DGT board arrives -- serious disappointment

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sje
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DGT board arrives -- serious disappointment

Post by sje »

The DGT board I ordered early last week arrived late this afternoon. It was just a few minutes ago that I had time to open the box and inspect the contents.

The FedEx delivery was fine, although a little slow. Both the outer shipping box (well sealed) and the inner DGT box (unsealed) were in very good shape.

Unfortunately, that's where the joy ended.

The white (boxwood) pieces do not match the black (rosewood) pieces. It looks like one side came from the DGT Royal set while the other came from the DGT Timeless set. The black knights, bishops, and kings are quite noticeably taller than their white counterparts. They're styled differently, too. If anyone has doubts, I'll post some photographs.

Oh, and a black pawn and a black rook were missing.

Seeing all of the above, I didn't bother opening the software or removing the board from its plastic envelope.

I'll have to contact http://www.chesshouse.com Monday. But I don't know if I should ask for a new set of pieces or just send the whole thing back for a refund.
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Post by SirDave »

Sorry to hear about that- a real bummer!

But, I've dealt with The Chesshouse quite a bit and they've always been fair & accommodating. I'm sure they'll make it right so I wouldn't return it.
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Post by sje »

SirDave wrote:But, I've dealt with The Chesshouse quite a bit and they've always been fair & accommodating. I'm sure they'll make it right so I wouldn't return it.
Gosh, I hope you're right.

My first thought is to send back all of the pieces, white and black, and give Chess House a chance to reply with a matched and complete replacement set. But there's a problem here in that their web site says that they're out of stock on the DGT Royal piece set. So there's an indefinite wait with that option. Since they will have to get more from DGT in Europe, it will be at least several weeks before I have a complete product.

Another option would be to have them substitute a different, in-stock DGT piece set. But I don't care much for the other styles, except the ebony set might be okay although it would cost me an extra US$150 or so.

I'm really tempted to send everything back for a full refund. Indeed, I would do this immediately to reward them for their lack of quality control, if it weren't for the amount of time I've spent on research to write my own drivers. Plus there's time and money I've spent on buying a Windows notebook for the sole purpose of using a DGT board.

I sent them an e-mail using their web site ticket system. If I don't get a satisfactory reply by Tuesday, I'll just send the whole thing all back and so remove the possibility of any further loss of time and effort on my part.
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Post by Mike Watters »

sje wrote: Gosh, I hope you're right.

My first thought is to send back all of the pieces, white and black, and give Chess House a chance to reply with a matched and complete replacement set. But there's a problem here in that their web site says that they're out of stock on the DGT Royal piece set. So there's an indefinite wait with that option. Since they will have to get more from DGT in Europe, it will be at least several weeks before I have a complete product.

Another option would be to have them substitute a different, in-stock DGT piece set. But I don't care much for the other styles, except the ebony set might be okay although it would cost me an extra US$150 or so.

I'm really tempted to send everything back for a full refund. Indeed, I would do this immediately to reward them for their lack of quality control, if it weren't for the amount of time I've spent on research to write my own drivers. Plus there's time and money I've spent on buying a Windows notebook for the sole purpose of using a DGT board.

I sent them an e-mail using their web site ticket system. If I don't get a satisfactory reply by Tuesday, I'll just send the whole thing all back and so remove the possibility of any further loss of time and effort on my part.
You could just send the whole lot back for a refund and buy my 'new' USB board, Royal piece set and carry bag for £300 + shipping which will be with you inside a week.

http://www.chesscomputeruk.com/html/sal ... art_2.html
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Post by sje »

Mike Watters wrote:You could just send the whole lot back for a refund and buy my 'new' USB board, Royal piece set and carry bag for £300 + shipping which will be with you inside a week.
Thank you for the offer. I want to first give CH the opportunity to do the right thing. The order also included a copy of Fritz 13, although I can't open it until the other matters are resolved.
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Post by sje »

I heard from Chess House today and they're working on a solution.

Incidentally, the DGT pieces are not weighted. This was expected because of the apparent difficulty with integrating DGT piece electronics with traditional iron disk weights. So a bit more care is required when moving these chessmen, just as was the case in the Old Days with their unweighted ivory sets. Lead weighting might help if such wasn't banned by a multitude of regulations.
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Post by sje »

I've sent back the pieces I'd received, and Chess House is sending a replacement set. Stay tuned.
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Post by sje »

I should also mention that Chess House offered to pay for shipping back the returned pieces. Alas, that e-mail came five minutes after I'd already left to go to the post office.

------

I'm considering getting a second, ebony set for the DGT board. Chess House offers one for US$200 extra over the default DGT Timeless set when ordered with a board. So I'd guess that since the DGT Timeless set goes for US$225 separately, then the DGT Ebony set would cost US$425 by itself. I don't like its bishop much, but one can't have everything.

