23 Feb 2006, 18:44
Guys, the only mystery I see here is??.. Why would anyone send their watch anywhere else but to the Authorized Service Center until after 1984? Both the toll & toll-free phone lines were working until March 31st, 1984. If anyone claims they sent a watch in for repairs it certainly wasn?t sent to the Factory authorized Service Center in Lancaster.
It not only is possible, I can prove that at least two of the major Service Centers that were to send all the inventory back to Time Computer did not do so. For instance, the Service Center in the Midwest had hundreds of cases, modules and miscellaneous parts that didn?t make the trip. I tracked these parts to their final resting-place and many of the watches on eBay today have been retrofitted with these parts.
If any out of warranty watch needing service (such as many early P2-P3 units) after March 31st 1977 made it to one of the Service Centers that didn?t send the inventory back, the repair would be total profit for that Service Center. I know of one Center who never notified his Dealers and did repairs for years. He certainly did not have access to any parts from Lancaster and was forced to use what he had. Like always, it was money that motivated these repairs and as another member mentioned, these repairs are not near the quality of TC. The women who worked in the Lancaster facility that built all the modules also did the repairs at both the private and Factory Service Centers. They would be offended to be associated with any of these repairs!
I can somewhat understand why one doesn?t want to accept this due to the depleted value of these watches. I have more than one source on this subject and feel no need to dig any further. Sorry but the bottom line is they are not original and the repairs were not authorized.