UK Service Agent - Appalling Experience

I purchased a Black Ceramic Formula 1 Calibre 16 in late February.

I wear a Connected day to day and Monaco Gulf on special occasions. The F1 was worn a handful of times for a day at the most between late February and July.
In late July i decided to wear my F1 on my vacation and get some use out of it.

After the 1st day it became apparent it had gained 15 minutes. By day 3 the gain was even worse and the minute hand jumped forward 5 minutes when i rotated my wrist quickly to look at the watch.
My hunch (probably wrong) was that an issue that got worse the longer i wore it, was perhaps connected to the automatic winding mechanism being faulty and over winding the spring.

The watch was sent to LVMH who are the Tag Heuer Service Centre for the UK.
I had zero communication when LVMH received the watch for initial inspection to inform me of any damage. I suspect that if there had been any damage and any sign of the watch being dropped any warranty repair would be refused. There was no report of any damage as the watch was in perfect condition.
Subsequent communication was almost zero and my paperwork simply says the watch has been serviced.
Upon opening the protective transport case, the light hitting the black ceramic bezel highlighted it is now cracked all the way through at the 4o’clock position.
The polished edge on the opposite side to the crown is now heavily scratched.

To say I’m disappointed that the appointed UK Service Centre treats watches with such disrespect is an understatement. I’m furious that a watch in perfect condition is now ruined in a pitiful state!

Have i been extremely unlucky with my experience or is there a know quality issue with the UK Service Centre?

If my Monaco Gulf ever needs a warranty repair or goes for a service, i will be getting an independant jeweller to asses and create a report before letting these charlatens touch it.

Pictures bromigo!

What F1 ref is it? I thought there were no F1 models with ceramic bezel but I was obviously wrong...

I had my Autavia re-edition sent to back to Switzerland when that was acting a bit wired, the usual service center did not have enough certification to handle the Heuer02 movement apparently. But I also didn't have very much contact with them and my AD knew just as little as I did. The repair worked out and I got it back, but the only thing I noticed was that they had put the bracelet on "up-side-down" which was quite funny.

Your best bet is probably to contact them directly and explain the situation, preferably also attaching some pictures to the thread. If LVMH are dedicated to their customer service experience I am sure they will deal with it properly!

Best of luck!

These have ceramic bracelets, I'm guessing the bezel is ceramic too. I'm pretty sure my wife's is...

I've always taken my TAGs to the AD I bought them from to have them sent away for service. They take a picture and fill in a form that I have to agree to, to prove the condition the watch is in when I hand it over.

I've only had one really bad experience. For a short time my AD stopped sending watches back to TAG and started using a 3rd party repair centre, which totally f'd up my watch - a heavily scratched bezel and gouges out of the the caseback. It also stopped running 2 days after I got it back. I was super pi**ed off and the AD agreed to send it to TAG for a full refurb at their expense. The watch was never quite the same again though, and some of the caseback damage could not be fixed without obliterating the serial number.

There was a second time things went wrong actually. The very last service I had, the crown came back with a broken stem. But I realised straight away and the AD sent it off yet again... I would really like to find a trusted local watchmaker to use instead, even if just to avoid the 3 month wait to get my watch back. And to maybe save some money.

Aha OK and I remember now that there is a similar looking cal 16 so most likely the one we are talking about in this thread then 👍

That's disappointing, I would definitely complain. Maybe post some pictures up on Twitter or Facebook at tag and they'll respond pretty quick.

Personally I have had no issues, sent one back for regulation and one for a battery change, both came back absolutely fine.

My watch is a CAZ2012/0. They list it as a ‘Chrono New F1 2014 Auto Ceramic’
The bezel ring is black ceramic like the picture above but has much smaller numbers than those pictured.

I sent before and pictures with my email complaint and posted pictures to Tag on Facebook. Tag Heuer claim to have escalated my complaint to a higher tier for investigation.

I had a ‘sheepish’ phone call this afternoon from the repairer saying the situation was not acceptable and they are sending another transit package out to me.
I am assured the watch will be returned to me in the as new condition they originally received it in.