Obviously there is no disputing the large amount of quality issues here. If you want to return the set then HoS is responsible for paying return shipping because of the defects. I once returned the ebonized version of the HoS Fisher-Spassky set because the set had similar issues to what your set has here. HoS paid return shipping. Another option is to have HoS send replacements. This should be free of charge. If they want you to send the pieces back then they also have to pay for the shipping charges. In my past experiences with HoS, they sometimes send replacement pieces that are also not acceptable, and it might take a few tries for them to get it right. I am sure it is not cheap to send replacements to you so be aware this might impact the type of service you receive from HoS seeing how you are outside the US. If you like the set then it might be worth a try to ask for replacements. Good luck!
(Bad) Review - House of Staunton American Staunton Chess Pieces
Thanks for your reply. I did ask for replacements, and they only offered to replace a small fraction of the pieces with defects. I will ask about returning the whole set, and I’ll post an update about what happens.
Other members have said HoS treats international buyers differently than US buyers. I always had good experiences with HoS but that is probably because I am state side where the price of ground shipping for 5+ pieces is around $7 if I remember correctly. Anyhow good luck!
This is intolerable. I've never experienced anything even remotely close on a set I imported myself from India. Shame on House of Staunton. I wouldn't buy any pieces from them ever.
Hope you'll find a better set on the second try.
It's a joke or what ? They had the guts to ship you a set looking like that ?
wow ! Shame on them.
some things are acceptable like the tool marks at the base of one knight (they come from grain tearing when turning and sometimes it is very difficult to get rid of them even with lot of sanding) and the minor variation of the diameter of the bases..
but the cracks, filing of defects (you are right here), peeling finish.. simply incredible.
Other members have said HoS treats international buyers differently than US buyers.
Which makes it all the more despicable. The people they know won't return their sets, no matter how faulty, because of the excessive charges for mailing a set back are being treated like garbage.
@FMoose, I’m in shock. This is beyond unacceptable, if I was the seller of these pieces my only two offers would be immediate replacement of all affected pieces, or a complete refund and you keep them.
Absolutely incredible. I’ve bought from HoS before, about to send them an email with a link to this thread.
I thought maybe I was over-reacting, I’m glad to see that everyone agrees with me.
Thecanadianchessmaestro I wish it was a joke!
I’m in a kind of difficult situation because if I have to ship it back at my own expense I won’t get any money back after taking the shipping cost into account.
I would file a Paypal dispute or credit card dispute for item misreprensentation.
This was advertised as a brand new item without any major flaws.
This is not what you received
Let them handle a credit card chargeback.
I would file a Paypal dispute or credit card dispute for item misreprensentation.
This was advertised as a brand new item without any major flaws.
This is not what you received
Let them handle a credit card chargeback.
I am certainly considering that if they don’t resolve it to my satisfaction. I wish I’d put it on my AmEx because they’re more likely to take the customer’s side, but I still think I’d win.
I was looking for a chess set and I saw your post. then I eliminated HOS directly.
An absolute disgrace that a "supposed" quality seller would have the audacity to ship such junk!
This is one reason why I am pretty much done adding anymore sets to my already too big collection.I have one more on the way..."gasp"...from H.O.S.
Looks like my kidding MCH about his passion for older vintage sets was wrong.
I hope your situation works itself out.
It you look at past posts on CB & E , with over sea buyers , be it HOS or Indian chess set sellers , Unless you spend $300+ it's very hit & miss , 
You'll fare much better with Indian sellers. You might run into a couple of issues (I rarely have, but it happens), but you won't get a train wreck like this one.
That looks like House of Staunton quality to me. I've found that negative reviews do not ever make it to their website though, which is why the ratings on all their sets are sooooo good. There's not a single three star or lower review even though I have left two very honest reviews on bad sets. Totally dishonest company.
It's emblematic of HoS`s attitude that their own contact page doesn't work:
https://www.houseofstaunton.com/hos_help (bottom)
If you click on the link for a direct contact, that's what you'll get:
There's an (absentee) chat function, but that just doesn't look good. Apparently, they don't give a rat's arse.
