An Odd Thing Happened Yesterday.... [A Tale of Good Customer Service]

So...

Earlier this year, Valentine's Day to be precise, I gave my wife a Stuhrling Original Women's Depthmaster. (Note: that is NOT the watch pictured above. Allow me to explain.)

The band fit tight, and was uncomfortable for her. So for awhile, she switched to a NATO strap.

In the meantime, I ordered her two extra links for the band. After emailing Stuhrling about it, they said that they would send me the links for free. This made me very happy.

However, they kept emailing me about which watch I had, and asked if I could send them a picture, so that they could be sure they had the right band for the right watch. I complied, and received no answer.

I forgot about the issue, until around Easter, when I emailed them again. I got an auto-response saying that they were out of the office that week. So I waited a week, and emailed again.

I was beginning to think that this was going to turn into a negative experience, until I got a reply asking for my physical address, stating that they were ready to ship it to me. So I gave them my address, and soon after, I started getting tracking emails for my package."Finally," I thought, "I'm going to get those links!"

Well, yesterday (Thursday, May 4th) after two and a half months of waiting, the package finally arrived. While I was at work, I got a tracking email saying that the package had been delivered! Yay!

Then, 5 minutes into my lunch break, my 16-year old son calls me on Facetime. He said, "Dad, those links are here. But check out what also came!" I was intrigued; what else could have possibly arrived? I hadn't ordered anything recently...?

Lo and behold, included with the links, was the watch pictured above. It's called the Special Reserve 3983. (On the Stuhrling website, this watch is listed at a price of $160 USD.) There was no note, and no invoice. It was just there. I must assume that they regretted making me wait for so long, for something they said would be free.

To be honest, when I mail things, or wait for things to come to me through the mail, I always assume the worst, as far as delays and general delivery speeds go. So I wasn't really upset about having to wait. My wife was using the NATO strap in the meantime, and she was content with that. That being said, this really impressed me.

The reason I am impressed is because of the consideration that they gave me. They knew that the delay was an inconvenience (which it was, technically, even though I was pretty laid back about it) and they took steps to make up for it, even though I was not demanding anything from them. The old addage, it's the thought that counts, is what is at play here; and Stuhrling has shown me, once again, that they do care about their customers. (My first experience with them, in regard to fixing a watch that had an issue with its dial, was a positive one as well.)

That's why I cut Stuhrling so much slack; I know that people complain about their "pricing scheme," where the MSRP is inflated, to make the current price look more attractive, etc. And while that is true, in essence, they're not really fooling anyone, and they certainly aren't the only discount watch company engaging in such tactics; and their watches are of sufficient quality to warrant the actual price that you end up paying for them.

But what sets Stuhrling apart from other discount watch brands is their customer service. I was blown away by the fact that, in the first place, they offered the links for free, and secondly, sent me a nice skeleton watch simply because I waited longer than I should have. To me, that is going above and beyond the norm for good customer service.

So, here are some pictures I took of the watch they sent me. I'm impressed with it. I know it's a Chinese movement, but I think those movements are getting better and better over time. This movement seems to be of higher quality than other Chinese automatic movements that I've seen. And no doubt, Stuhrling has probably adjusted it slightly, because it runs really smooth, and keeps good time so far, from what I can tell.

Cheers! 🍻