Picking up on the social media posts of some of them, they appear pretty relaxed and chilled in their writings. Let's face it, most of the 'bigger' names have got their fingers in other Real pies and one assumes income from IW was only part of their total earnings each year. It's the orderless customers, I feel sorry for and the 'shop floor' staff who only had one income. And remember... even if you did get your order in the final days or slightly before and something goes wrong with it, how on earth do you enforce your consumer rights? With the manufacturer? I doubt it as your contract is surely with Ideal World and Ideal World doesn't exist as a company any longer in that sense. What do you do? Put your faulty rattan furniture suite in the post, and send it back to the administrators?
Thats a good point & why everyone, whenever they buy a product with a warranty, should read carefully and keep all paperwork, receipts etc for that purchase and register the product with the manufacturer's web site etc. Okay a £15 toaster from asda isn't really worth worrying about the warranty but for more expensive items it is.
A lot of warranties should be covered by the manufacturer, but you'll need to provide proof of purchase, date/retailer etc, will all depend on the product and what paperwork came with it etc. In the case of watches which i have a quite few, they come with warranty cards, which the retailer should have filled in with the relevant details, it's also prudent to register your watch with the manufacturer if they have this facility, you will often get extended warranty doing this. Unfortunately a lot of retailer, especially online outfits, ebay, Amazon etc don't fill these cards in so always keep any other paperwork so you can prove purchase. Now the first port of call if something is wrong with the watch will be retailer, who will then deal with the manufacturer to sort the problem, but if retailer has gone burst then you should still be able to contact the manufacturer, if they exist direct if still under warranty.
Examples of IW watch brands you are ok with, even if the IW and IW suppliers (watchbase, ILG etc) also went out of busniss, are VE, Roamer, Hanowa, Aviator, Mathey-Tissot etc.
And then there is the other problem where there are a lot of IW brands like Swan & Edgar, Resultco, Chritophe Duchamp etc who are more a wholesalers/retailer of watches themselves rather than an actual manufacturer of watches, so if they go out of business as well then you've no idea who actually the manufacturer is to have your watch sorted, then your only options are find a local watchmaker to fix it at your expense or bin it.
