I bought a watch at Zales, Mall of America about 8 years ago and take it in for new batteries every couple years. Usually I don’t have any problems, but this last time was a different story. When I brought it in to have the battery replaced they charged me $ 100 and told me it would take 2 weeks because they had to send it out. They would call me when it was in. Four weeks later I had not heard from them so I called and asked about it. The sales person I talked to could not find any record of it and said she would have a manager call me the next day. I wondered how it could be so hard to find my transaction on the computer. I waited a few days without my call being returned so I called again. And again, they couldn’t find a record of my watch and said someone would call me back. I waited a few more days without my call being returned and decided to make a personal appearance at the store. I went in and the manager was in a meeting in another part of the mall. The sales person could not find any info on my watch, of course, and said the manager would be back shortly and I could shop around the mall and wait for his call when he returned. I shopped for an hour without my call being returned for the third time and went back to find the manager hanging out at the store. He said that the watchmaker had recommended some other maintenance on my watch and that a sales person was supposed to call me for permission, which they never did, so the watchmaker was waiting to hear back. He apologized for the customer service and told me it would be another 2 weeks and $ 75 and I told them to go ahead and do it. Another 5 weeks went by(that’s 10 weeks total) and I hadn’t heard from them so I called again. They still couldn’t find my info on their computer and there wasn’t a manager in the store and someone would call me back. Well, consistency prevailed and nobody called me back. I called again and expressed my displeasure with the sales person. He said he would figure it out and call me within the hour. Two hours went by and I called back, fuming. The guy who said he would call me had stepped out and the lady said she couldn’t help, but would have him call me back as soon as he got back in. I was very angry now and told her I was skeptical about getting a call and that they were 0 for 5 in returning my calls, meaning they told me 5 times now they would call me back and I had never received a call. She apologized and said he would definitely call me. He called 15 minutes later and said he would get my watch back to the store in 2 days. They called 5 days later to tell me my watch was in. I went in to pick it up and the battery had been replaced but the other maintenance was never done. I assume they never called the watchmaker to give him the permission to do it after I went in the first time. I asked the manager to fully refund my $ 100 for the battery and he said he could only do a 50% refund. He seemed very cocky and weasely, making me feel like he could have given me a full refund, he just didn’t want to. I will never go back there and will make sure all of my friends, family, coworkers and acquaintances don’t either.
