Chess Bazaar Luxury Order Defective Knights!

Hello friends, 

I am hopeful someone can help me out. 

I placed an order for Indian Chetak II Luxury Chess Pieces. 

I have the following three concerns:

a) I received my order and 9 pieces have small scratches, cracks, blemishes, but I am not concerned about that, I can live it with. 

b) Upon opening the box, all of the "bud rosewood" pieces are heavily oxidized. I guess I could live with this, just keep wiping them? 

c) The main problem I have is, all 4 knights are defective.  They look handicapped, their eyes are completly deformed.  One eye is 2.5x larger then the other eye, and they are pointing in opposite directions, and they are not level by any means. 

I told them I want new knights, Sapna told me that is how they all are, I dont buy that, I have seen pictures on their websites and from others, and these are defective pieces. 

I would like some input from members here, of how to proceed. 

Andy

Thats a picture of the oxidation and my storage box, and the other is just a picture of the entire set, I don't have a chess board yet, and If they don't provide exchange on the knights I guess I won't need one, because I will be returning this

So, I would say your case goes something like this:   Here's the images you are using to advertise the  products you are selling ....   and here's the images of what I have received when I made a purchase from your site.   The received pieces do not match the advertised pieces - refund please.

If everything they have on hand in inventory is like your received set - then they need to change the image on their site to match what they have on hand in inventory.   Otherwise, it's akin to false advertising ... plain and simple.    

I've had good experiences with Chessbaazar, but it seems that not everyone falls into that category ... sad, they seem to have the potential for being a solid company ... but they do not seem to be consistent in delivering the same quality to all their customers.  Crossing my fingers that they learn and satisfy all customers,  they have some great aspects ... like speed in delivery ... price ... etc ... not no amount of positive aspects can cancel out the negative of poor quality of carved pieces. 

The oxidation problem is very curious to me ... you seem to have pieces (from looking at the photos you posted ) that do not oxidize ... the castles, bishops, king and queen ... while the pawns and knights look to be sorely oxidizing ... 

Likewise, I have certain pieces that oxidize and others that do not  ... like, 6 of my bud rosewood pawns have never oxidized, while two of my pawns do.   Likewise, my knights are the worse pieces that I have which oxidize ... but even they have never looks as badly as any of your pieces from your photographs.   Likewise, my bishops and castles simply do not oxidize at all ... seems yours do not either.  Make one naturally become curios about what exactly causes the pieces to oxidize?

It seems obvious that there exists some way to finish the pieces where they do not oxidize, while there is some way to finish these pieces which does cause them to oxidize.  Seems that a company that has been around for a while should be able refine the process in such a way that they have no problem with oxidation problems ... But, thats just my logical thoughts ... perhaps there's more to it than what  I'm thinking about. 

That's a lot of problems for one set. The oxidation(?) on the pieces didn't happen overnight. Someone had to unpackage the pieces and place them in the storage case. Apparently, they either didn't see, or didn't care, about the problem. Either way, it doesn't bode well for their QA.

In the past I've found CB's willingness to resolve quality issues to be inversely proportional to the severity of the problem. It seems, as the problem expands, so too does their reluctance to resolve the matter. Eventually, you'll cross the threshold where the problems are so large that they'll ignore you all together. Good luck getting it resolved.

I have theories about the carving problems ...  but those are my feeble attempts to explain things in my mind - might be far from the way things really are  ... 

Basically, my theories are:  The Knights are the showcase pieces that require the most talent, as they are actually hand carved.  i feel if you are lucky enough to have a seasoned person that did your set - you'll be happy with the results.  But you may get a set done by a person in apprenticeship training.  The "seasoned" master artisans probably get paid too little, and finally realize their ability to start a company and work for themselves, to make more money.  So ... there might  be cycles of times when a company like CB delivers good products ... and cycles of times when they produced poorer carved pieces ...   

Mixed with that is the question of:  How long has the set that you ordered been setting on the shelf. In my case, I noticed that I ordered a particular set, and it apparently was the last one ... the next day they had an "Out of Stock" label across that set that was delivered to me.  It took about 5 weeks before I saw that set style available for sale again.  I would be curious to know of the quality of the carved pieces of the refreshed product matched the quality of the pieces in the set that landed at my home.   

