So to start off I continue to buy pipe tobacco from this company as they are rather excellent for that however as for their pipe sales, I am not sure if they should be selling pipes. This is the www.PipesandCigars.com company to be clear. I almost did not post this, but then I decided to anyway because of how bad the situation was.
The first pipe I recieved (Antique Shell Savinelli 606) had a cracked shank and came in an inner box with no packing material inside it at all. They give me a prepaid shipping label and I send it off. A week goes by with no responce (I am 1 day shipping from them via priority USPS shipping). I email, several more days goes by without a responce. I call, then I am assured someone is working on it and they are probabley dealing with shipping insurance.
A couple days later, I have a new Antique Shell Pipe, still no packing material in the inner box and inches of free movement on all sides (even though I asked) with a heavily cracked bowl (several cracks) in it (even though I asked for it to be inspected). I email, the responce to my email is something like "well if you wanted it to come unbroken you should have requested an inspection." Quite rude! So I send an angry email back and Bobb Gates gets on the case, 2 weeks later I am finally told that they have no more of these pipes and that I need to choose something else, I pick an Unfinished pipe. He asks me if it is alright if it is chipped slightly on the bottom of the bowl, but the draft hole is correctly positioned, I say it is perfectly fine and to ship it to me.
A couple days later I am holding the pipe in my hands, the hole is not only drilled off-center, but it is also drilled diagonally through the bowl, facing the wrong direction, but at least this time they finally packed with packing material the inner box, which probabley cuased the first two pipes to break during shipping. So I just ask for a refund, which to their credit I recieved the very same day (a partial refund minus my shipping charges for the first pipe).
Two pipes I had requested to be inspected in a row had obvious flaws any pipe smoker would have caught and that very few would ever accept, the first one could have simply been a manufacturer issue, but the two after that is just bad. I would be hopping mad had I been required to pay for the shipping of all these pipes, but since they covered all that, I am just annoyed. I feel a pipe company should do better and if Bobb Gates himself is inspecting a pipe (the manager of e-commerce) he should at least get it right or put someone on it that knows something about pipes.
Now I am a loyal customer to Mike (Briarblues), I feel someone selling pipes should inspect every one that goes out the door, pack them correctly, and actually know something about pipesmoking. While I feel PipesandCigars.com is an excellent company to buy pipe tobacco from (I am still a happy customer in this regard), I do not ever see buying another pipe from them, even if they have the lowest prices. It just isn't worth the hassle.
The first pipe I recieved (Antique Shell Savinelli 606) had a cracked shank and came in an inner box with no packing material inside it at all. They give me a prepaid shipping label and I send it off. A week goes by with no responce (I am 1 day shipping from them via priority USPS shipping). I email, several more days goes by without a responce. I call, then I am assured someone is working on it and they are probabley dealing with shipping insurance.
A couple days later, I have a new Antique Shell Pipe, still no packing material in the inner box and inches of free movement on all sides (even though I asked) with a heavily cracked bowl (several cracks) in it (even though I asked for it to be inspected). I email, the responce to my email is something like "well if you wanted it to come unbroken you should have requested an inspection." Quite rude! So I send an angry email back and Bobb Gates gets on the case, 2 weeks later I am finally told that they have no more of these pipes and that I need to choose something else, I pick an Unfinished pipe. He asks me if it is alright if it is chipped slightly on the bottom of the bowl, but the draft hole is correctly positioned, I say it is perfectly fine and to ship it to me.
A couple days later I am holding the pipe in my hands, the hole is not only drilled off-center, but it is also drilled diagonally through the bowl, facing the wrong direction, but at least this time they finally packed with packing material the inner box, which probabley cuased the first two pipes to break during shipping. So I just ask for a refund, which to their credit I recieved the very same day (a partial refund minus my shipping charges for the first pipe).
Two pipes I had requested to be inspected in a row had obvious flaws any pipe smoker would have caught and that very few would ever accept, the first one could have simply been a manufacturer issue, but the two after that is just bad. I would be hopping mad had I been required to pay for the shipping of all these pipes, but since they covered all that, I am just annoyed. I feel a pipe company should do better and if Bobb Gates himself is inspecting a pipe (the manager of e-commerce) he should at least get it right or put someone on it that knows something about pipes.
Now I am a loyal customer to Mike (Briarblues), I feel someone selling pipes should inspect every one that goes out the door, pack them correctly, and actually know something about pipesmoking. While I feel PipesandCigars.com is an excellent company to buy pipe tobacco from (I am still a happy customer in this regard), I do not ever see buying another pipe from them, even if they have the lowest prices. It just isn't worth the hassle.
