I went into my local jewellers who told me they'd charge £7.50 to change the battery and £9 for the links. A little steep I thought, but it gets the job done so I agreed.
Turned out the watch had two batteries inside and they replaced them both. So they tried to charge me £24 – £7.50 for each battery + £9 for removing the links.
Fair enough if I'd had 2 watches, but given that the watch had already been opened to fit the first battery, virtually no time was necessary for the second. So surely a reduced cost for the second would be far more reasonable?
The salesperson asked for £24 so I questioned why they were charging the full amount for both batteries. The manager passed behind on her way to serving another customer, and said she knows it sounds expensive "but I can't do discounts just because it needed 2 batteries. If you want we'll just take them out again".
I asked the salesperson if she'd take £20 for the job, which she said she couldn't, so I said I'd wait til the manager had finished with the other customer. When the manager saw me still standing there she told the assistant just to take the £16.50 and muttered something angrily along the lines of "don't be surprised if we go out of business…"
Frankly I don't think I'd care if they did.