Iwan Ries Disappointing Service

[torque]

It's cool warren, this is a discussion forum so the import of what we discuss here is pretty minimal in the grand scheme of things Besides, being as sarcastic as I was in my original post doesn't exactly leave me blameless. Plus I like to mix it up a bit when it comes to controversial subjects. One of my own little personality flaws, lol. All is good on this side my friend.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I've never ordered from Iwan Ries, but as someone that has worked in customer service before as well as being a retail manager; I know that everyone should get a second chance. Keep in mind we're all human and we make mistakes, we get distracted, we have a bad day and hopefully that doesn't carry over to our work but sometimes it does.
To me it sounds like there was a glitch in the system which is why no order was ever registered. Heck its happened to me. I received a confirmation page with 4Noggins and payment went through on my PayPal but the order never registered with 4Noggins. After sending off an email the error got corrected. Now obviously someone at IR should have responded to the email(s) but being that IR is a large tobacconist they have two store fronts; the online business and the B&M business. It's possible that the emails didn't make it to the correct person or if there was a glitch in the system and multiple people were impacted its possible your emails slipped through the cracks. There could be any number of reasons, but if this was the first time you've ever had poor service after multiple successful orders I would give them another shot.
If I had a problem like that I would have asked the person on the phone if I could make a new order whether they asked me or not. If they don't ask, then you ask. Don't always wait for the person to go out of their way for you as they may not have the authority to do so. Ask for the same order and if that doesn't get you some where then ask to speak to a manager. If there truly was a problem with the clerk and the order system I'm sure the manager would want to know about it. If a manager hasn't had an opportunity to correct the problem then I don't think you should blast them on the internet. Just my two cents.

 

[ravkesef]

I appreciate what Mike and Eric (Escioe) said. Granted, I've phoned once and emailed once, and been disappointed both times. However, when the business reopens on Monday, I'll call and ask to speak to Chuck. Stay tuned, and I'll let you know how that plays out. However, keep in mind that as the business owner, the buck stops with him, and if his employees are doing this with or without his knowledge, it's still a problem, and perhaps he'll be happy to know of it. Hopefully I'll be able to resolve this in an appropriate fashion.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Hope all goes well and things get resolved.
Just out of curiosity, what did you order? ::

 

[ravkesef]

tobacco, mostly, some accessories a(nother) lighter--total came to around $127.

 

[cortezattic]

Mike (briarblues): I did think about it. Seems to me that one employee, who apparently isn't over burdened with customer service responsibilities anyway, could spare 0.15 seconds to do a Google site search for the past 24 hrs. It's easy to set up Google searches for every major pipe tobacco related site; and mandatory in today's thoroughly connected social media world.

 

[daveinlax]

Lol! Yeah, but I think you overestimate of the power of social media on a old school, big city, cigar/pipe shop. What's said on pipe boards has little impact on their business compared to whether the regular from the office tower next door is grumbling to the guys in the lounge about his favorite sticks are out of stock or the wifi being slow. 8O

 

[cortezattic]

If you do a search of Iwan Reis Chicago, this thread will not come up on the first page, nor second etc. [emphasis mine]

Not to belabor the discussion, especially since I agree with you in principle; but I thought that my screen shot of the search

spoke for itself. Google offers search tools that produce the results I printed -- I didn't "cook" the search results just to

make my point.

 

[mso489]

Cortez, you raise an interesting point. Pipe retailers, B&M and online, are small businesses by any standard, even

the ones we consider large. Though it would be useful for them to read Forums and other online pipe sites, I'm sure

few if any have the chance to look at them more than once or twice a year, if that, unless they happen to be members,

like 4noggins and others on here. From a marketing point of view, though, these are goldmines of information. What

others might pay big bucks to obtain through focus groups and surveys, an astute pipe tobacco merchant can get free

here. What happens in Forums doesn't have to stay in Forums, and it is there for the picking. If someone on staff learned

to scan the site without wading through every post, it could be an effective sales tool.

 

[saltedplug]

There's a thread on another forum about IRC and poor customer service.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I see hundreds of guys come and go from my favorite B&M smoking lounge, and none of them are on forums. If everyone here, stopped doing business with a particular place, I'm not even sure there'd be a dent in their income. So, the lure of keeping up with what we're talking about just isn't there, especially if they are already talking every day to vendors, customers, and others in the industry. As informed as I like to think I am by being on here, The B&M owner always seems to know what's going on weeks before I ever hear about it on here. Unless of course it's an exclusive released by a sponsor of this forum.

