My dealings with Steiner today

[Tedw9]

Generally, I've had pretty good luck with Steiner and purchasing from them. But today's dealings left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

I purchased a NY Mets game used hat from one of their recent emails. I really wanted this hat and have anxiously waited almost 2 weeks for it to ship from NY to Maine.

Today my hat arrived and they sent me a RETAIL hat. So I contact one of the good reps, who refers me to another rep. I explain what happened, give him the order number and he goes away for a minute. He comes back and basically tells me that he sees they couldn't find it, so they replaced the GAME USED hat with a RETAIL hat that was the same size. And I could keep it and he would knock a few bucks off or I can send it back. He says he can't find the hat either. I find it hard to believe he went to the warehouse, looked, and got back on the phone that quickly.

I ordered a GAME USED hat, why in the world would I want a RETAIL hat in replacement? Why would someone think it's ok to just send a retail hat?


Like I said, overall, I've had good experiences, but this one stunk. Sure, it was a small amount of money, but I do make other purchases through them. This will make me think twice before I just quickly purchase and item or recommend them to any of my collecting friends.

[Skizzick]

Welcome to the club, man. Steiner has screwed so many people over.

[BULBUS]

They have too many deals like this. I'm sure the hat you ordered went to someone else.

[michaelpbell]

Hey Ted,

I have a contact at Steiner that I told about your issue and he is very concerned. Do you mind if I get your name and phone number and pass it along to him so he can call you??? My email is michaelpbell@msn.com

[momen55]

why does everyone continue to buy from these companies? yes they have a monopoly on everything but it is all overpriced stuff of modern players. avoid the headaches and don't buy.
they have plenty of stuff i would like but not for the money they are asking. they can keep their stuff and i save my money.
these comapnies know that someone is paying the price they ask so they keep doing it. am i the only one that thinks this way?

[HawaiiSportsNut]

why does everyone continue to buy from these companies? yes they have a monopoly on everything but it is all overpriced stuff of modern players. avoid the headaches and don't buy.
they have plenty of stuff i would like but not for the money they are asking. they can keep their stuff and i save my money.
these comapnies know that someone is paying the price they ask so they keep doing it. am i the only one that thinks this way?

I agree with you 100%... They do have lots of stuff that I want as well. Steiner is way over priced. I get all of my game used stuff from the members here or on eBay.

[tbone90]

Not to go against the grain but every situation can be different or unique. Now admittedly I have not bought many items from Steiner directly. I prefer to spread my limited hobby splurging funds around to help stimulate the ecomony :p. But just recently I had an excellent experience with Steiner. There was a particular player that I had been looking for a game used bat of with little luck for quite some time. Then one day I received a call from a gentleman at Steiner. He was getting some bats in and wanted to know if I was still looking and interested. He gave me as much detail as he could and even looked up the MLB holograms and read them to me. In the end I bought two bats and for a price that I was very happy with and glad to pay. The bats arrived about a week later without incident.

Even if the price was a little more than I was wanting or expecting to pay i still would have made the purchase. Sometimes the chase just gets the best of me. It all seems to even out in the wash with the items I've gotten good deals on and the others that I may have paid a bit of a premium for.

I am very sorry though to hear about when any of us on the forum have a bad buying experience. While it's an ugly situation now hopefully Steiner will make it right.

[MLB~NUT]

WOW, Yeah I wouldn't blame you for felling discruntled....

[sox83cubs84]

I agree with you 100%... They do have lots of stuff that I want as well. Steiner is way over priced. I get all of my game used stuff from the members here or on eBay.

Of course, sometimes you can end up getting both. Almost any visit to eBay will show at least a few items from companies with direct connections to teams/athletes that the current owners end up auctioning knowing that they will take a loss.

Dave Miedema

[Tedw9]

Well, the UPS lady just left with the hat. I showed her that it was in the box before handing it over and she gave me a receipt.

Some have asked why deal with them when the prices are so high. Well, sometimes you can find a deal, which I do now and then. Your idea of a deal and mine may be two different things. I don't buy a ton from them, but I do spend now and then when I find something I want at a price I think is fair.


michaelpbell, thank you for your offer to help. I dropped you an email with all my information.


I will keep this thread updated when/if anything else comes of this. Thank you to all that have replied so far, I do appreciate it.

[gnishiyama]

these comapnies know that someone is paying the price they ask so they keep doing it. am i the only one that thinks this way?


Steiner is way over priced. I get all of my game used stuff from the members here or on eBay.

