Poor quality and service from Chess bazaar!!

I hate to post such news and have always tried to be a cordial and considerate consumer,but sometimes things need to come to light......I decided to begin collecting a few nice sets a few weeks ago,ever since seeing the "Hungarian Set" posting.....So after checking out different mfgrs Chess Bazaar was who i went with.

Over the last 3 weeks I've spent over $900.00 with them,over 4 different orders.....The first was the Hungarian set,which came in with a broken Bishop....I E-mailed them,but also decided to buy a pricey board and a luxury set as well.To be nice,i told them they should add my replacement piece to my new order,so they could save shipping fees.No problems so far.

A day or two later i ordered the Russian Zagreb set.The box showed up after a few days,exhibiting No outer damage,but the plastic case enclosed was shattered and "both" White Rooks were smashed at the upper crown!

I was beginning to think either I had some bad luck,or the packaging folks messed up.So,I messaged Chess Bazaar again.They responded that I should send photos,but I have no ability or knowledge of how to do that,which I mentioned to them......but....I figured I'd order a nice locking/leather storage case for my undamaged luxury set and hopefully they could put the new pieces in "that"....I also asked if I could have a new/undamaged plastic case that the Russian Zagreb set came in.....Well,I've not heard a single word back from these people....and....the Locking/leather storage case came in with "no way" to open it......Sheesh! It was sent out in the locked position with no key!! Maybe it's damaged too.Who knows?

  I sent "numerous" messages to Chess Bazaar over the last week,literally pleading with them to resolve my issue.....I mean how hard would it be for them,as they market themselves with an impressive web-site,to resolve my issues.....especially as i'd just dropped over $900 bucks with them!!

Well,I am about 30 minutes away from calling my credit card company and lodging a complaint,in the hopes of getting my money back......Kinda' flabbergasted that this manufacturer is so uncaring about dealing with a new customer.Funny thing is I wanted to order two more sets from them......Be careful about dealing with Chess bazaar! 

I had a similar experience with CB (and I'm not the only one). I've found that their willingness to respond to problems is inversely proportional to the size of the problem. Once your problems become NWTE, not worth their effort (and it's a damn low threshold) you might as well try getting light out of a black hole. If you're old enough to remember the old TV show, Get Smart, they activate the cone of silence. I got American Express involved to help resolve the matter, but they wouldn't respond to them either. So they have officially be placed on my "No Fly" zone.

For what I have seeing from other customers complaining about this company.

They do not do any kind of quality control, they don't hold the inventory themselves but instead have the manufacturers to ship to the customers. And the customers are the ones to do the quality control themselves.

It is also understood that the quality of their sets is not the top of the market, some of their sets have come even toxic, as in don't give them to children. They compensate all this with low prices.

Also in some occasions it have come out that they do monitor this forums and retaliate against customers that complain this way.

Anyway, there are some users on this forums that love the company, and love the prices and can live with their customer service style.

Did you also ordered Russian Zagreb set from them? If so, how was it?

Yes,as I'd stated,I ordered the Russian Zagreb set from them.I am having my credit card company lodge a complaint.In any event,I am going to move my business elsewhere,as i am looking to get the Calvert set and a nice Antique set to finalize my small collection....Btw,i find this forum and it's members to be truly wonderful and interesting folks.....I'm really happy to have joined.

I am interested on what sets you pick for your collection.

If you're not a customer, they can't retaliate and send you off to bed without your milk and cookies.

Magictwanger:  if your phone takes pictures, just send the email from your phone and attach the photos.

Thanks for posting, magictwanger. I feel terrible about what you've been going through with Chess Bazaar, and it was probably painful (although therapeutic!) to have to write about how they treated you. Anyway, one of the things that I enjoy about chess.com is learning not just about how to play the game, but all the other aspects (history, the great players, appropriate books for my level, etc.). This particular forum has been very helpful to me to learn about chessmen and boards, and so on, and posts like yours help a lot to warn others about which dealers to avoid. Thanks again!

Well,first off I was so annoyed at the lack of customer support/caring that I posted this,in the hopes of letting others know about this poor company's business practices...... It was not therapeutic.....I felt Chess Bazaar really deserves to have light shined on how down right "dumb" their business practices are......I mean here I was ready to go for two more sets and be a happy camper.All they had to do was simply send off two new rooks,a new plastic case and a damn key,for the case that cannot be opened......So,instead of spending maybe 5 bucks(they already have a Fedex Shipping acct...no monies to spend in ship  costs) they decide to demonstrate how little they care about someone who had just become a new customer and spent over $900 in a two to three week period.No "we're sorry and will take care of it".Just ignoring my polite pleas for aid....As a person who owns my own business(35 years) "that" is flat out stupid!!

