Any experience buying from The Chess Empire?

Hey, I totally agree with your post. If that happened to me I would post on here too. I would still try Gaurav's personal email as I think he would want to satisfy you. If it was my shop I would send you the ebonized army with an apology. I have only communicated with Gaurav over the past couple of years and I know he responds quickly. He even offered to make me a replacement King for the collector's series that someone else sold but he was the maker, but still haven't found the piece!!

Please report back and tell us how it turned out.  Being so out in the public I would think he would want this settled to satisfy you,  I empathize with you as something different happened to me years ago with a big chess retailer it never did get resolved, needless to say, I never bought another set off of that retailer. 

The problems I see are a few.  Today’s technology is higher making perfection of work more possible.

We have seen a real increase in competition in the market thanks to these few companies now going direct to the consumer from manufacturing.  There no longer are the middle man retailers to be a buffer.  This makes people think we should see higher quality for a lower price because of the loss of the retail markup.  
The retailer does perform a real service.  Because they must have an inventory, replacement pieces are available and most often from the same batch giving a better match of woods.  There are a number of other service quality things we get from the retailer as well.  
But now people don’t want to pay any extra money for the retailer and the various things they provide.  One poster here that has started collecting not too long ago and has bought a lot in that short time has said on this forum many times that he refuses to pay any extra to a retailer when he can buy direct at a cost savings.  This is the thinking we see more of on this forum.

Now, I just bought my last two sets from a retailer, Shelby.  He made sure the products were without flaws and of a high quality.

Raphael of The Chess House and his team have provided the same high quality service on sets and boards as well.  For instance, I have never had problems with any of the 5 wood boards from him.  All the squares are lined up and there are no flaws either.  The same holds true with the sets I have bought from him either.

The House of Staunton, Official Staunton Company, Chessusa.com, Rochester Chess Center, The Chess Store, and Chess Bazaar have also been excellent to me and they are all retailers and not manufacturers.

The Chess Empire is probably the highest quality manufacturer selling direct now.  The set I bought from them is indeed excellent.  But we are now seeing and hearing about problems from them that is a retail thing.  The above mentioned retailers would not have had such problems go out to the consumer and/or they would service quickly and accurately.  The Chess Empire guys are great, but they are not experienced at retail as these others are.

@Eyechess Very true. I remember talking to FC or Shaun (can't remember which) back in the 90s and they had boxes of cracked/broken pieces that could not be sold. Part of the retail service was making sure these didn't go out to customers. I do think, though, that customer expectations have increased to a point where they may be unrealistic.

Nope! NOJ is!! That is certainly not to take anything away from The Chess Empire,who seem first rate.

Had to be Frank C back then.  His company just sold chess sets at the time and he is the one who set the "standard" of high-quality chess sets. Before that, it was a crapshoot at best. 

Yes, it was definitely Frank Camaratta until about 2003 or 2004.

I talked with him a lot back then.  And I remember him telling me he would match up pieces for a set himself.

@magictwanger of course you are right.  I put Noj in its own category separate from all the others.

Their big customers (one that buys frequently) are always getting a VIP treatment when in the process of buying or when a customer support is needed. It's like this everywhere in every kind of business. It's hardly fair to reflect your experiences to someone's that just bought their first set and something went wrong.

Let's take my first experience in buying a set from HoS, one that you mentioned always have had good experience with. I purposely choose them because of their reputation over the same set more or less from CB. I for one prefer to pay more for quality (read service in this case) because I hate dealing with hassle in the process of buying something. Well something went wrong and they do offer full refund but I have to pay 60 USD for shipping back the pieces. Now I don't think that would happen to a customer that's on their VIP list like you. 

I think the experiences of the first time buyers or ones that are not on their VIP list are the ones that really reflects how they really treat their customers.

+1

It's exactly this kind of time that will show how they operate. If any of the large collectors, whether it's Eyechess or someone else who is on their VIP list, is having an issue with their order right now I'm very certain that it will be resolved to their satisfaction. Even though they're swamped with overhead, they will make the time to satisfy their big clients.

