Bad Experience with Atlantic Cigar!!!

Hi,

My name is Excel F. I ordered a box of puros indios from your website.
They were shipped by ups, i happened not to be there when they were delivered due to having to go back out of town for a family emergency.

I put instructions in the shipping for the box to be left at the hub if no one was in the office for pickup. I buy a LOT of cigars and with those instructions i normally get a call from UPS that the package will be held for 7 days and we can pick it up! I didn't get a quantum shipping email, nor did get a call from the hub letting me know that I could pick the box up. Instead they continued to deliver the package.

My driver NEVER does this! I receive a lot of packages in this same manner!
I didn't get an email me notifying me of the delivery attempt because Atlantic
cigar must not have utilized the shipping confirmation feature! I never have
UPS emails go to spam and it didn't in this case because it wasn't sent
out in that manner! Other companies, 5 minutes after they key the order #
in you get a UPS Tracking Number. Not this order with Atlantic!!!

The person helping me at the phone # 570-476-5718 was rude, obnoxious,
and kept trying to place the blame on me even though he read my instructions in the comment box!

I wont' be shopping with you again, and i'm a member of 6 different cigar forums, you can trust and believe that I will detail my experience with each and every one of them warning others of what they can expect.

What pissed me off was the guy wanting to charge me an additional 5.95 for
shipping! Are you serious? If i didn't leave instructions fine. I bought some

cigars from Twins Smoke Shop, a similar situation handled, I called up, spoke
to Kurt, he sent them right back out, and i'll continue to do business with him.

Disgusted,

Excel F

[md4958]

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. FWIW I've shopped with them a few times and always had positive experiences.

You never mentioned what happened to the package, was it delivered and stolen?

Are you sure all the blame is on Atlantic? Perhaps they had the correct instructions, but UPS delivered anyway... I know UPS is probably the worst package delivery company known to man.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by md4958

You never mentioned what happened to the package, was it delivered and stolen?

that's what I was wondering too.

In the comments section on their website, I asked them to leave the box at the Local UPS HUB if we were unable to take delivery at the office. 99% of
the time that's what happens. I get an email that a delivery attempt was
made, or I get a call from the hub telling me that I can come pick up my
package.

In this instance that never happened! I was mad because the guy at Atlantic
was insisting that it was probably in my spam box, and that UPS has to be
notified in order to stop redelivering the package! BS! When this was an issue (IN THE PAST) this was the solution that I worked out the the UPS Rep (On the phone) and the local hub, and they always hold my packages if i'm unable to receive them for whatever reason.

So to answer your question, instead of holding them for pickup (which i was unable to do initially because of being out of town) they ended up being
sent back.

Originally Posted by md4958

Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. FWIW I've shopped with them a few times and always had positive experiences.

You never mentioned what happened to the package, was it delivered and stolen?

Are you sure all the blame is on Atlantic? Perhaps they had the correct instructions, but UPS delivered anyway... I know UPS is probably the worst package delivery company known to man.

Originally Posted by JJG

that's what I was wondering too.

[Tenor CS]

You were just spared from smoking a box of Puros Indios. No harm done.

Seriously, though, I feel your pain, as I was recently in a similar situation, but my beef was with Crocs (the ugly shoes) and Fedex.

[heavyd]

Originally Posted by Tenor CS

You were just spared from smoking a box of Puros Indios. No harm done.

Now that is funny!. Thanks for the belly laugh.

Sounds like the op is venting... been there, done that. I hope it ended well for you and you received your stogies

[CigarNut]

What is it that you are trying to gain by posting your email here? For every retailer (Internet or B&M) there are people who love them and people who hate them. There are also people who have had problems.

At the beginning of your note you said that you had bought a lot of cigars from them. If that is the case, they must be good at something. Is it worth writing off everything for one mistake? I know I make mistakes and I would hope that people would at least give me a second chance.

I am not trying to stick up for Atlantic; I have neve done business with them in particular so I cannot offer an opinon on them. All you posted was your email without any statement as to what you wanted from CA. Are you just venting or are you hoping someone from Atlantic will read this and help out? Are you looking for suggestions from CA members as to how to handle this or other Internet retailers?

Just my

[RevSmoke]

I have been ordering cigars from Atlantic for a number of years now, always had great service and wonderful attitude and assistance form employees.

