UPDATE 11/2/05: Before you make a purchase decision about a Doxa watch based on this post, please read my updated post.
So I posted about the Dirk Pitt Doxa watch quite some time ago, and, being a big Clive Cussler and Dirk Pitt fan, I went ahead and ordered myself a watch from their site. When I ordered the watch, the site listed the item as in-stock and they charged my credit card a few weeks after they received my order. Below are e-mail conversations that I have been having with Doxa customer service since I placed my order almost 1 month ago. The thing that really sucks is that the stuff below is going to make you not want to order one of these watches. Additionally, it’s going to make you have ill will towards Clive Cussler and the Dirk Pitt books; not that Clive Cussler can do anything about my order, but it’s still going to make you feel as frustrated as I do. If I were Mr. Cussler who, for all intents and purposes because he’s written in his books for so long about this watch, really created the story and therefore the advertising, I’d be damn pissed off. Here goes:
From: <confirmation@doxawatches.com>
To: Ross Hollman
Subject: =Order_Confirmation_for_your_DOXA_SUB_600T_ProfessionalDate: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 20:54:56 +0100
Dear valued customer,
Congratulations on your purchase and thank you for buying DOXA, Dirk Pitt's® choice.
Our Billing department in VIENNA-AUSTRIA will debit your credit card and process your order within 48 hours from order entry.
Due to the high demand after the announcement of the new Dirk Pitt® block buster SAHARA, there has been a high demand on the orange-faced DOXA SUB600T series, the stock which was supposed to last till the end of the month is sold out, but we are committed to supply fresh stock within several days, so please expect a 5 to 10 business days delay on shipping your order.
Thank you for your purchase and sorry for the inconvenience.
best regards,
DOXA watches LTD promises you it will be worth the wait
DOXA WATCHES <http://www.doxawatches.com/new/sub600_edition.html>
So that was my initial e-mail from Doxa on Mar 25 that states a 5–10 business delay on the shipping, which would put shipping the week of March 28 or April 4. I sent the following e-mail on April 11, coincidentally the same day that they charged my credit card:
From: Ross Hollman
To: confirmation@doxawatches.com
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2005 6:52 PM
Subject: Re: Order Confirmation for your DOXA SUB 600T Professional Dirk Pitt® EditionIs there a status update on time to ship?
To which I received this reply:
From: <confirmation@doxawatches.com>
To: Ross Hollman
Subject: =Re:_Order_Confirmation_for_your_DOXA_SUB_600T_Professional
Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2005 19:52:27 +0200Dear Sir,
thank you for your patience, we will be shipping this week
Best regards
Customer Care
DOXA SA
So I was fine, waiting to receive a shipping confirmation by April 15 or so. Never got one, so I then sent this e-mail on April 20 (5 days after it was supposed to ship for those of you doing the math):
From: Ross Hollman
To: confirmation@doxawatches.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Order Confirmation for your DOXA SUB 600T Professional Dirk Pitt® EditionIs there a new status update on time to ship?
To which I received this response:
From: <confirmation@doxawatches.com>
To: Ross Hollman
Subject: =Re:_Re:_Order_Confirmation_for_your_DOXA_SUB_600T_Professional
Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2005 17:06:31 +0200Dear Sir,
we are starting to ship all watches ordered before April 1st. all other order have not been billed
and will be processed and shipped within the next days
unfortunately we are aware that over 100 orders from March and April are due and we are working 24/7 to get them out ASAP, the problem is that every watch has to be tested thoroughly for at least 1 week and this is very time consuming.
Please accept our apology and final notice that we'll be ready to ship by April 29th.
Thank you for your understanding and sorry again for the inconvenience, please also note that you can cancel your order at any moment for a full refund
Best regards
Customer Care
DOXA SA
So the e-mail above clearly states that the final date for shipping is April 29. This morning I still had not received a shipping notice, so I wrote this e-mail:
Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 15:41:08 GMT
To: "confirmation@doxawatches.com" confirmation@doxawatches.com, billing@doxawatches.com, orders@doxawatches.com, sales@doxawatches.com
From: Ross Hollman
Subject: Re: Re:_Re:_Order_Confirmation_for_your_DOXA_SUB_600T_ProfessionalLet me address your points below in order that you stated them:
1. You state that "all other order have not been billed." In actuality, you billed my credit card on April 11 for $<deleted by Ross>, so it has been almost a month since you billed my card and I have still received no shipping confirmation.
2. You state that "we'll be ready to ship by April 29." I have yet to receive any sort of order update or shipping confirmation and it has now been 11 days since the date that you promised as
your "final notice" below that you would be ready to ship.