A comparable ebony set from Chess USA (but without DGT electronics) goes for US$230, so there's a (roughly) US$195 premium for adding DGT electronics. That seems high, but there is little competition.

Another idea is to get a DGT compatible set from the folks at BCE (Best Chessmen Ever). This is a custom order, and the approximate price for well-optioned set is over US$600 including shipping and insurance. The wood used is nice, but it's not ebony.

There is the possibility of buying a set of piece electronics from DGT and installing them in a non DGT set from a third party. DGT might not want to sell one of these as this could cut into their piece set revenues.
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Post by sje »

My replacement pieces arrived today. Yay! Details to follow.
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Details

Post by sje »

I've opened the shipment and have examined the pieces.

Both the white pieces and the black pieces are complete. That's good.

But there is still a problem. As with the first set, the black pieces do not match the white pieces in size.

Each white knight is 65 mm high. Each black knight is 74 mm high. That's a 14% difference.

Each white bishop is 72 mm high. Each black bishop is 78 mm high. That's an 8.3% difference.

Similar comments hold for the queens and kings. However, the rooks closely match across colors, as do the pawns.

I'm going to take some photographs to post.
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Post by sje »

I think that DGT had multiple production runs with their Royal set and pieces from two different runs got mixed. I don't blame Chess House for the mix-up; also, they are making a good faith effort to correct the problem.

I sent an e-mail to DGT to get their opinion.

I've about given up on getting the Royal set, so I'll try for one of the other styles. My second choice is the Ebony set although it costs an extra US$150 and I'm not fond of the bishop style used. But it is real ebony and that's always worth something. I'm a bit old fashioned would likely pay even more for ivory/ebony if the ivory were legal and humanely harvested.

Getting the Timeless set would earn a US$50 refund and it might be more likely to be consistent as it's the default and is used in many events. But I don't like its knights.

The Classic set has an decent style, but it's slightly compromised with "ebonized" pieces.

The far-out style of the Venus set is too unconventional for my limited consciousness as I have yet to start smoking medicinal marijuana for my neuropathic pain. :D
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Post by Steve B »

Unless you add money to your order My Guess is your responses from either Chess House or DGT will begin to grow cold form here-on-in

having a customer complain that some white pieces are 5-6cm shorter then some black pieces is not exactly a major screw up with the order
especially after you were sent a second set of pieces ,with the company undoubtedly bearing the shipping costs

personally I would have accepted the second set and began enjoying the DGT board instead of taking out my magnifying glass and looking for more things to complain about and then contacting the Chess House yet again and also complaining to DGT
But...maybe I am too easy

That's Just Me Regards
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Post by sje »

Oh, I'm sure that Chess House and DGT will work to resolve the situation. They want to be known for good customer service and not for defective products.

And defective it is. A 14% difference is height and a difference in style between a white/black pair of knights would never be accepted in any piece set retailing for US$280. I've been buying chess sets for over forty years and haven't ever seen such a variance in sets priced from low to high.

To better visualize the height difference, it is the same as saying that a person five foot five inches tall is just about the same height as someone six foot two inches tall.

As for shipping costs, the first set was missing a black rook and a black pawn, so I can't see how I'm responsible for shipping costs for replacements, particularly as I paid to ship back all the original pieces. I'll also pay to ship back the second set as soon as I get confirmation that they've received the first (delivery expected today).

No magnifying glass is needed to detect the white/black differences in height and style. I gave a pair of white/black knights to my dad just to hold and he could tell the difference even though he's blind.
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Post by Steve B »

sje wrote:
To better visualize the height difference, it is the same as saying that a person five foot five inches tall is just about the same height as someone six foot two inches tall.
no its not
a % comparison like that is inappropriate when you are talking about 5 cm
its an exaggeration of the difference
the difference is 5cm not 8 inches or 8 feet or 8 miles
I really hope you get what you want and enjoy the DGT
somehow though.. I think you will be very hard to please

Good Luck Regards
Steve
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Post by sje »

Steve B wrote:
sje wrote:To better visualize the height difference, it is the same as saying that a person five foot five inches tall is just about the same height as someone six foot two inches tall.
no its not
a % comparison like that is inappropriate when you are talking about 5 cm
its an exaggeration of the difference
the difference is 5cm not 8 inches or 8 feet or 8 miles
I really hope you get what you want and enjoy the DGT
somehow though.. I think you will be very hard to please
The absolute difference is irrelevant. It's the proportional difference which matters in this case as that's what affects the relative subtended angle.

Am I hard to please? Gosh, maybe I am. On the other hand, in all the years I've bought chess sets too numerous to count, I accepted without complaint every last one of them except for a single case where the base of one of the queens had a big, instantly noticeable crack. And I also paid for the return shipping on that while waiting for a replacement.
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