Bad review/experience with RoyalChessMall

RCM seemed very promising from the reviews/photos here https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/royal-chess-mall?page=25

I ordered their 3.9" Hastings Staunton ebony/boxwood set in early January at ~275USD all-in.

On arrival, one rook was cracked, and one of the knights had the tip of one ear chipped off (or they were working around a defect in the wood) which they hadn't been bothered to smooth down into a continuous surface.  There were also a handful of other pieces with tool-marks or chips, primarily careless saw-work on the rook crenelations where they'd gouged the flat top face of the rook or the tops of the merlons, but those won't stand out after a little sanding/wax, so nbd there.  The knight on the other hand stood out like dogs balls from across the table because half of it would reflect light at one angle and half at another.  Most of the pieces were noticably striated from the lathing (no sanding), which is something I wouldn't have expected at this price-point, but maybe I'm expecting too much there, I dunno.

No biggie, I asked for replacements for the cracked rook and the knight. Three weeks later they'd replaced the rook with another defective one (this one had a sizable "nipple" in the flat top face) and refused to replace the knight, telling me that if I didn't like it they had other buyers lined up behind me.

If it were any other time or any other set, I'd have just sent it straight back.  As it is, I love the design and don't have a lot of confidence in being able to buy something better in the near future. The workmanship is pretty rough in some aspects, but with some time, care and wet/dry I can end up with a set I like.

But for 275 bucks, that shouldn't be necessary, and I'd encourage people not to take the risk unless they're happy with mediocre workmanship, poor QC, and poor customer service.

I don't have photos of the non-major issues because I'd already decided on keeping the set and have already spent the time to fix them, but here's what I do have so people can at least decide for themselves whether I'm being overly critical.


Replacement rook at bottom.  It's hard to capture the smooth bulge at the center, but I'd guess 1mm high and 4mm diameter

See chess-equipment/as-of-today?, posts 11 (problem sound familiar?) and 28. 

We should really keep this post current.

Post 11 ought to sound familiar - it's me.

After RoyalChessMall failed to resolve the issue, I figured I'd put a proper post up to give details and more of a chance of showing up if someone were to search "RoyalChessMall review".

Wow that's really bad, I've bought three sets from them. The 1970 dubrovnik, the 59 zagreb ebony/box wood, and the Alexandria luxury ebony/ bud rose wood and I thought they looked phenomenal. I can't believe that they treated you like that. I guess their getting to big of a head.

Did they really refuse to make this right?

Did they really tell you that if you did not want to accept a $275 set with such obvious flaws, they had other people in line to buy the set?

This is a very bad thing for them to tell a customer.  They could simply have said if the product was not acceptable, you could return it for a refund.  The other is just not nice.

Even after things quiet down in this industry, I will not buy from them because of this statement.

Their response to my insistence that the knight had a defect and not merely "variation due to its handmade nature" was, verbatim:

"We cannot approve your request for the replacement knight as the same is not-defective. If you are not interested in keeping the set, let us know and we have some pending orders for this set and can share you the shipping labels of the same."

Yeah, this would really push my buttons.

I would completely call for and take a complete refund.  I would do this even though you already did some minor repairs.
To me it is the principle of the matter and their anti customer service attitude.

Wow. That response is absolutely disgusting and I would be fuming at them.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention, yet another Company I won’t be using.

Seems like a bluff to me--bragging about pending orders to show to you that they will rather take the set back than fix your problem. By immediately escalating the situation, they skip the annoying phase where they have to deal with your complaints. They are bullying the customer into accepting a sub-par set, hoping that the customer will rather keep the set than go through the hassle of returning the set and finding a new one. And unfortunately, in this case, it worked.

Not that I blame you for it, teamason. To be honest, I might have done the same just to get past the disappointment. The problem is obviously, as with all of these cases, that the market for chess pieces is unfortunately terribly overheated.

I hope you will be able to enjoy your set nonetheless!

I tend to agree with you in that RCM is likely bluffing. For all their 'pending orders' that set is all over eBay & Etsy

Yeah, I agree and if I'd known for sure (at the time) that the overall quality was sub-par and not just the knight-ear (which I can mitigate) and rook I'd have just sent it right back.  I should've posted this before I closed the return case I guess.

But now all that's left is to try and raise some awareness so that others don't just see the old positive reviews and make the same mistake.

@Teamason Just because you closed the case doesn't mean you cannot reopen it. If I were you I would reopen it and request a refund. You deserve to get something that does not require any work. If RCM can't give that to you then you should take your business elsewhere. And this notion of chips, dings, etc being acceptable for a handmade product is ridiculous. I can understand if one ear is not a mirror image of the other ear. I cannot understand a chip in one ear.

Particularly for a set that costs in the $300 range

• RoyalChessMall product quality has always been an issue and their prices gone up a lot. However, they do have free replacement policy. 

"telling me that if I didn't like it they had other buyers lined up behind me."

Are you serious? They really told you this?

 not so nice,  why do i read this things always after i made purchases.  I ordered three expensive sets incl.  the corresponding boards from them. For a total of 1,3k€.

There are too many issues about the OP’s replacement pieces for me to buy from RCM. That being said, I think it is important to keep in mind the cultural differences when communicating with each other. Although English might be the language of the communications, the language connotations, idioms and business practices associated with each culture can result in unintended messages. 

I have read and followed this and other discussions about RCM.  I have also gone to their web site and looked into the details of a few sets.  In my opinion this company is at a stage similar to Chess Bazaar a few years ago was in.  This is a situation where buying from them is a bit of a gamble.  And it is likely that buying certain products from them can minimize the risk while other sets can be more problematic.
Not every set design sold by a single company has been the best or problem free, except for Some of the smaller places offering a low number of set options like Noj, Official Staunton, The Chess House, American Chess Equipment and so on.  These smaller places have a much easier and better control on quality.  There also is the fact that some of these direct places don’t have the customer service things in place.

I have bought and seen sets from The House of Staunton, for instance, that are not that nice compared to other sets from some other companies and even their own offerings.  I usually only talk about sets that people should consider buying because they are so nice.  
Well I purposely avoid talking about sets I consider a waste of money.  There are sets like this at The House of Staunton, Chess Bazaar, Royal Chess Mall, and a few other US retailers  

There are poorly designed sets like the HoS Royale Series that I bought awhile back and gave to my brother-in-law who doesn’t play that much Chess.  In all honesty this set is a waste of money if you want to actually play Chess with it.  Chess Bazaar used to make a WCC reproduction that also was a poor design for play.  They discontinued it, to their credit.

Yes, there are some really nice sets coming from both these places, just not those particular sets.  The House of Staunton still offers them.  They now have 288 sets for sale on their web site.  And a number of these have more than one wood option for each of those 288 pages.  So a new buyer needs to be careful.  The Chess Bazaar, as mentioned, discontinues poorly designed sets.  This is a good thing.

I am sure RCM produces some very nice sets.  But a few of them are not that greatly designed. They sell a Pinney reproduction set with a 1.4” King base diameter.  The HoS version, which Frank Camaratta had made years ago has at least a 1.5” base as I recall which is more like the standard we see in our USCF plastics and Lardy sets..  The RCM set is also about 3/4 of a pound lighter. 
And then there are the flaws like manufacturing defects, cracking, poor finish and so on.  With that we have to deal with the customer service whether it’s good or bad or changing.

Personally, I find that Chess Bazaar, Chess Empire, HoS when I work it right, American Chess Equipment and the Chess House, oh yeah also the House of Chess, offer all the competition of sets to RCM and even Staunton Castle to make it so I certainly don’t need to buy from the last two named.