Almost every time I order from cbid something goes wrong. Damaged sticks, dusty dried out sticks, wrong item etc. This time was a double-whammy. They had a direct email promo for free shipping earlier in the month, and even though I have plenty of cigars and am smoking pipes more, I had to at least check out the auctions, right?

So I won a few things and when I go to check out before the deadline of midnight March 11th, no free shipping. I email customer service and am told orders had to be *invoiced* by midnight. Huh? The ad doesn't say that, and it doesn't even make sense since they invoice only during business hours. I pointed that out so they offered to refund half the shipping, but only because I'm a long time valued customer.... and only after now claiming I didn't get free shipping because I changed my preferences during the week. This is total BS and irrelevant to what the ad says. A company of that size trying to worm their way out of their promo and quibbling over $3.50 is kind of pathetic.

Finally they agreed to refund the full shipping amount, but in the meantime I get an email saying one of my items is not available. Don't you love it when people "sell" things they don't actually have? Cbid does it all the time. If they did it on eBay where customers can leave feedback they'd be out. In their boundless generosity, they offered to replace the 5-er I'd won (msrp $30) with 5 Vegas Gold! I suggested a couple of alternatives, including cheapo Private Stock, but they wouldn't accept. It was 5Vegas Gold or cancel my order. So I cancelled. On the bright side, I did get some other stuff for decent prices, but the experience reminded me of why I stay away from cbid. More hassle than it's worth IMHO.