Fake Hoyo de Monterrey Epi 2 Cigar?

[Fugu]

There’s even more to it than what has been mentioned. See that you get your money back and stop buying from there. You may disclose your source (proven to sell fakes) once you get approval from @El Presidente

[benjamin831]

The vendor got back to me and no bueno. They said they should've been notified of the dissatisfaction within 7 days of receipt so I'm SOOL

[vladdraq]

28 minutes ago, benjamin831 said:

The vendor got back to me and no bueno. They said they should've been notified of the dissatisfaction within 7 days of receipt so I'm SOOL

yeah...how ironic is this? They sell you proven fakes and still "following" the rules. 

[Tstew75]

19 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

And/or @benjamin831, let us know if if this is even a trusted vendor. Coming up on a Google search doesn't mean this is a legit vendor. There is at least one vendor that is very prominent in a search that has been the most famous purveyors of fakes for about 20 years, still going strong. In fact a notorious faker comes up in the first four results for me.

If it's not a trusted vendor it's something of a false alarm, but it is still surprising how good the quality of the seal is. If you are able I'd like to see the UV seal.

It's not a trusted vendor, not much investigation is needed here.

Simple proof folks shouldn't EVER google 'Cuban Cigars' and expect what they'll get is legit

[NSXCIGAR]

2 hours ago, Tstew75 said:

It's not a trusted vendor, not much investigation is needed here.

Simple proof folks shouldn't EVER google 'Cuban Cigars' and expect what they'll get is legit

Yeah, I was giving the OP the benefit of the doubt...silly me. If it had been before the MF affair I would have automatically assumed non-trusted vendor. 

[benjamin831]

What's the MF affair?

[JohnS]

33 minutes ago, benjamin831 said:

What's the MF affair?

 

[Fugu]

14 hours ago, vladdraq said:

yeah...how ironic is this? They sell you proven fakes and still "following" the rules. 

Not ironic... because they know they are selling proven fakes, that’s why! 

[NSXCIGAR]

On 10/14/2022 at 7:57 AM, Fugu said:

Not ironic... because they know they are selling proven fakes, that’s why! 

Yeah, I'm surprised they even give you 7 days. I'm sure they're pretty good at avoiding refunds. Hard to stay in business 20 years selling fakes with a money back guarantee policy.

[vladdraq]

3 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

Yeah, I'm surprised they even give you 7 days. I'm sure they're pretty good at avoiding refunds. Hard to stay in business 20 years selling fakes with a money back guarantee policy.

been thinking about that. A good strategy would have been to sell fakes only to US residents. The real connoisseur (us based) would never buy online googling a vendor. The rest of the people who goes by "deals" probably never smoked a real cuban in their lifes.  Not trying to look down on them, at all, but just wondering how the scheme lasted so long...

 

[ha_banos]

There are quite a few listed on sites like cigar analysis that have been around for many years.

[vladdraq]

This is not new, catalysed by the price hikes. You can't put together so many details in such a short time. And most of all you need decent tobacco and good rollers

[NSXCIGAR]

3 hours ago, vladdraq said:

been thinking about that. A good strategy would have been to sell fakes only to US residents. The real connoisseur (us based) would never buy online googling a vendor. The rest of the people who goes by "deals" probably never smoked a real cuban in their lifes.  Not trying to look down on them, at all, but just wondering how the scheme lasted so long...

 

US buyers can still do a chargeback on their card. But your point is valid--if you buy from any of these clowns do you really even know a CC when you smoke it. I mean, plenty of people still buy glass tops on the beach. 

[benjamin831]

I think that's somewhat unfair. The first box of cigars I ever bought was a box of RyJ Tubos No. 3 from the HSA at the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok back in 2002, so I've smoked Cuban cigars on and off for more years than I would like to know. My college graduation cigar was a Davidoff Dom Perignon from the Cigar Divan at Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong. Just because I'm an old fart and not familiar with the dangers of online shopping shouldn't mean I get ridiculed for making a rookie mistake. That makes it more difficult for others to come forward and bust these unscrupulous dealers.

Maybe you're all too Western- or American-centric. Maybe I'm too naive. In Asia, we don't call them Cuban cigars, we just call them cigars. All cigars are Cuban to us and we just get them from our local PCC store/lounge down the street. The only time I had non-Cubans in Asia was when Davidoff had an event at the Ritz Carlton Hong Kong (before they moved to Kowloon) and they brought a couple of rollers to roll custom Millennium blend cigars for the attendees. Those were the good ol' days.

I'm still very new too the world fake cigars and honestly, didn't know how pervasive the issue is until now. But I'm glad I joined this forum to learn more, not just about counterfeits but Cuban cigars in general; they've grown their product lines and changed their branding so much over the past decade, my head finds it difficult to keep up.

[ha_banos]