NavList:

   

Reply

On Wed, 26 Mar 2008, jean-philippe planas wrote:
> Yes Alex, please tell us about the story

This was a Russian E-bay seller whom I know
(I bought something from him few years before.)
He is apparently located
in a little harbor in Kaliningrad region
(former East Prussia) where they decomission ships.
So I suppose his wares come from decomissioned ships,
and his supply is very impressive.
I payed about $600 plus $100 shipping plus $40 for the
money transfer.
When the chronometer arrived, it was very well packed...
but did not work. A visual inspection showed that
the balance is somewhat loose. (I had no
previous experience with
chronometers.) I showed it to the local watchmaker,
and he said that several jewels are brocken.

I wrote to the seller and the seller said that he can
provide whatever replacement parts necessary.
He sweared that the chronometer was working fine before he
packed it.

Then I brought it to the specialist in Elgin (near Chicago)
who was once recommended on
this list as a chronometer expert.

The specialist made a long list of broken parts
(several jewels, balance axis, detent, "gold spring"),
and said that the chronometer is probably a total loss,
because making these parts will be prohibitively expensive.
He agreed however to fix it for $600 IS I SUPPLY THE PARTS.
I sent the list of parts back to the seller,
told him the price of repair, and he proposed that I send
the chronometer back.

I sent it back, and soon the seller wrote to me that he
fixed it in the "navigation chamber" in his city,
and the fixing cost him $80 :-)
(Apparently he has unlimited supply of parts; he seems
to be selling 1-2 chronometers every week on E-bay).

Then he sent it back to me, but this was not the end of
the story yet:-) It turned out that in the Russian
post office they confused the labels; the chronometer went
to some other buyer, in California, and I received
a diving helmet instead:-) So we had to make an exchange
with this other buyer.

The whole story lasted about 4 months but in the end
the chronometer arrived and it seems to work fine so far.

Alex.



--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc
To post, email NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---

   

Reply