I am wondering what part UPS had in the problem, as that's were I'd start with the blame.

[mosesbotbol]

I am not sure what the point is here? Did you get the cigars?

Originally Posted by mosesbotbol

I am not sure what the point is here? Did you get the cigars?

Sounds like they attempted delivery a couple times and returned the package to the sender, thus wanting to charge him for Shipping again.

It sounds like he's just mad at the customer service person he got. If they didn't pass on the delivery instructions to UPS, then it's Atlantic's fault and they should bite the bullet and reship for free. If they did pass on the instructions, then it's an issue between Atlantic and UPS. The end customer shouldn't be penalized though. Atlantic should reship and work out the shipping charge with UPS.

The sign of a good company is how they deal with situations that go wrong. In this case it was obvious he's a valid customer. He's not trying to scam anyone. The package didn't reach him because either the delivery instructions were not followed or they were not passed on to the carrier. It's obviously not the customer's fault, so they should have been a bit more amenable to working things out. The 'Go Pound Sand' attitude of a lot of customer service reps have these days does a lot to make people think the Companies they work for are garbage.

Good Company or Bad Company, it's all in the perception they present through their dealings with their customers. A situation like this presents an opportunity for a company to go 'above and beyond' to make things right, rather than be dicks about it. Had they done the right thing, they'd have a customer for life, rather than losing a customer plus potential future customers warned away by the bad experience.

This might be an isolated incident, but the fact that they neglected a customer at least 1 time says it's probably happened before and will likely happen again. I'll avoid them in the future.

[T.G]

Diva alert.

U mean you're coming out of the closet Adam?

Originally Posted by T.G

Diva alert.

[mcmoyer]

[forgop]

You can't please everyone all of the time, but I'd say Atlantic gets it right 99+% of the time.

[icehog3]

Sh*t happens.

[The Poet]

Originally Posted by icehog3

Sh*t happens.

And going postal (or "parcel" in this case) is one's last resort.

Update,

When I initially posted this, I didn't know that i already had a response
from Paul (President of Atlantic). I guess they took heed to my warning
and one of his employee's started posting the contents of his personal
email to me on all of the boards.

That prompted me to check my email, and I wrote him back, accepted
his offer to reship the cigars sans extra shipping, and also told him what
i think led up to the problem in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned this thread is done. Pnoon and Mod's you can
lock it if you see fit to do so.

And Paul thank you for responding.... Even if you did chose a "colorful"
way to do so!

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by whodeeni

Update,

When I initially posted this, I didn't know that i already had a response
from Paul (President of Atlantic). I guess they took heed to my warning
and one of his employee's started posting the contents of his personal
email to me on all of the boards.

That prompted me to check my email, and I wrote him back, accepted
his offer to reship the cigars sans extra shipping, and also told him what
i think led up to the problem in the first place.

As far as I'm concerned this thread is done. Pnoon and Mod's you can
lock it if you see fit to do so.

And Paul thank you for responding.... Even if you did chose a "colorful"
way to do so!

I can close it if that is your wish. It doesn't matter to me/us.

[pnoon]

Originally Posted by pnoon

I can close it if that is your wish. It doesn't matter to me/us.

D'OH!

Looks like this was closed earlier today. Make my post a moot point.

[DropTheE]

I know that Customer Service is very important and a person feels that if they buy something, that it should be perfect and flawless from the moment that you hit submit order. Most times, the companies will make it right. Did you get the name of the person that treated you rude. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake, it happens. Even if you are a lifelong customer, it just happens sometimes. If you were treated bad, then take the next step and contact management and let them know who you were dealing with so that they can be held accountable if that is the case. I have had online places mess up my order and hold my shipment for almost a month before. I was very upset, didn't want to do business with them, and I didn't until that they made it right, and that my order had been shipped. At that point, I placed another order and everything was great, got the order, shipped quick, great product, just as before the mistake had happened. I could move on and then lose money paying more for what I could get at the discount places. And the place I move onto, well they could mess up too. Everyone gets upset with things like this happen but I got over it and I have got great service from them again.
Don't miss out on the great savings, work to correct your complaint with the management of the company, then light a cigar, relax and enjoy your hobby!