The constant bashing of Steiner's pricing is tiring and borderline slander.
Its clear that Steiner caters towards those who want high quality items
and a peace of mind. Not everybody wants to go on these forums and
ask questions and do research or go on Ebay and try and get a steal from
an unknown dealer. Many people work hard or are just wealthy and
want the best for their money and don't want to deal with the BS.
And I am not saying that Steiner never has and never will make errors
in the authenticity of their product so please don't go there.

This is all coming from a full-time sports memorabilia dealer. I sell sports
memorabilia for a living out of my apartment and I can tell you my business
overhead is higher than many of you may think. Do I price it into my items? ..absolutely. Have any of you guys been to Steiner's office? I've been to
their old office once and I can't even imagine with all that space, inventory
and employees how much their overhead is.

You can't compare Steiner's pricing with Mr. Selling Part of My Collection
or Mr. I Got This for Free and Now Want to Sell, etc on Ebay who probably
has another full-time job and has no overheard except for the Ebay fees
and perhaps a little bit of his time and effort.

I say slander because someone new to the hobby may come across this
post and see "overpriced" and automatically think Steiner rips people off.
Steiner did not get this far ripping people off. Believe that.

Now for the OP, its an unfortunate and unacceptable situation by
any means and hope it gets resolved. I'm just venting towards the
people who constantly chirp and cry about pricing. I just wonder if
they cry about prices of Lexus, BMW or Rolex or anything else top
of the line because like it or not Steiner is top of the line in the memorabilia
industry. Its usually the ones who can't afford it that are constantly
crying. Again I will follow up by saying I can't afford to keep most of the
stuff I sell but that does not mean I am ripping people off. It just means
not everything is for everybody.

By the way I am not affiliated with Steiner in any way, shape or form.

Thanks for your time.

Goh Nishiyama

[sportscentury]

The constant bashing of Steiner's pricing is tiring and borderline slander.
Its clear that Steiner caters towards those who want high quality items
and a peace of mind. Not everybody wants to go on these forums and
ask questions and do research or go on Ebay and try and get a steal from
an unknown dealer. Many people work hard or are just wealthy and
want the best for their money and don't want to deal with the BS.
And I am not saying that Steiner never has and never will make errors
in the authenticity of their product so please don't go there.

This is all coming from a full-time sports memorabilia dealer. I sell sports
memorabilia for a living out of my apartment and I can tell you my business
overhead is higher than many of you may think. Do I price it into my items? ..absolutely. Have any of you guys been to Steiner's office? I've been to
their old office once and I can't even imagine with all that space, inventory
and employees how much their overhead is.

You can't compare Steiner's pricing with Mr. Selling Part of My Collection
or Mr. I Got This for Free and Now Want to Sell, etc on Ebay who probably
has another full-time job and has no overheard except for the Ebay fees
and perhaps a little bit of his time and effort.

I say slander because someone new to the hobby may come across this
post and see "overpriced" and automatically think Steiner rips people off.
Steiner did not get this far ripping people off. Believe that.

Now for the OP, its an unfortunate and unacceptable situation by
any means and hope it gets resolved. I'm just venting towards the
people who constantly chirp and cry about pricing. I just wonder if
they cry about prices of Lexus, BMW or Rolex or anything else top
of the line because like it or not Steiner is top of the line in the memorabilia
industry. Its usually the ones who can't afford it that are constantly
crying. Again I will follow up by saying I can't afford to keep most of the
stuff I sell but that does not mean I am ripping people off. It just means
not everything is for everybody.

By the way I am not affiliated with Steiner in any way, shape or form.

Thanks for your time.

Goh Nishiyama

I'm sorry, but all I got out of this is that you don't know what slander means.

[gnishiyama]

Sorry Reid I'm not a lawyer. I'll replace "slander" with "misleading."

I was just talking about how every time a poster talks about
a legitimate gripe with Steiner people use the thread as a platform
to gripe about their pricing which is irrelevant. I guess I'm just as
guilty...

Anyway OP sorry and hope you're situation gets resolved. I'm sure
someone at Steiner has already read your post is doing something
to take care of it.

Goh Nishiyama

[Skizzick]

Sorry Reid I'm not a lawyer. I'll replace "slander" with "misleading."

I was just talking about how every time a poster talks about
a legitimate gripe with Steiner people use the thread as a platform
to gripe about their pricing which is irrelevant. I guess I'm just as
guilty...

Anyway OP sorry and hope you're situation gets resolved. I'm sure
someone at Steiner has already read your post is doing something
to take care of it.

