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My forum handle comes from the AKC-registered name of the best hunting dog I ever owned: Dakotah Twelve Pups. The best things about that species are things I hope I emulate myself: among them, steadfast loyalty.
I'm probably about as loyal now to Pipes and Cigars online store as my old dog was to me. They have just been wonderful to order from.
I have ordered from a couple other online stores, and many of you, I'm sure, will vouch for them as being great folks, too. But I probably won't be trying them much. I like P&C. I think I've attached myself to them like a hungry mutt that found a friendly butcher's alley door. If you don't kick at me with your boot too many times, I'll tend to keep showing up. This is where the good stuff is. This is where I get treated well. The baker was okay, and it's hard to pass up pasta, but this is where the beef is, Grandma. Right here.
P&C is all about customer service. Great selection, but tops in customer service. I had ordered one of their tobacco/pipe sets, a realy cheap offer -- soI hadn't expected much from the pipe that arrived, a simple briar. Figured I'd try it but probably end up tossing it. I surely didn't expect choice of store credit or a replacement pipe, no charge at all, when I mentioned I found a flaw in its shank. I mean, at the ridiculous rate I got it for, how could it *not* have a flaw in its shank... or bowl, or hole angle, or briar, or... something. But they said they were disappointed in the supplier and wanted to offer me store credit or replacement, my choice. Cool. That's meat, man. That, there, is meat. I ain't budgin' from this stoop.
The shipping is lightning fast. If something on my purchase is currently out of stock, no problem. It comes separately, no extra charge, just the moment they have it on hand.
I sometimes wonder if I could beat them driving to my local Walgreen's to get what I need. See, then I have to pick a day when I have the time to drive into town. I usually have to have some other reason to go in, not just because I noticed I'm low on tobacco. And the store is in a location that is out of the way for me. Nothing around it is a reason for me to be in the vicinity. Weird intersection, too. You can only approach it from the north or from the east, so you have to drive well by it, get turned around, and then come back to it because of the way the medians divide the roads there. So, if I need the tobacco *today*, I wouldn't be getting it today, anyway. Might be next Tuesday. But, see, a P&C order placed today might be here by next Tuesday anyway.
And then... we come to selection. I *can* get Captain Black or Carter Hall from P&C. But I don't have to settle for that. I'm not restricted as I am when I buy it at Walgreens. So it just never occurs to me to order OTC brands. P&C has such an incredible selection to choose from that it seems crazy to order what I am otherwise "limited to" at my local drugstore.
Then there's the tax break. In my state (Minnesota), if the total for my online luxury tobacco orders is less than $700, I don't have to pay sales tax on it. Cross over the $699.99 line, and then I have to pay 95% tax on what I paid for the tobacco. That means, in this state, ordering online gets me my tobacco at about half price.
--Which means I can afford exotic tobaccos I would never get to taste. That's not exclusive to P&C; any online store could do that for me. But P&C has master blender Russ Oulette's works. I just love the stuff he comes up with. I think my whole hobby could be based on Oulette cellaring.
But I certainly don't stop there. This is where I get all those cool blends mentioned in these forum threads. It ends up easier getting *those* than it would be for me to get my Captain Black in town.
Forty years ago I got my tobacco from the neighborhood drugstore because there just wasn't anywhere else to get it from until I worked for a convenience store in college. Then I learned I could order it in large quantities for myself (big cans of Argosy Black & Gold that, emptied, formed a giant pyramid up my dorm room's cinder-block wall).
But the ease and, well, "brotherly nature" of ordering through P&C has kept me out of Walgreens ever since I discovered them through this website eight months ago. Doubt I'll need to visit Walgreens ever again, as I get my prescriptions filled elsewhere and, I tell you what, they just charge too damn much for their food and merchandise to patronize them for any other reason.
Two thumbs up for P&C. (Though, for me, you put an end to OTC)
Newbies, don't take my word for it -- just look at the number of posts below I could have bumped to keep them current.
Given a choice between bumping any of those and writing my own, .... well ... I'm just arrogant enough to think my opinion should be counted, too. (And I don't think you can have too many people lighting a pipe in honor of those folks. Good people!)
