So Rolex are basically scammer..? Discuss

No. The consumer voluntarily and knowingly purchased a watch well above retail. We’re all big boys and girls and choose how to spend our money. Let’s not conflate thievery with a lack of impulse control involving a piece of jewelry.

No, it's not about spending money it's the fact Rolex wanted 10 grand extra for a watch magically pulled from a storage unit or told the customer wait another three years to get it for the actual retail price. That's scamming behaviour

The article doesn't mention if the watch was new or CPO.

If it was new, the AD is a scammer. If it was CPO, the AD is a Rolex-approved scammer.

It's pretty clear what the article says, a guy purchased a Rolex, had it stolen and was reimbursed for the original value of the watch. Said client went to AD to re purchase the same watch and was charged 10 grand more, or wait three years to get it for the original value. Not a good look for Rolex and why I wouldn't get one, they make over a million of these things a year and have them stashed up in storage units it seems if you pay them 10K more than what they actually are worth

Someone has been a sleep for 36 /48 months then. The consumer didn't need to play ball with the AD. You want something scarce and in demand, you pay a premium to jump the line. Is it crummy? Yes. Unethical? Sure. A scam when you knew exactly what you are getting into and you're savvy enough to file another insurance claim? I don't think so.

He could have went to another AD. He could have waited. Anyway, he got made whole. I am not absolving the AD but I won't shed a tear for someone who knowingly overpays for a watch and gets made whole by an insurer. He wanted it now and paid dearly for it -- no, actually the insurer paid dearly for it. Welcome to capitalism.

He didn't overpay, did you actually read the article - the customer wanted the Rolex back at the price paid originally. Can only assume he was smart and paid the extra amount Rolex charged him because he knew it was unethical and he would later claim it back himself. I am surprised Rolex aren't fined over this behaviour as it's going against pretty much every retail and purchasing contract.

No need to get snippy. I read the article and I disagree with your characterization of the events. I also have a difference of opinion as to what constitutes a scam. This was not one in my view. Your assumptions are just that -- your assumptions, they are not mine.

Say they make a million watches a year which I don’t even know if that’s a true number or just repeated and they have 100 differnt modles that’s 10000 per model for the entire world, however; you know they make more date just than like green bezel subs or Daytonas. Now divide that by how many ADs there are. Most ADs get maybe 3 green bezel subs a year especially the smaller ones. You have 100s of people asking for it and they have to decide who to give it to. They don’t just have them laying around. Iv been there when they get a new shipment and it’s gone in like 5 mins.

This AD had a watch 'lying around ' it did come with a 10 thousand pound surcharge however

I think clearly what happened is that the AD has a watch allotted to another customer and saw the opportunity to sell it at a substantial increase. Either the original customer hasn't been notified of it's arrival yet or the AD will give him/her some kind of excuse as to why it's no longer available.

I'm by no means any kind of expert in law, and certainly not the laws of another country, but by that article it would seem that the guy that purchased the Rolex was well within his right to do so under the insurance contract because of the vagueness of the wording. That's on the insurance company, not the buyer.

The "bad guy" in this story, from my perspective, is the dealer. But hey, that's capitalism: the offer was made and accepted. It might be entirely unethical for the AD to have done this, and maybe maaaaaaybe now that Rolex owns Bucherer ADs will now become actual Rolex employees and these kinds of shenanigans will become more and more rare (it's not a good look for Rolex either), but I wouldn't call this a scam, no one was scammed, not even the insurance company. If anything the AD was unethical and an opportunist and the insurance company was careless in its contract.

Selling a watch for 10 grand over it's RRP is clearly a scam. But an acceptable one because it's a Rolex with a three year waiting list

Sounds like it was CPO

Nobody should be crazy enough to pay 10k over msrp for ANYTHING, much less a watch. ROLEX and the folks that want to own them have just gotten out of control. I have sold off all but two of my Rolex pieces and will never buy another one. At this point in life I dont need to impress anyone but myself and there are just to many quality watches out there ...Again, JMO..Enjoy the hobby

Th point is in the insurance clause: The watch had to be obtainable immediately.

Apparently there wasn't a Dutch AD who had that watch for a better price, else the insurance company would find it and present at the court. A good insurance company takes extreme pains not to pay out if it can help it. From now on, the insurance contracts will be tighter.

Clearly, the insurance company had a sloppy provision in the contract, and it was held against them. My point was that if you’re fully aware you’re paying a premium over retail I don’t think you’re being scammed by Rolex.

While this is somewhat true last time I was in Glasgow I went to the Rolex Ad and of course nothing for sale

Walked 100 m and in a second hand watch shop they had 4 41mm oyster perpetuals in the window alone who knows how many inside. This is a watch I’ve been on a list for almost two years at the time but low and behold secondary dealers have them in abundance. The talk of them being hard to get is rubbish just depends who you are and what you will pay

Funny enough in September while buying a grand seiko the AD decided to offer me my OP 🙄 spent the money on the GS so turned it down. Glad I did much better watch for me

You have to tell the AD the secret passcode

My wallet isn’t fat enough to have access to the password. I believe it’s something like “can I buy those 10k earrings “ I’ve heard that unlocks the vault

Yeah, that’s the nature of insurance — loss sharing— and, like watches, you can always shop private insurance too.

10K-O-PRICE

Haha 😂

Interesting situation.

Let's all be VERY clear here though, the company in question is an Authorised Dealer of Rolex products, NOT Rolex itself. The assertion that Rolex is scamming anyone because of what that article lays out is entirely false and factually incorrect.

For all we know, that could have been a single sales person acting in self interest in what could otherwise be a very reputable and fair AD.

As usual @WatchandUnwindOffical knows the deal. There's more people that want the watches than there are watches. When your AD tells you they don't have any, they probably don't.

I would also argue that this definitively was not a scam. The sales person openly stated that the buyer could go on the list and expect to "wait a minimum of 3 years", or could pay the premium and take it home the same day. There's no dishonesty there. There's no deception. It's not fraud because there's no law against selling something above an MSRP (which as the name explains is a suggested price). So it was a bog standard exchange of money for product.

This 'waiting list' is absolutely drivel. If you pay over the odds for a watch made in the millions there's always going to be people who try to justify what is happening

You're confusing how many watches Rolex makes in total versus how many of each model they make.

Nobody has said anything about a waiting list. There's no such thing. A waiting list suggests you'll slowly climb it. That's not what the ADs are operating, nor do they have to.

Brandon from Watch And Unwind has explained how feasible it is that the AD doesn't have the (popular) watch in stock when someone walks in off the street and asks for it.

I'm not trying to justify anything, merely explaining how your bias againt Rolex and the AD network has clouded your judgement.