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Unexpected drama at an online store. Opinions wanted.

Matt Rushmore

Matt Rushmore

New Member
Joined
May 30, 2012
Messages
47
Is good customer service gone, is Nat Sherman corrupt, or am I just expecting too much? Serious question.  

I may have grown up in a time where, in general,  there was better customer service than in recent years, but there are two things I thought still remained…….companies standing by their prices and no bait and switch.
 
Not at NetSherman.com. They change their price after you order and get an invoice, to a price well above your invoice and the norm.

One of my preferred smokes is a Casa Fernandez Aganorsa Leaf Torpedo. I can get them at my local lounge for $75 for a box of fifteen on Tuesdays (every Tuesday anything is 15% off). Alternatively, online at Natsherman.com the posted price was $66.25 ($57.75 plus $8.50 shipping). That’s $9 cheaper. Every one of their Casa Fernandez cigars were priced well. But since I’d never ordered from them and I had a full humi when I found their site over two months ago I didn't buy any at that time.

Well, my supply has been getting low recently so I visited the Nat Sherman site again on 3/26/13 and the sticks were still there. So I purchased a box. $66.25 instead of my normal local $75.

They arrived via ground shipping. They were a bit dry but not too terribly bad. Besides packing peanuts there was only the maufacturer’s cellophane around the cigar box which was ripped (no water pillows or Ziploc or anything)  so the dryness wasn’t too shocking. They were ok. I figured some time in the humi would fix that no problem, maybe I just got a bit unlucky with that box, and hey, good price.

Since they were passable I figured I’d get more but when I went back to their site the price was now (and still is) $118. Whoa. Really? The highest price anywhere else online during a quick google search is $92. So now they are well overpriced. BIG difference.

I checked the other Casa Fernandez sticks and they were all still their old prices at that point which was ten days after my initial order. So, in case this was a long sale that ended soon on all the other ones also, I decided to place more of a regular size order. This time I ordered 4 boxes of Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Toros. At my shop on Tuesdays a box is $89 and some change and at Nat Sherman they were $75.25 ($66.75 plus $8.50 shipping).

Well, it was three days ago that I placed that order and today I get a phone call from Tina at NatSherman.com telling me they can’t fulfill my order because the price on their website was wrong. For over two months? And 10 days after they sold me a similarly priced box of the same brand, which they only carry 5 varieties of, they hadn’t fixed it? And they’re not going to honor it after sending me a completed invoice and holding my Visa for 3 days?

You won’t even honor one box? All your Casa Fernandez’s are similarly priced. “Sorry sir. It was a pricing error.  They are $130 a box. I would be happy to throw in a free cigar and shipping.”

So, now she’s pretty much doubling the price on me and telling me she’ll give me a free cigar ($6?) and shipping ($8.50) and charge me $245 dollars more than my invoice?  And they already have my credit card info? Uh Oh.

(Doing a google search for “Casa Fernandez Miami Reserva Toro” even just the first three results are $113, $115, and $109, two of them with free shipping, which is a far cry under their $130 per box). What’s going on with this place!? They had good prices (definitely not too low to honor on a small order like mine even if it was a legitimate pricing mistake) and now they have my Visa and want to charge me more than any other place?

Pricing mistakes may happen but not ones that last over two months, and not after they would have been aware of any issues 10 days prior for sure. If I go to my local cigar lounge, heck even Target or Walmart or Kmart, and they have a price on an item on the shelf, they sell it to me for that price.  They don’t tell you they are going back on their word because they mismarked them all. They honor the marked price, gain a customer, and then fix the price.

I wonder how often this bait and switch works for Nat Sherman.


Seriously, opinions are welcome.
 
*edited for clarity after a quick read through.
*edited quickly again for grammar. Oops. :)
 
If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
 
Cancel the order in writing and keep all correspondence.  If they still try to charge you, refuse delivery (if possible) and dispute it with your CC company.  I wouldn't be too worried about it.  It just sounds like you found another online retailer to be avoided.  There's lots of them out there.  Add Nat Sherman to the list and move on.
 
I'm sure they're not the first retailer to refuse to honor an "incorrect" price and I'm sure they won't be the last.  All you can do is cancel the order and take your business elsewhere.
 
A few years ago, when Lew Rothman was still at JR's, they mistakenly posted some 5 packs at $1.00 each.  They realized their mistake pretty quickly and corrected the price.  But they honored all orders placed when the price was $1.00.  Lew's philosophy was "a card laid is a card played".  You don't see that too often anymore. 
 
Maybe they had old stock at a less expensive price and just received a new shipment at a new, higher price?...and then forgot to raise the price online? From the other prices you found, they do seem to be going up.
 
MilesMingusMonk said:
If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
Click to expand...
 
 
This. A difference of $9 for a box of fifteen sticks? I'd be buying at the local all day instead of online.
 
tomthirtysix said:
If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
Click to expand...
 
 
This. A difference of $9 for a box of fifteen sticks? I'd be buying at the local all day instead of online.
Click to expand...
 
EXACTLY. If the price is right and that close...why not support your local B&M?
 
Here in NJ, I only buy online if it's a drastic savings...which unfortunately seems to be on almost all of my 'box buys' over the last few years.
 
more-cowgill.jpg
 
tomthirtysix said:
If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
Click to expand...
 