Of course, all of this is just guesses ... I'm an engineer and I do too much analysis ... (which ironically, still never helps my chess ratings very much. LOL ).

This is the reply I got, they are telling me this is normal, the knights look very deformed and defective to me. 

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Dear Andrew,

Thanks for the confirmation of receipt of your order. We have checked the pictures of the knights and Andrew, kindly note that these are handcrafted items, standardization is not possible like any other mass produced items. However, we work hard with our artisans to achieve 99.99% perfection. We have checked our inventory and all the knight are same like yours.

Regarding the oxidized issue, this is normal in bud rosewood pieces as this is an inherent property of the wood itself. You can clean the bud rosewood pieces with a cotton cloth and it will be fine.

Hope you understand and oblige us. Please contact us back if you need any further assistance.

'HAPPY CHESS PLAYING'

Best Regards,

Sapna

Any reputable business would allow one to take a reasonable option of a full refund.   In my mind, even if CB has hit and miss customer satisfaction - this should always be an option ... 

- Just saying ...

Any reputable business would allow one to take a reasonable option of a full refund.   In my mind, even if CB has hit and miss customer satisfaction - this should always be an option ... 

- Just saying ...

You would think, the oxidized pieces would become de-oxidized as you touch them, i.e. when you play chess. 

Other than that, I cannot see anything wrong in the pictures (internet phone; small screen), but it is obvious, that you should get a refund, if you don't like the pieces. 

I might interject that in my case, I have grown fond of my cross-eyed ponies, while I was a bit disappointed at first glance; they bring a smile to my face, when they're up to their usual antics on the board. 

Beautiful sets!

Thank you, it is beautiful I just don't want cross eyed knights :(

cool reply vulpesVelox ... the main thing is whether or not you personally are happy with your set for sure !!!!

btw, all, I only posted my previous post ONCE ... not sure what's up with the duplicate ... 

Chessbazaar is hit and miss... but my experience with them has been mostly positive.

I now own 8 sets of chessmen from Chessbazaar.  My first 7 sets from them were almost flawless... very minor issues like the felt pad on one piece being scrunched up (fixed it myself) and a minor scratch or blemish here or there.   Nothing show stopping or requiring customer service.

The last set I ordered from them is an antique upright set, in Ebony and Boxwood.

One of the rooks was broken into 3 pieces, the "top" of the rook was broken almost in half, and a little piece of wood about the size of a tic tac was broken off the broken piece, and ended up in the bottom of the box under the packing foam.  In addition, one of the boxwood bishops had a series of 7 or 8 deep dents in one side along with a deep scratch... looks like someone dropped it onto something hard and rough... or maybe stepped on it while it was in fine gravel or something.

I was very unhappy about the condition of these 2 pieces, photographed them, and sent to Chessbazaar's email along with some Grrrrrrrr-mail.   They sent 2 replacement pieces to me immediately, I haven't got them yet, but I am happy that they dealt with the issue and are making it right.

Overall, I think Chessbazaar is a good company, but like any company they have a few ratty products in the inventory and their carvers probably have Mondays and Fridays when they're not paying attention, just like everyone else.

In your situation,  I would contact them immediately and see what they'll do to make it right... you might be surprised and end up with a decent set.

This is a CB product I am very much pleased with ... well buffed, very uniform, nicely detailed ... I'm very pleased in deed with the Arabian Knight set I received from this company ... 

One more (although I have LOTS of images) of the same set ...

richiwalt,

That looks a lot like the level of attention to detail and finishing work of my Chessbazaar  "Henry Blackburne" bud rosewood set.  Simply exquisite!

I'm pretty sure that Chessbazaar gets their various sets from different manufacturers... some of their sets seem to be carved and finished more crudely than others.

Such lovely pieces, gentlemen! I will soon go to my cave and cry sweet, manly tears, whilst dreaming of such luxuries.

@ Proverbpsalms: It might be a curious idea, but have you considered taking the pieces to a carpenter or an artisan alike? They might be able to correct the little imperfections (I see the cross eye problem now).

I will try to wipe it when I get home,  how do I tell the difference between oxidation and buffing compound?

I tried wiping the knight but It's difficult to get into the little grooves on the knight piece. 

I wish the knights eyes weren't cross eyed, I love the set, but I can't keep it like this...