Advice needed for trouble with chessbazaar products

Hello everyone,

First of all, i must say that i had bought 2 chess set at chessbazaar, and i was completely satisfy.


Exactly same chess men, the dark was deep and nice,and all the pieces were nicely made, absolutely identical as the advertising pictures.

The 24 March 2016, I received my third purchase in chessbazaar I paid € 260.



http://www.chessbazaar.com/cb-blackburne-joseph-henry-edition-chess-set-in-ebony-box-wood-4-6-king-with-free-storage-box.html



I admit I succumbed to the magnificence of the knight i saw on advertising... but when I opened the box, I immediately noticed that the horses did not look like the knights of the advertising pictures ...

So 

I contacted Sapna at chessbazaar, and he says he's sorry and, as it is a work done by hand, there may be tiny differences ...



As i allow me to think that i am not (completly) a moron, so of course; i can understood that it may be few imperfections in a hand made work...
 
The big question is: when did the little imperfections stop, and when begin the work not well made... (bad work)

It seem that, if i understood well, i just have been very very lucky to have buying 2 superb chess set without any imperfections and which looks exactly like advertising.


Allow me to ask you:

(See attached photo,open the picture for larger size)


Do you consider that pieces i receive are resembling to the advertising pictures of chessbazaar ...



Thank you a lot for your opinion.


Edit:

The first April 2016, Chessbazaar and myself have found a solution about this trouble.
The proof is that in presence of people of good will, all eventually get better.

First, you have to realize that all those beautifully carved knights you see in the advertisements were carved by master carvers. Once a prototype is accepted and an order is placed for 50 or 100+ sets, most small shops don't have enough master carvers to fulfill the order in the time required, so a certain portion of the order must be turned over to apprentice carvers; and a discerning eye can tell the difference.

If the pieces get mixed up on the way to assembly or packaging, you can easily get dissimilar knights, where some are carved by master carvers and others by apprentices. Also, if the knights were carved by different apprentices they may not be as similar as you'd like. Perhaps this is what distinguishes a $200-$300 Chess Bazaar set from a $500-$700+ House of Staunton set.

I know a small U.S. vendor who has all his luxury knights carved by a single master carver. It's the only way he can be assured of consistently high quality and uniformity.

That's way off , can easily see it in the huge flowing mane of the originals and not on the ones you received.  I would ask them for replacement knights and if they can't do that an immediate refund.  If you get replacement knights that look the same once again ask for your money back.  

Here is a interesting and important point, that i was ignoring completely.
Thank you loubaich

Thank you wiscmike for your opinion, that i completely share...

I ask if it was possible just to have 2 correct white horses, but, Sapna from chessbazar, answer me that all knight there is left are all the same...

I have been reading this thread as well as the other one about a CB set review.  And there are apparently some problems with the products of this company. 

Others have pointed out that there have been problems with sets from this company in the past that are now better if not fixed.

This company is one of a few that appear to have more direct sales from the manufacturers. 

With the protruding weights, outright sloppy and bad mitre cuts and other cuts or dinks in the pieces, it APPEARS that these pieces might be seconds or pieces that have manufacturing defects that would normally disqualify them from being sold.  This would include the problem with the Rook crenels not being the same on the same piece.

The case with the Knights being so different in detail from what is pictured on the sale page does make the master carver and apprentice carver idea seem right.

This company does look bad because of this.  Well, they look sloppy at best, especially with a couple of their higher priced sets having these problems.

I know, from talking with the manager of The House of Staunton, for instance, that their higher priced sets get more of a special treatment than the lower priced ones before they ship them out.  I recently bought a set from them, on their last sale, for something like $62.  The manager had answered the phone himself when I had called to order.  I asked if he could have the employee that knows the most about their chess sets, Kevin, make sure the Golden Rosewood set I got looked like the one they had on their picture.  He told me that he would be glad to have Kevin do that but Kevin had a backlog of higher end sets on his desk for Kevin to personally inspect before shipping, as this is what they do with all their higher end sets.  Because of the backlog for Kevin it might take an extra day for shipping of the set I requested.  It was no problem for me.  But they do inspect all of their higher end pieces just before shipping them.  In fact I know from personal experience that The Rochester Chess Center, Your Move Chess and Games and Legend Chess Products do this, as I recently bought some things from each of these businesses.

On the other hand, there are a number of people on this forum including collectors that love the sets they bought from this company.  So Chess Bazaar does have the capability of producing some nice stuff.

But as another said, we buyers should not have to gamble with our money when we order a set.  In the case of Chess Bazaar and these 2 problem sets, we should be able to expect and receive pieces that look like the ones pictured in their advertisements, and obviously poor and sloppy workmanship should not be allowed to be shipped to us either.

I also don't quite understand why Chess Bazaar can't get it right more consistently.  Other India based businesses like The House of Chess seem to do alright.  It might be that they are cutting corners at the Chess Bazaar manufacturer.  I remember some sets coming from The House of Staunton in the early 2000's that had problems.  Frank and Shawn (Shawn was managing and just starting to buy Frank out) got on it and changed manufacturers with very nice results.