 
This. A difference of $9 for a box of fifteen sticks? I'd be buying at the local all day instead of online.
Click to expand...
Yep
 
Besides the folks trying to derail the thread with cowbell jokes and big pictures, I appreciate the responses. :)
 
As a couple of you said, I'm going to continue shopping locally. This obviously isn't about the money since I waited two months to try them. Heck, I'm putting a lot of time into Yelp and every other review site i can think of because of this to save people drama and because I'm sick of bad guys getting away with dishonesty. Of course the reason I tried to order through them was to save a little cash since it would add up over time, but my issue with them is their dishonesty.
 
I guess my main point of concern is the fact that the old bait and switch kills me. I feel bad for the people they have tricked in the past with an "incorrect" price, then doubling it with a distraction of $10-$15 worth of "free" extras after an order has already been placed.
 
It's not like they mistakenly had a price of $1, or had forgotten to add a 0 on the end or a 1 at the beginning. And it's not even like they had mismarked a specific stick. They had a reasonable price posted online for multiple varieties of sticks for several months, and then doubled it after my order was placed.
 
This company has brick and mortar sites so it's not like they are only a dishonest online presence. They may pull other scams on walk in customers also.
 
@ironpeddler, the only place the prices are going up is at Nat Sherman and they are almost doubling AFTER you place an order. And it's not just on one specific stick. It's a scam.
 
Thanks for letting me vent guys. I hate dishonesty. Steer clear of NatSherman.
 
P.S. Any cowbell is too much cowbell unless you're B.O.C. ;)
 
tomthirtysix said:
If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
Click to expand...
 
 
This. A difference of $9 for a box of fifteen sticks? I'd be buying at the local all day instead of online.
Click to expand...
 
No kidding.  For $9.00 support your local B&M.
 
BlindedByScience said:
 

If you haven't already figured it out - support your local shop, especially on Tuesday. ;)
Click to expand...
 
 
This. A difference of $9 for a box of fifteen sticks? I'd be buying at the local all day instead of online.
Click to expand...
 
No kidding.  For $9.00 support your local B&M.

 
Again, not really my point but thanks. I agree $18 a month isn't too much more to spend. That makes their dishonesty even worse since they obviously wouldn't have lost their shirt honoring their price. But instead they attempted a bait and switch and tried to trick me into paying way too much. Bad business. Stay away.
 
Bad business is being disloyal to your local shop to save a few bucks on a combustible product. Chalk it up to cigar karma for being a cheap bastard. :p
 
 
Bad business is being disloyal to your local shop to save a few bucks on a combustible product. Chalk it up to cigar karma for being a cheap bastard. :p
Click to expand...
This is it in a nutshell, saving a few dollars versus supporting your local guy! When he closes up, you'll have nothing.
 
Really Miles and Tone?
 
I shop at a B&M with an online presence to save some cash and time, that store now has my card info and tried to pull a fast one on me and thats my fault? Maybe my local store is a national chain also.
 
Maybe I am really naive and everyone is just an asshat these days. Sheesh. I used to think people were nice on here. My bad.
 
I got ten bucks says at least one of you two owns an import vehicle, and both of you have shopped online before to save money. May 'karma' as you say, come back to bite both of you.
 
I guess you two did answer my question better than anyone else did though. I did expect to much. Including out of people on this site. Thanks for waking me up to that fact.
 
What you don't realize is we all try to save some money on cigars, but when it is a few dollars why bother? I have one import vehicle and two US vehicles. Does that make me corrupt? Miles is a troublemaker, I on the other hand will guide you down the primrose lane.

All kidding aside, Nat Sherman is a reputable firm that is in midtown Manhattan not far from my office. Their prices would be higher because they pay NYC rents, so that may explain the price difference. You best response once you saw that they didn't want to offer you the price was to thank them and tell them to void the transaction. Then put them on your do not buy list.

Like in all things in life YMMV, remember you are on a cigar board where everyone has an opinion and will tell you about it in a NY moment.
 
Matt Rushmore said:
Really Miles and Tone?
 
I shop at a B&M with an online presence to save some cash and time, that store now has my card info and tried to pull a fast one on me and thats my fault? Maybe my local store is a national chain also.
 
Maybe I am really naive and everyone is just an asshat these days. Sheesh. I used to think people were nice on here. My bad.
 
I got ten bucks says at least one of you two owns an import vehicle, and both of you have shopped online before to save money. May 'karma' as you say, come back to bite both of you.
 
I guess you two did answer my question better than anyone else did though. I did expect to much. Including out of people on this site. Thanks for waking me up to that fact.
Click to expand...
 
I imported a mail order bride, but I returned her for a full refund while she was still under warranty. Does that count?
 
Name calling will get you nowhere, miles and tone-ny are two good BOTL. If you are unhappy with a merchant you have every right to complain, maybe it was a bad day, for a bad worker, who knows, you cancelled it and that was that. If your trying to say they are a bad merchant for not honoring the price, they made it clear it was an error and they would not do so, them order cancelled. No big whoop, you can always choose who to support and why and likewise all others can choose to do the same.

Happy smoking

C
 
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