Cigar.com customer service - Tell me what you think

[sepia5]

Originally Posted by Teninx

My response would be something of this nature:

Dear Mr. X

I can certainly understand the occurance of a picking error. I am hoping that what sets your company apart from 'most cigar companies' and makes you worthy of my continued patronage is your willingness to make good the error with minimal difficulty on my part. First of all, I accept no responsibility for any shipping costs of incorrect items. Secondly, I do not accept the premise that I must place another order with your company in order to rectify your mistake on this order. What I want you to do is send me the cigars that I originally contracted for, plus a prepaid shipping lable for the incorrect items. Upon receipt, I will immediatly return the wrong cigars.

That's kind of the way I feel. The Professionale PGX's sell for about $19 a piece on their website, so my card would get billed for almost $60, and I imagine it would take a few weeks to get everything squared away w/ my credit card. Kind of a pain in the a$$.

[fpkjr]

Originally Posted by Teninx

My response would be something of this nature:
Dear Mr. X

I can certainly understand the occurance of a picking error. I am hoping that what sets your company apart from 'most cigar companies' and makes you worthy of my continued patronage is your willingness to make good the error with minimal difficulty on my part. First of all, I accept no responsibility for any shipping costs of incorrect items. Secondly, I do not accept the premise that I must place another order with your company in order to rectify your mistake on this order. What I want you to do is send me the cigars that I originally contracted for, plus a prepaid shipping lable for the incorrect items. Upon receipt, I will immediatly return the wrong cigars.

I would cut and paste it put your name on it and add, "your failure to rectify this would force me to contest the whole order with my Credit Card Company."

Why in the world would you order again from a company that wouldn't go the extra yard and fix there mistake?
Then ask them what this means, "Fast, Safe, & Reliable. Satisfaction Guaranteed!" as posted on there site.

Thanks for keeping us aware. I know its no consolation right now, but by posting this you may keep this from happening to someone else in the future.
Frank

[Teninx]

Isn't cigars.com part of Cigars International and the Devil site? Cause if it is, now I'm double pissed at CBID. But I'll never order from Cigars.com anyway. Thanks for telling us about this, sepia5.

[Teninx]

Originally Posted by Teninx

Isn't cigars.com part of Cigars International and the Devil site? Cause if it is, now I'm double pissed at CBID. But I'll never order from Cigars.com anyway. Thanks for telling us about this, sepia5.

OK, CBID, CI and Cigar.com all have the same address in Bath, PA. And I'm pissed at Cigarbid for charging my credit card before shipping an order...twice. So I think I'll let them all know that they've lost another customer over this. And I've done an obscene amount of business with CI/CBID.

[SeanGAR]

The response I would make is below.

Originally Posted by sepia5

Gene, *** My name is actually GRAHAM ***

This was a picking error - the way we handle these errors is by offering to include the correct cigars on the customer's next order. The way most cigar companies handle these issues is to send out charged replacements and a return label to send back the incorrect ones. Once the incorrect cigars are returned to inventory, the customer's card is refunded.

I wanted to avoid all that and let you keep the incorrect ones and in order to save on shipping costs, send out the correct ones on your next order. That means you get to keep the two Originals for free. However, I understand your point and I can ship the Professionales out to you immediately using the method employed by other companies, that is sending charged replacements and a return label to send back the incorrect ones. Of course, once the Originals are returned we will refund your card.

Hi again Gene,

What the **** makes you think I'd ever order from you again when you ****ed up 100% of my orders thus far? Don't be a ****ing moron. I'll send you the ****ing cigars back after you send me what I ordered in the first ****ing place.

Have a ****ing nice day.

Sean

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by SeanGAR

The response I would make is below.



Hi again Gene,

What the **** makes you think I'd ever order from you again when you ****ed up 100% of my orders thus far? Don't be a ****ing moron. I'll send you the ****ing cigars back after you send me what I ordered in the first ****ing place.

Have a ****ing nice day.

Sean

Where's the love, man? It's Sunday morning - wax on.... wax off.... (I was gonna write one of those letters to someone that mis-shipped me but changed my mind at the last minute. The nut sent me eight cigars and I'd only ordered five!)

[sepia5]

Well, I decided to just order a couple singles and have them include the 3 Professionales that were left out in place of the Originals. They have average prices on VSG's and PAM's, and I've never tried either, so I just ordered one single of each. After shipping that comes out to $35, and if you factor in the Professionales, that's about $7 per stick for some high end smokes. I guess that makes me happy enough, but I won't be ordering from these guys anymore. I still say they either should have just corrected the error by sending the 3 sticks I was supposed to have gotten, or sent the sticks + the packing label, but not charged my card at all. Here's the email I sent to their customer service this afternoon (I really am going to be leaving the country - not BSing them or anything).

"Tim,

Thanks again for your timely response. Again, sorry I'm just responding to this email - this summer has been more busy than I had hoped. To remind you of my situation, I first emailed you a couple weeks ago to let you know I had received 3 Graycliff Originals instead of the 3 Graycliff Professionales I was supposed to receive in my humidor package order (order #CG0228217). You said the 3 Professionales could be included in my next order to save on shipping, or you could send the 3 Professionales along w/ a shipping label, charge my card for those cigars, then refund it upon receiving the Originals. I really don't want to have my card charged then wait for a refund, as I'll be leaving the country for a month in about a week and a half or so, and want to have my credit card paid off prior to that time. So, I guess I'll elect the first option. There are a couple of other cigars I've been wanting to try that you carry, so I thought I'd just order these singles and have the 3 Professionales included w/ that order. You told me to contact you prior to ordering. The cigars I'd like to order are the Ashton VSG Torpedo and the Padron 1964 Anniversary Monarca Maduro. Normal shipping will be fine. You should have my billing and shipping information on file. If you need me to actually order through the website, I can do this as well. Please let me know if there is any more information you need from me. Thanks again for your help w/ this matter."

