I think the thread ran its course. Continue with the derail as desired.
Well, that, and there have been others over the years.Oh, just saw your previous post about the Dunhill order. No need for a redundant reply.
And this^ is reason #2.But when they blow it, the onus is on the consumer to get it straightened out. Their customer service staff doesn’t seem to take the initiative.
Actually the parent is Scandinavian Tobacco Group. They run multiple retail operations such as Cigars International, Cigars.Com, Thompson’s, etc. off essentially the same two pieces of software which don’t play well together. A few years back, they had to take a hit to earnings because of their US fulfillment problems, which was in their annual or quarterly report. When you deal with P&C, you are not dealing with a mom and pop. Even Smoking Pipes, which looks like a giant to most of us, is a small fish compared to STG as a whole. And yes, Amazon, which gets a lot of my business, for one, has proven that it is possible for large players to provide much better customer service than P&C delivers. But two years ago I had a major - to me- issue with Amazon that took almost two months to resolve in my favor. That took more of my time cumulatively than I have spent dealing with P&C on any one issue. I still use Amazon.Perhaps it’s the structure being imposed by the parent company, CI. Nobody seems to be empowered to make their own decisions. And as far as shipping, there seems to be a disconnect with order fulfillment. I’ve received orders with wrong item, or missing items numerous times. Definitely a problem somewhere in that hierarchy...
P&C definitely seems to have a more antiquated/ineffective order management-fulfillment system when compared to similar-category web retailers. For me I know out of four orders, three will process absolutely fine and one will go off-rails.
Most times it's inaccurate real-time inventory management which rears its head during higher demand spots (popular blends or attractive sales), but I've some real head-scratchers. Earlier this year I ordered 16 ounces of the Russ O. birthday blend with a larger order......I got 16 1 oz. baggies labeled "Mississippi River". MR isn't a bulk blend, but darned if it sure didn't look/smell like MR. I also couldn't conceive of a situation where someone would either be pre-bagging a blend in small 1oz baggies or sitting there fulfilling an order and thinking preparing 16 separate, labeled bags was an effective use of paid labor. When I called to verify what I actually received.....I got the usual "We don't know what happened but here's a code for $10 off your next order". Three out of four orders go fine, but man on that fourth one.....
For that matter I’m curious about the total number of orders each of them process in a year.
That was only four or five of us during sales.Going strictly from the order numbers in my SP.com history, it looks like they’ve had 140,000 orders in the last nine months and change. And that’s not including a Christmas season.
If that’s right, pipery is a far bigger business than I thought.
Actually the parent is Scandinavian Tobacco Group.
It’ll probably never happen but I’d love to see the raw data from the vendor side for the larger outlets as to percentage of messed up orders. I’d be surprised if they didn’t track that.
For that matter I’m curious about the total number of orders each of them process in a year.
No. From Wikipedia:Well, actually the Parent of CI is now Swedish Match AB. I don't know the org chart of the holdings that were under CI as a result. Probably the same...
Can confirm, i work for CI. STG is the parent companyNo. From Wikipedia:
“In 2010, Swedish Match and Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) formed a new company specialized in cigars. Swedish Match brought its entire cigar business (with the exception of U.S. mass market cigars) and pipe tobacco into the new company, while STG transferred all of its tobacco business. The new company took over the name Scandinavian Tobacco Group. Swedish Match became a partner with 49 percent of the company, and the remaining shares were owned by Skandinavisk Holding A/S. In 2016, STG became publicly listed, and Swedish Match sold most of its shares in the company.”