an old pokerchips.com post

ledavatar · #1 02-15-2005, 10:19 PM

I read a thread either here or on TH-P.com with someone receiving bad chips from pokerchips.com with detailed pics, showing that some chips even had hairs embedded in them. I searched and searched and couldn't find the thread again. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I've been thinking seriously about an order of ASM chips, so I want to do my research.

AZnuts · #2 02-15-2005, 11:08 PM

I can't think of the thread you mention, and I don't want to hijack your thread, but you'd probably like to be forewarned - I have an order in place with Pokerchips.com right now, and am very, very close to canceling it until they get their house in order.

I placed the order on Dec. 30th, sent my artwork concept (95% complete) that just needed to be created in the native graphics form that they need (Illustrator); and it's still not ready to go. The chips themselves will take about 15 weeks AFTER art is approved.

I have learned that their graphics department is very thin recently from a personnel standpoint. The owner of my order apparently isn't normally a full time graphics designer, and has something like 80 jobs backed up.

The only way to get a response is to harass them on the phone, but then things just get done half-assed. I'm not real pleased.

So, if you're doing a custom inlay it would be best to have artwork 100% done and just send it to them to properly set up. And, don't wait to hear from them, call until you get to talk to someone.

I may just wait; who knows maybe Paulson will be doing small custom jobs someday?

joelber · #3 02-15-2005, 11:37 PM

That was me. Here is the link you were looking for:
Pokerchips.com Quality

Come to think of it, I never followed up on that post so here's the rest of the story. I decided to send back the chips for them to inspect and redo. I was told when I called to authorize the return that they would be inspected as soon as they arrived and we would be contacted. A week after the package arrived back at PC.com, I hadn't heard anything so I called again. They were clueless regarding the status since they are in Canada and the chips were sent back to Maine where they are manufactured. I asked who I could contact in Maine to get a status. They were hesitant to give that information out but I finally got it and called there. The person I spoke to was the general manager of the operation who all of the CS people in Canada report to. He said they were reinspected and 420/500 were flawed (80 white were OK). He said they were being redone and I'd have them in a week or so.

I did receive them in the time specified but I did notice a few things:

1) Flecks of other colors still exist
2) No spares - not that they owe me any, but it seems people usually get plenty
3) My reds were remade with the wrong red. I actually ended up liking this color better so not a big deal.
4) If you look close enough, you can see some "ridges" where the mold did not break cleanly on many of the chips.

I decided to keep them and move on since I only really notice these things when I'm staring at them. In actual play, they feel and sound great.

If I were to do it all over again, I probably would think twice about dealing with PC.com. It seems that at one time they had a great product, but due to the poker explosion they have outgrown themselves. This has caused their quality, customer service, and delivery times to suffer.

--Joel

ledavatar · #4 02-16-2005, 12:08 AM

Thanks - that was the thread... Yea what a nightmare. The biggest gripe is the wait time with pokerchips.com. I don't think I can wait that long. I've looked everywhere and gotten pretty much sampled all the chips, and I like T.R.King the best, Chipco a close second. In the end, I would have to go with clay. Maybe T.R.King is the better choice. I've ordered lots of samples of the Teddy KGB and the Custom Kings Crown chips from T.R.King, so I'll see how that stacks up.

Thanks again, I never even would have known about the wait times if it weren't for these forums.

Kripke · #5 02-16-2005, 12:18 AM

Wow, this is horrible news, I just ordered from them a week ago, and was getting annoyed that I haven't heard from the graphics department yet. E-mailed them twice and got an answer today, that they were working on it.

Waiting 1 1/2 month is really unacceptable, so I definitely hope they improve their customer-service this time round!

Has anyone else had these experiences, is this a common thing with PC.com? Someone please reasure me, that this is merely a one time incident! [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

Can anyone tell me what other options (sites) I have, if I want a set of custom clay chips with my own designed inlay?
- Kripke

ericslagle · #6 02-16-2005, 03:36 AM

I placed an order with PC.com and it took a long time. The only thing that really pissed me off was that they kept extending the wait time. It's one thing to tell me it will take 18 weeks (or so, I don't remember exactly how long it took) after telling me 16, 14, 12, and 10 weeks. That's what really annoyed me. But the chips are good. Mine have that hair issue, but I think it looks kind of cool.