Fossil Store

I have been a big fan of Fossil watches for over three years. The designs are fun, the prices are reasonable and the three watches I own have held up through the wear and tear I have put them through. Recently, the battery died on two of my watches and I thought that since they were both Fossil I would take them into the WEM location for a battery replacement, instead of my usual stop at The Bay. Everything turned out OK in the end, but I wish I hadn’t taken my watch into this store.
When they replace batteries or do any service at this store, they take the watches into the back, so you have no idea what is going on with them. After waiting for about 15 minutes, the saleswoman came out to the front with one of my watches and said that they didn’t have a battery for the second watch, and that they were also having some trouble with the screws in the back, so it would be a few minutes before the second watch was ready. I thought this was odd — why wouldn’t they have a battery for a watch that has 10 different style iterations currently on display?
I took my functioning watch and paid, and put the second watch in my bag to take to The Bay to get a battery. When I got to The Bay, the man that was responsible for watch repair informed me that the screws on the back plate of the watch were stripped and that he didn’t even want to try to get them off. I looked closely, and sure enough, two of the screws were mangled pretty bad. Since I have never replaced the battery on this watch, this only could have been caused by the Fossil store.
I marched back down the length of the mall to the Fossil store to see what they would do for me. Again, it goes into the back, and 10 minutes later the manager comes to talk to me. He said that clearly the man at the other store ruined my watch, and they hadn’t done anything wrong, but «just this time» they would do a damage replacement. After waiting for them to find the a replacement model in their system, it was put on hold at the Southgate location for me to pick up.
It was really frustrating to have my watch damaged by the store, and even more frustrating that they wouldn’t accept responsibility for it. After I left the store I wondered if they just couldn’t get the screws out in the first place and made up the excuse about the battery being unavailable? Either way, I question both the competency for repairs and the honesty of the store, and I will not bring any of my watches back to this location.