Re: Seiko Kinetic Project ... Yet Another Sad Story

No doubt the kinetic feature is a gimmick. I think when they first came
out, long life lithium batteries were not common, so compared to a 2 year
silver battery they were a good idea (almost). But compared to a
conventional battery that you change once every 10 years (and some of the
long lifes run that long) almost no recharging system makes any economic
sense at all.

To make matters worse, the system has not panned out as expected - the
"never wear out" capacitors that hold the charge turned out to have a
limited (and very short) life after all and Seiko has not taken
responsibility for out of warranty watches as they should have (morally if
not legally). It's one thing for a product long out of warranty to become
defective randomly or wear out, but when a design defect causes almost every
one sold to become defective, the manufacturer should take responsibility
for the mistake. The company has to decide whether the loss of good will
outweighs the cost of repairs - I think in this case it does - Seiko once
had a sterling reputation but the Kinetic episode tarnishes it considerably.
The poster will probably never buy another Seiko product nor recommend it to
his friends - there is a real "multiplier effect" to such bad will.

I have a Chrysler van that had a part in the steering wheel called a "clock
spring" which allows the electrical signals for the various devices on the
steering wheel (horn, airbag, cruise control) to pass thru the rotating hub
of the wheel. Like the Seiko capacitor, the design of this device was
defective and most went bad shortly after the warranty expired (you'd lose
the function of the steering wheel switches). I paid something like $500 to
have the dealer replace the spring and the part alone was a couple of
hundred $, so that Chrysler was actually making a nice profit selling
millions of these clock springs. What a great business model - make an
inherently defective product and make money again selling the replacement
parts! Unfortunately, Chrysler's little honey pot sprung a leak - since one
of the devices connected to the clock spring was the air bag, the US
government decided that this defect was "safety related" and they forced
Chrylser to do a "recall" in which they had to pay for everyone to get a new
clock spring (and reimburse those people who had already paid for their own
replacement). Too bad Seiko can't be made to pay in the same way.




"Mooron" <mooron@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1150421213.559468.149270@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

salmonella wrote:
kkprince wrote:
I am the owner of a Seiko Sportura Kinetic 9t82 movement
"runned out" of battery ......ooops accumulator after 2.5 years..
(It should not happen...Yes I know...)

(snip)

It is difficult to follow some of the issues you raise, however I am
not sure that you understand the appropriate uses of a usenet group.
While the factual details of your experience appear to be accurate, and
are generally consistent with what other Seiko Kinetic owners have
reported, and I'm sure you feel you have been poorly treated, and this
feeling is probably justified, there are some problems with you
pursuing your grievance in a newsgroup. Let me restate this in another
way: it is probably not appropriate to use a usenet group merely to
ventilate your complaint, or to try to publicly shame Seiko into doing
something about your complaint. Especially if that's all your trying
to do.


I dunno, I think he has a valid complaint with Seiko. This is an
appropriate newsgroup to express his dissatisfaction. How is
anyone else thinking of buying a kinetic supposed to know
they have problems?

I don't like the Seiko Kinetics. The extra cost is not justified
considering all you gain is not having to do a few battery
changes and there is a big risk of an expensive repair.

- Mooron



.

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