Anyway, my experience with the purchase impressed upon me the importance of good customer relations when it comes to the chess stores that have survived given the ever decreasing dedicated board inventories. Over the last year I have purchased new boards such as the Saitek Master Chess, Saitek Advanced and Expert Travel, Saitek Chess Challenger and Novag Star Opal so I've had some experience with particular stores.
It seems to me that those stores that survive are going to be those with not only the best chess (non-board) inventories, but also the best customer public relations. Overall, my experience has been good to excellent. Most stores have very personable people answering the phone. A particular standout in this area and in service has been The Chess House in Washington state.
However, at the opposite spectrum is a store based in Florida (I won't name it). I've only bought one board there, but I have inquired about other boards or related matters there at least 3 other times. Each time I believe the same person has answered and each time I came away with a sour taste in my mouth. The only reason I finally bought a board there was because I couldn't pass up the price and shipping was free.
Invariably, when asking a simply question at that store, you are treated either like you are some sort of cretin or at the very least like the person has a lot better things to do. This site sells copies of various chess board manuals for $15 each. That's fine, but the shipping is $9. Since most manuals could be sent for a maximum of $3 by USPS, I inquired as to whether the shipping price was really $9. The response was along the lines of that's what it is, take it or leave it.
My most recent experience was buying a board. At one point, the fellow asked me if I need an AC adapter. Here's how it went:
Him, 'Do you need an AC adapter?'
Me, 'No that's fine, I already have a Novag adapter.'
Him, 'What Novag model do you have the Novag adapter for?'
Me (having a middle-age moment), 'I can't remember, but it's the usual 9 volt, 300 mA adapter.'
Him, 'I don't know anything about specs. I can only tell by the model you have.'
Me, 'It's okay, I'll just use batteries with it.'
Now, silly me, but doesn't Novag use basically the same adapter for all its boards? It turns out that I have 3 of them and they are all the same whether for the Citrine or the Star Opal. Anyway, my point is that why wouldn't this guy know something about the specs for the adapter being sold for their units?
And there was no 'Thanks for your purchase' or anything remotely like it.
End of rant.
