CigarBid

[dave]

They attempted a major IT upgrade that went south quickly. This was immensely exasperated by the fact that a good percentage of their customer service staff was out at the time.

IMO, cbid has been successful because of their customer service and despite their inventory validity, packing, shipping, etc. When things go wrong and they don't have their CS staff to buffer...well, there's nothing much positive that can result.

I've been in the supply and warehousing business for a very long time and I know how difficult it will be for them to recover since they didn't seem to pause or even limit new orders. They handled this poorly every which way and they deserve to lose your business...but they will no doubt recover and be thriving within a couple months.

[RUNYYFan]

Originally Posted by dave

They attempted a major IT upgrade that went south quickly. This was immensely exasperated by the fact that a good percentage of their customer service staff was out at the time.

IMO, cbid has been successful because of their customer service and despite their inventory validity, packing, shipping, etc. When things go wrong and they don't have their CS staff to buffer...well, there's nothing much positive that can result.

I've been in the supply and warehousing business for a very long time and I know how difficult it will be for them to recover since they didn't seem to pause or even limit new orders. They handled this poorly every which way and they deserve to lose your business...but they will no doubt recover and be thriving within a couple months.

I agree. I have dealt with this type of upgrade process on the IT side within a variety of systems. One of the most critical processes is the load testing before it goes live. The way this was done, it seems like they did a live swap out without checking to make sure anything worked. Or they may have just had a cluster**** of a rollout.

Anyway, I'm even more ticked off now because my credit card company just informed me I was billed twice from them for the exact same amount. The card company actually caught it because the charges both hit on Monday, but were pre-dated back to 2/18 and 3/3 which the card staff thought was sketchy. So now there is a dispute on both charges.

It might just be easier to build my own humidor after this.

[jjirons69]

That sucks.

[RUNYYFan]

Okay. This is my, hopefully, last comment on this matter.

Over the last three days, I received another UPS notification that a shipping label had been created for my address. I laughed.

But, this evening I get home just in time to see a UPS truck pulling up to my front door. I'm thinking, "Nah! It couldn't be!"

The driver steps out of the truck with this rather large box. He sees me and says, "Guess what finally made it through to you."

My response: "Oh! My first month's winnings from the PowerBall?" We both have a good laugh.

He then tells me, "I can't believe they finally got this right either. But here's your humidor."

I'm left shaking my head too. So far, this looks gorgeous!





Being a good gentleman, I have also notified CigarBid in the following manner:

- - - - - - - - - -> EMAIL < - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Sir or Madam,

As frustrated as I have been the past 24 days, I can honestly
state I am pleased and amazed that the unit arrived this
evening. Thank you for continuing to work on this! I now
have the item in my hands.

I have not had an opportunity to open the box as of yet. As
such I will let you know if there are any issue or problems
with the actual humidor. For now, however, I will give credit
where it is due and thank you for this effort to resolve the
matter.

Again, thank you!

I am revising my approach to my frustration of this matter.
Going forward, I will explain all that has happened, including
this resolution and current standing. Thank you again!

Sincerely,
Marc

- - - - - - - - - -> EMAIL < - - - - - - - - - -

Now to season it in preparation for storing the 80 sticks sitting in my two tailgate-a-dors and the other 100 in about 15 different Tupper-dors around the home.

[mahtofire14]

Glad it finally got there. I haven't ever had issues with them but know others who have and they always seem to fix the problem or make things right. Sucks you had to wait but glad it got there. Beautiful humi btw.

[Steve]

Um...only issue I see is that a brother actually posted a picture of an EMPTY humidor...rookie mistake

Congrats on finally getting it though!

[Porch Dweller]

[RUNYYFan]

Originally Posted by Steve

Um...only issue I see is that a brother actually posted a picture of an EMPTY humidor...rookie mistake

Congrats on finally getting it though!

Originally Posted by Porch Dweller

True. Though I did post my latest purchases on page 54 of the "Show your latest NC purchase IV" thread.

[oldforge]

fwiw I had a CI small and simple order from 2/23 that still hasn't shipped.
I am letting it stay in limbo because from what I hear if you try to cancel the order the software starts spewing out random commands.

My advice would be to stay away from CI, Cbid, Cigar.com, Pipes and cigars (all common ownership and warehouse--presumably all affected by the software "upgrade") until the green light is given. My order arriving at my door would probably be a positive indicator. :-)

Originally Posted by dave

They attempted a major IT upgrade that went south quickly. This was immensely exasperated by the fact that a good percentage of their customer service staff was out at the time.

IMO, cbid has been successful because of their customer service and despite their inventory validity, packing, shipping, etc. When things go wrong and they don't have their CS staff to buffer...well, there's nothing much positive that can result.

I've been in the supply and warehousing business for a very long time and I know how difficult it will be for them to recover since they didn't seem to pause or even limit new orders. They handled this poorly every which way and they deserve to lose your business...but they will no doubt recover and be thriving within a couple months.

[dave]

I've got an order from mid-Feb that remains 'stuck'. I did get a couple small orders from auctions that closed earlier this month, however. It appears that they're able to get out new orders, but still have a backlog from the 'crash'.

[RUNYYFan]

It is amazing some of the stuff that happens with some purveyors.

I thought this saga had ended. Silly me.

So last week, I placed a bid on the Devil Site and won. ($66 for a Cigar Oasis Excel) I paid for the item aaaannnnddddd.... I receive this email on Wednesday telling me that I have not paid for the humidor:

"You recently placed an order with us. This was after a chargeback
was initiated on order XXXXXXXXXX dated 2.20.17. I don't know
the particulars of that issue but I do know that until a successful
resolution is reached we're not able to ship product to you. This
includes our sister companies Cigars International and Cigar.com."

Over the last couple of days, I have gone through my CC statements from 2017, found when I paid for the humidor (March) and provided CigarBid with the information. Still they refuse to recognize the payment and now want me to pay a second time for the humidor to "satisfy their records." I've told them I refuse to pay twice for a product. So they are refusing my bid and I am now taking my business elsewhere.

The weird aspect is that I have purchased from both CI and CigarBid in the past year since the kerfuffle, but have not been contacted by them about the humidor. But now this is coming up.

I'm just curious if anyone else has had issues with either of them recently.

[Porch Dweller]

I haven't had any problems.

[RUNYYFan]

So I can finally close this out and I am a happy camper once more.

When they originally applied the charges back in '17, they placed two charges on my credit card - all for the same amount. Citi knew something was up and blocked them all then contacted me. I agreed to only the first charge and paid that one. But when CI finally shipped the humidor, they applied another charge which Citi blocked again. No further action was taken by CI and Citi mistakenly thought the approved charge was also wrong, so Citi blocked that charge as well.

But between June '17 and now, the CI Accounting Department did nothing about it in terms of contacting me about the matter.

In any case, it has now all been resolved. I have my humidor, my cigars, and Cigar Oasis Excel.

Now on to smoking this morning.

[Flounder]

Just won a box of 15 Graycliff 15 year Vintage presidentes, 10 MUWAT, and 10 MUWAT Kentucky Fire Cured for about $115 total...

[Porch Dweller]

Nice score!