Dr. Grabow pipes...bad customer service

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Say what you will about the old Dr. Grabow brand, sure it was never a prestige item...But they used to be sold at drug stores, gas stations, Kmart....They were a solid blue collar value. Even many high end pipe smokers would have one for when they do they lawn. My grandfather smoked them and I still remember the display board of them at Kmart.

I have smoked a pipe on and off for over 20 years. My last Dr. Grabow was probably between five years and a decade ago. They were okay, nothing special, but could be smoked. Seeing one at Walgreens, and not having seen one for a while, I purchased it. They used to sell for ten or twelve dollars, now it was just over $30. But the package still said made in America for Americans, so I figured it would be the same as years past.

Wrong. The finish was just not good, but that didn't bother me horribly as they weren't a prestige item. But then the bit, it felt wrong, different. To my chagrin, I realized that the stem was now a much cheaper plastic.

But the final indignity was trying to smoke it. After just a day or two, the finish bubbled up on the back and the pipe had almost burned through on the back. Terrible and an obviously defective briar.

Years ago, my grandfather had one like that. He wrote them and they mailed him two higher end models and a nice tobacco pouch he carried until he died.

So I call the company. I am told that maybe it was bad wood and they can look at and MIGHT send me a new one IF I mailed back the old one at my expense. Just to clarify, I asked if I was guaranteed a new one. I was told no. That there was a chance I could get a new one and I could "hope" but maybe not.

This was not a customer help line in India. This was an American woman employed there at factory in Sparta, NC.

Reading reviews on Amazon, the inexpensive Mr. Brog pipes are made in Poland. Apparently if one is defective, the company goes out of their way to put a new pipe in the customer's hand fresh from Poland.

So I ordered Eastern Europes allegedly most popular pipe. I will likely throw my Dr. Grabow away rather than waste postage and packaging cost.

So much for nostalgia. Hopefully the Stalinist era pipe factory in Poland has the higher standards they are said to. (Maybe it bred a culture of quality. Sending old Uncle Joe a bad pipe likely resulted in a scenic vacation to Siberia.)

I wouldn't even have minded paying to send it back, if I had been treated better, apologized to, or told I would for sure get a replacement.
 
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smoking isn't the cash cow it was since that young punk vape turned up on the block.
could be that the margins don't really allow much room for product replacement, especially if they are already cutting corners in matierials, leading to higher defect rates.

give me an SX350 based mod, a $10 caterpillar RDA, a roll of 28 Ga Kanthol wire, and a bag of cotton balls.
initial investments aside, it costs me about $3 a week and I consider it an upgrade over external combustion.
 
Heck, yeah. Send it in.

A small Priority Mail box will give you tracked delivery for about $5. For a $30 item, it will be worth the satisfaction of knowing it will cost them more than shipping costs just to evaluate the package, even if they do not provide a replacement.

Just my opinion of course. Yes, I AM a curmudgeon with a birth date to prove it.

TucsonMTB . . . who might just be an angry old man.
icon_lol.gif
 
That's disappointing.......

My drug store pipes always did well by me and if I still smoked I would probably still have them and that was about a 40 years ago. There was nothing wrong with the looks at all. Can you still get corncob pipes in drugstores?
 
meaneyedcatz said:
If you have to smoke try a Missouri Meerschaum
Click to expand...

I have. It wasn't bad actually. I rather liked it for hunting. I didn't care if I lost it or not.

I've owned several Dr. Grabow's too. I always found they were decent. First thing I did was throw that darn filter away. Yuck.

I have heard, but do NOT know from experience that that "funny tobacco" burns hotter than regular tobacco. You think maybe that's why they don't just say, sure we'll send you another one. Maybe they got some kind of litmus paper or other inexpensive test they do to see what you been smoking before they send you a new one.

I'd send it back anyway. Worse thing they can say is "no."
 
I can't imagine a company returning a used $30 pipe to a dissatisfied customer.

Rather than trying to negotiate terms of return with a clerk, just toss it in the mail with a note.
 
rwsmith said:
My drug store pipes always did well by me and if I still smoked I would probably still have them and that was about a 40 years ago. There was nothing wrong with the looks at all. Can you still get corncob pipes in drugstores?
Click to expand...

Yep, my dad used to smoke a pipe and I do upon rare occasion...like when I get up to my cabin in the mountains. There is something about 3300 feet of elevation, black bears, Bushmills single malt and a pipe!!!
What brand was the ones that had the little white spade inlayed into the handle??? They weren't bad for a drugstore pipe.
And yes, you still can get corn cob pipes at some places. About 5 miles down the nearest paved road at my cabin there is a little country store that has display cards of them hanging on the wall. The ones with the clear yellow plastic bit. My 15 y.o. daughter didn't believe such a thing existed...so I brought one home. She accused me of buying a fake!!!
I think it might look more appropriate at the cabin if I was on the front porch listening to the coyotes with a General MacArthur style corn cob pipe....what do you guys think????? I aint switchin' the Bushmills though!!!!
 
