Inspecting a box of cigars

[Isaac]

So I was thinking about a scenario that I ran across.  When i was in the LCDH in Cancun, one of the boxes of cigars that I was interested had the seals broken.  Since they were broken, I opened the box to take a look at the cigars.  Now the salesman that was helping me said that I wasnt allowed to do that, but when i showed him that three of the cigars were cracked he quickly changed his tune.  He stated "its a good thing you opened that up".  So I immediately asked him to open up another box.  The box was to my satisfaction, and I purchased them.  

Assuming that LCDH stores will not allow you to open a box, how do you assure you are getting a quality product?  On the flip side, if youre opening boxes upon boxes, arent they going to have people question why the seals are not intact?  

 

I was interested in getting someone opinions on the matter.  

[NSXCIGAR]

This is highly suspicious. Inspecting a box should never be an issue and I would never purchase a box sealed in person. If the vendor refuses to open it as far as I'm concerned it's not for sale nor am I buying it. I'm not sure if the employee simply meant he had to open it and not you which is fine. It just needs to be opened by someone for my inspection. 

As far as broken seals, this is never really an issue in the CC world. In fact all vendors would do well to open and inspect all their boxes upon receipt. Broken seals is the industry norm unless you're purchasing from a vendor who fully discloses that they ship sealed boxes which for certain cigars I don't necessarily have a problem with. But if I'm buying a box in person it's going to be inspected by me and the vendor should expect the customer to request that. Anything less and I would absolutely not purchase anything there.

I'm surprised as I know the proprietor of LCDH Cancun personally and he's a very professional and upstanding vendor. I would chalk this up to the employee misunderstanding how cigars are sold. I know this is never a problem at LCDH Tijuana which he also runs, so I would assume this employee simply was confused.

 

[Isaac]

1 minute ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I'm surprised as I know the proprietor of LCDH Cancun personally and he's a very professional and upstanding vendor. I would chalk this up to the employee misunderstanding how cigars are sold. I know this is never a problem at LCDH Tijuana which he also runs, so I would assume this employee simply was confused.

 

 

Well the employee stated that the manager/owner usually opens the boxes.  The thing that was confusing to me is that all the seals on the box were already cut, so i merely opened the lid and took a look.  When the box looked like crap, I felt odd opening the seals on the next box.  I had him cut all the stickers on the box and he opened it, but I told him I did want to view the cigars before I purchased them.  

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Isaac said:

 

Well the employee stated that the manager/owner usually opens the boxes.  The thing that was confusing to me is that all the seals on the box were already cut, so i merely opened the lid and took a look.  When the box looked like crap, I felt odd opening the seals on the next box.  I had him cut all the stickers on the box and he opened it, but I told him I did want to view the cigars before I purchased them.  

Sounds to me like the employee was confused about procedure or how David (the owner) deals with this. Possibly a new employee and/or hasn't been told or hasn't seen anyone but David cut the seals so perhaps he wasn't sure if he was allowed to do that. If you don't know the CC industry well (and many LCDH employees may not) cutting seals might seem like something overly invasive when in fact it is not at all. 

[BrightonCorgi]

To take this further, no vendor should put an uninspected box in their walk-in for sale.  Every box should have a cursory look at a minimum with dud boxes being returned to the distributor (just like every other product).

I can see the employees intent for boxes to be open under their eye, but buyer and seller should feel good about the transaction...  LCDH is a fancy brand and the buying experience is quite important to the whole franchise.

[PigFish]

I vote for test smoking!

-Piggy

[Eric05]

I do feel unless your purchasing from a reliable source to always check the cigars. It might not even be a case of being real or not. But damage to the wrapper, beetles. Personally when I do purchase Cubans, i make my source check to make sure i am getting a great box. Now to the seals. I know even when in cuba a lot of the seals are cut already. I'm not too why but I have watched videos on this.

[SCgarman]

1 hour ago, Eric05 said:

I do feel unless your purchasing from a reliable source to always check the cigars. It might not even be a case of being real or not. But damage to the wrapper, beetles. Personally when I do purchase Cubans, i make my source check to make sure i am getting a great box. Now to the seals. I know even when in cuba a lot of the seals are cut already. I'm not too why but I have watched videos on this.

A La Casa del Habano is about as reliable a source as it gets. The are the official retail stores for Habanos. They are a brick & mortar store, not online order vendor.

[Fugu]

Seals are there to be broken.

[retrofail]

7 minutes ago, Fugu said:

Seals are there to be broken.

PETA would disagree...?

[Fugu]

Mate, this discussion I will leave up to Ken....

[PapaDisco]

I've yet to run into a shop that prohibits inspection.

However, there is a dark side to the practice . . .   . . . Years ago, I was inspecting several boxes of Punch Punch tubos in the HKG Duty Free, and kept finding cracked feet here and there.  The sales lady nonchalantly assembled a complete box of the good ones for me.   Gawd only knows what box codes, years even, went into that collection and how messed up the remaining boxes were.

[Isaac]

37 minutes ago, PapaDisco said:

I've yet to run into a shop that prohibits inspection.

However, there is a dark side to the practice . . .   . . . Years ago, I was inspecting several boxes of Punch Punch tubos in the HKG Duty Free, and kept finding cracked feet here and there.  The sales lady nonchalantly assembled a complete box of the good ones for me.   Gawd only knows what box codes, years even, went into that collection and how messed up the remaining boxes were.

That is what i was afraid of more or less having tons of boxes with broken seals.  I am assuming the proprietor wants to recoup money, and will start pulling the best from boxes to make a purchasable box.  

[PapaDisco]

Correct.  You will of course get a great box of mixed lineage, so as long as you're not a box code whore you'll be able to enjoy them.

 

[Winchester21]

A pilot friend of mine and I ran into this issue at a duty free store in Rome. he picked up a box of Monte 3s and I think that thrre was some kind of sticker stating that the box had been inspected. Long story short he was pressed for time and boughtbthe box without actually inspecting the box himself. Of course the box turned out to be pure crap. Lesson learned Never under any circumstances buy a box that you have not personally inspected

[NSXCIGAR]

19 hours ago, Hutch said:

I guess David has sold the business.

Hmm...I just saw him last week and he didn't mention anything. I'll find out on Thursday.

[NSXCIGAR]

17 hours ago, Hutch said:

It was a joke, in response to your comment about knowing the owner and stating that he was very professional and upstanding. I just forgot the smiley

I first met David at the Grand Opening of his TJ LCDH in July of ‘03. The shop wasn’t new, but he’d just been granted the LCDH “franchise”. I still have some of the cigars that Rudy Taboada was rolling in the front of the store...pic below of me watching him roll. David was riding a very fast red bike at the time...Ducati 900 maybe ? His #1 was a VERY hospitable fellow named Moises, who was still there when I was back in ‘04. Please give David my regards. 

Ah, yes, David's always on the move and employee training can certainly fall through the cracks. 

Yes, I remember Taboada rolling back in those days and I remember David riding the bikes. Moises is still there but getting grouchier with age. 

As he's only in TJ for a week once every month or two I'm not sure if I'll catch him tomorrow but I'll pass along the regards if I do.