PipesandCigars.com issues?

[anotherbob]

the way I look at it. Issues happen. It is part of business. If you can't handle those issues gracefully then you're in the wrong business. No matter how great a place is issues will happen. The postal truck with your package could get hit by lightening and blow up taking everything inside with it. Over time chaos will mess up one of your orders. And if they were the only game in town I could shrug my shoulders and deal with it. But I've had other retailers respond in less then 24 hours and go above and beyond in their help. S.P. Fixed a pipe that I bought estate from them when they would have been one hundred percent in their rights to point out that I waited past the warranty to fix it. They could have blamed me and I would have said it was my fault for sitting on the issue. But they did more then they had to and impressed the heck out of me.

 

[Commander McBragg]

That‘s just it. There’s so many better places that go above and beyond to treat their customers nicely and respectfully. Things happen. But if you are treated respectfully and you know it’s a one off than you can deal with that.

 

[dog_park_piper]

I only order from them when I need a D&R blend not available on other websites I use often. But every order went very well.

 

[Dr. Van Loafer]

Hi guys! I smoked a pipe in my mid 20’s for a few years and then gave it up. Within the last year I decided to give it another go, since my relationship status has changed since then (I’m now 38.). Anyhow exactly 14 days ago I made a purchase at pipesandcigars.com where I ordered 6 different blends. Since then, being frustrated with their service I ordered 6 more blends from tobaccopipes.com. It took 3 days for their products to arrive. In the 14 days since my order with pipesandcigars, my account has been charged, refunded, charged and refunded and charged again with only one blend of tobacco arriving at my door. None of these items were on back order, they were all in stock. I haven’t canceled the order, although I tried atleast a half dozen times, but when I call, I’m put on hold. Each time I’ve waited between 30 minutes and 3 hours. Since I can’t contact them, I can’t cancel the order. I’ve emailed ect. with no response. My order still says processing. I’m really not trying to bad mouth this company. I think everyone should be given a fair shake.
So, my question is, is their an issue with pipesandtobacco.com? Is this a normal thing? Is their service this bad typically? Or, is there something going on I don’t know about?
im from Pa and their location is Bethlehem Pa which is about 2hours from me. I’m tempted just to drive down and see what’s up…… I’d hate to be sitting here aggravated when there may be a logical explanation.
Thanks in advance,
Craig

Oh man, sorry to hear that. So I lived in NE Pennsylvania for a couple years and I ordered from them a nice sized lot of bulk and tinned tobacco. The order was pending for about a week. So I called and spoke with a nice lady who straightened it out. The issue was I paid via PayPal and there was a snag somewhere, so I paid directly over the phone. And I had my order delivered a few days after that. I also placed a very small order with them (coupon code for free shipping and 15% off) about two months ago and had my order delivered to Indiana in about a week.
Hope your order comes through!

 

[renfield]

Many orders from P&C. Any issues were resolved quickly.

I order from many vendors and they’ve all had the occasional problem. Ive been fortunate that the vendor has always made things right. It blows when that doesn’t happen.

 

[wooooo]

View attachment 163270

Agreed. I generally avoid P&C even if it cost me a little more elsewhere.

 

[woodsroad]

this is just my own two cents but why would people go to a business like Pipes and Cigars after knowing how they treat their customers?

Because most people, unlike you, have had overall positive experiences dealing with P&C. "Knowing" how you say you were treated is most definitely trumped by personal experience.

P&C is the largest seller of pipes and cigars, both wholesale and retail, by a wide margin. Therefore, there are going to be, numerically speaking, more negative experiences. I've been ordering from them for years and never had a single negative experience. At least three times now, when I was shipped an incorrect item, they told me to keep it and promptly sent out the correct item.

I can appreciate that your mileage has varied. But that doesn't mean that everyone else should be expected to feel your pain and stop buying from P&C. Unless they'd prefer to exclusively support a forum sponsor, which P&C has stupidly chosen to stop doing.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I buy almost all of my cigars from Cigars International and have always received those orders in a timely fashion. The few orders from Pipes and Cigars have gone fine as well.

Most of my pipe tobacco orders are through Smoking Pipes.

 

[Commander McBragg]

Because most people, unlike you, have had overall positive experiences dealing with P&C. "Knowing" how you say you were treated is most definitely trumped by personal experience.

