Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Got my Devil Site order in today, and was completely confused when I opened the box and saw this first thing. I'm missing the base on it. I thought that the base was welded to the bowl, like on the Stinky Jr. It's unuseable as of now, because there's a small square screw hole at the bottom, which is a bummer.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...38/photo-1.jpg

I'll also use this thread as an update to Cigar Bid's/Cigar International's Customer Service. I called them right after getting this, and the young lady I talked to apologized first off, and started looking for a solution. She said, "I'll call our Parts and Assembly group and we'll send you a base either today or tomorrow at of course no charge." So far, so good on their end.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Well until then you got a nifty hat.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Upside-down, your tattoo says "BOZO". :D

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I'm fond of the hat idea actually.

...I don't have tattoos Tom, I'm not a felon.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Lies

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I too like the nifty hat idea.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Brian...I had the same issue. PM Bill "Stinky" and he will square you away. He had me call him and he talked me through fixing it. :tu :tu

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

As long as Stinky doesn't require you to send back the parts you never got, you should be OK.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

He swears the manufacturing defects problem was corrected long ago.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

From what Bhalbrooks told me last night. The problem is from the shipper. They forgot to send the base.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

A base screws to the ashtray. Contact the seller to have one sent to you.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

The problem isn't in the ashtray. The problem is obviously YOU. But don't fret, he'll soon be on the hunt for a BOTL in the area to call you and explain how to assemble the ashtray (even if parts really are missing).

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Didn't think I had to put a smiley to show sarcasm Justino :)
Thanks you Sir. cigarbid should be sending one soon, so I don't wanna bother stinky since it isn't their problem or fault.
An I missing something?

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Humor makes the world go round.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

:r

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

One of the four fingers fell off my Stinky yesterday. I am thinklng of filing a lawsuit.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

bishes

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Looking for participants to make my suit a class action.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

He should file one against you for misuse of his product!!!!:banger

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

So got a call from Cigar Bid and apparently they "don't have any bases in stock, but I can send it back".

...I'll PM Bill, thank you Mac.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

They are not arm rests Admiral :sl

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Yeah, goofy me for using it as a cigar ashtray, Larry. :rolleyes: :r

Still time to get on board the Lawsuit Train, Mike. :wo :wo

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Don't have a Stinky, sorry no help here...but keep up the quest :r

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

You could simply state, "Not only did I not receive any of the parts, the parts were not in stock and did not arrive after I did not order them. this makes me very unsatisfied."

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Quite interested in reading an update when you've been in contact with him. :tu

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

:tpd:

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

http://www.ronnestam.com/wp-content/...long-to-us.jpg




0\/\/n3D!!

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I'll PM you Sir.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I suggest a top hat and monocle to make your suit more classy.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Please post the update for us all...

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

How pissed is the customer that received only a base? :noon

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Per your advice via PM, I'll post an update.
hahahahahah I hadn't thought about it like that.

Update:
Well, I PM'd Bill "Stinky" asking if he could do anything to avoid having to send the entire upper part back to Cigarbid. This seemed like the easiest solution for everyone.

The reply I got seemed... cold, and like I was a giant pain in his butt. He said to basically send it back to Cigarbid so they can fix their mistake (Which is true, they messed up, not him), but it was how he came across... Really short and a bit pompous.

When I said that I really would appreciate him letting me buy a base off of him, he said, "Send it back to Cigarbid, get your refund. When you get your money back, I'll sell you one for the same price." That was a really nice thing of him to do; I'd rather deal with sending the upper part back however.

Not attacking him, or his products. I really love my Stinky, but I'm just disappointed with how all of that played out.

If any mods have a problem with this post, I'll take it down.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Personally, I am really sorry to hear that it went that way but I'm not at all surprised.

I'm certainly not going to get personal but I do believe I'm in the clear to say: Certain personnel in the executive office of Stinky Cigars could seriously use some lessons in people skills. Contrary to the beliefs of some people in that company, not all people in this world (other than this person) are possessed of cretin level intelligence. Passive aggression and condescension are also not solid communication skills.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Customer Service (or lack of it) starts at the top. :2

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

...and there it is

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

That people are inconvenienced is something I can appreciate however I do not understand why anyone is unhappy with Stinky. He trusted us as confidants of his frustration and attempted to rectify his issue by communicating with a group of enthusiasts. This is not a new phenomenon online. As a member of the customer service team I can attest to multiple people on a nearly daily basis who are almost impossible to help. I have experienced this in a few different industries.

http://www.bottlehead.com/

The site linked above is a community of audio enthusiasts who order a kit. If someone is having difficulty many enthusiast members who also have the kit will assist them. That a member of the male gender is insufficiently manually skilled to put together an ashtray is unfortunate in my opinion.

Stinky's company is small and he is most likely stretched thin for customer service duties. With certain quantity of buys in the industry he may get a very small margin from Cigar Bid and continued practice of replacement regardless of the vendor may hurt his business. Cigar Bid is known to provide steep discounts and the final price you pay may be significantly lower than he can justify a free replacement. He may also have certain agreements with his vendors regarding RMA policies and so forth. That he recommended a non-preferred process may not be convenient but it is most likely best for all concerned.