An absolute disgrace that a "supposed" quality seller would have the audacity to ship such junk!
This is one reason why I am pretty much done adding anymore sets to my already too big collection.I have one more on the way..."gasp"...from H.O.S.
Looks like my kidding MCH about his passion for older vintage sets was wrong.
I hope your situation works itself out.
Oh there are still problems with vintage sets too. I just prefer them over reproductions these days. I still love the reproductions I have regardless.
We have the same experience with House of Staunton. But mine is a lot worse. I bought the more expensive Reykjavik II. I was totally angry I bought the pieces because the website said it is heavy 1,300 grams. I complained at first they insisted that they delivered the correct set. I had to look for a weighing scale. And it only weights 860 grams! I wanted a full refund; including local duties. If it is above 10,000 pesos, our authorities have 10%c tax. I also paid storage fees. With all the hassle and stress, they only refunded the amount of the chess pieces. I was supposed to launch a mini chess playing center in a mall, and it was not realized my supposed to be "pwesto ng palaruan" sponsor owner of a mall said chess pieces are very light. "Sabi mo mabigat bakit magaan?" Very bad experience. Hard-earned money and so much love of chess but gave to me stress. A serious project partnership destroyed just like that. Anyways, it was 2 or 3 years ago. The time I was too optimistic looking forward pandemic to end.
First of all, I want to make clear that this is *NOT* an "Outlet" or "Imperfect" set.
However, the number and types of flaws I see in the pieces seem to me to be worse than what House of Staunton sells as "imperfect" sets on their Outlet page.
I'm just learning to play chess. I've known how the pieces move since I was a kid but I'd like to actually get a bit better. My girlfriend can currently whoop my ass at chess, and it would be nice if we can be a bit more competitive. (As a side note, she's great, doesn't mind me buying chess sets with one stipulation: No German Knights. She thinks they look cheap.)
I've been dealing with a lot of stressful life events, and decided to treat myself to some wood chess pieces. Although I'm American, I live in the Philippines, which pretty much limits my choices to vendors that offer free worldwide shipping. Also, import duties kick in at about $180 (10,000 Philippine Pesos), and more-or-less double the price, so I consider that a hard limit.
I only have some plastic chess pieces which are very nice, but I've heard people say that nothing compares to wood, and I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.
Shipping a return from here would be expensive (I was quoted $88.61 on FedEx's website), so I wanted to go with a reliable seller, and chose House of Staunton because of posts on this forum about the feel, weight and balance, and overall quality of their chess pieces.
I chose the American Staunton pieces because I like the water-drop bishop, and the Championship Series (which has a similar bishop) has a german knight. I placed the order on House of Staunton's website and used the Father's Day coupon code for 25% off. The total was $119.25.
The set arrived after 7 days while I was in the airport waiting for a flight home, traveling with my dad to help him address a life-threatening medical issue. My girlfriend texted me that the FedEx delivery man was there, and was demanding PHP 576.80 (US$10.32 at the time of writing) to deliver the package. Since I was about to get on a plane, there was nothing I could do, so I told her to go ahead and pay it.
While House of Staunton says that the buyer is responsible for import customs and duties, etc., this was mostly a "warehouse fee" by FedEx, not to cover any kind of government-mandated charge or paperwork. Their "free" shipping isn't really free if the package arrives with freight due. I've received dozens of shipments, by UPS, DHL, and other international and domestic carriers, and have never been asked to pay the driver to receive a package.
Honestly, I am slightly livid at being basically extorted money to get my package. While it's not really a lot of money, it always feels really bad to have a sudden, unknown demand, kind of like being robbed or mugged. I was hoping that the chess pieces would be nice enough to make me forget about this.
The outer packaging was pristine, better than most other packages I receive, and the inner box with die-cut foam trays is a very nice touch. Here are some pictures of the packaging (I was too excited to photograph the unboxing process):
Here are the obligatory weights-and-measures.
I should note that I was wanting a 1.65" king base set to go with 2.25" boards, and it turns out that the king's base is 1.65" despite the website claiming 1.575".
