C.I. crushed my wife today. I am mad

[ssutton219]

Originally Posted by Cigary

As a side note I deal with CI as a customer myself on more than one of their sites. I have been in contact with them about their Customer Service as a whole and about this issue as well. Before this happened I was a customer who sung their praises as far as Customer Service but after the last email and answer from them I am having second thoughts. I explained in full detail what problems they need to handle and that Customer Service is something they need to focus on at this time. I have previously received good service from them in the past but have been reading from other customers that some problems have been going on that required their attention. Their last email to me has me frustrated because of their attitude about how they are going to take care of it. This was part of their reply:

We would never ship out a humidor or any product to the customer knowing that it’s defective or damaged.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

-Jessica

Now, c'mon man,,,this is smugness at best with a twist of STFU. I use to be in CS and anytime there was a problem we always told the customer that we WILL try to find out exactly what the issue is and get back to them with an explanation. This BS answer of we don't knowingly send out defective items and then thanking me for my comments and then say is there anything else they can do for me,,,,WTF is that?

I detest condescending explanations as much as I detest Customer Service problems. Thanks CI for showing some true colors here and from my own observations I will not be using Cigars International in the future unless they start showing some different colors because the one they are showing has a lot of brown in it.

I agree. I wont even post my email I got back from them.

I haven't bought from CI or Cigar Bid in a long while and this will just continue that trend.

Jerry I hope your anniversary went off well and hope I can celebrate a 40+ anniversary.



Shawn

[eyesack]

Jerry, Jerry, Jerry... What the F-K man?!?! You've had the WORST luck (I guess it isn't luck any more) with CI of anyone I've met. I am truly sorry that you had to go through this on your anniversary! I hope THAT CI CAN REMOVE THIS BAD TASTE FROM OUR MOUTHS AS ONE OF THE LARGEST AND ACTIVE CIGAR COMMUNITIES IN THE WORLD.

Some of those replies, Gary... I think I'd rather buy my cigars from the DMV...

However, (playing devil's advocate here) I did want to bring this up; that perhaps CI was drop-shipping these humidors from Whitetail and didn't know about the problems, or that they hadn't inspected each one before they shipped. Was it CI's address on the box? I do believe this may not entirely be C.I.'s fault. That doesn't make it right, though.

[tobacmon]

Originally Posted by Cigary

As a side note I deal with CI as a customer myself on more than one of their sites. I have been in contact with them about their Customer Service as a whole and about this issue as well. Before this happened I was a customer who sung their praises as far as Customer Service but after the last email and answer from them I am having second thoughts. I explained in full detail what problems they need to handle and that Customer Service is something they need to focus on at this time. I have previously received good service from them in the past but have been reading from other customers that some problems have been going on that required their attention. Their last email to me has me frustrated because of their attitude about how they are going to take care of it. This was part of their reply:

We would never ship out a humidor or any product to the customer knowing that it’s defective or damaged.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

-Jessica

Now, c'mon man,,,this is smugness at best with a twist of STFU. I use to be in CS and anytime there was a problem we always told the customer that we WILL try to find out exactly what the issue is and get back to them with an explanation. This BS answer of we don't knowingly send out defective items and then thanking me for my comments and then say is there anything else they can do for me,,,,WTF is that?

I detest condescending explanations as much as I detest Customer Service problems. Thanks CI for showing some true colors here and from my own observations I will not be using Cigars International in the future unless they start showing some different colors because the one they are showing has a lot of brown in it.

I got the same feeling here---I wonder how many others had the same issue--care to comment on that Trish?

Jerry,

Sorry also to hear about your "Ordeal"---Shame on C I---C I who?

