Henry Gitner Philatelists

Cool old stamps, slipshod customer service

I have a real soft spot for old stamps. There's something kind of fun in sending off a letter with coordinating stamps attached—particularly if you've read too much Griffin and Sabine. Although the USPS continues to publish new issues, there's nothing like the variety that can be found in old, non-collectible stamps. The easiest way to get these (aside from inheriting a stamp collection) is to buy discounted postage from a stamp dealer.

I've bought discount postage before from several sources, both local and online. I'd heard some good things about Henry Gitner Philatelists, located on the Web at www.hgitner.com. They promised a good assortment of stamps at a price around 85-90% of their face value, so when my stamp hoard ran low I decided to give them a try.

Did they come through? Wellllll... sorta.

I selected the Shipper's Special, which offers an assortment of stamps with a face value of $200 at the price of $175 plus shipping costs. The web interface was easy to use, and they allowed me to pay with a personal check (you can also use a credit card, but this option carries a small service fee). I printed out the order form and sent it, along with a check for payment, on July 21, 2003.

By early August I was beginning to wonder what had happened to my order. On August 13 I sent an email to Customer Service referencing my order and asking what had become of it. Later that day I received a response from Ms. Debbie Gitner, indicating that my order had been shipped on August 4 and that it would take 5-7 business days for the order to reach my home. I was told I would have the shipment within a few days, so I waited.

A week passed, and I still saw no sign of my order. This time I sent an email to Ms. Gitner politely expressing my doubt that the order was on its way, and requesting a tracking number. This email never received a response of any kind from hgitner.com.

Somewhat nonplussed, I called Henry Gitner's toll-free number at 1-800-94-STAMP. I spoke with a pleasant woman who looked up my order number and, after a while, gave me the UPS tracking number for it. This surprised me, as I thought I had requested shipment through the USPS. The tracking number revealed that the order was waiting at the local UPS distribution center. It had not been delivered to my house because, despite my giving them the correct address information, someone at Henry Gitner had mislabeled my order with a nonexistent house number. The phone representative at Henry Gitner assured me she would call UPS and have them correct the address so it could be sent.

By now, I was skeptical, so an hour later I called UPS and asked about the package. The UPS phone rep told me the package was still at their distribution center, that nobody from Henry Gitner had called to correct the address, and that indeed today was the last day for me to come down to the center and pick up the package before they returned it to Henry Gitner. There was only about half an hour to spare before the center closed, and it would take me 20 minutes to get there. Luckily, I made it in time.

The package, when I finally retrieved it, contained the promised assortment of stamps in the promised quantity (trust me, I checked—after the poor service I'd received, I counted them all to be sure I wasn't getting ripped off). All are full gum in excellent condition, ready to be used, but I'm not sure they were worth the hassle of getting them.

The bottom line: I received good quality merchandise, but in the process I had to deal with extremely poor quality service and no follow-up whatsoever. If you do decide to buy from Henry Gitner Philatelists, be warned that if anything goes wrong with the order it will be up to you to take care of things; once they receive your payment, it seems they will not lift a finger to assist you.

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