equipment warning

[markeemark]

Hi all

I just wanted to post a quick message regarding a supplier in the UK.

My friend has recently ordered for me a set of double convex yunzi stones and a not so expensive Go Board.

Well.......

The set come promptly my friend said however the supplier ZEN MINDED (UK) sent me a single convex set (cheaper!)with no explanation about having ran out etc and charged my friend the same cost as the more expensive set!

Now I don't believe there has been any explanation and my friend tells me that this supplier is not easy to get of via phone although they do have a sales email.

All in all very disappointing, It's my birthday soon as everyone clubbed together to get me a reasonably nice set of equipment, only to find that I have been overcharged for the wrong products.

I'm not holding my breathe that this will have a satisfactory conclusion and will ensure that I for one NEVER use them again!!

If I can get my money back does anyone know of a reputable place in the UK where I can get a decent board and some yunzi stones?

All the best Mark

[BobC]

I'm surprised at this. Amazon UK use Zen Minded and with nearly 600 reviews they scored 4.9/5 - i.e very good.

If you have the bill and the money has left your account then they can't contest it and they won't even try if it was bought on a credit card because of the CCA.

[markeemark]

I know Bob, that's why my friend went there, he's telling me that he will sort it out with them, I'll keep you posted.

Regards

Mark

It doesn't seem as easy as getting a nice chess set (where I would know where to get one0, unless it's just that I'm not very experienced with this game as yet.....

[Uberdude]

I bought some yunzi stones from Pentangle Puzzles. BGA members get a discount.

[markeemark]

Cheers Uber

I may well be going to them in the very near future!!

Where are you from?

regards

mark

[bakekoq]

btw, can u give me the links for the product?

[Uberdude]

Where are you from?

Leighton Buzzard originally, but lived in Cambridge for quite a few years now.

[markeemark]

Hi All

I have had some mixed results recently with more shopping!!

Pentangle Puzzles, superb service and very timely. Bought a magnetic board and a copy of positional judgement by Cho Chikun.

On the other hand....Spellenwinkel Het Paard, I ordered books from there on the 27th June 2012 and didn't receive any products or email etc, so on the 7th July I emailed them no response! I checked by bank statement and have been charged.

I ended up ringing them today (From the UK to Holland!) incurring the cost of the call, to speak to a woman who told me at first they had shipped it, secondly they didn't track the package (due to cost), thirdly that they may have got the address wrong and it may not have been sent.

I politely told her I was less than impressed in her response and the fact that as she was running a business, better customer relations (due to her tone) would not go amiss.

She countered by saying that she would resend them and that products usually got to the UK within 7 working days.

The crux for me was that I had ordered books a few days later online (Slate and Shell, by the way Laurie always provides a superb service, friendly and quick) and they arrived a 8 days later, I told her this as an example.

Needless to say that I think their service is poor, I acknowledge that errors occur and things may get lost however their customer service was abysmal. I wouldn't be ordering or recommending them in the future.

Where do people get good Go books from?

I was looking for Opening Theory Made Easy and Rae's Haengma book. To be honest I am still not confident that they will come!

[tchan001]

You should try ordering good go books from Kiseido.com before the end of July while their sales is still on. Free worldwide shipping and discount available during the sale.

[markeemark]

Thanks Tchan

Hopefully these books will arrive at some point, I haven't been playing long and am amassing a small library. I will have a look at the kiseido site and may make a few choice purchases!!

I really wanted to warn people of my experience of poor service so that others were aware of the difficulties some stockists have in completing orders

Thanks Mark

[gogameguru]

I'm going to self promote here because I think a lot of British Go players haven't yet realised that Go Game Guru also ships within the UK.

Currently we have stock in three locations, the UK, the US and Australia. Every single product in our current catalogue is available for local ground shipping in the UK, so you should be able to ship most books for a couple of quid. All orders go into the mail on the next business day (or earlier), so they arrive very quickly and we have a 100% money back guarantee.

