the watch was in the package, and the weight was independently confirmed by EMS staff after hand-over and shows on the official shipping label. Once assembled, we also have nowhere to store this watch since we only store this brand in kit form. (Watch head stored in special slots in the brand's padded box separately to the other parts so as to be kept in an air conditioned room.) Watches are tested, assembled and packaged on a single desk that is kept clear of any clutter, so there was no possibility of it being mislaid, and what with a precise member of the watch being packaged and in particular the weights matching and also being independently verified by EMS, we know that this watch was shipped to the customer.

The first two watches our customer ordered were very affordable, our cheapest offerings. It may be worth noting that this third watch was a limited edition Swiss Made watch and cost over double the price of the other two, so would be a more lucrative or tempting target for fraud or theft. The customer had the watch delivered to his workplace, a clinic or hospital, which this time was signed for by someone drawing straightish lines instead of a signature, printed name and address rather than giving his/her proper name details as we see with other deliveries. The customer then opened the package and contacted us claiming there was no watch and demanding a refund roughly 36 hours after the package was received.

Unfortunately the customer was not able to provide any proof that the watch was not in the package when he opened the package. For example, he stated that he didn't video record the unboxing. Since we know that the watch was shipped, and it was signed for indicating that the package was received in visibly good condition, we have recommended that the customer contact the person who signed for the package, contact anyone who may've handled it during the day and a half since it was received, contact the police, and also contact his local postmaster and the US postal inspections office, who investigate package theft and fraud. We've offered to assist with this. However, as best we can tell from the customer's responses to date, he has declined to do any of this and has instead just demanded a refund off of us.

Sadly it's a not uncommon scam for a customers to receive expensive goods then claim they never got them to try and get a refund, so retailers have to be aware of that possibility. In these situations, we do make sure of everything we can on our end, so we know that the correct item was indeed shipped, and that the package was tracked with the correct weight and delivered in good condition and signed for. Our packages are always shipped fully insured for the paid value, and with tracking and a delivery signature required. If we or the delivery service were at fault here then of course we'd issue a refund right away. For this particular situation, we believe that the watch was delivered and signed for, and recommend that the customer investigates what happened after the delivery occurred.

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Apr 21, 2024

Hi Jason,

We're glad you love the watch! It always makes our day to hear that, thank you!

Reply from The Microbrand Store

Apr 21, 2024

Hi James,

Thank you for your order and kind words!

We do also offer UPS as an option for your country, but unfortunately that was not available for the watch you ordered, which is one of the lowest priced watches we offer and one of the heaviest including the boxing/packaging that it comes with. This is because we have to subsidize the UPS costs to make them reasonable since they are quite expensive for your location, and we can't do this on that on watches under a certain price and over a certain weight since we'd be selling at a loss.

If you consider using our store in future, you may find UPS is available, depending on what you're ordering, but if not, please feel free to contact us in customer chat and we can look into getting you a quote on UPS shipping if you strongly prefer that.

Best Wishes,

The Microbrand Store Team.