Deeply flawed luxury chess board from Chess Bazaar

Replace "o" with an "i". That made me laugh.

I echo your sentiments about hoping for a quick resolution.

What customer service department? These are manufacturers who all of a sudden thought it would be a piece of cake to cut out the retailers, set up their own website and sell directly to the consumer around the world. Do they even have a landline phone?

If CB is reading this, don't get angry with my words. Channel your emotions into something positive and productive. Resolve this situation with the customer immediately. That damaged chess board should not have been sold as new. In that condition, it's worth, at most $75 usd. 

I have been happy to say how CB has produced poor quality designs and given poor quality in the past.

I also have pointed out when they have done things right.

there are only two companies that have had very little and usually no problems, Noj and Official Staunton.

Yes, HoS has had a number of problems aired on these forums and I have pointed them out.  

My experience with CB has been all good, knock on wood. And they USUALLY come around to fixing things.  

This latest board thing looks bad.  I imagine if you get on them enough, they’ll make it right, I hope to your satisfaction.

Here, here @pawnerai! I’m calling on Chess Bazaar to immediately resolve the unfortunate situation on behalf on @chessintexas. Please discontinue selling substandard products such as the one you sold to @chessintexas. Truly, it’s a middle school industrial arts class project with a C- grade. Refund the full amount you owe to @chessintexas. 

+1 on the Eyechess comment.....My experiences exactly with C.B.

Yeah...Ultimately fixed-ish,but the hassle and aggravation,not to mention replacements that sometimes were off themselves......STUNK!

Hmmmm…. come to think of it …I’m part of the problem.

Being new to the game and to buying sets - I read-up on forums like this and I decided to buy online.

That’s said, in many ways - there wasn’t (and at present still isn’t) many other retail options … we have just ticked over 200 days in lockdown in since April last year and in between time - the chess shops I visited in between lockdowns, didn’t have a heap of stock…. Anyway, I digress …

I’m part of the problem because basically I’ve rewarded poor seller behaviour- in that I was prepared to wait for replacements, excused poor quality, service and return options - as a sign on disrupted times - crumbs … even though I refused to pay to return their faulty stock - I’ve offered to drive it to someone local … what was I thinking?!

So …while I echo Eye’s and Magic’s comments and experience - +1 to both…. perhaps by being patient and understanding - I have encouraged the wrong behaviour in what the seller might expect.

Further, I have at all times tried to write balanced reviews and the Shera series thread is that, I believe … but still - we are here again…. Poor quality and people unhappy and anxious.

My wife and kids buy online and it’s usually seemless - if they are not happy - for any reason - the online retailers they purchase from seem to provide a return option so that you can just pack it back up and return it with a full refund … easy and at no cost to you, the buyer. And the result - they usually go back to that specific well… and buy again. Loyalty.

Point being - why make it so hard? … please CB and other online chess retailers who have had quality and service issues - just change your processes and systems and and resolve to fix an unhappy customer’s problem - quickly, humbly and efficiently.

Make it easy to do business - both ways in a transaction … and you’ll probably drive more loyalty and less angst.

You're not part of the problem....You were simply put,a nice guy.

I admittedly had issues with C.B. which they resolved fairly well,but 4 out of 12 sets were defective and to be honest,I am not a fan of the back and forth issues getting stuff like this resolved.

First,C.B. did not return emails and only did so when I posted 2 nasty threads on Chess.com a while back....Eyechess probably remembers this era from C.B.

Then,C.B. claimed they could not use my email address,but it was just fine when they wanted to send me advertisements.....Laughable.

Fast forward 2-3 years and some folks were happy and admittedly i got a flawless Empire Staunton set from them.....So things were looking up.

Now we're back to really good folks having to resort to using forums like this to get satisfaction.

I owned a small business for 35 years and did business with many other businesses....Some superb and some not so hot,but C.B. has been the bottom of the barrel!

