Meer Queen at Meerschaum Store - Bad Experience

[d4k23]

Hi all, my lovely bride purchased a custom Meer from Meer Queen back in November of this year for a surprise gift, paid in advance through PayPal. She had kept up a pretty consistent monthly back and forth about status of the pipe, and latest was in June of this year stating the “pipe was getting its special fit case and will send photos soon.”

Well here we are in September and no photos, and no more correspondence. She has been reaching out weekly….

Anybody know the carver/owner or have a similar experience? She told me about this today and when she told me who she bought from, I thought who the heck is that (secretly hoping it was Altinay). Is there a chance this is in transit or did they take the money and run? Or something else happen to them?

 

[anotherbob]

seems odd that they'd do the back and forth that far and then just run with the money. I'd bet either issues with e-mail or the pipe or the personal life of the seller.
Though I'd say be wary of paying for a custom order before hand for this reason.

 

[d4k23]

She said she searched for the forums and saw this was a reputable place. I have never had a custom pipe before, I would assume you make a down payment and pay when shipped and photographed, but not sure. It is an odd situation for sure, why I’m checking with the experts.

 

[Briarcutter]

https://www.smokingpipes.com/pipes/new/Meer-Queen-Meerschaum/

Looks like something outdated from smoking pipes website. Did a quick search and this is one that turned up. It looks like from SP perspective, it was/is a reputable business.

I wish you the best in this situation. I'd say you can contact PayPal but if the transaction was in November I don't know if they're going to be much help. I'd contact them anyway.

 

[sablebrush52]

If you used your credit card to make payment, you can file a dispute and likely get your money back.

 

[d4k23]

I believe my wife has started the claim process. I went ahead and sent a message through their website too, maybe he’ll respond that way. He did mention the emails kept going to spam. Hopefully all is well for the owner, but we’ll see what happens. Thanks for the input everyone.