Before all of this hype, they're needing every customer because chess is not really something that sells like hot cakes like right now. Therefor they're willing to go far to satisfy every customer to maintain their business.

I've read an article, a retailer told the reporter before all this QB hype, he had thousands of set that he thought he'd never get rid off and then suddenly because of the hype he went through them in no time.

There is a reason Indian manufactures have gone to selling direct they are losing their US importers and retailers because of quality of large shipments.  Forcing them to sell direct. Indian manufactures think nothing of sending you a slightly defective piece or different set entirely from what you ordered in my opinion. It is not going to be sustainable for them because of cost of shipping and they have no place to send defective or less desirable pieces. Word travels fast on the internet and will get around on this eventually.  Reputable US retailers  quality control the crap out of their shipments from India so yes the retail price and labor and repacking cost them additional time and money but you eliminate 99 percent of the issues in selling anything. Indian direct manufactures obviously are sending totally different sets than ordered because if what you have ordered is out of stock they don't want to take the time to retool for one set once the tooling has been discarded for that model it takes a great deal of time to duplicate the tools. Unless they have kept a sample of the origial good luck on getting a matching replacement piece. You will get a marginal piece or two or three in any set you order direct from India in my opinion in 30 percent of the sets they send. American retailers have a major influence in the designs they sell as well. If they are eventually successful in eliminating US importers and retailers quality will go back to what your were getting 30 years ago total crap.

/quote: Reputable US retailers  quality control the crap out of their shipments from India so yes the retail price and labor and repacking cost them additional time and money but you eliminate 99 percent of the issues in selling anything /end quote

What if I tell you this isn't entirely true? The high end sets yes, the low budget lines? I'm not so sure about that.

To be honestly, I see no difference what the reputable retailers are doing then the indian manufactures right now. They put a knife at your neck, either you loose money and you don't have a set at all (for a full refund, the returning shipping fee is at your own expense and no reimbursement of customs and VAT you already paid) or you can buy another set with 'discount' or you just have to live with the flaws.

Let me tell you something else, in my case, I chose another set with discount. But I can't use my membership of 10% on top of that. they offer me 20% at first, I didn't agree with that since I have to pay for import duty and customs again. After my so many arguments, they're willing to go as low as 33%. Guess what? I could get that set with 15% valentines coupon and 10% of my membership which brings roughly to 25%. So where is this goodwill of reputable retailer to resolve the issue? I'd say we're already there, don't need to wait 30 years.

Dennis is exactly correct.  I am sorry I neglected to mention him and his Legend Chess products.  I have bought some very nice sets and boards from Dennis and there have never been any problems of any kind.

in all honesty, the only thing that makes me any kind of VIP customer with the House of Staunton is that I have one, single person there that I call and work with, Kevin.  When I call there others that answer the phone do not know me from anyone else.  I know that anyone else that calls Kevin will also receive good attention.  Their prices are all in the computer system, so he has never given me a discount that others could not get at that time.

People like Dennis, Raphael of Chess House, Shelby of ACE, Ron or Gerry at Rochester Chess Center, and Quentin at Chessusa.com know me because I bought from them before. 
The House of Staunton is the biggest of all these by a lot.  If I ordered a set from them it would come to me the same as anyone else.  Well, I did learn a little trick with them.  What I did on my last purchase from them, over a year ago, was to talk with Kevin and ask him to make sure the graining of the pieces was what I wanted.  This forced him to open the box and inspect it before shipping.  But anyone could do this.

With the other places I mentioned above, they are all small enough to make sure things are right, as Dennis mentioned.

Dennis Petersen recently launched a wooden version of his Alegria series, if I am not mistaken that set was done by TheChessEmpire company. 

Also, there is a world that exists outside USA. It's very difficult for international buyers to purchase from HOS or ACE or Chesshouse or Legend, when the price of the chess set is $40 and shipping is $80   For international buyers, the concept of free shipping worldwide, introduced by CB saves a lot of costs. 

