I posted my mishap with P&C a month or so back on another thread but I'll recap briefly here before giving the follow-up...
In the Sutliff exit, I ordered a heap of Eastfarthing from them back in the autumn months, payed with PayPal (big mistake) and a couple of tins from the order hit their backorder system wile others were shipped right away. The full transaction cleared my bank within a few days and the backorder was refreshed in their system for the shorted tins a couple of times till the PayPal authorization lapsed on their end. They called out of the blue and rudely demanded that I owed them money for the shipped tins. I provided proof of full payment from PayPal and my bank and after some back-and-forth, they dropped it and issued a P&C Cash voucher as an apology. The handling of the mishap left a bad taste but I had a substantial voucher burning a hole in my pocket so here we are.
Last month I ordered a Salvanelli Oceano 320 with the voucher and paid the difference with a card this time around. Pipe and some other goodies arrived unscathed but the pipe was defective, cracking above the draft hole on the first use. I called them to report the problem and to their credit, they issued a full refund (re-instating my P&C cash plus the diference to my card) and told me to keep the pipe! I was also surprised to learn in this fiasco that the rep who handled the issue was the same woman who used to work for Tobacco Pipes and Cup O' Joe's (Amy) who I had the pleasure of speaking with when I had placed phone orders with those sites in the past.
Not only am I glad that STG had handled my issue in the most awesome way possible but also that they had employed the former staff from their newly acquired and defunct sites rather than just laying them off!
Does this give them a full-on pass for the situation they have created for all of us in the pipe smoking world, no. But, it does soften the blow a tad on my perspective for them.
I repaired the 320 with some pipe mud and ended up sending it off to Ben at Redeemed Pipes with knowledge of its history along with some other pipes so I'm in a full net-positive here with a new order to place. Maybe one of those Peterson Short 268's will take its place on my pipe rack soon.
This was just my situation but I hope it may mean a better outcome for others in the future...
In the Sutliff exit, I ordered a heap of Eastfarthing from them back in the autumn months, payed with PayPal (big mistake) and a couple of tins from the order hit their backorder system wile others were shipped right away. The full transaction cleared my bank within a few days and the backorder was refreshed in their system for the shorted tins a couple of times till the PayPal authorization lapsed on their end. They called out of the blue and rudely demanded that I owed them money for the shipped tins. I provided proof of full payment from PayPal and my bank and after some back-and-forth, they dropped it and issued a P&C Cash voucher as an apology. The handling of the mishap left a bad taste but I had a substantial voucher burning a hole in my pocket so here we are.
Last month I ordered a Salvanelli Oceano 320 with the voucher and paid the difference with a card this time around. Pipe and some other goodies arrived unscathed but the pipe was defective, cracking above the draft hole on the first use. I called them to report the problem and to their credit, they issued a full refund (re-instating my P&C cash plus the diference to my card) and told me to keep the pipe! I was also surprised to learn in this fiasco that the rep who handled the issue was the same woman who used to work for Tobacco Pipes and Cup O' Joe's (Amy) who I had the pleasure of speaking with when I had placed phone orders with those sites in the past.
Not only am I glad that STG had handled my issue in the most awesome way possible but also that they had employed the former staff from their newly acquired and defunct sites rather than just laying them off!
Does this give them a full-on pass for the situation they have created for all of us in the pipe smoking world, no. But, it does soften the blow a tad on my perspective for them.
I repaired the 320 with some pipe mud and ended up sending it off to Ben at Redeemed Pipes with knowledge of its history along with some other pipes so I'm in a full net-positive here with a new order to place. Maybe one of those Peterson Short 268's will take its place on my pipe rack soon.
This was just my situation but I hope it may mean a better outcome for others in the future...