Obviously this situation is unacceptable. I have no desire to cancel my order, I would simply like to receive the watch that I have ordered and expect to receive it immediately. I will further note that on your website when I placed the order, there was a blinking icon that stated "This Item is In-Stock." When I checked your website today, that same statement of the watches being in-stock is still being made.
Please get back to me immediately on the status of my order.
Ross Hollman
Note that I have now copied the Sales, Billing, and Order e-mail addresses found on the Doxa website (http://www.doxa.us/contacts.html).
I have not yet received an e-mail in response to the one above, but I’ll keep you posted. Obviously I can very easily dispute the charge with my credit card company and get the money refunded, but that’s not the point — as I said above, I just want the watch.
11 comments:
I did receive the watch and am very happy with it.
Thanks for your comment.
Ross
hi i orderd my 750 dirk pitt watch on thursday.got fedex track # on friday.it was wrong # they gave me i emailed to doxa got new # got watch on monday. very fast delivery.all was fine till i open box its the wrong watch.i email doxa to tell them they have sent me the clive cussler watch not the dirk pitt watch.They say they are sold out off dirk pitt watch and the clive cussler watch is all that is avalible.i email them back to say im not happy and my email comes back undeliverd due to my address black listed at doxa.i love my watch but i would not buy from doxa again.
Just reading your interesting article and comments, I work within the watch industry and I'm interested to read how Doxa have handled direct retail sales. This seems to be the only method of selling which must be difficult for them to maintain brand values when only selling on the Internet using 'Add to cart' ordering. Customer service seems to be a real hit-or-miss. Most worrying is the "hi i orderd my 750 dirk pitt watch on thursday" comment when they send him the wrong watch and disregard his logical requests for the correct one. From the original post, I think most customers would have instead appreciated being put on a backorder system (I've doen one of these recently for a popular watch) rather than having their CC charged and then getting purposely delayed by DOXA.
I would agree that real-time inventory for the consumer (i.e., as simple as "in-stock" vs. "back ordered") is extremely effective. In the case of my order with Doxa, I still would have ordered the watch while it was back ordered, but would not have been upset at all about the delay if they had been up front about it.
Ross
I ordered a 750 Prof a few weeks ago. After a few days I was informed about delivery problems and Doxa told me they would ad a free rubber band. When I asked for delivery date a week later I was offerd to get a 750 GMT for the same price within 4 day. I accepted and got the watch AND a free rubber band!
So I think Doxa has an excellent service and I wouldn´t hesitate to buy another Doxa!!
Sven
I ordered the Pilot Model I. The order went smooth enough, but the rear gasket was not seated properly and the watch leaked a few days later when I washed my hands with it on.
Attempts to get any repair information from Doxa were met with silence, and the U.S. repair center went to an answering machine. I never hear from anyone and took care of the cleaning on my own... but I still get sales promotions via e-mail.
original blog author seems to have "fallen through the cracks." He did not understand Doxa's email response from April 20th "all other order have not been billed and will be processed and shipped within the next days" so I have no confidence that the other correspondences were correct either. doxa clearly says that did not bill people who purchased AFTER April 1st. In addition, why would these emails change anyone's mind about Mr. Cussler or Mr. Pitt. Makes no sense. I'm in the watch business and it seems Doxa could have handled this a little better, BUT, it also seems as if the customer was difficult.
Anonymous on 1/1/10:
Please re-read the correspondence between me and Doxa as you seemed to have missed some of the salient points of the communication. Feel free to disagree and think that I was difficult, but bear in mind that they were the ones that charged my card and continued to revise the ship date; I simply continued to question them after each ship date had passed with no watch received.
Thanks for reading.
Ross
I ordered a SUB 5000T last year. I had a similiar experience in that the original shipping date came and went without my watch being delivered - even though I informed DOXA that I was happy to wait 4 weeks for delivery due to it being a present. DOXA charged my CC immediately but I was happy with this as it was me who asked for a delay in delivery.
However once the watch was sent DOXA impressed me with their customer service: The watch was returned to them due to a problem at the delivery address (it was a military address). They immediately e-mailed me and arranged for delivery by another meanns at no extra cost.
Overall an excellent watch and experience with DOXA.
I am experiencing the downside of Doxa quality right now and after searching, I am surprised that I am not the only one and had identified other unhappy owners as well.
Doxa management should look into those problems and reassure the customers about their brand, quality and customer service otherwise I think it will be an oher brand to go down.
It is a pitty for a brand with a consistant history and great design of their SUB.
I have a less than 2 yr old Doxa SUB1000T. The watch stopped winding by turning the crown. It seems like their quality control is not what it should be.
Post a Comment