Pipes&Cigars ...Russ, What is Happening?

[cigrmaster]

Russ, it has now been many months since Cigars International bought out PC and the inventory issues are now much worse than when it first happened. More than half of the flakes I buy are back ordered and have been for months, while Smokingpipes and 4 Noggins continue to get fresh stock. I am talking about stuff that is not hard to find, things like Solani Silver Flake and 633, Peterson University Flake, Wessex Gold Virginia, Astleys 109, F&T Vintage, Cut Virginia Plug to name a few. All of these are at your competitors. Now in regards to blends that get snapped up quickly like Wesssx Brigade Campaign and Brown Virginia and others, they have not received a shipment in months where your competitors have gotten in regular shipments.
I have been a loyal customer for years and I am pretty dismayed at what is going on. I also noticed a ten percent price increase on many of my favorites even though they are never in stock. So my question is, did CI buy the company to keep it from being a competitor and do they intend to gut it? I cannot figure out what is going on, the excuse that the transition was difficult is no longer valid, the transition should have been over a couple of months ago. It makes no sense that you continue to have inventory issues when your competitors are constantly being replenished.
I have made one order since May with PC and that order has had half of it on back order since July 20, how long am I expected to wait? In that time I have made 21 orders from smokingpipes and 4noggins and bought over 400 tins from them, normally you would have gotten 60 percent of that business if you had the inventory and the prices were the same as before. I am getting the blends I want( from sp and 4noggins) but I used to like having 3 companies to shop at and now I have only two. I was wondering if you could address this and let us know what is going on and if they will ever get back to what they once were.

 

[blendtobac]

I'm actually glad you brought this up. Before we moved, we didn't have an ordering system. When things got low, someone would say something and an order would get placed. When we moved, the people who do the ordering here use a forecasting system, but we didn't have a large enough sample size, so a few of the orders fell short of what was needed. We also have one other thing that complicated matters. When we run out of something, the people who place a backorder get counted, so we add the backorders to the quantities needed, and that should be fine. The problem is that we have a "notify" system that will email people when an item is restocked, and we can't track how many people are on that list, so when an order arrives, the people who get notified might wipe out our entire stock.

We've now gotten a big enough track to be able to order more accurately, and those problems are dwindling. Pretty soon we'll be launching a big change to our system that will bring some huge improvements to our site, and these issues will be a thing of the past. Believe me, nobody wants things to improve more than I do, but to do it right takes time. We'd rather not slap some changes together that will cause as many problems as they cure.

I recognize the issues that have occurred, and I thank everyone who has shown remarkable patience and understanding. You have my word that we're not going anywhere. We're doing everything we think is necessary to become better than before, and you'll see the changes rolling out in the months to come. I'm sure that your patience will be rewarded. We have some ideas that will be a lot of fun for our customers, and we'll have a lot of new products coming that you'll love.
Russ

 

[mike73]

Wow! that had to be the fastest Customer Service response I have ever seen.

 

[smokeybear]

Thanks Russ ... but not a word about P&C price increases

Well i assume all those changes to improve the company that Russ was referring to cost money and add to Over Head therefore we are subject to a price increase to compensate. It is after all a company and companies need to make a profit to survive.
I want to know more about a possibility of you guys decreasing your shipping charges to Canada, I would buy from Pipe and Cigars a lot more if you weren't so high on the shipping.

 

[blendtobac]

Pricing is an issue that's under discussion. I don't have direct input on that end, which is why I didn't make a comment, but I'm passing your concerns on to the people who do. They listen to what people have to say, so I would expect they will take your comments seriously.

 

[smokeybear]

Nevermind apparently you don't ship to Canada anymore. 8O

 

[05venturer]

Wow! that had to be the fastest Customer Service response I have ever seen.