Markeemark, please have a look, and if you decide to buy something please let other people know how it goes. We've only been doing this for about a year so people still tend to recommend the stores that have been around for much longer, but we try very hard to offer the best and fastest service and we store products in multiple locations to help people save money on shipping.

This is our store: http://gogameguru.com/go-game-shop/

I'm just about to roll out a big upgrade in preparation for our go equipment finally arriving within the next couple of months and I'll add some new books to the catalogue at the same time - so if you visit the site today and then notice it's completely changed in a few days time, don't be alarmed .

Tchan is probably the world expert on Go books. He's also one of Kiseido's biggest fans and he seems to promote them at every opportunity, regardless of context. Usually there's no problem with that, but in this case he knows (and given what you wrote above, should have told you) that if you buy from Kiseido and you live in Europe your order will actually be fulfilled by Het Paard.

[tchan001]

I will promote any go book supplier who offers a good discount and free worldwide shipping. Free worldwide shipping is a really big deal for me because I usually end up paying a huge percentage of the price of the book for shipping. If go game guru or other go book suppliers decides to offer a sales similar to Kiseido and I knew about it but it was unknown on L19, I'd be sure to tell everyone about it. Unfortunately, no other go book supplier has offered a similar promotion so as such it looks as if I only promote Kiseido in preference to other suppliers.

If you are in Europe and you order the books via Kiseido.com during the sales period, Het Paard is obligated to fulfill the order to you under the same terms: at a discount and with free shipping. Else you should complain to Kiseido for false advertisement.
viewtopic.php?p=104543#p104543

A good deal is a good deal and we lovers of go books would love to be surprised by more of them.

I'll also say that currently Yellow Mountain Imports has very good pricing for Hinoki Press books and they do offer free shipping for orders over USD125 if you live in the US, but it's not free WORLDWIDE shipping so it doesn't apply to me. However I have recently ordered the two newest Hinoki Press books from YMI as they seem to be the ones currently selling them at the best prices I can find:

The Best of Kido: The Ins and Outs of Life and Death
The Best of Kido: The Art of Positional Analysis

Compare the prices from the suppliers which I know carry these two books at the moment
YMI: http://www.ymimports.com/c-53-books-advanced.aspx
Goshop-keima/Schaak en go winkel Het Paard: http://www.goshop-keima.com/new-books-c-97.html

It's unfortunate that markeemark had a bad experience with Het Paard and would not like to order from them in the future, but ordering from Kiseido with fulfillment via Het Paard has a difference. You can complain to KISEIDO if you have problems with your order. And if you really want to be safe, you can choose to pay via Paypal.

[gogameguru]

No worries Tchan, when we finally get around to publishing the new books we've been working on we'll run an early bird sale for you . At the moment it's hard to do that because we're just distributing books from other publishers and the margins are small. Technically we're not supposed to discount Kiseido books for no reason either.

We'll soon put a small selection of books, like the Get Strong at Joseki set and a couple of others on sale because we want to temporarily free up some space before the new Go equipment arrives. We'll actually lose a little bit of money on that, but it's the best solution in the short term. I imagine you already have all the books in our store though .

[markeemark]

Hi all

Thanks for the responses,

I wouldn't go to Kiseido as it's been clarified that they deal via paard.

I'll check the gogameguru site out, but appear well stocked up for a while at least!!

Tchan's right in respect of the postage it can be a killer on the price. Clearly the best I have found so far is Slate and Shell in the USA.

I've gone from no emails to emails from both of them (separately!) to tell me that they were resending the books. I politely responded that I just wanted my books or a refund as I had discussed previously and told them very clearly I wouldn't recommend their services to either the Go or chess community (as I know a lot of people within chess as well).

Thanks all, I don't like complaining but service is important whether it turns out to be good or bad and needs addressing accordingly.

[markeemark]

David

Seen my next couple of potential purchases!!

I'll let you know when I am able to put an order in.

Regards

Mark