The House of StauntonReviews of houseofstaunton.com

I have purchased several chess sets and travel boards from House of Staunton. Your web site is easy to navigate and use, your products are just I was looking for.

I have bought a nice wooden chess set and a chess table as well. Thank you for the high-quality merchandise 🙏🙏🙏. Not sure exactly when I got these.

Would be a beautiful chess set, but unfortunately it seems that the finish was very poorly applied. In a room with no direct sunlight the board's finish darkened extremely quickly and left permanent spots on the board. No help from customer service other than to say the board is ruined. For such an expensive set and board, the quality control, construction, and finishing should be much better. Not worth the price.

I recently placed an order for a special Valentine set that was missing the vinyl roll up board. Within a couple of hours I received a super nice response, an apology, and reassurance they would send out the missing board as soon as possible. This is how customer service should be! I couldn’t be more pleased. 😀 Thank you.

I bought two identical chess sets from House of Staunton. Within two months, the rosewood pieces darkened so badly they became indistinguishable from the ebony pieces, making gameplay impossible. Customer service openly admitted this wood darkening is a known defect. Despite acknowledging the flaw, they refused to refund or exchange the set because I was slightly past their strict 30-day window. Worse, the second identical set is completely unopened and unused in its box. I asked if I could at least return the brand-new, sealed set for store credit to buy a better set from them, and they flatly refused that as well. A premium brand shouldn't sell defective goods, admit to the flaw, and hide behind a calendar deadline to deny store credit on an unopened item. Avoid this company.

★★★☆☆ — Quality Product, Disappointing Customer Service Resolution I have been a long-time admirer of House of Staunton and recently invested approximately $1,000 in a chess set, board, and box from them. The pieces and box are beautiful and reflect the craftsmanship the company is rightly known for. Unfortunately, my chessboard arrived with two visually obvious irregularities on squares D3 and D5 — inconsistencies that stood out clearly against the surrounding squares and were not consistent with natural woodgrain variation across the rest of the board. I photographed both squares and reached out to their customer service team. The initial response dismissed my concern as natural woodgrain variation. I followed up respectfully, noting that at this price point — where House of Staunton positions itself as the premier chess equipment provider — customers have a reasonable expectation of elevated quality control. Two concentrated, visually distracting irregularities on specific squares is a different matter from the general grain character one expects and welcomes in a wood product. To their credit, the company escalated my concern to management and physically pulled boards for inspection. I appreciate that they took the extra step. However, the final resolution offered was a return for a full refund with the restocking fee waived — and nothing further. For a company at this tier, I would have hoped for options such as a replacement board, an upgrade at a discount, or another goodwill gesture that acknowledged the inconvenience to a customer who had just spent $1,000. A refund, while technically fair, places the burden entirely on the customer. I want to be clear: I believe House of Staunton makes exceptional chess equipment and has earned its sterling reputation over many years. This review is not intended to discourage anyone from purchasing from them. It is simply an honest account of one customer’s experience, offered in the hope that it is useful to others and perhaps encourages the company to reconsider how they handle edge-case quality issues for premium-tier customers.

Le problème est lié à la livraison en Europe. Je vis en France, et lors du passage de la commande il n'était précisé nul part qu'il aurait des taxes de douanes encore plus élevées que les frais de port !!! 32€ de frais de port annoncé, auxquels s'ajoutent 36€ de taxes non prévues car ce n'est écrit nul part lors de la commande...

These guys have the worst policies. Doesn't let you cancel an order that hasn't been processed or sent. Expects you to pay for return on an order they haven't even sent yet AND you have to pay for a 25% restock fee for their incompetent service and disastrous policies. Imagine not letting you cancel an order before they’ve processed or sent it. I have receipt in my shop app that shows it hasn’t. They are sharks and don't care about their customers and just want to take your money. Stay clear. I took my business to Royal Chess Mall instead. Wish I had came across them first. For the House of Staunton, take note and learn from your competitors. Yikes.