• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

Nice Sampler for $55.00

It's a shame, too . . . before that flapdoodle, they were easily the classiest online vendor I'd ever dealt with. Top notch service, beautifully packaged goods, the whole nine yards.

Reputations it takes years to build, one asstarded manuever can punch a gaping whole clean through overnight. Idiots.

~Boar
 
The words of a public figure (who shall not be named :whistling:) seem apropos to the Holt's debacle ...

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
 
Doc Wylie said:
The words of a public figure (who shall not be named :whistling:) seem apropos to the Holt's debacle ...

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Click to expand...
ROTFLMAO!

Yep, there ain't too many orator's like Winston Churchill's around these days. :laugh:

Brian
 
Infinity said:
Doc Wylie said:
The words of a public figure (who shall not be named :whistling:) seem apropos to the Holt's debacle ...

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Click to expand...
ROTFLMAO!

Yep, there ain't too many orator's like Winston Churchill's around these days. :laugh:

Brian
Click to expand...
Oh, Churchill, huh...I thought he was quoting Pete Townsend :laugh:
 
ironpeddler said:
Infinity said:
Doc Wylie said:
The words of a public figure (who shall not be named :whistling:) seem apropos to the Holt's debacle ...

"Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."
Click to expand...
ROTFLMAO!

Yep, there ain't too many orator's like Winston Churchill's around these days. :laugh:

Brian
Click to expand...
Oh, Churchill, huh...I thought he was quoting Pete Townsend :laugh:
Click to expand...

Actually, it was Bozo the Clown. :whistling:
 
At the risk of being banished to the bad part of the island, I'd like to offer my perspective of the whole Holt's fiasco. I'm not going to make excuses, but personally I think they are a long way from the "scumbag" and "do not buy" category.

When a company gets the size of Holt's, it becomes virtually impossible to oversee every aspect of the operation, in detail, all the time. It certainly doesn't release them from the responsibility of the operation, but unfortunately it is how it often is. Catalogs and catalog copy are one thing that is often "outsourced" or run virtually out of shop. A vendor provides a list of sales or close outs, and an external contractor specializing in catalogs writes the copy, takes the photos, does the layout, and then presents the finished work for approval. You'd be surprised at the number of corporate catalogs that are done in just this way. It's a truly cost effective way to produce good looking catalogs.

As I said, in no way does that remove responsibility from the content by Holt's management. However, I can easily see how a less than senior person had copy approval of the catalog, which I'm sure to them meant "make sure the prices are right and match the photos". The copy concerning Padilla was genuinely unfortunate, but I have to believe that whoever approved it wasn't thinking about how it would read to the majority of Holt's customers, who are frankly probably older and more discerning than the person who approved the copy. I also believe that the copy did not reflect the real feelings and opinions of Holt's senior management, or they would not have issued an apology as sincere and genuinely contrite as the one they did issue.

I haven't bought a ton of stuff from Holt's, but every time I have I've been helped by friendly, knowledgeable, polite folks that were nice to do business with. When there was a mistake in an order I'd made, they quickly and painlessly made it right at no cost to me. They have been around a long time, and I'm sure have grown beyond anything they could have imagined. In my eyes, a bad oversight was made. However I do think it was a mistake which didn't reflect the real feelings of management, and they offered a sincere apology. That's reasonable to me.

One guy's opinion - B.B.S.
 
BlindedByScience said:
Catalogs and catalog copy are one thing that is often "outsourced" or run virtually out of shop. A vendor provides a list of sales or close outs, and an external contractor specializing in catalogs writes the copy, takes the photos, does the layout, and then presents the finished work for approval. You'd be surprised at the number of corporate catalogs that are done in just this way. It's a truly cost effective way to produce good looking catalogs.
Click to expand...


While you are probably right, in order for this outsourced company to be able to write what they did about Ernesto, they would have had to have been told about the change-over. And why would they have been told of the change if not to highlight it in the ad?
 
BlindedByScience said:
At the risk of being banished to the bad part of the island, I'd like to offer my perspective of the whole Holt's fiasco. I'm not going to make excuses, but personally I think they are a long way from the "scumbag" and "do not buy" category.

When a company gets the size of Holt's, it becomes virtually impossible to oversee every aspect of the operation, in detail, all the time. It certainly doesn't release them from the responsibility of the operation, but unfortunately it is how it often is. Catalogs and catalog copy are one thing that is often "outsourced" or run virtually out of shop. A vendor provides a list of sales or close outs, and an external contractor specializing in catalogs writes the copy, takes the photos, does the layout, and then presents the finished work for approval. You'd be surprised at the number of corporate catalogs that are done in just this way. It's a truly cost effective way to produce good looking catalogs.

As I said, in no way does that remove responsibility from the content by Holt's management. However, I can easily see how a less than senior person had copy approval of the catalog, which I'm sure to them meant "make sure the prices are right and match the photos". The copy concerning Padilla was genuinely unfortunate, but I have to believe that whoever approved it wasn't thinking about how it would read to the majority of Holt's customers, who are frankly probably older and more discerning than the person who approved the copy. I also believe that the copy did not reflect the real feelings and opinions of Holt's senior management, or they would not have issued an apology as sincere and genuinely contrite as the one they did issue.

I haven't bought a ton of stuff from Holt's, but every time I have I've been helped by friendly, knowledgeable, polite folks that were nice to do business with. When there was a mistake in an order I'd made, they quickly and painlessly made it right at no cost to me. They have been around a long time, and I'm sure have grown beyond anything they could have imagined. In my eyes, a bad oversight was made. However I do think it was a mistake which didn't reflect the real feelings of management, and they offered a sincere apology. That's reasonable to me.

One guy's opinion - B.B.S.
Click to expand...

We all make our own decisions. You seem to have applied a well thought out and reasoned approach to the situation.

I will not personally buy from Holt's, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone that does so. It would be quite different if they were gouging or ripping people off. I'm afraid at that point all bets would be off as I'm sure it would be for most of us (I hope, anyway).
 
LilBastage said:
I will not personally buy from Holt's, but I certainly don't begrudge anyone that does so. It would be quite different if they were gouging or ripping people off. I'm afraid at that point all bets would be off as I'm sure it would be for most of us (I hope, anyway).
Click to expand...
On that, Alan, we agree 110%. And, to be clear, I haven't bought anything from them in a year or so. But, if they had something I wanted at a good price, I might. Like I said, a different view for consideration.

Truth is, with the quality of smaller B&M's who are members of these pages and the way they take care of us, I haven't looked any further for a cigar purchase in quite some time.

Regards - B.B.S.
 
Everyone should make their own informed buying decisions. This applies to more than cigars.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top