Let me preface by saying I'm not the most frugal person... I'm not the worst either, but I'm not minimalistic and I definitely need to reel myself in on shopping and save more money. But I am definitely a bargain hunter and try to save the most money I can when I do find something I want.
This might end up being too long of a story for what it is, but oh well. I'm gonna type it out anyways. I got a watch online that I am ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH! It's the most gorgeous watch I've ever had! It retails for $165 new, but I found this one in new condition but used online for $20 with the only problem being that the battery is dead. I don't have the proper tools to change a watch battery, but I've googled how to do it at home before with previous watches and a pocket knife in the past and successfully changed out a handful of watch batteries myself so I felt fairly confident in my ability to do so and I even had a spare watch battery! Who wants to go to a jeweler to get a new battery and get it replaced when you can do it at home for free, right?
So I got the watch in the mail today and I pop off the back (the hard part of the process, or so I thought until today) and switch out the battery. I check it and it's ticking, so clearly the battery works! Awesome! Time to pop the back back on. I can usually do this with my thumbs but it is absolutely refusing to go on. I youtube some videos and try a few other (kind of nerve racking! I didn't wanna break my new watch!) methods. Nothing is getting the back on to the back of this watch.
I finally call Nordstroms (they sell this brand of watch at their stores), pretend I bought it there and ask if they have a watch press and can pop the back on to my watch. They said sure, so I made my way to the mall. I get to Nordstroms to find out they don't have a watch press, but they can mail my watch in to get the back popped back on. It'll take eight to ten weeks to get my watch back.... just to pop the back on. No thanks. I walk to a jewelry store in the mall and ask if they have a watch press, and the (very sweet) ladies at the store do. They say I have to do it myself because they don't wanna be liable if the watch breaks or scratches. So I load up the watch into the watch press and press down. And it's still not working. :/ I bear down with all my weight.... still not working. I put the watch press on the floor and press down on it with both hands, my knee over my hands, pushing all my weight into it using the force of my knee and both hands... and it's still not. fucking. working.
The ladies at the jewelry store are perplexed, so they decide they'll try it themselves after all if I don't get upset if it breaks. I tell them go for it. Four different women all try to use the watch press to get the back of the watch back on, which is supposed to be a simple job using a watch press, and none of us can get it on. What the fuck right? They direct me to a watch repair shop about four blocks away so I go there.
The woman at the watch repair shop looks at my watch and knows right away what's wrong. That battery I had at home that I didn't wanna pay to get replaced? The one I put in, checked that the watch hands were ticking, and saw that it worked? Not. The. Right. Battery. But it works, if it wasn't the right battery it wouldn't have fit and wouldn't have worked right? Nope, apparently I'm totally wrong and look like an idiot. The battery is barely too thick, just because it's providing power to the watch doesn't mean it's the right battery, and the back won't go back on because it can't close with such a thick battery. I am so over this, I just wanna enjoy my new watch.
So after all that, I paid $20 to get a new watch battery and have it replaced for me after all. Oh well! Totally worth it!
March 08, 2019 at 09:22PM