Stinky is a very pleasant man in person and he obviously is passionate about his business and wants to provide a quality product at a good price to his customers. I know it is hard to take these things into consideration as a customer, the phrase "The customer is always right" has ingrained a sense of entitlement to many people. I don't mean to offend anyone but, the customer is not always right and can sometimes be very difficult to deal with. Having someone dump their frustrations on you daily is degrading to the soul. I try to cultivate patience in my daily life, I know it's hard to detach emotional investment from material goods as we did work to acquire these things.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I assume from your post that you know (have met) him and you think him pleasant. Many others have as well and think otherwise.

A lot of the dissatisfaction from the members here is based on first hand experience. Not getting satisfactory customer service on defective merchandise is not a sense of entitlement. It is wanting to recieve what you paid for. If you look at a business like Palio, now THAT is how a company stands behind its merchandise.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Peter said it better than I could have.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

WOW. I'm almost positive that you wrote that ad hominem attack without reading the actual problem. Gender aside, I'm not sure that I know many people without access to a CNC fabricator with the ability to "put together an ashtray" when the base in question is NOT SUPPLIED.

If this is "customer service" for you, maligning the physical and mental abilities of your customers, please find another career.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I think we have quite different ideas about satisfactory customer service.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I was referring to the lady's son from the previously linked post when Stinky recruited a BOTL to assist one of his customers, sorry not to have made the more clear.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I have witnessed first hand some questionable customer service from Stinky. It's good to be loyal to friends, but in this case, several long time members here have experiences to the contrary.

One of the experiences was with a friend who ordered (directly) a floor stand model. It was missing the bolt to screw the stand into. Stinky suggested that he go to a hardware store and buy the 15 cent bolt, and then have someone weld it on. More importantly, the tone of the reply was basically treating the customer like an annoying, whiny moron.

If the customer is whiny because the item he paid for came incomplete, and it is the customer's responsibility to purchase parts and weld them on to make said merchandise complete and functional, well, then feel free to label me "high maintenance".

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I am sorry to hear that his customer service has declined so markedly. It has honestly been about 3 years since I've dealt with the man in person and in that time it sounds as if his product quality issues with outsourcing his manufacturing to India have continued. Without an in-country factory it is extremely cost ineffective to take care of returns, I understand where he's coming from as a businessman, he probably is taking all of these calls personally and is frustrated beyond belief. I get it, it's hard being pulled in that many directions.

Regarding a new career, believe me I'm taking steps to get out of customer service ASAP. It is a soul crushing, Sisyphean effort to be pleasant on a daily basis and deal with stupidity. What I have stated is a rather honest assessment of anyone working in customer service, I do not know a single person working customer service that does not curse their customers behind their backs and to each other. There is a reason that health insurers make these customer service only companies pay higher rates, almost everyone eats and smokes to get over the stressful nature of customer service.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

First off, I never asked for anything free. I had no problem paying for a base.
Second, I'm glad you had a positive relationship with him, I did not.

If you were the Customer Service rep I talked to, I'd stop using that companies products, as I almost did with Stinky. Honestly, if you're an asshole, keep our product. Maybe Stinky should work on quality control (Which based on posts' I've read, is lacking.
Well said Peter.
Quite true.
No offense but quite whining. We all do crap we don't want to at work. Man up and be thankful you have a job.

Also you throwing a fit and insults at people isn't your best bet on a solid introduction to the forum.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

As long as you still have at least one stinky finger, you're doing OK. Much more age and you might find you miss it. :D

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

I had planned to stay quiet, but the same exact situation happened to me.
I decided not to go to the hardware store, and just frankenstiened it together from parts I had around the garage.
When I told Stinky, I put it together with some nuts, bolts, and a washer I had lying around, He told me he didn't believe me.
He said he couldn't for the life of him figure out why I would use a washer, and that I had to send him a picture to prove it.
He never got a picture from me, or another nickel of my business.

FWIW, I met Stinky, and found him to be a pleasant enough man, but that doesn't mean he knows the first thing about customer service! :2

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Of that there is no doubt.

When he's playing salesman and/ or promoter of his product, he may be able to charm the balls off a brass monkey.

Speaking as someone that worked for him, I can assure you: His philosophy on certain aspects of interpersonal relationships seriously leaves something to be desired. My respect for this forum and my personal decorum places me in the position of not getting into a personal attack of his personality, regardless of the enormous arsenal of ammunition I hold in which to do so.

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Rruer words may have never been spoken. :lr

Re: Help. My Stinky is... broken?
 

Update on the update:
I talked with Stinky more, after he saw my post in here, and realized I wasn't quite happy with the way things played out (He thought I was gonna take him up on sending it back, and buying one for that price from him.)

At his request I called his cell... and had an hour long talk where we cleared the air and shot the ****. He's a really nice guy actually. He again offered to sell one at the discounted price, and that he had found a brown base he'd give me. He doesn't do the assembly, nor is the assembly done near him (Which I had thought it was), so it's not like he can just walk behind his house and grab a base. Really nice guy. He reminded me of my Father in law haha.