Last edited:
venomballistics said:
give me an SX350 based mod, a $10 caterpillar RDA, a roll of 28 Ga Kanthol wire, and a bag of cotton balls.
initial investments aside, it costs me about $3 a week and I consider it an upgrade over external combustion.
Click to expand...

Sounds not only fun but convenient, too :rolleyes:
I'd rather rig a nicotine drip.

I thought this thread was about pipes?
 
"Rig a nicotine drip"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't give a GD who you are...that's funny right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can just about picture some idiot layin on a bed with an IV in his arm, eyes half closed and shaking all over for nicotine.
 
Last edited:
msinc said:
"Rig a nicotine drip"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't give a GD who you are...that's funny right there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can just about picture some idiot layin on a bed with an IV in his arm, eyes half closed and shaking all over for nicotine.
Click to expand...

on a serious note. thus far, the growing vape culture has shed some new light on nic dependance.
it, in and of itself, seems not to be as addictive as thought.
in tobbaco, it is not by itself. there's something of an anti depressant in there too, which seem's to interact with the nic, making it very hard to break away from.

on a more serious note ....
it took a few years before my mother in law started to warm up to me.
after being married for nearly 3 years to her daughter, she finally decided she'd give me a hug.
For that, I broke her arm.
her lung cancer had spread to brain, bone, and points unknown.
at that moment, all it took was a touch to turn her arm to dust.
three weeks later, I was standing by her grave.
Cancer is costly, and monetary figures really are the least of those costs.
 
kamry-e-pipe-walnut_copy.jpg


I kinda thumb my nose at this one, due to the tank, but that can be swapped out for something like an orchid or a kayfun.
 
Sadly, $2 Corn Cob pipes now cost $9 at Walgreens. I assume a decline in market partially led to the higher prices. A pearwood pipe from Poland, complete with WW1 style trench warfare metal cover ran $25 with free two day shipping.

Pearwood is said to smoke sweet. The Poles and Ukrainians seem to favor it.

Chinese pipes sell for as little a few dollars on Ebay or less than $6 in a store. But I do not trust them.

Walgreens actually gave me a refund, even without a receipt.

The best medical science, circa 1957, says that smoking tobacco is not only harmless but actually good for you. Modern science suggests moderate use of a pipe has a slight cancer risk but may well reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. Pick your harm. My father died at age 90, he drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney for most of his life.

I like obsolete things, like blue steel and wood guns, blackpowder, old radios and filling and smoking a pipe.

I had not thought about MJ use burning up pipes. I never tried the stuff. Though if I owned a pipe company, I would cater to any market buying my product, but who knows.

Walgreens is the last refuge of the drug store pipe as of late. They still have what is essentially a store brand of pipe tobacco.

I never liked corn cob pipes, having tried them intermittently over the years.
 
I don't do ANYTHING any more....

I'm vice-free. (well, almost:D) but when I did smoke pipe, cigars or cigarettes, I really enjoyed it. Enough to last me a life time. I admit I do get the urge to light up a little White Owl sometimes. All in all, I thought pipes were too much work. Which is ok for some people.

"A pipe gives a wise man time to think and a fool something to stick in his mouth."

Old Chinese proverb
 
GatorFarmer said:
Sadly, $2 Corn Cob pipes now cost $9 at Walgreens. I assume a decline in market partially led to the higher prices. A pearwood pipe from Poland, complete with WW1 style trench warfare metal cover ran $25 with free two day shipping.

Pearwood is said to smoke sweet. The Poles and Ukrainians seem to favor it.

Chinese pipes sell for as little a few dollars on Ebay or less than $6 in a store. But I do not trust them.

Walgreens actually gave me a refund, even without a receipt.

The best medical science, circa 1957, says that smoking tobacco is not only harmless but actually good for you. Modern science suggests moderate use of a pipe has a slight cancer risk but may well reduce the risk of Alzheimer's. Pick your harm. My father died at age 90, he drank like a fish and smoked like a chimney for most of his life.

I like obsolete things, like blue steel and wood guns, blackpowder, old radios and filling and smoking a pipe.

I had not thought about MJ use burning up pipes. I never tried the stuff. Though if I owned a pipe company, I would cater to any market buying my product, but who knows.

Walgreens is the last refuge of the drug store pipe as of late. They still have what is essentially a store brand of pipe tobacco.

I never liked corn cob pipes, having tried them intermittently over the years.
Click to expand...

Can you please tell us why you don't like corn cob pipes??? Just wondering.
 
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