No, it's just in your mind. I bought in excess of 24 CB sets within the last year and a half, and what isolated flaws (as in: very few) there were they replaced without fuss. Some have complained that other retailers are not so keen on making amends for mistakes.
Going on 2 months awaiting my replacement bishop. I'm not complaining - just saying.
I bought my 3.75 1849 set from CB on eBay. It came with some minor flaws with four pieces. One ebony rooks had one white spot on the exterior of the finish... meaning it is not natural and it would not rub off. The other ebony rook had two white spots under the finish. I believe this was natural. One boxwood bishop had a black smudge on top of the finish which would not rub off. One knight had a slight chip in the collar. The knight issue was not a big deal because it can only be seen when flipping the knight over or from the side. CB refused to replace any of the pieces. They said their products are handmade and they don't use any artificial dye in their ebony. They also said that all of my complaints were as a result of being handmade. I initially replied back and argued with them. I was not in the mood to argue due to work stress, so I basically sent a second reply that said I would just keep the set as-is. I left them a bad review on eBay and then that was that. They sent an email back in two days and said they would replace all four pieces. They asked if I would be willing to remove the bad review. I agreed. CB sent the pieces via DHL and all four replacement pieces were acceptable.
HoS always sends me sets with the same issues. However, HoS always replaces the pieces without any fuss as long as I provide photos. I always believe the reason HoS never fusses with me is because FexEx Ground shipping from Alabama to me is very cheap. Shipping is very expensive from India to the US so I assume CB has to try to encourage buyers in the US to be happy with their sets.
Honestly,you're pretty much taking your chances with any vendor,unless you go the route of NOJ,or Official Staunton.
I know that companies like C.B. have gotten their act together over the last 2 years and I got a flawless Empire Staunton set from them about 10 months ago...but....I had quite a few issues with them a while back,after buying 6 sets at the time....
Yes,everything definitely got resolved to my satisfaction,but not without stress and aggravation back then.
I do think that "now" things are considerably better.Case in point,Sound 67's excellent experiences and the sets he's posted look really nice.
Still,when I bought 6 sets from them a couple of years back,it took me posting 2 rather harsh threads on this site to get the ball rolling!
They kept claiming that they never got my emails,sent at the time from my business(which worked for about 100 customers of mine with no isues)but had no problems sending that exact email address advertisements....Huh?
As soon as I put a not so nice thread on Chess.com my issues got resolved and suddenly my business' email address was perfect.
Hey,they seemed sorry for the confusion and definitely took care of me,but it left a bad taste in my mouth,especially since the replacements,though very nice,did not all match the original sets.
I had to spend extra to get them the way i wanted......Not good for the W.A.F.
Looks really nice, but I think the original was not 3.75 size.
NOJ is still number one for me
The stain on dark side of the Staunton Castle pieces pictured above appears remarkably close the stain on the dark side of my RCM 1950’s Dub repro pictured below.
It seems that I like nearly any variant of the 50’s-style Dub; it’s a functional and stylish classic. 👍
The new Dubrovnik set by Chessbazaar seems better than Staunton Castle’s and is also at much lower price.
As a happy owner of the CB 3.0 set, I still think these SC pieces look to be a step above, especially on the knights. It's really great to have so many good options.