Marscigar and Watch City Cigars both show it in stock on turbotin
Pipes & Cigars Debacle - Part II
- Thread starter hoosierpipeguy
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I just wanted to chime in for a positive experience- on 1 Dec I ordered 3 tins of Seattle Pipe Club. Later that day the "buy two get one free" link appeared. I emailed customer service and after a couple weeks (with an apology, they said they transitioned to a new email system) they sent out via express delivery another tin without any hesitation. One tin? That's a good sign!
No issues with P&C on Esoterica this week...The goods are in the cellar.
I’ve been around a while, and have utilized P&C for a long time. I’ve never had a transaction go sideways. I’m not a fan of getting 9 day free shipments, but with probably 50 transactions over the years, nothing has been lost, damaged, or failed to ship.
I can totally relate to the OP’s bad experiences though. “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
worst part when certain people seem to have a problem with a retailer that others seem to always avoid, the problem just might be in the shipping. Every stop along the way is one more area where something can go wrong and increases going through the hands of a post office or shipping center thats existence is a black mark on the whole profession of carriers. That said I assume mistakes happen, it's how they're handled that makes the difference. I can also understand that their solution might not be what makes me happy right now (being asked to wait a few days to make sure the package isn't just delayed or waiting until the post office officially considers the package lost...)but in the long run I should feel comfortable ordering from somewhere knowing that if something happens it's their headache too.
Be patient, the stock situation on Nightcap will improve.
I'm not directly involved in customer service, but I've come on in other threads and posted my email address so I can help to resolve issues. If any of you run into a problem with P&C, please write me at russo@pipesandcigars.com and I will do everything I can to help you. If you send me an email to help with an issue, please include your phone number because some problems are too complex to handle by emails.
Russ
Russ
My recent orders account for a few of the “bad ones”:
- Ordered 16 ounces of bulk cake, was charged for 16, but only shipped 10. Called customer service, was placed on hold for 15 minutes and they went through the motions saying that I was only charged for 10 (I wasn’t), and then that my scale is inaccurate (it isn’t; the other bulks weighed in correctly) and then that the package was pilfered (it wasn’t; the weight on the manifest matched the box weight) and that a report with UPS would have to be filed, and was instructed to not touch it for 90 days while it’s being investigated.
- Ordered War Horse Bar, got Fusilers Ration instead. Same wait on the telephone, so sent an “email” through their customer portal. Got a response over two weeks later.
- Ordered a set of three small meerschaums in a “decorative box.” The box wasn’t secured so there were three loose pipes banging around.
- The new boxes / shipping is terrible. One box was open, with one tin missing its lid, and another box was crushed.
Yet I’m a sucker for a bargain and keep on getting roped back in.
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The new boxes with the folding bottoms are designed so that only the top requires tape, which can be applied automatically by a machine. My UPS driver tells me they are approved and accepted by UPS. They are used by an increasing number of big shippers, but he and other drivers see problems with them all the time. I had one shipment that was virtually 100% open where the tape had come almost completely off. The only thing that saved the three pounds of bulk inside was that the tape had adhered to the air pillows that were on top of the bulk bags.
And Russ really will try to help you out if you have an issue that normal customer service can’t resolve or is being obtuse about.
Bah! Who do you think you are? Some kind of extraordinarily gifted pipe blend maker that runs some fancy outfit? ?
Oh! Oh $%#t!!! ?
lol j/k ?
Seriously: Thank you Mr. Russ!
Thank you for many of your terrific blends AND taking the time to chime in here. That goes a long way
I ordered from a sale they had. Never shipped one of the tins - like to have gotten, cause now it's discontinued! Took over a year for them to finally issue a refund. Sometimes it just happens.
It sure seems to just happen to one outfit a heck of a lot more often.
Kudos for offering to help, even though customer service is not your responsibility. Coming from you, Russ, that means a lot.
That sounds familiar... I’ve ordered sale items in the past. Either part of the order is forgotten, or the wrong item is shipped. And despite getting ahold of them right away, the item I originally wanted is then sold out. Not to mention time spent trying to straighten out the screwup, and get a refund. This has happened several times with orders I have placed.
After not ordering from them for over a year, I placed some orders for some tobacco sales. I received the items as ordered promptly and everything was there. Then I figured maybe they got there act together.
They had Dunhill tins selling real cheap so I ordered 20. The order showed processed for over a week. So I called them to ask what the deal was. When I finally got someone on the phone, they said payment was rejected. Payment showed pending on my PayPal account, so this person obviously didn’t know what they were talking about. I told them just to cancel the order. Matter of fact the payment still shows pending in my PayPal account, along with orders I received and payment posted in my bank account.
There are definitely some ongoing issues with poor customer service, and the leadership that allows this to continue.
I order from other vendors who can consistently provide superior customer service and don’t waste my time on P&C...
That crushed carton is not the fault of said vendor but the fault of the shipping company, there is no way a reliable vendor would send it out that way.
Someone at P&C made the decision to go with these new boxes.
The boxes are terrible. They fold up on themselves and spill their contents out in transit, especially if the tape isn’t applied over the seam (which has happened to me and another poster, noted above), and leave it up to a line worker or driver at UPS to stuff it all back in.
well I placed an order on the 31st.. we'll see when it ships.
placed order after that with tobaccopipes and marscigars.. both have already shipped.
placed order after that with tobaccopipes and marscigars.. both have already shipped.
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