Questions about Kent Parks

[MTJO]

I sent a watch to Kent Parks for some relume and dial work last August and I did not get any replies to my emails since January this year. I sent emails once a month asking about the status of work on my watch and I got no reply. Is anybody in the same situation? Maybe somebody got a watch back from him? What should I do? Take a day drive to go and see if I can get my watch back at least? Or should I call the local Police and maybe they can recoup my watch?
Any advice would be really appreciated!
He is located in Flagstaff, Arizona. Does anybody lives close to that city?

Looking for help.
Michael

[Statius]

I've heard nothing but good things about his work. Here's a post about his customer service:

Anyone hear from Kent Parks? (Everest Watchworks)

[iinsic]

You could check the transaction detail on PayPal for the money you sent him. His phone number should be listed. Give him a ring and see what he says. But I've seen the old threads, too. Incommunicado seems to be his MO.

Rob

[A MattR of Time]

USPS tracking has my watch out for delivery to me today. This is my first deal with Kent, and the way his customer service is, it will be my last. He may do fantastic work, but he quotes you 2-4 weeks, takes 6-8, and leaves you wondering the whole time. It took him 10 days to ship my watch back to me AFTER he received payment via PayPal. Oh, and I did what iinsic suggested, only to get VM and have it ignored.

The only advice I can give is keep after him.

[madmaxucla]

+1 on his communications. He answered right back when I inquired about a job. But I have heard he's not the best at progress reports. Guy does great work though.

[Ray C]

I've found that with the 4 watchmakers I've taken my watches too, they all lowball the estimate. I've had '3 week' jobs take anywhere from 3 - 7 months and '1 month' jobs take 13 months. That being said I was able to maintain contact with each of the watchmakers and though I wasn't neccessarily 'unhappy' with thier responses, it did get to the point where one of them who had 3 of my watches at one time did the work on all three for free (my entire lot of watches was hamstrung by a hard to find part. He didn't start the easy watches until he had the harder fix resolved.)

I think lowballing the job time is a norm for most.

[supawabb]

I've dealt with Kent Parks before for a relume job. My opinions... the work was outstanding but the turn around time is unacceptable. Seems like a "I'll get to it whenever I feel like it" type of guy. Took 6 months for mine to get back to me and because of such a long wait, my love for the watch was gone so I flipped it within 2 days of getting it back.

[nakedjohnny]

Since last August??? that's over 9 months that is way too long I would just take the watch back and forget the job.

[Boxer]

No watch mod is worth waiting that long for me.

[sharkfin]

No watch mod is worth waiting that long for me.

I agree.

I've had some relume work out to 2 different watch modders totaling about 18 months, and they couldn't get it done so each time I asked to send back my watches.
These guys are so busy and not enough of them to go around. Be prepared to wait.

Now, I couldn't bear to send out for long periods. I need to learn to do this modding myself.