Goh Nishiyama
While I will state my opinion and say that they are overpriced for the real market value of their items, that is Steiner's choice to do so, and the people that choose to pay those prices for Steiner's items do so out of their own obliviousness.
My issue with Steiner is that their customer service only goes as far as to make sure things don't end up in small claims court, and nothing else. They care nothing about customer loyalty, and the only time you can actually get to someone who will take care of your problems is when they are a distributor within the company who is working on commission. If they royally screw up on your order, pull a bait-and-switch, or some other dishonest tactic, their only reaction to your problem is to hand you your money back and say "have a nice day" or try to make you pay a lower price for the item they tricked you into receiving. I have dealt with Steiner on a number of occasions and really only left satisfied once. Whereas, I have dealt with many other companies in memorabilia sales and related services, and every problem has been dealt with customer service that went above and beyond what was needed.
As someone who has worked in retail for eight years, the key is to build a good reputation by helping customers who are not satisfied. That way, they'll keep coming back and WON'T TRASH COMPANIES ON MESSAGE BOARDS!

[emann]

I also expect that Steiner will resolve this issue for Tedw9... I do own numerous Steiner items and would like them to not piss people off if only for the selfish reason of not totally devaluing items I own with their company name attached as other GU companies have done.

I also think it's ridiculous of Steiner to have sent a retail hat in lieu of a gamer unless it was with a note that read: "We're sorry but we sold you something we don't appear to have in stock anymore, accept this with our apologies. Thanks for shopping with Steiner." Were they hoping he wouldn't notice the switch? That's what I would assume OR that by offering him a discount on keeping the retail hat they're just trying to squeeze whatever sale they can out of him, even if it is an item he doesn't want.

I have my own issue with Steiner and it is actually not relating to their prices (which are all over the place to me, some crazy money high, some lower than I'd expect). They're one of the only retail sites on the web I can think of that forces you to enter your email address to enter it and see items for sale. It's not a common thing on the web for a reason, it alienates buyers who don't want to just hand over things like personal email address to view an on-line catalog. As someone who works in a field were marketing comes into play, whoever at Steiner that thought this was a good idea... it's really not.

[shaunharr]

My only question is...

Who's hat did you purchased?

-Shaun

[sportscentury]

Sorry Reid I'm not a lawyer. I'll replace "slander" with "misleading."

I was just talking about how every time a poster talks about
a legitimate gripe with Steiner people use the thread as a platform
to gripe about their pricing which is irrelevant. I guess I'm just as
guilty...

Anyway OP sorry and hope you're situation gets resolved. I'm sure
someone at Steiner has already read your post is doing something
to take care of it.

Goh Nishiyama

Steiner is free to list high prices for their items. Collectors are free to complain about the high prices. That is how it works. Please excuse me for saying this, but I'm not sure how your posts here count any less as "crying" than the other posts in this thread. If folks want to vent their frustrations about Steiner's poor service and high prices on a public opinion board, they should be able to do so. It's just not that big a deal.

[commando]

I have never dealt directly with Steiner, so I can't really give an opinion on their merchandise or customer service. As far as prices go, I agree that their prices would be considered high if their items didn't have good provenance. I think its a situation where they sell as many items they can at the higher prices, and as time goes on, drop prices on the stuff that hasn't moved (most of us also do that when selling our stuff in the classifieds on this site).

So as a seller, especially with lots of overhead, you start with higher prices and work your way down over time on the dead stuff. As a buyer, when we see things hit the market we have to decide whether to pull the trigger now, by paying the full price, or later with a discount.... And hopefully there IS a later.

I'm thinking a lower-level employee at Steiner did the bait-and-switch on the cap, trying to save his butt after some kind on mix-up. I would find it hard to believe that such a large, well-established company would stake their reputation on this kind of switch. Just my opinion.

[philsfan]

I have bought multiple items from Steiner and they have always been helpful in getting me the items that I want from the Yankees.

Here's a good example:

A couple years ago, I bought a Derek Jeter signed "Final Season" baseball from Steiner. It was on sale so I grabbed it. A year later, Mariano and Andy were coming in for a private signing at Steiner. I asked my Steiner rep about the cost of adding them to the ball. I don't remember the exact pricing but it was way too high for Mariano, but Andy wasn't bad. I gave my Jeter ball to the rep and asked him to get it signed by Andy. He laughed and said that I "shouldn't be so cheap" and begged me to add Mariano to one day make it a Core Four ball. I insisted it was too much for me and just get Andy. I was of course thinking I would add Mariano at a public signing for much cheaper in the future.

A couple days later, my rep asked me to come in and get the ball. He gave me a full tour of the Steiner facility which is incredible. Let me swing a bunch of Jeter bats, hold a Mariano jersey, and basically take a look at all of their game used stuff. I was like a kid in a candy store. Just before I left he gave me the ball. I saw Jeter, Andy and one other signature....it was Mariano...on the house. Gave the guy a big hug and was off.