Agree, quite a response within less than 10 minutes of the post, almost as if someone has responses set up for when the next complaint comes down the pipe. (pun intended)
I do have to agree 10000% with Harris, this has gone on far to long and I am pretty much giving up on P&C for now. This is crazy the way things have played out since the buyout. JMHO.
Sorry Russ, I am pretty sure most of this is out of your control and you are the one taking the brunt of this but enough is enough. I really enjoy your blends but not enough to put up with the rest of this.

:crying:

 

[cigrmaster]

roth, as you know I am a very patient guy hence my waiting 2 months for my back order to be completed. I am also not going to run out of tobacco, but my issue is that I am trying to finish my cellar before the end of the year. I have used PC to a great degree to accomplish this goal and when one of my sources all of a sudden has no inventory, it makes me nervous.
Russ, I appreciate your response and I know that you personally do everything you can to help your customers, but I find it disconcerting that no one knows how many people are on the back order list. I also think that it is not a great business move to allow people to back order items and then keep them waiting for months on end. If you did not take our money until the order was shipped then that would be more acceptable. I am sure you notice that neither SP or 4noggins allow for back orders probably because of how difficult it must be to keep track and because they do not want to cause ill will keeping peoples monies for that long. I submit that you might want to suggest to the owners to scrap the back order system and just send out notifications and let it be first come first served. Of course if you were only making people wait a week or two it would not be that big an issue.
On my order, I ordered 25 tins of a blend and it said it was in stock, I then get told, only 12 will be sent and that it should not be long to complete the order. Now it has been 2 months to the day and still nothing. Now the 130.00 bucks or so you have of my money is not a big deal to me, but think of all the people where that 130.00 cannot be out of their pockets for that much time, it is just not a good business decision to work this way.
I hear what you are saying in terms of change and things you are doing, but it sounds to me that since PC has been bought by a huge company, their regard for their customers and for the pipe tobacco business as a whole may not be a top priority. I am sure the cigar side dwarfs the pipe side and to be honest I feel like a red headed step child right about now. lol
I know you are doing everything in your power, and I always appreciate your timely responses to our questions. Just let them know, they are losing money to their competitors in a pretty big way. If you ever need some proof, I would be glad to forward you copies of my orders with your competitors. Hang in there and thanks.

 

[blendtobac]

I don't have any predetermined responses. One of our people saw the thread and told me about it so I could respond. As I said before, there's been a learning curve with the transition. We could make kneejerk changes and make bad moves as a result, or look at the whole picture and put together a strategy to make things better as a whole. As much as I would like the issues to go away immediately, I think that a properly planned set of changes is the correct way to do things. When we're done, the improvements will be very evident.

As far as my taking the brunt of the comments, it comes with the territory. I'm the person from P&C that more people know, so I'll be the one out front. But I know what's going on to make things better, and have every confidence that we'll come out far better at the other end. I don't take the comments personally, but I do take them seriously.

 

[blendtobac]

We do know how many people are on the backorder list, and we order enough for stock plus the backorders, but the "notify" list has limitations because of the system. This, by the way, was a problem even before the move. So it's the people who are notified when an item comes back in stock who flood the system and clean out inventory.

Actually, the people here are very concerned about our customers. The website that we've been using has severe limitations that our other sites do not. This is the main problem, and that's what we're working on.

Once we can fully intergrate P&C into the systems that are in place here, most of our issues will disappear.

 

[blendtobac]

Regarding the backorders, only orders paid by PayPal are collected up front, again, due to limitations of the system integration. If an order is paid using a credit card, we only bill the card for what actually ships, and the rest is billed when the backorder is filled.

 

[cigrmaster]

Russ, thanks for the explanations on the credit card to paypal difference, if I had known that I would have just used a card. Good to know. So If I go and pound the back orders with a credit card, I will eventually get what I want with nothing out of pocket till it ships, sounds like a plan. lol

 

[cigrmaster]

roth, I do see your point and now that I know not to use Paypal, it does make sense to have a back order system. One of my issues though is the fact that they are not ordering enough from the factories, which Russ has addressed. The blend I ordered they probably only got 25 or so in because I was on it within 3 minutes of getting the email notification and it is not a main stream blend meaning they got hardly any in.