[madurolover]

Originally Posted by Cigary

As a side note I deal with CI as a customer myself on more than one of their sites. I have been in contact with them about their Customer Service as a whole and about this issue as well. Before this happened I was a customer who sung their praises as far as Customer Service but after the last email and answer from them I am having second thoughts. I explained in full detail what problems they need to handle and that Customer Service is something they need to focus on at this time. I have previously received good service from them in the past but have been reading from other customers that some problems have been going on that required their attention. Their last email to me has me frustrated because of their attitude about how they are going to take care of it. This was part of their reply:

We would never ship out a humidor or any product to the customer knowing that it’s defective or damaged.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

-Jessica

Now, c'mon man,,,this is smugness at best with a twist of STFU. I use to be in CS and anytime there was a problem we always told the customer that we WILL try to find out exactly what the issue is and get back to them with an explanation. This BS answer of we don't knowingly send out defective items and then thanking me for my comments and then say is there anything else they can do for me,,,,WTF is that?

I detest condescending explanations as much as I detest Customer Service problems. Thanks CI for showing some true colors here and from my own observations I will not be using Cigars International in the future unless they start showing some different colors because the one they are showing has a lot of brown in it.

WOW, That response is unbelievable! Shame on you CI.

[Trish@CI]

Gentlemen,

I know this situation has caused a firestorm of concern from all of you. I want to reassure you all that I'm doing what I can to fix the situation. The big thing standing in my way and I'll say it again... I DON'T KNOW WHO VETERANVMB IS! He has stated that he won't get in touch with us and that is his prerogative. However I'd like to make this right for his wife since this was something she did as a beautiful gesture for their anniversary.

If any of you have his email address or even his last name, I'll do what I can to make it right. Until then, my hands are tied.

Any help I can get from any of you would be greatly appreciated.

Trish

[Strick]

Originally Posted by Trish@CI

Gentlemen,

I know this situation has caused a firestorm of concern from all of you. I want to reassure you all that I'm doing what I can to fix the situation. The big thing standing in my way and I'll say it again... I DON'T KNOW WHO VETERANVMB IS! He has stated that he won't get in touch with us and that is his prerogative. However I'd like to make this right for his wife since this was something she did as a beautiful gesture for their anniversary.

If any of you have his email address or even his last name, I'll do what I can to make it right. Until then, my hands are tied.

Any help I can get from any of you would be greatly appreciated.

Trish

Maybe send him A PM? Just a thought and it might work?

[veteranvmb]

Originally Posted by Trish@CI

Gentlemen,

I know this situation has caused a firestorm of concern from all of you. I want to reassure you all that I'm doing what I can to fix the situation. The big thing standing in my way and I'll say it again... I DON'T KNOW WHO VETERANVMB IS! He has stated that he won't get in touch with us and that is his prerogative. However I'd like to make this right for his wife since this was something she did as a beautiful gesture for their anniversary.

If any of you have his email address or even his last name, I'll do what I can to make it right. Until then, my hands are tied.

Any help I can get from any of you would be greatly appreciated.

Trish

Trish, no thanks. And please the powers that be, I have privacy issues, and do not want to be identified as some of you know, because of my situation being a retired leo and a chaser, I keep my personal information close. Any members who have info on me, please keep it that way.
Jerry

[Trish@CI]

Originally Posted by Strick

Maybe send him A PM? Just a thought and it might work?

Tried that before Strick but got nowhere. I can appreciate that he's done with CI and I can't blame him for being upset. However, to let you all think that we've done nothing for him is unacceptable. That's why I'm posting here in the open forum. To let everyone know that I cannot fix what I'm unaware of. Without knowing who he is, I'm unable to somehow make it up to his wife, if not to him. I'm still trying though....

[Trish@CI]

Originally Posted by madurolover

WOW, That response is unbelievable! Shame on you CI.

MaduroLover - The rep knew that I was handling the situation here on the forum. She wasn't sure what I was doing and how things were being handled so she did what she thought was a 'short and sweet' response. She never realized it would be shortened down to just those two sentences.

Now getting back to the situation at hand...for me to help Jerry out, I have to know who he is. Those of you who are asking what we're doing and how we plan to fix it...I'll take care of it when I know who he is. I can't do anything before then.