If Chess Bazaar is not permanently hooked up to one manufacturer, they might want to change around a bit.

Carl at Official Staunton seems to consistenly get good work from his suppliers, as do the others.

I guess that leaves you with getting all your money back or offering a % of your money back and you keep what you have.  I would aks for 50% of my money back to keep the set but still if you are not happy it's better just to say you are not satisfied and get 100% of your money back. 

Do not take the lame excuse "the rest of the knights are all the same" for an answer. I got hosed once by them and stopped buying from them completely. 

Hello Eyechess,thank you for your opinion,

About master and apprentice,i agree,and really think loubalch is right on this point.

Thanks for all those chess site, but they are in USA and i am afraid it cost me a lot for the shipping.

The 2 other set i buy at CB are so nicely done and are a pleasure for the eyes.

You write:

"we buyers should not have to gamble with our money when we order a set.  In the case of Chess Bazaar and these 2 problem sets, we should be able to expect and receive pieces that look like the ones pictured in their advertisements, and obviously poor and sloppy workmanship should not be allowed to be shipped to us either."

You are so right for this important point.

Truth is, i was about to buy chess men at Carl OS because what i read here, but the price go suddenly higher (?) from (if i remember well) around 280€ to 360€...(and it was not the change)

So i decide to buy the CB horses, and you know the rest of the story.

Hello wiscmike,

"Do not take the lame excuse "the rest of the knights are all the same" for an answer."

I try what you said...

Thank you.

First of all, I must say that carving wooden chess set by hand tools is not an easy job, because these chess sets are made one at a time by hand, and each set has its slight variations, wood grain, flaws etc. I have this same set which is almost identical to the picture which CB advertised but slight variations still exists in it. 

In my opinion unanticipated high demand for this chess set lead to shortage in the supply. To meet the high demand of this chess set CB might have hired different carvers to produce these chess sets in bulk. But I must say that in this price point its a steal having seen prices of HoS and other sellers which are selling this set above $800. 

Till now, I'm satisfied with all my purchases from chessbazaar and in my personal opinion, this is something you can ignore as there are no manufacturing defects. In this way, your chess set has become unique. :)

I agree with you, but you may understood that i was really disappointed because of the too much difference...
But everything is fine now, because i just receive the right answer from Chessbazaar.
Of course i will continue to buy chess set at Chessbazaar because of their perfect comportement.
Thank all of you for your advice.

For me now,subject closed.

I am happy for you and at the same time a bit envious, as my problems with sets by CB never really get solved. Enjoy your set

Thank you.

I must admit that Chessbazaar solved my problem in the most perfect manner.
They understood my disappointment and have acted like gentlemen.

I can only be delighted in their modes of action, and found that the sentence:
"the customer is King" takes real meaning at Chessbazaar.
Truth is, I really think they have the best customer service possible.

Wish they did the same with me, they could have easily said something like: we will look into the problems with our bishops and once solved we'll get in touch.

aristotele1, I sincerely hope this ends well for you...

thanks,

I don't think I will have my problem sorted, but CB has one customer less, and this time for good.

Same boat as aristotele. In fact this past week I wrote to them to take me off of their mailing list. Offering me a 30% discount on a new set while you offer that to anyone off the street is not a way to settle a defective product.  I was insulted, and even though I see a set that is tempting to buy, I am not a hypocrite so I rather give my business to a different chess purveyor.      

This actually makes it more difficult for us that want to buy nice chess sets.

The designs this company are offering are nice.  In fact I don't know of any other company offering the Soviet or Russian style of set newly made, that we can easily buy from.

I was tempted to buy one of these very sets but the actual designs were off just enough to have me hold off.

Accepting differences in design from the originals, to the degree that they have been off with pretty much all their sets, was part of the compromise we were looking at for a lower price.

But, even sets from others that are less expensive than even these lower prices do not have the flaws and problems this company has shown.

The House of Staunton has the largest number of wood sets from anyplace I know, something like 154 different set designs for sale.  Their price range goes from under $50 all the way up to $3,500.  I just bought a 3.5" Classic Series to go with a 2.0" folding wood board that I own, and it's great.  The company's products do have a high consistency of quality.

Carl and his Official Staunton Company, also looks to offer consistently high quality products.  But none of his sets would be considered low priced.

The House of Chess has nice sets at low prices.  The thing is that they won't have any true reproductions in their offerings.  I just bought their Yugo (Zagreb) 4" set and it is really nice.  But while the Knights are typical Zagreb style, the rest of the set looks Dubrovnik.  So I know when I use this set it is not like any other, historic set.  And that's alright for the player in me, not the nostalgic collector part of me.

It has come across a number of us that CB (Vik) always picks one piece out of the set and totally screws up the design purposely.  The rook on that expensive Russian set is a total miss and had to be done for a reason.  He didn't even come close to the proper design.  In the case of the 1849 sets it was the knights AFTER making the proper knights in the prototype set or at least we thought. This is not a matter of going to less experienced carvers but a matter of having some reason, which only we can guess, to screw up one piece per set.