Staunton Castle Alexandria set in boxwood and ebony

Yes this is what we are working on. I have actually offered him to buy a new boxwood knight (and I'm keeping the original defective one) since I don't mind the extra cost as long as I have four perfect knights. He will send me a new free ebony pawn as well. I told him I am interested in buying another set from it at the same time in order to reduce shipping cost. Unfortunately, seller wants me to close Paypal case (not escalated) before but I can't do that since as a buyer, I will not be able to reopen it if there's another problem down the road.

NEVER close a PayPal case until you (the buyer) are satisfied that you got what you paid for. An open PayPal case is the one and only card you hold. A seller asking/demanding you to close the PayPal case before any action on the seller's part is a huge red flag. If push came to shove, cut off communication with seller and go through PayPal for resolution. Stop trying to be a nice guy. There's no guarantee that extra set you are buying from the seller (to offset shipping costs) will be problem free either. And then you'll be in the same hole AGAIN.

In order to be sure to get a 'good' boxwood knight, I offered Mandeep to pay for it : 30$US. At the same time, I placed an order for a Danum set in the padouk / boxwood combo. I told him to send me the replacement ebony pawn at the same time so he will not have to pay additional shipping fee. He assured me that he would send me a replacement 'knighthead'. I replied a few times that I was expecting a replacement 'whole' knight.

I bought the Danum set through the Stauntoncastle website where I was charged (same thing with the first transaction) an additional 5% to cover for the GST (federal canadian tax). There's no way to know when placing an order on this website that the product will be shipped from abroad. Actually, when buying something from a store located in another province than yours, you expect to have to pay the GST when placing the actual order which is fine.

The parcel was shipped by DHL express from India (New Dheli this time) and arrived this week. However, contrary to the first time, I had to pay DHL an additional fee to cover the DHL brokerage fee + GST + PST.

It is ok to pay those fees when you buy something from abroad and you know beforehand that the product will be shipped and sold from a merchant abroad. However, the store location of SC is in Ontario which is in the same country where I live. So when I paid for the order including the GST, I didn't expect to have to pay the DHL brokerage fee + GST a second time + PST.

Actually, when placing the 1st order for the Alexandria set, SC took care of all that. I'll come back to this issue a little bit later.

I promised Mandeep to close the paypal case as soon as I'll get suitable replacements which I actually did on the day of arrival of the parcel. Mandeep sent 2 boxwood knights and one ebony pawn. The two replacement knights do not really match the original ones but they are fine in general. The carving quality is a little bit of less quality than the originals but they are ok.

Here is a picture of the original ones :

Here are the replacements on the left

as you can see the quality of the carving (the eyes, the mane, etc.) is not the same and they are much slender from front to back. But I am so fed up with this order that they will do the job.

Here are the weights of some of the pieces in the Alexandria set :

boxwood original knights : 77g 67g
boxwood replacement knights : 88g 74g
ebony knights : 77g 74g

boxwood king 117g

boxwood queens 104g 102g

ebony king 119g

ebony queens 102g 105g
boxwood bishop 78g 74g
boxwood rook 81g 81g

boxwood pawn 49g

I emailed Mandeep a few times about asking for a refund for the GST which I paid twice on the Danum order. He told me that he will issue a refund whenever I will close the paypal case about the Alexandria order. I told him that I will do it as promised but that the two issues were not related. He also had the cojones to ask me to send him back the two original boxwood knights at his address in Ontario !... yeap, the two knights (well actually I asked for one) which I paid 30$ for.

After closing the paypal case, I asked him again to refund me the GST which he did.... in part..

missing 4$. As a matter of principle, I told him to refund it in full and that he should actually in a case like this, refund the DHL brokerage fee... yeap, this is going towards opening a paypal or credit card case for 4$ +/- 20$ !

Now the Danum set is of excellent quality with nothing wrong worth mentioning.

Here are the weights of the padouk side :

pawn 47g
rook 88g
knight 71g
bishop 75g
queen 98g 98g
king 111g

In summary, SC 'luxury' chess sets are of a good quality but the communication and after sale service is abysmal. Hopefully none of these pieces will crack and if they do, there's a 'warranty' against hairline cracks provided by SC.

By the way, customers (in Canada but the same applies to other countries), there's an implied warranty when buying goods based on common law : the product sold should meet normal industry standards for similar items of comparable price and it must be appropriate to the needs expressed by the buyer to the seller. So if pieces crack within their expected lifespan (one year at least) the manufacturer should replace them at his own cost.

First off....The set is literally to die for gorgeous!

If you're worried about cracking in the future(we all should if living in colder climates) one can use a small portable humidifier in the room,or use humidity control packet products inside the chess coffer. These will have to be replaced regularly and is one reason I use a portable humidifier instead....Easy and no issues.

I recently received two primo sets from S.C. and had no issues....The communications and carve/fit/finish were absolutely world class.

Over time,having acquired 21 full size sets,I have tried to move towards higher quality sellers and Staunton Castle is definitely one of them.Of course having only purchased two sets from them doesn't guarantee one would not have an issue,but these guys seem top tier.

Good luck with that eye opening gem!

Very relevant indeed. We use a whole house humidifier during winter and AC during summer so humidity level is always between 40-45% year round.

I use a whole house unit too,but my OCD causes me to have a unit in my chess/hobby room.

The sets are nice but having to pay for replacement knights is a deal breaker for me. Then having to send the pieces back is another deal breaker. I don’t think that is really fair to you the customer.

+1 on everything @MCH818 noted.

The pieces are beautiful, but considering the price you paid and the hassle afterwards I wouln't buy from Mandeep (again).