I've looked through all of our contest winners - none of them are from Westchester County, NY. I looked up a listing of all of the 'population centers' in Westchester County and didn't find any that matched any of our NY winners. I verified women's name and had phone calls made to them. We're in the process of sending out an email to all of the winners.

I have to tell you though, if someone doesn't WANT to be helped, its difficult to help them.

I'm trying though...I have something in mind that should WOW him!!

Trish

[Cigary]

Originally Posted by Trish@CI

MaduroLover - The rep knew that I was handling the situation here on the forum. She wasn't sure what I was doing and how things were being handled so she did what she thought was a 'short and sweet' response. She never realized it would be shortened down to just those two sentences.

Now getting back to the situation at hand...for me to help Jerry out, I have to know who he is. Those of you who are asking what we're doing and how we plan to fix it...I'll take care of it when I know who he is. I can't do anything before then.

I've looked through all of our contest winners - none of them are from Westchester County, NY. I looked up a listing of all of the 'population centers' in Westchester County and didn't find any that matched any of our NY winners. I verified women's name and had phone calls made to them. We're in the process of sending out an email to all of the winners.

I have to tell you though, if someone doesn't WANT to be helped, its difficult to help them.

I'm trying though...I have something in mind that should WOW him!!

Trish

Hi Trish,

I applaud your initiative in resolving this matter with Jerry and hope that you might be able to persuade him in another attempt to reconcile this issue of the humidor. My earlier post was in regards to how Customer Service is being applied in general and not just in Jerrys' regard.

A Customer Service Program is one that applies itself to those situations where situations are resolved but also to ensure that "form" letters are not the normal way of doing business. Thanking someone for reporting a situation while basically doing nothing to fix it is not professional courtesy as much as it is something that tells me that they will get to it or not,,,now go away.

I get that you are trying to go the extra mile and that is what a Customer Service Rep does and as a consumer that is the first thing I look for. As of today because of your professionalism I will continue my patronage of your company and they are indebted to you for coming on here to try and straighten things out.

[scottw]

Originally Posted by Cigary

Hi Trish,

I applaud your initiative in resolving this matter with Jerry and hope that you might be able to persuade him in another attempt to reconcile this issue of the humidor. My earlier post was in regards to how Customer Service is being applied in general and not just in Jerrys' regard.

A Customer Service Program is one that applies itself to those situations where situations are resolved but also to ensure that "form" letters are not the normal way of doing business. Thanking someone for reporting a situation while basically doing nothing to fix it is not professional courtesy as much as it is something that tells me that they will get to it or not,,,now go away.

I get that you are trying to go the extra mile and that is what a Customer Service Rep does and as a consumer that is the first thing I look for. As of today because of your professionalism I will continue my patronage of your company and they are indebted to you for coming on here to try and straighten things out.

I gotta agree with Gary on this one, well put and Trish, keep doing your best. We see the the value you bring to customers of CI. Just wish it didn't have to go so far.

[trendo]

Got a package from CI today, I guess they saw my post about the lighter. While I wish they would have taken care of it the first time, I do apreciate the effort to make it up to me. The lighter they sent me is far nicer than the one they owed, and I apreciate that. While CI has historicaly poor customer service, I will take this as a sign that they are trying to turn that around. I think I will place a few more orders and see how it goes.

Thanks for the effort CI

[One2gofst]

Well, this thread got me to finally break down and register. I just recently got into the cigar hobby more seriously. With that came ordering cigars. My first couple orders were through CI. I liked it because they have good prices and said thay had a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Things went pretty well until I was going through smoking the sticks I had bought. I had a CAO Criollo I had gotten from them in a sampler that was plugged. I sent a message to their customer service saying what happened. Since I had already smoked some of the other CAOs in the sampler and had no problems I didn't want a refund. In fact I was getting ready to place a box order and asked if they could just credit that order for the defective stick. Short answer was no. Long answer, I dealt with Jessica. She told me she hasn't had others reporting such a problem and that CAO draw tests their cigars so I must be wrong. After some back and forth she implied I did not know how to properly store cigars and it is just wet. I may have started getting more seriously into the hobby but I know how to store cigars.

