Take it to a good local watchmaker. Most of Ball's movements are standard types that can be easily worked on if you don't want to deal with Ball directly.

 

sorry to hear your troubles with Ball.
wrt to warranty, am sure you;ve done your due diligence... but it make me look, out of interest.
none of these below from their website are able to sort out your warranty? cos that would seriously be what the double hell...

• Service Center
  Glezer-Kraus Inc.
  6677 N. Lincoln Ave, Suite 222
  Lincolnwood, IL 60712
  USA
  Phone: 847-673-8050
  Fax: 847-673-8052
  watchrepair@glezerkraus.com
• Service Center
  High Grade Watch Inc.
  5940 W. Parker Rd.
  Suite 100
  Plano, TX 75093
  USA
  972-378-0500
  higradewatchinc@att.net
• Service Center
  Stoll & Co. Inc.
  1801 South Metro Parkway
  Dayton, OH 45459
  USA
  Phone: 937-434-7800
  Fax: 937-434-8463
  stoll@americaswatchmaker.com
• Service Center
  Time Innovations LLC
  36 West 44th Street
  Suite 1414
  New York, NY 10036
  USA
  212-575-0005
  inquiries@timeinnovationsllc.com
  www.timeinnovationsllc.com
• Service Center
  Watch Central
  10 Grace Avenue
  Store 1
  Great Neck, NY 11021
  USA
  212-730-4631
  info@watchcentral.com
• USA Distribution
  BALL Watch Company SA
  Rue du Châtelot 21
  2300 La Chaux-de-Fonds
  Switzerland
  USA Toll Free: 888-660-0691
  usa@ballwatch.ch

 

I wouldn’t worry too much yet about them saying it may not be a warranty issue. They haven’t seen the watch yet. They’re not going to make any commitments until they have evaluated the watch.

 

Early last week, I was manually winding my 2023 warranty dated NM2026C-S23J-WH and I felt something bind and then the stem broke off about halfway into the movement! I tried in vain to contact Ball about it to inquire about warranty work and so far they are ignoring me! WTH!? Does anyone know the secret to getting work done on this watch? There is no damage to it, it has not been dropped or messed with. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
VERY frustrating CS!
I tried contacting one of the service centers and they told me they would eval it but they also eluded that it would it may not be under warranty! WT DOUBLE HELL?!
To quote Han Solo, "I got a bad feeling about this"
Kirk

Most of the time, CS for SCs HAVE to say this - its just good sense to avoid giving false promises/hope to people over the phone when they don't even have the watch in front of them. Once they have the watch, they'll tell you what's what, and what will/can be done within warranty and you can figure out next steps.

Like @Nokie states a bit further up, Ball movements are fairly standard and it if turns out that just the crown stem is broken, its a standard part that a good watchmaker can do a relatively quick turnaround on and have the watch back in your hands.

 

Broken Balls are always painful, it would seem.

 

Sorry about it - it's a widely-used movement, ETA 2824-2 (does Ball use all chronometer-grade? Could be). any watch repair place that's worthwhile should be able to fix it.

re: Balls....

 

Having work in CS in a previous life I can confirm what @appophylite said. CS reps are required to say things like that. Fail to do so and you will get marked down during your performance review. I once had a client who worked in the financial services sector call to complain about something. He was bounced all around before I got him. His complaint? His sales rep promised him something but the company refused to honor it. His sales rep refused to take his calls as did the sales manager. That was a BIG MISTAKE on their part. Since he worked in the financial services sector all calls are recorded (part of SARBANES-OXLEY if i recall). He had the sales rep stating in full "I promise you this will be included at absolutely no charge to you" on that recording. Once I told that to the sales manager he took the customers call. I later learned the customer received exactly what he was promised at no charge and the sales rep was discharged for making promises he was not authorized to make.

Send the watch back, let Ball look at it.

 

If it is still under Ball warranty, get a hold of Ball CS on the phone or through email and just follow the instructions they give you. I would think you will be covered and it will only cost you shipping to where they ask you to send it. Include all original paperwork needed to prove your warranty is valid.

If it was bought Gray Market, you may need to contact the company (Jomas, Ashford, etc) and see what there warranty policies is and follow that.

I have had to do warranty both ways and I definitely prefer using the manufacturer if at all possible. Good Luck getting it fixed.

 

I felt something bind and then the stem broke off halfway into the movement

Wait, so you felt significant resistance ("bind") and then powered through it to the point the winding stem broke?

 

 

More like a kick in the bollocks 😂😂

 

OP--You left out some key info here. You bought a brand new Ball, have a legitimate warranty, and then you tried connecting with them online? Why didn't you contact the authorized dealer that you first bought the watch from? Or, did you actually get it online, possibly from an authorized dealer, possibly from a gray market dealer? Whatever the case, in these situations, the first path of recourse to contact the seller, and then, take it from there. Really no more a Ball issue than any other watch--stuff happens, where in this case you broke the stem, and you simply need to go back one step at a time through the procurement chain. As mentioned before, though, a broken stem is easily and cheaply fixed.

 

I've had the stem come out of my Ball Hydrocarbon twice while under warranty and both times Ball fixed it (through one of their ADs) under warranty, no questions asked.

 

Sounds like it could be the mainspring. Had one replaced on my Fireman 43mm. Stuff happens.

 

One month later after the original posting.
I sent the watch to a watchmaker friend and his opinion was that the original stem may have had a flaw in it causing it to be weak and break. It is now replaced and will be back soon. What I am most disappointed by is Ball Watch Co customer (no) Service! After my attempts of trying to get a hold of them, they have completely ghosted me. This is truly shocking to me.
All they had to do is tell me to go back to my AD or send it in for an eval but NOTHING. EVER. I am sad to say that this experience has turned me off from ever buying another Ball watch. I truly believe it is well made but lets face it, It is a mechanical device and sh&t happens. If they ever get their act together customer service wise, I may revisit the brand but until that happens, I may be a former Ball customer.
I can't for the life of me understand why they bother to have a customer inquiry form on their website if they just ignore inquiries.

 

One month later after the original posting.
I sent the watch to a watchmaker friend and his opinion was that the original stem may have had a flaw in it causing it to be weak and break. It is now replaced and will be back soon. What I am most disappointed by is Ball Watch Co customer (no) Service! After my attempts of trying to get a hold of them, they have completely ghosted me. This is truly shocking to me.
All they had to do is tell me to go back to my AD or send it in for an eval but NOTHING. EVER. I am sad to say that this experience has turned me off from ever buying another Ball watch. I truly believe it is well made but lets face it, It is a mechanical device and sh&t happens. If they ever get their act together customer service wise, I may revisit the brand but until that happens, I may be a former Ball customer.
I can't for the life of me understand why they bother to have a customer inquiry form on their website if they just ignore inquiries.

I going to be honest…..This makes no sense to me. Did your email go to SPAM possibly??

If this was me:

• I would reach out to where I originally bought it from to inquire about the Warranty
• Call or email Ball on all possible contacts I could find
• Reach out to an AD for Warranty help
• Return the watch for another or a refund if possible

It seems like you gave up too easily on following the rules and Warranty policy. I know this can be challenging, but that’s what is needed for N/C Warranty sometimes.

The last thing I would do, is have a non-authorized watchmaker touch this watch making the Warranty now Null and Void. Spending your own money to fix this will most likely cost you, to say the least.

 

What happened after your first contact with customer service when they said they had to evaluate it? Did you ask them where to send it for evaluation?

 

I did speak with the AD and they said it would be covered with no issues. This was after I got it back on my wrist.. Thank you to all who helped with posts!