Cigar L.
Doesn't really work :-/
PLEASE NOTE: Contrary to the company's claim, I am not a direct competitor! I am not engaged in the business of selling cigars. My review is based solely on my first-hand experience as a consumer who tried this service in good faith, and found it lacking. The basic premise of the service (that they are picking cigars for me based on my taste preferences) does not seem to work. Their method is simplified to the point that their choices for me are hit & miss at best. This company seems to believe it is viable to infer preferences in cigars based on preferences in food and drinks. I thought it was an interesting premise so gave it a try. But as stated above, it just does not work. They don't allow me any means of stating very basic preferences, like I don't like Gordos (55+ gauge) or very strong cigars. Net-net, I have enjoyed less than 50% of the cigars they have shipped to me, so I cancelled my membership. I also experienced fairly shoddy customer service. At one point during the year, my CC had expired, and they just stopped shipping me cigars. No email, no phone call, no indication of why they stopped - cigars just stopped arriving. When I realized it had been many months since I got a shipment, I contacted them and learned why. Can you imagine Amazon treating customers this way? When I asked why they didn't let me know there was a payment problem, the answer was "we take great pride in writing all our software ourselves, but unfortunately that means it doesn't always work very well." Really? Do these guys really think we consumers care how their website was created? I dunno about anyone else, but I care a lot more about a good overall buying & smoking experience than about how the bits are generated :-/
Response from CigarClubJan 17, 2019
Our website has a quiz that identifies certain preferences and makes cigar recommendations for a monthly subscription fee. It appears that your website has a quiz that identifies certain preferences that makes cigar recommendations for a monthly subscription fee. However, if you feel your review is based solely as a customer of our services, we will go on the honor system and assume that your review has no bias. We are sorry that it did not work as you had hoped. Most of our members are not as well versed as you appear to be in their desire for ring gauge, blends, brands or tobacco strengths. Thus the desire to have cigars matched based upon food and beverage preferences. We use a 12 point system based upon the various olfactory and gustatory markers found in foods and beverages that are similar to tobacco. It has worked quite well for a wide variety of customers from the novice to the aficionado, but with any service, it may not work for everyone. The initial cigar selection is based solely upon the algorithm results, but as the member uses the dashboard to review their selections, we add that information into the selections process to make sure that we do not send cigars that do not fit the profile. Did you by any chance add your likes and dislikes in the reviews of your dashboard? We do guarantee that we will find a blend that you enjoy or you money back. All of our selections are the best-selling, most popular sizes of each brand and the match is based upon the flavor profile of that size. We will take ring guage into consideration if you let us know a preference, but if you do not, we continue to send the popular size of that blend that may range from the 40's up to the 60's. Most fall within the 50's. As you know. Toro and Robusto outsell all other sizes combined and are usually at the best price points at the brick and mortar retailers. As for the statement about the mistake with letting your Club lapse because your credit card changed and there was a glitch in our system...what can we say. We are not Amazon, we let you see behind the curtain so to speak and told you the truth about why it happened. We want to thank you for that -- because of you we were able to identify the glitch and get it fixed so that it doesn't happen to other customers. We love a challenge and we want to show you our system works --so if you are game we can take another shot at getting it right for you. If not, we understand. We hope that you will continue to enjoy fine cigars and support your local brick and mortar retailers.