I got a form email from The Chess House saying they were really busy and they'll get back to me asap. That was 18 days ago. My thinking is if your that busy and making so much more money then hire more people.
Thinking About Buying from House of Staunton?
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Dec 31, 2020
0
#3
HoS and for that matter every vendor I have bought from has been extremely quick in shipping. The only exception has been when I custom order something or knowingly pre-order something. It sucks that you went through that but it isn't indicative of the company. As a matter of fact I believe everyone on HoS mail directory along with every USCF member received a correspondence about HoS deliveries being delayed due to covid and higher than usualy chess demand. This was across all chess vendors and also with vendors of all merchandise having shipments having extensive delays while awaiting pick-up by USPS, UPS and FedEx and DHL.
Just to give you a idea of how bad it is here in the eurozone
Delayed delivery due to COVID-19
Date of alert:
29th of December 2020, ongoing
Expected delay:
Unknown
Region:
Worldwide
Reason for service alert:
For the list of countries below, we can give you more of an estimate of the expected delay. This delay is added to the normal delivery times.
Australia: 1 - 21 days
Brazil: 20 days
China: 7 - 14 days
Croatia: 4-7 days
Dominican Republic: 3 - 6 days
Finland: 1 - 6 days
France: 1 - 8 days
Ireland: 1 - 11 days
Japan: 7 - 12 days
Morocco: 8 days
New Zealand: 10 - 14 days
Portugal: 1 - 7 days
Spain: 6 - 14 days
Slovenia: 8 days
United Kingdom: 7 - 14 days
United States: 9 - 27 days
Delivery delays due to COVID-19. The situation is constantly changing. PostNL has no influence on this. We cannot guarantee a time of delivery. For business questions, please contact your account manager. Please note; we update this list regularly.
Dec 31, 2020
0
#5
Well, these are tough times.
I talked with Shelby of American Chess Equipment and Paul at The Chess House in the first week of December. The Queen’s Gambit series brought a huge demand for Chess sets and boards. They were running out of inventory quickly. These businesses were caught unprepared.
Then we get these huge delays in shipping, everywhere. Even though these places were swamped, they should have at least communicated with their customers.
I earlier told of ordering a Bullet Journal on 12/1 and it being shipped on 12/2. By 12/28 the tracking on this Priority Mail had been stalled since 12/12. At that time, the company actually told me they would be giving me a full refund without me asking. They acknowledged it was the fault of the shipper, USPS, but they took responsibility and refunded me anyway. My email from them gave me a 20% discount from their shop good for a year. They gave me a full refund. And they said if the product showed up, I should keep it. Now, this is a class act, making me want to do more business with them. By the way, this morning on 12/31 USPS tracking came back to life. After sitting in the St. Louis regional since 12/9, 22 days, the shipment left St. Louis for Peoria at 5:09 am. Yeah this is kind of unbelievable.
The Chess retailers should have stood up and corrected what they could.
With that though, there are some companies like Shelby that have still shipped product while being realistic abut the shipping.
Dec 31, 2020
0
#6
I bought a set from House of Staunton. The first time I used it, a child dropped the black king on the floor and broke the cross. For less than $10 a replacement piece arrived from House of Staunton a week later--I think it was $4 + $3 shipping. The set itself was over $50. My experience: excellent customer service.
Dec 31, 2020
0
#7
MCH818 wrote:
@KineticPawn I just checked and saw the email from HoS. I didn't realize it was there until now. It was sent on 12/7. However, I don't think the OP was complaining about delays from UPS or other shippers. He said his order has been marked as ready to ship since 12/12. No matter how overwhelmed HoS is a package that is marked as ready to ship should not be sitting there for 19 days.
Not trying to quibble or split hairs but ready to ship is the exact thing I was eluding to. Many vendors have items with Shipping labels printed and waiting to be shipped or picked up by Delivery Service. I remember specifically because I was screwed over by Kohls when they canceled my and many others PS5 orders after we all received confirmation emails and order #'s. I was then able to omorder through BJs and I had a tracking number with label printed. I nervously watched for about a week before it was actually picked up. This screenshot is of a different package that waited 4 days that was ready to ship and was waiting for UPS pick-up. Keep in mind this is November and I'm sure as we entered December the log jam only got worse for shippers.
"The shortfall of millions of packages comes after weeks of pile ups in warehouses for shippers to catch up."
Let me just clarify. I think the shipping delay was largely out of their control but I do feel their response to the customer was very crappy.
I feel extremely fortunate then. A few of us have started a little informal 'chess club' here at the marina and I wanted a set of my own. I ordered an ebony/boxwood set from ChessByIndia on Etsy on 12/24. It was shipped on 12/26 and arrived on 12/29
I was pleasantly surprised as I rather expected a delay due to Christmas but this was before I'd even heard of 'the Queens Gambit' and oblivious to the impact its had on sales of chess sets (I'd also yet to join chess.com). I just thought all the online chess stores were out of stock due to covid and/or a Christmas demand. Had I known the bigger picture I doubt I would have ordered it.
If your thinking about buying from the House of Staunton, maybe you should reconsider. Here is the email I just sent to them:
I placed an order under the name ****** on December 11th.
I paid for it on December 11th using Amazon pay.
I paid for 2 day shipping
My credit card was billed on December 11th.
I received an email from you stating that I had opted to “Mail” the payment – obviously not true.
The order has been showing at 'ready to ship' since the 12th.
I left two voice mails.
I posted a message on your web site through the ‘contact us’
Now it is 12/31/2020 and still no communication, no call backs, no emails, NO CHESS SET!
You don’t answer your phones.
You don’t answer your messages.
Are you guys really this screwed up?? Seriously??
Below is my order, still showing at ‘ready to ship’ same status since December 12th.
If you can’t call me then give me my money back!