Weights:
Kings (white) 72g (black) 70g
Queens (white) 64g, 61g (black) 61g, 61g
(Ironically, the 64g queen was one of the 3 that matched, the mismatched one was 61g)
Bishops (white) 40g, 41g (black) 41g, 42g
Knights (white) 46g, 46g (black) 45g, 47g
Rooks (white) 41g, 40g (black) 41g, 41g
Pawns (white) 4x18g, 3x19g, 1x20g (black) 7x18g, 1x19g
Measures:
King: 3.86" high, 1.65" base
Queen: 3.13" high, 1.54" base
Bishop: 2.74" high, 1.34" base
Knight: 2.76" high, 1.40" base
Rook: 2.03" high, 1.34" base
Pawn: 1.81" high, 1.13" base
Individual pictures:
Kings: While I have always liked the grain and natural variation of wood, the big knot on the white king's head I find to be displeasing. I mean, if this was the only thing, I might think it was kind of unique and charming. On the other hand, it's not an especially good-looking knot, it looks like a dark smear. Also, the cross on top of the black king has some kind of a gouge or something. I sent an email to House of Staunton with pictures, and they didn't offer warranty replacement for either of the kings. They told me in the email "Please understand that these pieces are hand carved from real wood, and some of the issues you have pointed out are only natural variations that too occur in every set that we have." I'm glad to know what I can expect in all of their sets.
Queens: 3 of the 4 queens are the same, but one of the white ones seems to be from a different batch. The other (matching) white queen has a dirty flat spot on the base. One of the black queens has uneven crown points, and while I've seen some people complain about this, I don't find it too noticable in practice. House of Staunton also refused warranty replacement of any queens.
Bishops: I have found the bishops in this set to be the nicest pieces, in terms of defects, but one of the white bishops has a line below its head. House of Staunton didn't offer a replacement, and I'd be curious to hear from other people here whether you would consider this an issue.
Knights: The knights have what I guess are considered "tool marks". I suppose that people like hand-made items, but after seeing the results in person, I would prefer to buy a chess set made by computerized machines. They did offer to replace one of each color, although didn't specify which ones they considered needing replacement.
Rooks: One of the black rooks has what looks like some kind of problem base that was patched with putty before polishing, plus a hairline crack, and one of the white rooks has a fairly minor ding above the base. House of Staunton offered to replace the white rook, but not the black one.
Pawns: I am only including one or two example pictures of each type of issue, but fully half of the pawns have one or more similar problems. House of Staunton offered to replace 3 of the black pawns (I sent pictures of 7 out of the 8 black ones that had issues, plus 1 white) although didn't say which ones were covered by warranty.
I think that the vertical lines around the tops of pawns are from chatter when holding the cutter against the wood improperly on a lathe. Whether or not they are visually pleasing, the ones with this texture give me a nails-down-the-chalkboard sensation to the touch..
The finish rough and crackly or bubbled or something on the bases of some of the pawns.
Felt: The felt circles don't look very high-quality to me, I was expecting something more like the fine texture on a pool table based on the "Billiard Cloth" description. I've never seen a pool table table that looks like coarse fabric with fuzzy stuff on it, or with little clumps of green fibers coming off.
Perhaps my expectations of wood chess pieces were too high, since this is the first set I've ever even seen in person. I'm thinking maybe it's like fast-food burgers that never look anything like the professional photos on the menu.
I would return these to House of Staunton, but here is how that would work out:
Return shipping: $88.61 (cheapest option quoted on FedEx website)
Refund for return: $119.25 - $36.16 shipping deduction = $83.09 (based on 3.75" pieces without free shipping, from HOS checkout page, sent to my address)
(and that is assuming that House of Staunton agrees to waive the 25% restocking fee)
Cost to me to return the set: $5.52
So, if I returned these, I would have to pay $5.52. Including the FedEx fees and what I originally paid, I would be out $135.09 and have nothing but aggravation to show for it.
I would be better off just hucking these in the trash and ordering another set (from a different company, obviously).
If anyone would like additional photos, I would be happy to take and post them.