Just so you know, I have spent less than $2000 on Steiner items, I'm not a big spending customer, but that day I felt like one.

Have a nice weekend everyone.

[Skizzick]

I have bought multiple items from Steiner and they have always been helpful in getting me the items that I want from the Yankees.

Here's a good example:

A couple years ago, I bought a Derek Jeter signed "Final Season" baseball from Steiner. It was on sale so I grabbed it. A year later, Mariano and Andy were coming in for a private signing at Steiner. I asked my Steiner rep about the cost of adding them to the ball. I don't remember the exact pricing but it was way too high for Mariano, but Andy wasn't bad. I gave my Jeter ball to the rep and asked him to get it signed by Andy. He laughed and said that I "shouldn't be so cheap" and begged me to add Mariano to one dmay make it a Core Four ball. I insisted it was too much for me and just get Andy. I was of course thinking I would add Mariano at a public signing for much cheaper in the future.

A couple days later, my rep asked me to come in and get the ball. He gave me a full tour of the Steiner facility which is incredible. Let me swing a bunch of Jeter bats, hold a Mariano jersey, and basically take a look at all of their game used stuff. I was like a kid in a candy store. Just before I left he gave me the ball. I saw Jeter, Andy and one other signature....it was Mariano...on the house. Gave the guy a big hug and was off.

Just so you know, I have spent less than $2000 on Steiner items, I'm not a big spending customer, but that day I felt like one.

Have a nice weekend everyone.
Cool story. I hope I can have a similar experience with them. But I have the sneaking suspicion that since you dealt with them in person they weremuch nicer accomodating.

[Tedw9]

Quick update.....


Steiner got the retail hat back earlier this week and as of yesterday, I still have no refund.


A fellow board member contacted me for my information, said a Steiner rep wanted to talk to me about what happened. I sent my information, he forwarded it to the rep and no one contacted me.


So for those keeping score at home, I have no hat, no refund of my money as of yesterday and no one at Steiner making any attempt at making things right.

If my refund does come through or if by chance a rep does contact me, I will update the thread.

[frikativ54]

Quick update.....

Steiner got the retail hat back earlier this week and as of yesterday, I still have no refund.

Did you get a return authorization? I returned something to Steiner after having been authorized, and they paid for shipping. It took a while to get a refund (ultimately 4 to 5 weeks), but they did come through, and I did get my money back. How do you know that Steiner received the hat?

[Tedw9]

I contacted them the day it arrived and was referred to a rep who offered to "knock a few dollars off" if I wanted to keep it. I told him I wanted to return it, he set up a UPS pickup at my house. I kept all the emails and UPS receipt that was given to me, so I have the tracking number and kept an eye on it to make sure it arrived ok.

[frikativ54]

I contacted them the day it arrived and was referred to a rep who offered to "knock a few dollars off" if I wanted to keep it. I told him I wanted to return it, he set up a UPS pickup at my house. I kept all the emails and UPS receipt that was given to me, so I have the tracking number and kept an eye on it to make sure it arrived ok.

Oh, okay. In my case, I set up a return at the UPS store. I kept the paperwork but didn't pay close attention, as the item wasn't really that big a deal to me. But I do remember that it took a long time from my ship date until I actually got a refund, to the point where I started wondering what happened. Be patient; I'm sure you'll get your money back.

[michaelpbell]

So Chris Gabriele with Steiner never contacted you?? That is honestly pretty upsetting to me. When I spoke with Chris he seemed concerned and very interested. Hence, the reason I asked for your info to forward to him.

Although I've had many, many positive interactions with Steiner, this is very disappointing to see. I understand folks making mistakes, and I have no problem with that, I just expect that mistakes are either explained and/or fixed.

[Tedw9]

No, no one from Steiner ever got in contact with me. I've been busy with work/life lately and my wife is off visiting family, but I've checked my email and voicemail every day. No one has called or emailed. I wonder if the fact that I'm not a big spender with them or that this purchase was not a big purchase has anything to do with it?


Either way, I appreciate you trying, thank you.

[Shipp_96]

To let you know you are not alone, and it is not just Steiner with poor customer service, I ordered two hats and a jersey from MLB shop online, and hated all of them in person. So I returned them the next day Priority mail insured and tracking on MY DIME, and still have NOTHING!

That was 2 weeks ago, and I have called a rep, gave him the confirmation #, and was told to "give it more time". Right now I am out $185 plus $15 in shipping w/the insurance and tracking, and have nothing to show for it either.

I feel your pain.