Panini Customer Service

[kornbreadchild]

I hope everyone is enjoying Black Friday wherever you are....

I just got off the phone with Panini Customer Service. It should be 7.44am Eastern US, but I was redirected to their international office representing Panini America. Well isnt that swell?

I told them about 4 seperate emails and requests that have gone unanswered and I am 50-50 on their support so far.


Topic 1:
One email was to make a complaint of card damage in Panini Rookies & Stars

- They said to fill out a form and send back cards with receipt, wrapper and box number. An exact replacement will be sent out in 12-14 weeks from them receiving cards from me. I have to send all registered for them to process my inquiry.

Topic 2:
One email was to inquire why there was 11 redemptions in a 12 box case of Panini Rookies & Stars

- They said that they apologise for the collation issue but redemptions count as hits and from our case, we did get 2 extra hits so no exchange can be made but will be sure in future to spread out the redemptions in a more appropriate ration.

Topic 3:
One email was to inquire about getting shorted on number of cards in certain packs.

- They said to send back wrapper, box number, cards, receipt and even decoys to get a replacement pack. All replacement packs will have no hits in them but just base cards. Must fill out a form as well, and as above, send as registered mail and wait 12-14 weeks.

Topic 4:
Feedback/Suggestion about Rookies & Stars ( I did not expect a response)

- The guy I spoke too is part of the International Basketball Research and International Customer team, and he said he is aware of my post about our case break and our complaints and said that we got more than the average # of hits in a box. While he apologizes for 3 redemptions in one box and just 11 redemptions in one case, he said that a hit is a hit. Basically, I got the feeling they were angry that I had so many complaints and that I was not only posting here but other places, even on the beckett blog with Tracy about it. As a consumer, I am not too impressed with the attitude, but as a person doing business I do get where he is coming from. Another thing that bothered me was that he started to get real friendly just because he found out I am an American citizen living abroad. Because when I first mentioned calling from Hong Kong, his tone was not so .....friendly. Why the should it matter where I am from to get good customer service?

and todays Topic

Topic 5:
Getting shorted 2 hits in a box of Donruss Elite.

- Again with the apologies, asked for box number, how many packs were in the box? too list inserts received and type of hits. Said Panini strives to deliver but hits are not guaranteed. But they are willing to replace the two hits as long as I send back all contents of the box including the two hits I pulled in exchange for a replacement box. Again 12-14 weeks and registered mail. Registered mail not necessary if mailed with the Continental United States.


I am 50-50 on this. They seem concerned and they are aware of what we write, (good or bad) but it seems like the customer is being too picky.

I guess we have been spoilt pre 2009 Upper Deck and expect a lot with 60-75 dollar boxes but again, I feel that with every new approach, new company and new market, there should be a try to win the consumer approach instead of a rush product out approach.

[tarheelsnipe]

I've said it before. They need to do away with the "X number of GU/Autos per box on average" and go back to the old way of listing inserts and parallels... "Odds 1:X, 1:XX, 1:X,XXX packs".

As far as him not being friendly, maybe he doesn't like Chinese food.

Sounds like there hasn't been any email support from Panini to you, but the phone call cleared things up a bit.

[helstad]

Both mails i sent so far were answered in 1 and 4 days.

[kornbreadchild]

yeah I kinda wondered about the inserts thing, like, they just state the # of cards there are in the set.

[kornbreadchild]

maybe I was too quick to judge? maybe not?

Panini sent me a package this morning a set of the Team Leaders Insert and a set of NON auto of the Prestige Old School set. Two sets..sure.thanks

[whalechaser]

maybe I was too quick to judge? maybe not?

Panini sent me a package this morning a set of the Team Leaders Insert and a set of NON auto of the Prestige Old School set. Two sets..sure.thanks

Hmm I don't know insert sets are kinda cool. Sometimes I'd rather had that than an auto of some crappy draft player.

[tutall]

I am very pleased with Panini's customer service so far. Everyone i have seen has at least gotten something. I sent in a redemption that expired a year and a half ago and the card is already on its way. No questions asked nothing. They do more for people than UD sending out a couple crappy packs with no shot at pulling anything in exchange for a nice auto or something like that.

[tarheelsnipe]

That's good stuff, man. Thumbs up, Panini!

[GreyDawn]

Well, for being shorted hits anyway, they have a system online for it. I've used it for being shorted.

It makes you send in a box flap, purchase info after making a claim.

That seemed pretty straight forward to me, so as long as they send me replacements.

The process is a bit of a pain I guess, but it does keep people from just claiming BS (I do feel sorry for your bad luck Korn) and lying/whining etc. to extract product out of them (i.e. taking advantage of their being new in bball and wanting to make customers happy).

[whalechaser]

They do more for people than UD sending out a couple crappy packs with no shot at pulling anything in exchange for a nice auto or something like that.

I think that's sort of unfair to say of UD because I've had nothing but good experiences with their customer service. For unfulfilled or even expired redemptions. For example, I pulled an expired Dwight Howard auto redemption from a 05-06 product and their customer service actually gave me some good stuff in return like several dwight howard GU's and a really nice Kevin Durant card (when they could've easily not done anything)