Anyhow, finally she "gave in" and said that if I place my next order by phone and ask they will throw in a Criollo. I guess that is all well and good, but I am not ordering from them anymore.

I will say I continue to order from Cigar.com. I know they have the same parent company, but the difference in dealing with both places have been night and day. I recently got a bunch of Gurkhas from my girlfriend for my birthday. There was a crack on the foot of one stick. When I asked them what I should do about it my reply was to go ahead and try to smoke it, but on my next order mention it and they'll throw in a couple replacements of the same to make up for it.

I will concur with others regarding a smug tone I have gotten in my admittedly limited correspondence with CI versus the sincere desire to make the customer happy I have perceived when dealing with Cigar.com.

BTW, I look forward to hanging out here more in the future. Sorry my first post had to be a negative one.

[Cigary]

Originally Posted by One2gofst

Well, this thread got me to finally break down and register. I just recently got into the cigar hobby more seriously. With that came ordering cigars. My first couple orders were through CI. I liked it because they have good prices and said thay had a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Things went pretty well until I was going through smoking the sticks I had bought. I had a CAO Criollo I had gotten from them in a sampler that was plugged. I sent a message to their customer service saying what happened. Since I had already smoked some of the other CAOs in the sampler and had no problems I didn't want a refund. In fact I was getting ready to place a box order and asked if they could just credit that order for the defective stick. Short answer was no. Long answer, I dealt with Jessica. She told me she hasn't had others reporting such a problem and that CAO draw tests their cigars so I must be wrong. After some back and forth she implied I did not know how to properly store cigars and it is just wet. I may have started getting more seriously into the hobby but I know how to store cigars.

Anyhow, finally she "gave in" and said that if I place my next order by phone and ask they will throw in a Criollo. I guess that is all well and good, but I am not ordering from them anymore.

I will say I continue to order from Cigar.com. I know they have the same parent company, but the difference in dealing with both places have been night and day. I recently got a bunch of Gurkhas from my girlfriend for my birthday. There was a crack on the foot of one stick. When I asked them what I should do about it my reply was to go ahead and try to smoke it, but on my next order mention it and they'll throw in a couple replacements of the same to make up for it.

I will concur with others regarding a smug tone I have gotten in my admittedly limited correspondence with CI versus the sincere desire to make the customer happy I have perceived when dealing with Cigar.com.

BTW, I look forward to hanging out here more in the future. Sorry my first post had to be a negative one.

Don't feel bad Steve. I for one appreciate somebody else giving feedback on those places that a lot of us deal with and I have dealt with Ms Jessica before and find her Customer Service severely lacking. I also find that if she told you that your method of "storing" cigars was lacking to be repugnant and I don't care how they are "draw tested" or that anybody else has not reported problems with them. It's that kind of attitude that just burns me up and in this particular thread we have gone from A to Z in how customers are treated with CI.

If you are listening or reading this thread, Trish,,,let me add that when I got word of our "friend" on here getting his humidor and that he should be "Wow'd",,,,how is it that he was basically sent the very same humidor that was broken in the first place? When somebody tells me they are going to be "WOW'D" I pretty much have an expectation to be impressed and sending out the same basic humidor is not a "WOW" where I come from in the business world. That is called doing "business as usual" and I was personally insulted because I was told in this thread that this was going to WOW him. I am WOW'D but not in a positive way,,,,this could have been handled in such a better way but now I know after 3 times what to expect from CI Representatives,,,,,compromise instead of Customer Service.

[jadeg001]

Originally Posted by Cigary

If you are listening or reading this thread, Trish,,,let me add that when I got word of our "friend" on here getting his humidor and that he should be "Wow'd",,,,how is it that he was basically sent the very same humidor that was broken in the first place?

Really...? I figured he was going to get a knock on the door to find two guys there with a GIANT cabinet, ready to bring into his house and install where he wanted. I'm really disappointed now.