[sepia5]

Wow! Just got this reply from Tim, the customer service manager at Cigar.com:

"Graham - I thought about what you said in an earlier email and decided if I wanted to be a true Account Manager I'd take care of this right away. So I already sent you some replacements - free of charge!

So there is no need to place a new order yet, however if you'd still like to try those two, I'd be happy to place the order for you. Just let me know.

Thanks."

Sounds like he came through in the end. Just wanted to let you guys know how this ended up.

[donp]

Originally Posted by sepia5

Wow! Just got this reply from Tim, the customer service manager at Cigar.com:

"Graham - I thought about what you said in an earlier email and decided if I wanted to be a true Account Manager I'd take care of this right away. So I already sent you some replacements - free of charge!

So there is no need to place a new order yet, however if you'd still like to try those two, I'd be happy to place the order for you. Just let me know.

Thanks."

Sounds like he came through in the end. Just wanted to let you guys know how this ended up.

What's the old saying? You get more flies with honey than vinegar?
Congrats Sepia, and you came out ahead anyway.

[sepia5]

One more thing to let you guys know about dealing w/ Cigar.com. Apparently they are now using the UPS in conjunction w/ USPS shipping method. I hate this - it means more delay, and I'm not exactly seeing the cheaper shipping prices trickling down to the customer. The replacement cigars were shipped UPS from New Jersey on 6/21, and arrived in Orlando, FL on the 23rd. Then, for whatever reason, through the exchange process between UPS and USPS, they were shipped back NORTHEAST to Jacksonville, FL, even though I live in the Tampa/St. Pete area, an hour and a half SOUTHWEST of Orlando. What a crappy system. So even though the cigars arrived in Orlando on the 23rd, it's now the 26th and the cigars have not yet arrived at my place an hour and a half away b/c of this idiotic shipping system. I dunno if they always use this shipping method, or if the simply went this route b/c they were shipping me free replacement cigars. Either way, it sucks.

[Islesfan]

Originally Posted by Teninx

OK, CBID, CI and Cigar.com all have the same address in Bath, PA. And I'm pissed at Cigarbid for charging my credit card before shipping an order...twice. So I think I'll let them all know that they've lost another customer over this. And I've done an obscene amount of business with CI/CBID.

The question of Cbid/CI and Cigars.com being part of the same company was brought up elsewhere, and I decided to try and find out if they were indeed the same company. I sent an email to the feedback part of the Cigars.com website and received this reply:

We do share a shipping facility with Cigars International as does Cigar Bid,
though we are an entirely separate company from both of them.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. Thank you.


Tim Blythe
Cigar.com
(800) 357-9800
tblythe@cigar.com

So supposedly they aren't they same company; however, its funny that CI/Cbid tend to have problems with switching cigars on certain samplers, and I know they state in their catalog this may happen. But when I receive natural wrappers instead of the SunGrown which were part of the original sampler, its annoying

just my

[LT Rich]

I was kind of surprised at how this thread was going. I have had some dealings with Tim and he has done nothing but good things for me. Because i am deployed he offered to include all sorts of free cigars with any order i made. I have yet to take him up on this offer because I have been on the road a lot here, but it was a better offer than any other company has ever made. The reason i was contacting him was because i was having trouble shipping to my APO, he reserved me a deal that i was going for and ractified the problem promptly. I have had nothing but good dealings with cigar.com.

LT

[sepia5]

Originally Posted by LT Rich

I was kind of surprised at how this thread was going. I have had some dealings with Tim and he has done nothing but good things for me. Because i am deployed he offered to include all sorts of free cigars with any order i made. I have yet to take him up on this offer because I have been on the road a lot here, but it was a better offer than any other company has ever made. The reason i was contacting him was because i was having trouble shipping to my APO, he reserved me a deal that i was going for and ractified the problem promptly. I have had nothing but good dealings with cigar.com.

LT

I'm not trying to bash Cigar.com here. At the end of the day, they corrected their mistake in grand fashion: by allowing me to keep the wrong cigars and sending me the ones I was supposed to have received. Furthermore, one other BOTL on this board PMed me stating his surprise in their initial plan to send the right cigars w/ my next order - he too said he'd had nothing but great experiences w/ their customer service. I merely report their shipping method because for many, especially those in the southern US, this delayed method of shipping is cause for concern (especially if you purchase a box or more) when temperatures are routinely 90* +. But like I said, maybe this "order" was shipped out w/ this method since they were free cigars. Who knows.

[Teninx]

I'm not a captain of industry, but if I were CI/CBID, why would I allow a competitior to use my fullfillment center to take my business? I've also seen CBID staff on the house forum declare that CI and CBID were seperate companies with the same address.

[cigar_040]

Glad to hear they took care of you in the end. As far as the shipping goes.........? I know the frustration, this UPS/USPS thing is ?.