House of Staunton Review

My personal experience with "The House of Staunton" chess pieces

In the course of the last three quarters of a year I have purchased a total number of 11 sets of chess pieces from "The House of Staunton". As they claim on their website in the category CARING FOR YOUR HOUSE OF STAUNTON SOLID WOOD CHESS PRODUCTS , "you can have absolute confidence that the chess products are as close to perfection as can be achieved by human hands." This is what they claim.

Now for my personal experience: I had to find out that in every single set of those 11 ("Zagreb ´59 purpleheart gilded and natural boxwood, 3.75´king" and "Zagreb ´59 rosewood gilded and natural boxwood, 3.75´king") there were several pieces in imperfect condition. When I say "imperfect", I mean specifically, that in every set a number of the pieces had ugly notches in the wood, apparently caused by an imprecisely working hand carver slipping his carving tool. These notches have been (and continue to be) a source of constant annoyance. 

The point "Wood is a natural product, so you cannot expect wooden chess pieces to be perfect!" is simply wrong - the counter evidence lies in the fact that some of the pieces were in fact in a flawless condition. It is inconceivable to me, why it is obviously not possible to apply this standard to all pieces of a chess set.

"The House of Staunton" write on their website that their chess pieces "undergo an exhaustive inspection process before packing to insure that they meet our high standards." I don´t know what their "high standard" is, but I can say that it obviously deviates from mine considerably...

Being a perfectionist, I expect a set of valuable chess pieces to be crafted in a flawless condition, from the very first to the very last piece. Full stop.

These requirements have not been met by "The House of Staunton".

All this shows the decisive disadvantage of online-shopping: as a customer you never have the chance to inspect the product before purchasing it, but you have to rely on others. My experience in general - and with "The House of Staunton" in particular - is that this is a very bad idea...

Well, I know that The House of Staunton did carefully inspect each piece of a set before shipping.  But that was before 2008.  And that was when Frank Camaratta owned the place.  I know, from experience, that since then the sets stay in their packaging, on a shelf, from the manufacturer in a warehouse until shipped.

I last bought a set from them in December of 2019.  It was their newest Drueke reproduction.  It is my experience when a set is newly released, that first batch of sets from them are fine.  I have seen and heard from others about piece problems with sets they have offered for quite awhile.  

These Zagreb sets come under the category of out for quite awhile.  Now, if I would need to buy such a set, I would call and ask for Kevin.  I would tell him I wanted to make sure the set I got had a certain graining color or something like that.  Then Kevin would go to the warehouse himself and inspect the set. 
Of course it should not need to be this way.  But it is.

Thanks for your help, man! 

I can only confirm what others posted in terms of negative experience and cannot recommend HouseofStaunton. Although they seem to have nice products on the webpage they do not care much about their clients and have a very unprofessional customer service. I ordered a product which never arrived and apparently was sent back due to a mistake made by HouseofStaunton. They simply cancelled the order and said I should order the same again, however they charged me 25 USD for the first 'delivery' already. A delivery which did not succeed due to their mistake and they referred me to their return policy. I pointed out that I did not return this item and want either to get the item or get a full refund. After many emails forth and back I gave up.

Not worth it.

Many will tell you they've had excellent experiences with HoS (myself included) but hey, it is 2020 (forever) and customer service ain't what it used to be.  For a number of "reasons" (i.e., nothing more than hollow excuses at this point): COVID, Queen's Gambit boom, "supply chain" issues, COVID variant, COVID variant, COVID variant...blah, blah, blah.  Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Good overall service, especially if there are problems, is becoming increasingly rare and should be treasured if found.

Me personally don't have a positive experience in general. But than again as I have already expressed this in some post, I see a pattern the negative ones are 99% overseas customers.

They only inspect their top tier sets before shipping. 

Tmy75,

If they did not deliver the product and the first return was because of their mistake...please remember that you can always go to your CC company and contest the charge.  Go to the protection department and tell them what happened.  The CC company ALWAYS sides with the customer.

Shelby 

All the problems you listed makes it MORE important to have exceptional customer service.  

Absolutely agreed!  And yet far too many companies have cast service aside in favor of admitting no wrong.

No personal attacks, please. Play nice and be kind.

HoS has a 20% off sale currently.
Valentine's Day Sale
Use Coupon Code: CUPID
Valid through Monday, February 14th
Excludes Clearance, Shopworn, Imperfect, or Otherwise Marked

Just a heads up. I have no connection to any company. 

I have had to work to have companies, including House of Staunton, provide quality products.

Twenty some years ago House of Staunton consistently sold sets that were exceptionally great in all aspects.  And this was because Frank Camaratta owned the company and they did inspect every piece while packing for shipment. 

The newer owner has really reduced their quality control because they sell and move such a high number of sets.
I have said this before.  My success with them is to call on the phone and get them to look at the set before they ship it.  When they first release a new set design, the quality is good.  I have seen problems with sets they have sold for awhile.  

I have come to expect the best of people and it has paid off.  I just work to have them, and all others, to look at what they are sending me to insure it is correct and without flaws.

If I were to buy a new set now, I would definitely do the above, in a friendly way. 

It's obvious why Noj is the penultimate, hassle free manufacturer these days.

Probably no one has ever returned a set so those waters are completely untested... 

If I remember correctly, someone here (I believe it was dr Eyechess) bought a set 7 or 8 years ago and something happened to one of the pieces. Noj made that piece for him and ship it free at no cost at all. Now that earns my respect for their service and loyalty to their customer.

TheOne is correct.  I had a Noj Dubrovnik II in Walnut that had the black queens get a chip in each collar after owning the set for 7+ years.

Gregor had me send an original for color matching purposes and made and sent me 2 queens that still are a perfect match in that set.

And yes, it was all at no charge.

Yeah, I am still in awe of my Noj Tal pieces,but my free  pen never worked.-