Virus or not,these folks need to get it together.

 

They explicitly sell "imperfect" items, and I believe that language merely applies to items sold as imperfect.

It is true Chessbazaar product quality has not reached standard level but their customer service is better than any other chess seller. Painting on wood has its own technique which Chessbazzar has yet to master. I keep away from any chess product that has been painted due to numerous problems I faced in the past. 

pont pont

You may be correct and if so, I will admit my assumption may be incorrect. However, based on the substandard product that Chess Bazaar is attempting to sell as “new” to our colleague @chessintexas, the “imperfect” items must be pure garbage. Chess Bazaar needs only to step up to the plate and make this right, today. Any reputable company would have already done so and thereby removed all rationale for this entire thread. 

Wabi Sabi Chessboard Nitpicked

Wabi Sabi is fine when one knows at the time of purchase. Nothing is perfect, but the variable square size really kills it for me.

 

Chess Bazaar has, to their credit, admitted that this board is flawed and shouldn't have been sent to me. 

However, they keep haggling with me to keep it at a discount. Their latest offer is a refund of $120 (of the $280 purchase price). They said it is an "isolated incidence" and that I please oblige.

I told them politely that I don't want this board. I also told them that I return gladly at their expense and that I insist on a full refund. I gave them a deadline of 10 business days before I will then file a dispute with my credit card company. 

Maybe this is a difference in business culture. I don't want to haggle with dealers over a product if I don't want to keep it. I hate to do the dispute as it is time consuming, but if they will leave me no other choice, I'll go through with it. 

I also encourage others on here to not accept and condone this sort of business culture. 

After returning a defective CB board I bought a set from Hand Crafted Chess. I bought their set for 110$, and it's sooo good! And it costs about a third of every other good set I found, here is the link: https://handcraftedchess.com/products/walnut-luxury-chess-set 

@chessintexas +1 How would you like it if you purchased a new car and upon inspection you found the car's front bumper did not like up with the front left fender. Would you complain to the dealer about the fender or would you accept it as is in order to avoid being picky?

I think no matter the price level there is a certain level that must be met by the manufacturer or retailer. It like the car example above. My expectation is the fender should line up with the attached front bumper even if I buy the least expensive new car on the planet. This board has clear not met that threshold. My borderless JK Creative board does not even have any of these issues and it was priced at $117. If JK offered me a board that had any of these issues, I would outright reject it because it couldn't even pass reasonable standards.

Also, this board was priced above $380 before the coupon right? That's similar in price to a new Drueke board that the grandson released recently. It is also priced close to a JLP board from Chesshouse. Do Drueke or JLP boards have unfinished sides of squares, bleeding paint lines, varying sizes of squares, and other finish issues? I think not. 

I am experiencing the same issues with my chess set from CB. The quality control  is really bad in this company. How hard is it to spend a few minutes to check the product before sending it? They are probably following a mantra - send whatever, and if sticks good, if not we can always haggle with a customer.

I wouldn't put that board into my collection if it were $10.00

You have to have standards.....something C.B. consistently drops the ball on!

Personally,I believe that C.B. relies too heavily on their own suppliers and does not check their incoming inventory well....Or ,accepts that their suppliers possibly ship out stuff.

Either way,something needs correcting quickly.

Instead of correcting this issue quickly with a full refund, they keep emailing me back with offers to please accept the board in its condition. They won't take no for an answer. I can tell this one is headed for credit card dispute. I gave them a deadline by which they will have to make the refund. I fully expect to get more of their "offers" in the meantime. 

 

@chessintexas, you are most definitely more patient than me. Kudos to you. Chess Bazaar has firmly been placed in my “Do Not Ever Do Business” with file regardless of the final outcome for you. I buy rarely, so it isn’t going to carry much influence with CB. However, because I don’t much buy very much, I tend to stay away from the ones that have given such pathetic service and product to a colleague. 

It also makes one appreciate what we already own.