 

[taerin]

Thanks Russ for the quick responses, sounds like it would just be smart to just suspend the entire notification system until back-orders are completed or find a way to fill them first, it doesn't seem fair before people who have not waited at all to take the stock first for ones who have waited for months (and paid first in many cases, Paypal orders), it sounds like a terrible excuse. 2 cents deposited.

 

[JimInks]

Rothnh: the incident you had with Smoking Pipes exactly matches one I had a while ago, so you have company, buddy. And like you, I was not happy at the price increases at P&C. The price break you get when you buy 5 tins of one blend used to be a pretty good deal, but now it's not much of a difference at all. I stocked up very heavily on my favorite blends of Russ' in the December 20% off sale ($11.95 for an 8 oz. tin was too good to pass up), so I'm not looking for H&H blends now. I've enough to last me for years. However, there are many other things I want to buy, and I've often found better prices elsewhere. They used to lead in good pricing, but more often than not, that is not as true as it used to be, and they've lost quite a bit of my business as a result.

 

[cortezattic]

Harris, thanks for speaking out for all of us! I especially appreciate the civility of your tone. Classy guy.

Roth nailed it when he observed that only Russ Ouelette's blending genius has kept us hanging in there.

 

[plateauguy]

It has always been with regret that I was unable to use P&C. Russ is a class act and I wish him well. From what I've seen, it's Russ that keeps P&C going. When things turn around, tell them you want a raise.

 

[allan]

I used to order from Cigars International for cigars almost exclusively, and after I stopped with cigars I transferred to pipe tobacco because their prices were very competitive. Now that CI bought P&C, I thought that they would share the orders in that if one didn't have a blend and the other did, they would transfer. I called them on that, and the CSR said no, they are under the same roof, but are separate companies.
Too bad.
I also have a back order for months, but I used a credit card so I wasn't charged. I 'm sure I'd be aggravated if I paid for the stuff and it never came.

 

[wyfbane]

Well I hesitate to weigh in too heavily as I am still new. I have had great luck with P&C. I don't yet order 10+ cans of boutique tobacco at a time so I haven't had the backorder issue referred to above.
I have seen the middle of the demanded tobacco's (Mac Baren's/ McClellands, etc) availability bounce back after the merger so all in all I am still happy.
I am pretty amazed at the 11.98/ 8oz sale i missed in december. But it is still buy 2 get one free on Hearth and Home, right? so $34.82 for 24oz is commensurate and I am unsure what Jiminks is on about.
Huge props to them for extending that sale to the bulk side so I could order an oz of just about every H&H blend to sample and not break the bank!
Free and speedy shipping on decent sized orders of what they do have on hand is awesome.
I am 100% on Roth that the back order/ priority system is the bomb and I would be really sad to see it go.
Final note: I respect Harris greatly and so I am sad to put in on this thread as opposed to one or two of the others that I have seen on here... but:
What is everyone's deal with P&C? It seems like every time any little thing goes on people come on here and crucify that site. Wouldn't be a big deal but there is always a reasonable explanation for the issue, and so it is beginning to trouble me that poor Russ is always on here defending them.
I think if you have a giant (which as I said, usually isn't) issue, Why not PM Russ first? This is a huge venue for Pipe smokers and I for one don't want perception to mistakenly mar P&C. This community is small and we need to support our vendors who do seem to care for us.
My 2 cents

 

[blendtobac]

Thanks to people for understanding the difficulties.

As far as turning the notification system off- we've tried, but it's part of the software that we don't have control of. And let me clarify- backorders get filled first when new stock comes in. The problem comes from ordering X units of something (based on forecasts) plus Y units (to cover backorders) and then as soon as it arrives, the Y units ship out, but the people on the notification system jump in with orders for 2X, and the stock is wiped out. As time goes on and all sales are taken into consideration for forecasting, our orders will cover anticipation better. As it is, we've been adding on extra amounts with every order, lately, to help avoid problems.
Russ