Tuesday, March 27, 2007

My brand new love affair is already over.

I just fell in love with Fossil. I couldn't help it. They were so good to me. I've had the same Fossil watch for four years, since my sister gave it to me as a Christmas gift during my first year of college. Not only is it purple, but its face is able to change from one shade of purple to another. It's very cool. In fact, it's just right and extremely comfortable, and stylish enough for most occasions (at least for me, as a mostly non-fashion type).

But the watch goes through batteries really fast, most likely due to some sort of problem with the colour changing mechanism. Fossil apparently attempted to fix this problem by setting up the watch with two batteries, one for the actual clock and the other for the colour-change function. But my watch malfunctions in such a way that the colour-change mechanism constantly eats away at its battery, even though I never change the colour (one of the shades of purple is vastly superior to the other), and once it's used up its own battery, it eats from the other one. The result being that every six to eight months, my watch dies and I have to pay to replace not one but two batteries. And twice the watch has died altogether and I've had to ship it to the Fossil watch repair center in Texas. And pay $7.50 for the privilege of having them follow through on the warranty. And wear the old, non-purple Storm watch that I had in high school while I waited for my beautiful watch to be returned to me.

So far it's hard to tell why I'm in love with Fossil, right? The batteries died again today, so I went to the jeweler downstairs in my building, the same people who replaced it last time. And the guy was shocked that the batteries had run out again, and rather than having me pay $20 to replace two batteries again, sent me back upstairs to call Fossil and complain. So I did. And amazingly, I didn't have to wait on hold at all, and the woman I spoke to actually listened to me, understood my complaint, and within five minutes had issued me a credit for any watch valued between $65 and $75 (my original watch cost $55, but I guess prices have gone up in the past four years), to be purchased off their website using a handy little code she gave me.

It was amazing. It was thrilling. It was the best customer service I have ever experienced, and those five minutes wiped out all the frustrating conversations I have had with other Fossil representatives over the years. Like I said, I was in love.

Then I went on the website to browse the watches. Even the ones that cost more than $75, thinking that I could pay the $20 difference if I found the perfect watch priced at $95. But I didn't. I didn't find the perfect watch at $65, $75, $95, or any other price. And why not? Because NONE OF THE WATCHES ON THE FOSSIL WEBSITE IS PURPLE. And I am not counting the two ugly digital watches with hideous purple rubber straps designed by Philippe Starck. I want a nice normal watch with a nice metal band and a nice purple face. Many of which used to be produced by Fossil. But apparently not anymore.

That was it. I fell out of love as fast as I fell in love in the first place. And now I don't know what to do. Go back to my Storm watch until Fossil releases its next collection and hope that it includes a purple one? Suck it up and buy a watch that isn't purple that I may be stuck with for several years? Or just cry?

1 comment:

  1. dude. my husband bought me what sounds like that exact same fossil watch in my 2nd yr of uni for christmas(your first from what I can tell). And it had the battery problem and I would replace it and then it would die but I am still emotionally attached to it so I still have it...i WANT to call fossil now.....

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