The Microbrand StoreReviews of microbrand.store

Response from The Microbrand StoreJul 8, 2024

Hi Caleb, Thank you for your order! We hope you had a great 4th and are enjoying your new timepiece. We particularly wanted to let you know that you are completely incorrect regarding the warranty situation, and in the unlikely even you do have an issue with your watch, it may be beneficial to know that we're an authorized dealer for all of the new watches we sell, which all come with the full manufacturer's warranty, just as if you purchased the watch directly from the microbrand. The watch you purchased through us came with a full two year manufacturer's warranty. We also provide our own supplemental warranty on top of that as well. This covers exactly the same kind of manufacturing defects that manufacturer's warranties cover. It is a secondary coverage that kicks in on new watch purchases when a microbrand doesn't honor their warranties. On a very well established brand like say Zelos, this isn't something you'd ever expect to use, but it has sadly proven to be invaluable when it comes to numerous smaller microbrands (particularly those on their first releases) that haven't planned or budgeted to keep spare parts or watches, or have an arrangement set up for watch servicing. We have experienced microbrands with fantastic watches that just completely ignored all manufacturing defects reported to them and close up shop after completing sales on a new release. In these situations, we have stepped in and taken care of any issues directly for our customers and would be happy to point you to some well known examples if that would be helpful. Please just drop us a line if you want more information on this. Generally however, most of our customers do not need to recourse to a manufacturer's warranty since unlike other retailers, we inspect and test every watch right before shipping. You'd be surprised how many microbrands don't test or inspect their own watches, and just rely on their factory to do this, often with disastrous results. We tend to discover a few rejects in the majority of batches we receive from all of our microbrands, even the good ones, and we make sure that those do not go out to customers. Your watch was both inspected and tested, including testing on a timegrapher. We noted that at the time of shipping it was running extremely well with an average accuracy of +3 seconds per day dial up, a near perfect amplitude of 296 degrees, and a perfect 0.0ms beat error. In short, you had a very healthy watch, running extremely well, with an excellent accuracy. To respond on some of your other points, we checked the tracking of your shipment for you and see that it went out at the end of the day around 5pm on the 20th June local time, and you received it around 1:15pm on the 26th June, so we're looking at roughly one week door to door. For free shipping traveling between two continents, including clearing customs, we think this is very reasonable but do respect that your opinion may differ. Typical shipping times to your locale vary from between 4 days and a week. Our free shipping was via an airmail service that is tracked and with a signature required on delivery for our customers' peace of mind. We also pay extra to have all of our packages insured for the full purchase price. Expedited shipping is also available at a subsidized price for customers who don't want to wait a week or so for their shipments. With regard to the pricing, we're glad you were able to get the cheapest pricing through us. The higher price we struck out was the retail price this watch has been selling at when we set up our listings converted into USD. It's entirely possible that the microbrand may have temporarily or permanently lowered their prices without letting us know, or there may have been some significant movement in the exchange rate, which can often make quite a difference. We'll review the RRP on these shortly to see if the RRP needs updating, and appreciate you bringing that to our attention.

Response from The Microbrand StoreJul 2, 2024

Thank you for your order! We're very happy you had an easy experience and may be looking to become a repeat customer, and hope that you enjoy your timepiece now that you have it. If it's helpful to know, we did pay for free shipping to you, so the only charges you'd be responsible for paying to the shipping company would be those relating to getting your watch through customs, once it arrives in the UK. i.e. VAT/customs duty, plus a nominal fee courier services tend to charge to act as your customs broker unless you choose to do that yourself, which can be an option in some locales. The carrier fee you mention would have been to act as your customs broker. More information is available on that here: https://www.parcelforce.com/help-and-advice/receiving/how-are-customs-fees-calculated With regard to getting the best USD-GBP exchange rate, we can thoroughly recommend setting up a wise.com account as a good option, and getting a Wise card to use for international purchases. This has always been the cheapest approach for us when making purchases in other currencies, and is much better than bank exchange rates or typical credit card exchange rates/fees. We do have an affiliate link we can share that allows for a fee-free transfer if you use this link to sign up: https://wise.com/invite/dic/neilc144 We like to be transparent with our customers, so please note that we can also potentially benefit if the above link is used by a number of folks to sign up for the Wise service.