Doing this sort of stuff is NOT acceptable in any possible way. And this is probably a very expencive watch, although I don’t really have any clue about watches, really. But it seems so, and that tells me something more important about the salesman you met: He is filthy greedy. Period. – Ray J., Norway

@ “an avid collector”… please keep the tone friendly. I agree with you that being nice to customers always pays of.

You are talking shit.

In the “Lange-category” people like to be well informed and usually won’t buy on the spot. Instead, they’ll return several times and try some watches on before finally deciding.

Further, people with several high end watches will very probably have bought from multiple jewellers. There is no need to limit your business to just one dealer.

In my opinion it isn’t up to mr. Blom to make remarks like he did. His behaviour is rude, impolite and, were I Edwin, would have made me inform Lange.

There is NO EXCUSE whatsoever for being rude to customers, whether they are big spenders or can only afford a strap. Just stay polite!

Watchdealers should always realise that they only have their business because people are willing to buy from THEM. They have to earn their business by offering good and correct service and information.

Mr. Blom seems to be missing that point.

I came to this blog by chance and i must say I am very sad to hear things like this about Andrew, who I actually know personally! Sure this – especially as it has been confirmed by other experiences – is a serious matter! Still I want to give you an idea of the other side.

I am a watch dealer myself on a comparable basis as Steltman! And reading through all the answers I kind of get an idea what might be the matter!

Within the last decade the market has changed tremendously. As back then a discount of more than 3 to 5 percent used to be an reward and sure nobody asked for that it has nowadays become the norm! People frequent our stores looking at the watches, trying them comparing them, taking the advisory of our sales personell and then go to buy the watch we have been selling, somewhere where there can get the biggest discount! Then after having bought the watch on the grey market they frequent our shop again to blame us for not having quoted on the price on the one hand and then again to use our service as we as an official dealer are obliged to do so!

Obviously this is the extreme case and still the majority of customers behave polite and are willing to accept the fact that service costs money! Only those few exceptions are that frustrating that once in a while we might be misinterpreting a situation and then react like andrew did!

And to be honest, in the case Edwin told earlier I would probably have reacted the same way! Edwin frequents the Steltman shop several times to make (sorry) minor purchases. On the other hand he owns several really expensive watches, which he all bought somewhere else! I wouldn’t be willing to offer my service endlessly to someone who only seems to take the advices to finally buy some! If he decides not to be a Steltman customer he should be consequent on that!

We do an honourable job and we want to be treated like that! We do not want to be treated like servants!

I’ll have a look at Noordeinde soon. Sounds like a good place to go.

Salvatore is a nice place indeed. Very friendly people with knowledge in a good atmosphere. I’ve been there before. They also have Cartier and some others. Schaap en Citroen also has JLC and IWC (and much more).
Another nice juweler is Van Willegen at the Schiekade. They have a large collection of IWC. And, also very nice people helping you.

Sadly non of these juwelers have very extended range of brands like Steltman, that’s my reason for asking. Thanks for the quick reply.

Cheers!
Rik

@ Gerard, good point about the beautiful shoppingstreet Noordeinde. This could be a major watch shopping street when you look at all the stores and brands they represent. But seen from the many other posts on Dutch forums and comments on this blog i’m afraid it was not just one bad day for the person mentioned. It seems this happens more often… unfortunately!

@ Rik, I Rotterdam there’s an excellent AD wo caries JLC. It’s Salvatore Juwelers. The owner is a watch enthousiast who wears a JLC Master Compressor chronograph, which happens to be my favorite of the Compressor line. He takes his time, offers you a cup of coffee and than it’s time to talk about watches

What an amazing story. Most shocking probably is the fact that others can confirm it, and it’s not an incident. I already saw Monochrome’s post on Horomundi about this and was wondering what AD it would be, good to know that know.

It is rather a stupid move by the salesman as he must know that this kind of business is about reputation, building relations, trust and treating your customers right, even more than in other lines of retail.

You all are lucky people to own these kind of beautiful watches. I wish I could make the same statements. But, I’m looking to buy a JLC or Panerai or IWC. As I’m from Rotterdam Steltman would have been a good one to go. Now I’ll think a couple of times before going in there. Now Maastricht is a bit far away, does anyone have a good suggestion more in the neighbourhood?

Word travels fast as they say, even more in the current internet age with blogs like these and forums like Horomundi. Good that you post your experiences here, I’m happy I read it. I really wonder whether the owner of Steltman gets to read this and what he thinks about it…

Keep up your nice blog!

Cheers!
Rik