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Holt's hotwire catalog

mmburtch

mmburtch

Sleep deprived and cranky
Joined
Oct 11, 2006
Messages
4,879
This little catalog has a formal apology to Padilla and the cigar community as a whole for the father's day catalog.

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Too little too late for me.
 
That should have been their first apology and not the oops I didn't see it.
 
"We have undertaken measures within our company to ensure that something of this nature never happens again"

I would bet that "measures" means that one or more people can now call themselves "former" employees of Holts.
 
It seems that he sent this to all that received the catalog. It was the right thing to do and he took responsibility for the less than professional manner in which Holt's dissed one of their vendors.

While I'm not pleased with the original catalog, this at least shows that they mean business and are paying attention to their customers.
 
My attitude is upgraded from disgusted to annoyed. I'm with MP - too little, too late. He should have dropped the spin shit and come right out with the apology.
 
MandyPi said:
Too little too late for me.
Click to expand...


Same here. I still call bullshit, and they lost me from the outset of this. "Inexcusable error..." They still feel the need to put qualifiers on their behavior (they also still feel the need to toot their own horns, you'll notice). As if it were some mistake. Contrarily (R.I.P. Christopher Moltisanti), it shows a deliberate attempt to undermine an outstanding company/family, and is a crystal clear example of just who "Holt's" and the Levin's really are.
 
I don't know anything about how Holt's various market segments (read customers) responded to the original ad copy and wouldn't expect that many if any cigar forum citizens would either. Only Holt's would have that information.

However, I'm probably well justified in suspecting that their published apology caters to that segment that it considers most important to their business. While forum members are probably the most vocal and demanding, I doubt that we comprise the majority of their volume. Furthermore, it's probably reasonable to presume that they consider us a closed and insular community that does not typically advocate to the significantly larger "Joe Smoker" category.

From that perspective, their actions on both ends were calculated and in the end, will probably achieve the intended ends...one of which is to dismiss us.

Wilkey
 
I'm kinda happy that they did take the step to apologize. It would have been worse if the catalogue had nothing related to the incident in it.
 
Wurm said:
I'm kinda happy that they did take the step to apologize. It would have been worse if the catalogue had nothing related to the incident in it.
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Worse for whom? In what way?

Those in the online community who have written off Holt's don't seem to be uniformly satisfied by their retraction. As for the average nonline smoker, how much do you want to bet that not even 5% of them made any note of the original ad copy. And of those who did, I'd wager that the forgiveness rate is likely to be significantly higher than that of onliners. So again, I'm guessing they got exactly what they needed while ignoring us and reaping relatively insignificant consequences for doing so.

The fact that they eschewed engaging in direct dialogue with the online community at CF and here at CP is blatant testimony to that.

It sucks to be shown that you don't matter (in a way that matters to them).

Wilkey
 
Yeah the apology was a must but it doesn't erase their classless behavior. How the phock does the managing editor let that out the door in the first place?!?
 
Holts lost my business when they shipped me 1926 naturals instead of maduros and never responded to any emails I sent about the error. Then they published that Padilla mess and that just sealed the deal. No more Holts for me (even though that Royal Flush Sampler looks mighty tasty).
 
Screw Holts. It seems like hey have gone low-brow in the descriptions and trying to appeal to a younger group. The last thing I want to read is somebody writing like a punk kid trying to hustle cigars.

I haven't done a lot of business with Holts, but I know that there won't be any future business.
 
They destroyed a very old pleasant memory for me. I bought my first box of cigars at their shop. Mr. Levin himself waited on me. I was very young and he took the time to explain to me how to find a cigar I would enjoy and this was at a time when people my age simply didn't smoke cigars. I still share his advice with others to this very day.

Doc.
 
Ginseng said:
Wurm said:
I'm kinda happy that they did take the step to apologize. It would have been worse if the catalogue had nothing related to the incident in it.
Click to expand...
Worse for whom? In what way?

Those in the online community who have written off Holt's don't seem to be uniformly satisfied by their retraction. As for the average nonline smoker, how much do you want to bet that not even 5% of them made any note of the original ad copy. And of those who did, I'd wager that the forgiveness rate is likely to be significantly higher than that of onliners. So again, I'm guessing they got exactly what they needed while ignoring us and reaping relatively insignificant consequences for doing so.

The fact that they eschewed engaging in direct dialogue with the online community at CF and here at CP is blatant testimony to that.

It sucks to be shown that you don't matter (in a way that matters to them).

Wilkey
Click to expand...

Hell, I'd never heard of Holt's before this Padilla fiasco occurred. I've never bought from them in the past, and probably never will after this episode. I may not matter to Holt's but that's ok because they don't matter to me either. ;)
 
indyrob said:
Screw Holts. It seems like hey have gone low-brow in the descriptions and trying to appeal to a younger group. The last thing I want to read is somebody writing like a punk kid trying to hustle cigars.

I haven't done a lot of business with Holts, but I know that there won't be any future business.
Click to expand...

I agree. The last several catalogs seemed different to me in some way and I finally figured out that the writing had changed. It's more of an "aren't we cool" kind of vibe that just doesn't appeal to me at all. In fact, Holt's was the last catalog that I noticed this in, all the rest have been doing it for years.

I don't need that nonsense. I'm done with all of them.
 
LilBastage said:
indyrob said:
Screw Holts. It seems like hey have gone low-brow in the descriptions and trying to appeal to a younger group. The last thing I want to read is somebody writing like a punk kid trying to hustle cigars.

I haven't done a lot of business with Holts, but I know that there won't be any future business.
Click to expand...

I agree. The last several catalogs seemed different to me in some way and I finally figured out that the writing had changed. It's more of an "aren't we cool" kind of vibe that just doesn't appeal to me at all. In fact, Holt's was the last catalog that I noticed this in, all the rest have been doing it for years.

I don't need that nonsense. I'm done with all of them.
Click to expand...

Smoking cigars with their pants down around their knees.
 
LilBastage said:
The last several catalogs seemed different to me in some way and I finally figured out that the writing had changed. It's more of an "aren't we cool" kind of vibe that just doesn't appeal to me at all.
Click to expand...
Agreed. I'm a proud, card carrying member of the uncool demographic. I guess I had just gotten used to Lew Rothman's style in the JR catalogs but then he provides stories and insights from his years of experience in the industry and that was worth something to me. I reckon I can get that from CigarMagazine now that I've fallen off of JR's mailing list.

Wilkey
 
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