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I'm probably about as loyal now to Pipes and Cigars online store as my old dog was to me. They have just been wonderful to order from.
I have ordered from a couple other online stores, and many of you, I'm sure, will vouch for them as being great folks, too. But I probably won't be trying them much. I like P&C. I think I've attached myself to them like a hungry mutt that found a friendly butcher's alley door. If you don't kick at me with your boot too many times, I'll tend to keep showing up. This is where the good stuff is. This is where I get treated well. The baker was okay, and it's hard to pass up pasta, but this is where the beef is, Grandma. Right here.
P&C is all about customer service. Great selection, but tops in customer service. I had ordered one of their tobacco/pipe sets, a realy cheap offer -- soI hadn't expected much from the pipe that arrived, a simple briar. Figured I'd try it but probably end up tossing it. I surely didn't expect choice of store credit or a replacement pipe, no charge at all, when I mentioned I found a flaw in its shank. I mean, at the ridiculous rate I got it for, how could it *not* have a flaw in its shank... or bowl, or hole angle, or briar, or... something. But they said they were disappointed in the supplier and wanted to offer me store credit or replacement, my choice. Cool. That's meat, man. That, there, is meat. I ain't budgin' from this stoop.
The shipping is lightning fast. If something on my purchase is currently out of stock, no problem. It comes separately, no extra charge, just the moment they have it on hand.
I sometimes wonder if I could beat them driving to my local Walgreen's to get what I need. See, then I have to pick a day when I have the time to drive into town. I usually have to have some other reason to go in, not just because I noticed I'm low on tobacco. And the store is in a location that is out of the way for me. Nothing around it is a reason for me to be in the vicinity. Weird intersection, too. You can only approach it from the north or from the east, so you have to drive well by it, get turned around, and then come back to it because of the way the medians divide the roads there. So, if I need the tobacco *today*, I wouldn't be getting it today, anyway. Might be next Tuesday. But, see, a P&C order placed today might be here by next Tuesday anyway.
And then... we come to selection. I *can* get Captain Black or Carter Hall from P&C. But I don't have to settle for that. I'm not restricted as I am when I buy it at Walgreens. So it just never occurs to me to order OTC brands. P&C has such an incredible selection to choose from that it seems crazy to order what I am otherwise "limited to" at my local drugstore.
Then there's the tax break. In my state (Minnesota), if the total for my online luxury tobacco orders is less than $700, I don't have to pay sales tax on it. Cross over the $699.99 line, and then I have to pay 95% tax on what I paid for the tobacco. That means, in this state, ordering online gets me my tobacco at about half price.
--Which means I can afford exotic tobaccos I would never get to taste. That's not exclusive to P&C; any online store could do that for me. But P&C has master blender Russ Oulette's works. I just love the stuff he comes up with. I think my whole hobby could be based on Oulette cellaring.
But I certainly don't stop there. This is where I get all those cool blends mentioned in these forum threads. It ends up easier getting *those* than it would be for me to get my Captain Black in town.
Forty years ago I got my tobacco from the neighborhood drugstore because there just wasn't anywhere else to get it from until I worked for a convenience store in college. Then I learned I could order it in large quantities for myself (big cans of Argosy Black & Gold that, emptied, formed a giant pyramid up my dorm room's cinder-block wall).
But the ease and, well, "brotherly nature" of ordering through P&C has kept me out of Walgreens ever since I discovered them through this website eight months ago. Doubt I'll need to visit Walgreens ever again, as I get my prescriptions filled elsewhere and, I tell you what, they just charge too damn much for their food and merchandise to patronize them for any other reason.
Two thumbs up for P&C. (Though, for me, you put an end to OTC)
Newbies, don't take my word for it -- just look at the number of posts below I could have bumped to keep them current.
Given a choice between bumping any of those and writing my own, .... well ... I'm just arrogant enough to think my opinion should be counted, too. (And I don't think you can have too many people lighting a pipe in honor of those folks. Good people!)
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