 

[ravkesef]

I've just gotten off the phone with Kevin, the Vice-President at Iwan Ries (Chuck's son.) As things happen in the real world, my e-mail took some days to percolate through the system and finally reached Kevin, who checked with his people and filled in the details of what had occurred. Kevin was very sweet and nice on the phone, and sorry that the whole mess occurred. As we all know, whenever a retail merchant offers a sale, someone (and often many someones,) will come along after the sale and try and get in on it, offering every reason in the book as to how their order got messed up, they were in the hospital, they were on Mars--you name it. At any rate, Kevin had a chat with his people suggesting better ways to handle a situation such as this--mostly involving bumping the matter up to him, rather than just letting the matter end right there. I was able to reconstruct most of the order, and juggled a few things around to get close to the total order, and he's taking care of it and will be shipping my order out shortly. Needless to say, Kevin was disappointed that the matter didn't reach him sooner, but once it did, he acted with alacrity to get matters straightened out. The good news, beyond the obvious one of my getting my order back into the pipeline (pun intended,) is that it afforded Kevin the opportunity to do some much needed training with his people about handling customer relations, and that's a good thing in any business, particularly one that's been around for a century and a half.
Thank you all for your various comments, and kudos to Kevin for making matters right.

 

[phil67]

Great to hear and I'm glad that you were able to talk to Kevin. Just goes to show how one employee can mess things up with a long and well established place such as IR.

 

[wyfbane]

Glad the phone call made it right, ravkesef. Sometimes these things do take a bit of time.
Torque, the thread was about questionable customer service. Not how it came about. My point was that on this site people have jumped on someone when there wasn't a good reason. I was just urging a bit of caution before the blast. So it is a bit correlative.
Now that it seems the situation has been addressed, there may not have been a need for this thread in any event.

 

[warren]

Good on you! And good on Kevin!
There is a reason that IRC has been around longer than any of us have been alive.

 

[torque]

wyfbane wrote:

Torque, the thread was about questionable customer service. Not how it came about. My point was that on this site people have jumped on someone when there wasn't a good reason. I was just urging a bit of caution before the blast. So it is a bit correlative.

Fair enough

 

[mso489]

rav, I am really glad to hear this was resolved in an amicable way. I've had such satisfying experiences

with my Iwan Ries purchases over the years. I can see how this went wrong, with people trying to talk their

way into sale prices after the sale has ended. I hope you get everything you were able to order on the second

round, and that it all arrives in good shape. Thank you for the follow-up. It is reassuring.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

Now don't you feel bad for bashing the company on the inter-webs. LOL Just kidding of course, but I'm glad things worked out. Its nice to see the problem was corrected and is being addressed.
I think a lesson was learned on both sides here. IR learned that they need to continue to educate their employees on customer service and various matters that come about and you learned that if the employee isn't able to handle the matter then to ask for a manager. It never hurts to have a re-fresher course from time to time and it never hurts to ask a manager either.

 

[ravenwolf]

I just had an impromptu visit to IRC in person yesterday afternoon. I had taken the Metra rail into Chi-Town to greet a family member coming to stay, and help them navigate the few blocks to Ogilvy Station, where we would ride back to my place for the duration of their stay.
Their rail ride from New York to Chicago was horrendously long, and then was delayed another five hours somehow. So after having a 'dawg and cuppa Joe, listening to a saxophone player on the street for a while, I hiked the three-quarter miles or so to IRC. Time to burn, and the siren call was too strong.
I found the staff to actually be more courteous and helpful than what I expected based on two trips in the past. I found a Peterson Hardcastle with sterling band and a STELLAR sandblast on sale for a hundred bucks. I also picked up a Big Ben, I think it is their Pipa (?) - tiny little thing - but perfect to put in your pocket on your way out the door. They had discounted it from $110 down to $55, and I had a box to sift through until I found one loaded with Birdseye grain. Probably a dozen are still there if that appeals to anybody.
They treated me well despite being in a jeans and hoodie and having full sleeve tattoos (most Celtic and Scandinavian designs, along with my old Army insignia.) They even buffed the pipes up and gave me a Big Ben leather travel case that fits the small Pipa for free.
I somehow slinked out of IRC less than $200 poorer (a miracle), and very satisfied. The kicker was that they had a mountain of empty stogie boxes, and told me to take any I liked for free. So I now have a Nat Sherman box that I'll try to transform into a cigarbox guitar (maybe electric), or maybe a cigarbox fiddle.

 

[mso489]

ravenwolf, IR's rehabilitation is complete. Wow. Nice haul.