P&C is the largest seller of pipes and cigars, both wholesale and retail, by a wide margin. Therefore, there are going to be, numerically speaking, more negative experiences. I've been ordering from them for years and never had a single negative experience. At least three times now, when I was shipped an incorrect item, they told me to keep it and promptly sent out the correct item.

I can appreciate that your mileage has varied. But that doesn't mean that everyone else should be expected to feel your pain and stop buying from P&C. Unless they'd prefer to exclusively support a forum sponsor, which P&C has stupidly chosen to stop doing.

thanks For pointing this out to me.

 

[camaguey]

Since the time they where called Habana , i have ordered several dozens of times from P&C and never had a negative issue. Just today i received my last order and as always , everything OK.

 

[Servant King]

I ordered from them before but have heard too many stories like this too over a span of time. Tells me they don't care enough to fix it and that says they don't care about retaining customers. I can imagine them saying why bother these people are a pain and they don't even come back.

^^^^ This

I've ordered from them once, with no problems. Of course, that was before I heard all the horror stories, and founded or unfounded, I'm not one to take a chance at jeopardizing my 100% success rate with them. Other than John Bull Royal English, there's nothing they have that I can't get at SP.com. SP goes above and beyond, and I've ordered from them several times without issue. Can't ask for much more than the peace of mind they consistently provide.

 

[Commander McBragg]

^^^^ This

I've ordered from them once, with no problems. Of course, that was before I heard all the horror stories, and founded or unfounded, I'm not one to take a chance at jeopardizing my 100% success rate with them. Other than John Bull Royal English, there's nothing they have that I can't get at SP.com. SP goes above and beyond, and I've ordered from them several times without issue. Can't ask for much more than the peace of mind they consistently provide.

That is exactly the point I was trying to make @woodsroad

 

[romaso]

P&C is the largest seller of pipes and cigars, both wholesale and retail, by a wide margin.

Do you happen to know about what gross sales are among the major pipe online retailers? I've always wondered but haven't had insomnia lately, so haven't bothered to research it (and figures might not be available for private or non US companies).

 

[romaso]

FYI, Both P&C and Cigars Int are owned by STG
Cigars International Leadership Changes Announced by STG - Cigar Dojo

 

[mikey517]

I've ordered lots of stuff from them and never had an issue, and usually fast delivery. Ordered a pound bag of Lane TK-6 on the 15th and it arrived at the Post Office at 11:30 AM today.

 

[grimpuffer]

They can still blame covid for another 6 weeks or so. Then there's the inflation excuse, the labor shortage excuse, plus the war in the Ukraine.

Funny you mention that, I had a different vendor use a few of those in the same conversation to which I rebutted each one until I finally got a refund.

Its too easy nowadays to blame laziness and poor customer service on whatever new thing the news is reporting.

 

[pantsBoots]

Funny you mention that, I had a different vendor use a few of those in the same conversation to which I rebutted each one until I finally got a refund.

Its too easy nowadays to blame laziness and poor customer service on whatever new thing the news is reporting.

How many times have I called into an automated system and each and every time, it says "Due to extremely high call volume, wait times are longer than normal. Consider using our website." It's all an excuse to understaff the phone lines - some issues need person-to-person contact and most FAQ on critical websites like banks, government, etc are useless as tits on a mule.

 

[cohibajoe]

I been ordering from P&C for around 7yrs, Yah, the shipping boxes are questionable but only once (during a 2016 Esoterica Drop) I did get the Dear John email. I have no issues with my orders and called a few times being helped so maybe being one state over (NJ) it's fine?

 

[AcousticKoi]

I've not done too much business with them but I'm also pretty dang new to everything pipe related. I placed an order on the 8th of this month. My order said it was processing for a good while but being a newish customer and also a worker in retail I didn't want to come across as impatient, so I waited until the 12th to send a message to customer service. They got back to me the next day saying they had to cancel one of the items do to being "back ordered" and everything will now be good to go. A couple of days go by, still processing. I sent another message They said sorry, but your order should be shipped the next day. I waited until after the shipping cutoff the next day, still processing. Sent another message and this time they said another Item In my order is now also sold out but once again, my order should get shipped out the next day. They eventually shipped the order out on the 17th, and I ended up getting it on the 20th. When I first placed the order, everything was in stock so I'm not sure what to think about everything. As long as nothing like this happens again, I'll probably continue to do business with them

 

[trouttimes]

Signature required is a no go for me. I’m not sitting around waiting for a delivery of anything. Before they started this nonsense, I bought from them but their shipping was the worse in the industry.