Did I get ripped off?

[Wolvan]

46 minutes ago, Puros Y Vino said:

Clarify this. Partagas 898 definitely comes with an outer box with the seals and stamps on it vs being on the varnished box.  

What I said before about all boxes that have UK health warnings would have EMS stuff

[Puros Y Vino]

31 minutes ago, dominattorney said:

I dont mean to suggest he bought fakes. In fact I believe the opposite from the photographs. I just mean more simply if you are sitting around with buyers remorse and agonizing over a purchase, were you really well served by it?

You're free to question it. It could be an error on the part of the distributor or something fishy. My point is that this very post indicates to me the OP is not familiar with the various packaging styles from Habanos.  

[dominattorney]

7 minutes ago, Puros Y Vino said:

You're free to question it. It could be an error on the part of the distributor or something fishy. My point is that this very post indicates to me the OP is not familiar with the various packaging styles from Habanos.  

That point was missed the first time round by yours truly. I see it now, and appreciate it. 

[Jimmy_jack]

4 hours ago, Puros Y Vino said:

The NHS / H&F discrepancy is definitely interesting. Hopefully some UK members can shed some light.  Has anyone run that serial# yet?  I can't make it out myself. 

OP has not (and likely should not here) stated the source. Perhaps it ‘fell off the truck’ for the grey market. If that’s the case maybe never made it to the HF inspectors, which is who adds those stickers. Where are the warning stickers added? At customs/port?

Stickers from two sources, one the Govt, the other H&F. It made it through customs, clearly. Never made through H&F properly. 

 

2 hours ago, Wolvan said:

What I said before about all boxes that have UK health warnings would have EMS stuff

Not if they were diverted. 

[Mickey D]

Great point and observation. ^^^^^

[Bijan]

On 5/25/2021 at 2:22 PM, Wolvan said:

Personally opinion: it is FAKE!!

Why? Because it have a British smoking warning (NHS) but is obviously not sourced from H&F who is the sole Cuban cigars supplier for Britain. If sourced from H&F there would be an EMS sticker and an EMS certificate along with the Habanos certificate. Edit: I am appalled but how so many FOH members who commented above can be tricked so easily, time to start double checking my incoming stocks.

I've gotten English warning stickers without h&f markings or EMS. I'll have to check to see if they have NHS mentions. Cheap enough sticks and valid serial. They were from a grey market vendor.

[Bijan]

Yes checked had it on at least 2 boxes one had NHS website.

Box is RyJ Petit Julietas.

[Edicion]

Pretty sure a box I got of Cohiba Maduro 5 from Duty Free in 2017/18 at Heathrow that had NHS stickers but did not have any H&F stickers on it. I will try to look for an old pic of it again. 

[MasterShake72]

@Wolvan I'm still not understanding your basis for calling this fake. Faking 898s seems like it would be an odd choice to begin with, but beyond that it seems like a stretch to believe that a missing H&F stamp indicates that a box is fake. That would mean that a counterfeiter nailed the outer cardboard look, got a proper health warning label, has a verified serial, has a transit seal (I'm 99% sure I can make the outline out), used an actual current box code for 898, nailed the fonts, bands, ribbon, varnish, burnt in stamps and the small details right down to the wax paper but made a glaring oversight in the addition of a H&F sticker. Seems unlikely. What is much more likely is that it simply wasn't added at all because it was just missed or was weakly placed on and quickly fell off. The presence EMS stickers are irrelevant because boxes from Gibraltar don't have them.