 To answer the question about the quality of the Zagreb Set.....Obviously "lousy" since it came in severely damaged! Other then that is was quite nice.-

My small collection consists of the Zagreb repro,Hungarian repro(similar quality which was pretty good actually)....I bought their Dragon Knight pieces(along with a really nice board....I've got 2 nice boards,one medium and one large),the Dragon Knight pieces admittedly are gorgeous and well made....I hate to give them credit here,but I'm an honest person(rosewood/ebony)....I've got a mint French Chavet/Staunton Type of set from the mid 70's.....a nice 12 inch folding board/wooden magnetic set,for playing out,a mint 1981 Drueke magnetic travel set and a mint 1981 carved wood/peg set (very small) made of(I think) ebony/ivory.This last one has  a beautiful  folding  wooden case,which houses the set....Really cute! These two last sets I got when I worked in lower NYC and got my butt kicked at the Chess Stores/clubs in Greenwich Village....Obviously 1981.I kept them along with my French Staunton set because they were so nice......That was back when I played Postal Chess(and I was lousy back then too)......I just got a nice study/travel magnetic set from Chess USA($12.95)   Really well designed and well made.....I got back to chess since I'm not far from retirement and figure I should make an attempt to get better.I'd been following a chess column in a newspaper and read about the Championship this past summer in NYC.Everything kinda' came together for me,so I joined this fun site and bought an appropriate book  for "me"......."The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess"! Quite appropriate  I think.   Best to all!

Which newspaper is the chess column in, magictwanger? It seems like ages since I've seen a regular chess column or puzzle in a newspaper. I am one of those few who still reads actual newspapers, by the way.

The New York Post......My wife likes the "page Six" gossip column......They only do a Chess Column on Sundays.

I have bought a lot of sets with Chessbazaar and in my experience is way off from Op's experience. Reading this post very carefully i see 2 main issues the Box without a key and broken plastic box with the broken pieces.

Regarding the storage box i know exactly what the Op means as i bought a few of storage cases and indeed they all came locked and the key was inside. However after a quick look you realize you can open that using any small metallic think like a screwdriver. knife. And after opening it you will see that the key is inside. I don't know why these storage boxes need a lock at all by the way, i mean it isn't like it is a vault or something like that.

The second problem of the plastic box and the rooks of your Zagreb set why not just send them a picture of it? I mean you can ask a friend or your children if you are that computer illiterate. Because my experience is that they will send you that replacement pieces as soon as they can see the broken pieces. 

What is true however is that if you do not meet what they require they will just ignore you, and sometimes even you send them an email and they take for ever to respond because they simply not interested. So yeah these way of dealing is not friendly and even of apathetic but then again at the end these guys are running a business, trying to be much cheaper than the competition and they are not trying to be your friend. 

So i would just send them them the picture of the broken box and pieces and try to open the storage box with a pin or knife and you ll find the key inside. 

But i understand the OP's frustration the apathetic communication with them sometimes is a bit harsh to say the least but in my opinion Chessbazaar is no way as bad as they are been portrait here. All i am saying is that you don't get the same customer service when you go to a five star restaurant than when you go to the the Mc Donalds and it is a bit weird to say the least to even complain about not getting the five star treatment at the Mc Donalds in my opinion.

So, El Canarion, does this mean that if you went to a McDonald's restaurant and your french fries were smashed and you complained and they ignored you, you would be okay with that, and just say, "Well, what else can I expect? The food is inexpensive, so I can't expect the food to be in good condition, or for the employees to respond to my concerns."? If they are running a business, and hope to stay in business, they have to work to address the problems of their customers. And magictwanger gave them nine hundred dollars of his hard-won dollars. That is not chicken feed!

They not ignoring you, they asking to show them the fries in this case. Seems like he just needs to send a picture. I really don t see the problem there except that they are not friendly to him.

Lol, was editing the "fires" into "fries" and i was actually quoting myself ... just realized i clicked the quote button by accident anyway deleted the spam.

 Good point, ElCanarion. They did ask for pictures and he didn't provide them. Fair enough. Still, it seems to me that with the broken Bishop, then the shattered case and the two busted Rooks, and then the locked storage box, and then stonewalling a customer who had spent $900, rather than trying to work with him (e.g. maybe suggesting he mail back the broken stuff to them for them to examine?), this is not the sort of company I would want to work with. If a restaurant screwed up my food that often, I would just stop going there, no matter how low the prices. And eventually the word would get around, and the restaurant would close due to insufficient business.