watch

About two months ago, I was cleaning my watch when the strap broke.  I've had the watch for over two years, and it had served me well.

Now as you can imagine, I use my watch everyday and I rely on it for such things as telling me what time it is.  I couldn't/can't go with one.  Since the display and battery were just fine, I decided to cut off the other strap and but the watch on my lanyard, which also carries my key, name badge, and hand sanitizer (you never know when you'll need to clean your hands around here!).  In the mean time, I ordered a new watch, same style but different colors, from a major online retailer that I've ordered things from before.  

A few weeks later, my new watch arrived in the mail.  "Finally!" I thought.  When I finally made it through the many layers of packaging, a frown formed on my face upon realizing that the watch's display was blank.  Hmmm...maybe there was a plastic tab to pull out?  Nope.  Referring to the instructions (which was a poor photocopy of the real instructions) proved useless.  No matter what combination of buttons I pressed, the display remained blank.  Ugh.  

Chalking this up to an everyday inconvenience, I called customer support and explained my situation.  They offered to pay for the return of the watch and would then send me a new one.  Great.  I repackaged the timepiece and gave it to a visitor who was returning to the States.  Another few weeks later my replacement watch arrived at the ship.

Unfortunately, this watch was in the exact same condition as the previous one.  Real instructions this time, but still no numbers on the display.  Yes, you may groan in solidarity with me.  After weeks of sporting a naked wrist, I had been foiled again.  This time, I called customer support and told them I just want to return this one and be refunded.  Don't send me another one of your janky watches again.  So two weeks ago, I again repackaged the watch and gave it to a trustworthy crew member who would be returning to the states.  

A few days later, I get a Facebook message from my watch-couriering friend:

• • hey iv got a bit of bad news for you, that package you wanted me to send out was opened and the contents were stolen. i arrived in paris and noticed my bag had been ransacked so i opened it and the box was opened and the contents were laying all throught my suitcase except for what i assume was a watch judging by the instructions in the bottom of my bag. im terribly sorry that this happened

Yes.  DOUBLE UGH!  Upon receipt of this untimely news, I could only feel that this was an appropriate ending to this frustrating saga.  Needless to say, my strapless watch is still jangling around on the lanyard and my hopes of a nice watch-tan are zero to none.