Also a request, Ron had setup a thread on "Morals and Ethics in Chess Manufacturing", why not continue this discussion there -

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/morals-and-ethics-in-chess-the-chess-equipment-business

Hi Dennis and thank you for stopping by. You always examined every piece you got in before selling. Not all sellers in the USA do these days because they are selling mass quantities of chess sets, which in my opinion the overall quality will decline somewhat.  

You always had top-quality wood sets as well as your famous plastic sets. That is because you wouldn't sell anything you wouldn't want yourself. 

I like that you are meticulous with your wooden sets. No worries for buyers. I wish all sellers were like you. But you are right the so-called "middle person", the retailer has extra costs and if too many pieces are defective that will not bode well for them. It takes time to inspect each piece and repack, which again not all sellers do. 

About 6 months ago I received a set with a missing piece!!! I took pictures of the packing and the seller was shocked. It was a rook so it was not like I wanted to hook an extra queen being dishonest, which I would never do!! I will not name the seller but not all are inspected the sets. The rush is on.

Did you ever get your new wooden set in Dennis? There was a thread a while back about the set you were having custom-made, I think about 20 copies?  I lost track.

Again thanks for coming to the forum.  

Well, there are a couple of things against you in this.  And realize the smaller retailers would have sent you the right thing in the first place.

Shipping from France to the USA is high.  And we don’t have the import costs either.

As an example let us say you buy one of the Wood Ultimate sets from Shelby.  This would apply to the other smaller companies as well.  Anyway if you buy this set from Shelby, he would personally inspect the set to make sure it is exactly what you wanted and ordered.  Of course he would also make sure there were no defects in the set either.

He would send you the set.  You would receive exactly what you wanted.

This is how Frank Camaratta did it before 2004 when he still owned the company, HoS.  And this is how the other retailers would do it also, including Carl of Official Staunton in London.

I feel bad for you that these difficult problems came to you.  

This is a sign of the reduction of quality control before shipping, and the fact of a low inventory of pieces.
I am glad that I own most all the sets I want or need.  I know that it is now more difficult to get quality product.

The Chess Empire does excellent work.  They have provided most of the high quality sets HoS and OS and many others have sold over the years.

When I received my Chavet reproduction from them I was and still am very impressed with its high quality.

Yes I've seen Shelby's posts. From what he wrote I can tell he is sincere and care about his customers. The posts about what people had experienced buying from him also speak highly of him. The only thing stopping me from buying from him is the shipping cost + import duty and VAT unfortunately. One of his post he mentioned there is one retailer in UK that sells his sets. I've looked at this retailer but unfortunately everything is out of stock or he doesn't sell it at all.

Speaking about import tax, why is it that you guys don't have to pay import duties and we do? Not that I wish you guys should pay but I just wonder when those chiefs high up in the trees were negotiating the trade thingies, were our EU chiefs sleeping or something?

That was just an example of service we should receive.  When Carl of Official Staunton used to ship to the US I bought sets and boards from him.  He also provides the high quality retail experience.

Yes, I have bought and received equipment from Slovenia, Italy, England, India and Spain.  I have never paid any import fees.  And of course we never pay VAT here either.

I have worked alone for 30 years, every set plastic or wood gets quality controled and repackaged. at the end of the sale of a particular production defective pieces are not sold. pieces with imperfections go into sets and blown out at liquidation prices. I have been working with Chess Empire since the death of my good friend Rajesh Sharma. I have never had a production of sets from them to date. Seems like it's been going on two years. They did a good job reproducing the minor pieces. They

they did a good job reproducing the all the pieces but have never been able to produce either the knight in the samples pictured or the knights shown me when Gurauv visited me in the US. Gurauv recently discussed this with me he hasn't responded to my request to improve the knight carving. It is a mystery to me. When they either give up or provide the quality I expect I will produce 20 sets perhaps more. There is a waiting list but people get tired of waiting. It will either have the copy of the plastic knight or the set will not be made by Chess Empire. I may be forced to go to the knight carver that did the original plastic knight.