My Complaint to Peretti's

[mingc]

I just sent the following email to Peretti's, after half my order came in underweight (for those who do not know, Peretti's English Sampler is 1 oz each of 4 different blends):

"Hello,

"I'm writing to express my displeasure with my last order, which was also my first order. My English Sampler came in underweight: each of the four blends were slightly underweight and all four, including the weight of their ziplock bags, came in at 3.6 oz, instead of 4.

"I recognize that scales vary in accuracy although mine may be biased to over weigh things as far as I know. The bags looked underweight to me. The tobaccos also do not seem particularly dry to me. Even if they were, I note that 0.4 oz of water is quite a bit of water in proportion to what was supposed to be 4 total oz of tobacco.

"I received the order a few weeks ago and debated whether to send this email and ultimately decided that I should let you know. I'm not asking for restitution or any other remedy but simply wanted to register my complaint and ask that you be more careful with your weights in the future.

"The other part of my order, 4 oz of No Name, came in at 4 oz exactly, including the weight of the bag, and I have no issues with that part of my order. Thank you.

"Regards,
"Chin See Ming"

This has miffed me enough that I haven't tried any of the sampler blends yet.

 

[greeneyes]

It was bad luck and the holiday rush I reckon. I buy lots of stuff from Peretti and they're keen on supplying the pipe community with their blends. Sorry that happened to you.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Evaporation during shipment.

 

[morgansteele]

A thoughtful, well-reasoned, and rational complaint to a business. I approve.

 

[morgansteele]

Oh, and do try the blends. Peretti makes great tobacco.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I was canning some Perettis last night. An 8 ounce ton of Cambridge Flake was definitely an ounce or more short. However, two pound cans of RCTR each had at least an ounce more. Go figure.

 

[mingc]

Boston workmanship ? [ducks]

 

[mingc]

So, Nate Davis from Peretti responded to yesterday to my email. I don't have permission to repost it, so I won't, but the gist of what he had to say was that they use an antique balance scale[!] that's inspected annually by the city and that he's check it against another scale and that it's accurate. He also said it's not their practice to short customers, but he understood my frustration, and then offered me a free sample of a blend of my choosing.

I thought this was the best response I could hope for and declined the free sample, because I don't what to be that guy. I did believe him when he said they weren't cheating. But I do think it was careless and I said so in my reply to him. A couple of the bags contained visibly less tobacco that the others, which was why I pulled out the scale in the first place. I bet an experienced employee can weigh out a pretty accurate oz simply by eyeballing, but that didn't happen here. I'll order again if I find a blend to my liking (but not if it happens a second time).

 

[SpookedPiper]

I guess that's the story, you win some, you loose some...but you live to fight another day!

I agree with your sentiments whole heatedly as from the post above it seems like it happened to others as well.

Did the actually speak with you to apologize or was it just via email?

I phoned in my order once, it was like ordering at a NY deli, and if you weren't sure then GTFO of line until you are....made me second guess why I was actually ordering from them. Haven't since.

 

[mingc]

Just email. I ordered on the phone too. The exchange was short and business-like, which was fine with me. They're not one for chit-chatting, that's for sure.

 

[Ctbill]

I was at Peretti’s over Thanksgiving weekend, and bought an assortment of tobacco. A couple “paint cans”, and a few 2oz bags of various blends. I can vouch for the very cool, very old school balance scale they used. They are huge, and I can imagine “balancing” off one ounce at a time might be less than digital scale accurate... this place is no science lab.
Yes, you should get what you pay for. But not sure .1 oz per bag is really that big a deal. You did the right thing by telling them, and they did the right thing by offering a fix. I see no issue here at all.
I have no ”horse in this race” as they say - not an exclusive Peretti fan boy or anything...but did you enjoy the samples? That should weigh heavily on your reordering - or not.
Peretti’s is one of the last of the great old B&Ms out there. Please don’t niggle over .1 oz. It comes off as cheap.
Curiously, do you / have you weighed the contents of tins, pouches, or cans from other blenders? You might be pleasantly, or unpleasantly surprised as well. I don’t think ANY tobacco blender thinks shorting an order to save/make $ to be a good business model, and I don’t think they do.
All in all, I hope you enjoyed the samples - they have some great ones!?

 

[danimalia]

A tenth of an ounce is not the biggest deal (but that goes for the seller too, right?) but being off by an ounce on a half pound order is a big deal in my book, and being heavy on one wouldn't entirely make up for being light on the other. They can have the most accurate scale in the world, that doesn't mean its being used correctly. Are they required to use that old balance scale?

 

[mingc]

I was at Peretti’s over Thanksgiving weekend, and bought an assortment of tobacco. A couple “paint cans”, and a few 2oz bags of various blends. I can vouch for the very cool, very old school balance scale they used. They are huge, and I can imagine “balancing” off one ounce at a time might be less than digital scale accurate... this place is no science lab.
Yes, you should get what you pay for. But not sure .1 oz per bag is really that big a deal. You did the right thing by telling them, and they did the right thing by offering a fix. I see no issue here at all.
I have no ”horse in this race” as they say - not an exclusive Peretti fan boy or anything...but did you enjoy the samples? That should weigh heavily on your reordering - or not.
Peretti’s is one of the last of the great old B&Ms out there. Please don’t niggle over .1 oz. It comes off as cheap.
Curiously, do you / have you weighed the contents of tins, pouches, or cans from other blenders? You might be pleasantly, or unpleasantly surprised as well. I don’t think ANY tobacco blender thinks shorting an order to save/make $ to be a good business model, and I don’t think they do.
All in all, I hope you enjoyed the samples - they have some great ones!?

Don't get me wrong; I am cheap. And no, I've never weighed stuff I've bought from other stores before. For the simple reason that they've never looked obviously underweight.

 

[shanez]

I fail to see how wanting to get what you paid for is "cheap". It's a 10% shortage and using an antique scale is absolutely idiotic.

If they are actually using an antique balance scale I'm not surprised it's off by that much. I'm surprised it's not more. There are plenty of modern digital scales that cost in the $20 range that would eliminate the problem.

Not only would a modern scale fix the issue, they could potentially be able to give away an extra 10% and make up the difference in labor cost spent in time to try and operate a balance scale. Not only that, a modern scale has a built-in tare feature whereas I doubt many, if any, of the employees know how to on a balance scale, modern or antique.

 

[Ctbill]

My bigger point is the relative amount here. One ounce is about 28 grams. A standard bowl is about 2.5-3 grams, so for discussion purposes, use 2.8 grams a bowl. The full ounce yields 10 bowls, the OP got 9 bowls for a 1 oz sample bag...
I agree a full oz short in an 8oz can is bad! 10 bowls bad!

 

[anotherbob]

I fail to see how wanting to get what you paid for is "cheap". It's a 10% shortage and using an antique scale is absolutely idiotic.

If they are actually using an antique balance scale I'm not surprised it's off by that much. I'm surprised it's not more. There are plenty of modern digital scales that cost in the $20 range that would eliminate the problem.

Not only would a modern scale fix the issue, they could potentially be able to give away an extra 10% and make up the difference in labor cost spent in time to try and operate a balance scale. Not only that, a modern scale has a built-in tare feature whereas I doubt many, if any, of the employees know how to on a balance scale, modern or antique.

and they can still even keep the old scale around for nostalgia. Give me another reason to miss my old local. They never weighed an ounce they'd just fill the bag up which when checked was more than an ounce.