THE DUNHILL WHITE SPOT GUARANTEE/fr: Difference between revisions

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(Created page with ""Garantie : nous vous remettrons une nouvelle pipe immédiatement si nous constatons le moindre défaut” ''Catalogue Dunhill “About Smoke” environs de 1917''")
(Created page with "A cette époque cependant, Dunhill était passé d'une petite boutique de détaillant londonien à une distribution à toute la Grande Bretagne et vers le monde entier par cou...")
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''Catalogue Dunhill “About Smoke” environs de 1917''
''Catalogue Dunhill “About Smoke” environs de 1917''


In those years however, Dunhill grew from a small London retail shop to one serving all of Great Britain and the world through mail order:
A cette époque cependant, Dunhill était passé d'une petite boutique de détaillant londonien à une distribution à toute la Grande Bretagne et vers le monde entier par courrier via des distributeurs indépendants, il en résulta en conséquence une grande perte en matière de relation directe au comptoir et de conseil à la clientèle.


   “ON APPROVAL  Alfred Dunhill is always pleased to send an assortment including, when desired, the  
   “ON APPROVAL  Alfred Dunhill is always pleased to send an assortment including, when desired, the  

Revision as of 01:26, 14 July 2019

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LA GARANTIE DUNHILL, un regard différent © 2002 John C Loring (3/02), avec son aimable autorisation


Au cours du premier quart du 20ème siècle, la pipe qui jute, la pauvre pipe au goût très vite amer, était une malédiction commune. Dans les premières années Dunhill attaqua le problème sur tous les fronts. Il mit au point son traitement de la bruyère à l'huile et à la chaleur, l'Inner Tube pour finir les pipes, et réalisa ses pipes à la finition lisse en dure bruyère calabraise plutôt qu'avec la tendre bruyère française plus communément utilisée (dans le passé j'ai affirmé que Dunhill était passé de la bruyère française à la bruyère calabraise pour ses pipes de la gamme standard en 1920 quand il déplaça la production de ses têtes brutes de la France vers Londres, mais ayant eu la possibilité de revoir le catalogue Dunhill de 1917 About Smoke, il apparaît maintenant que l'usage de bruyère calabraise pour toutes les pipes à finition lisse a débuté durant, si ce n'est avant, la Première Guerre Mondiale, en même temps que Dunhill développait activement son procédé de traitement huile/chaleur et l'Inner Tube).


Dunhill chercha également à apporter une garantie à ses clients avec la célèbre ““White Spot Guarantee”:

  "La Garantie du Point Blanc: - Fourniture d'une nouvelle pipe si quelque défaut que ce soit apparaît dans les douze mois.  
Une pipe ainsi échangée ne peut être ré-échangée."

On admet généralement qu'elle a été introduite en 1921 en même temps qu'avec l'introduction en 1922 du codage de date et du marquage spécifique “EX” pour identifier les pipes échangées.


L'histoire, cependant, est un peu plus compliquée, illustrant la croissance de Dunhill d'une petite boutique Londonienne en 1907 jusqu'à l'entreprise leader mondiale des accessoires de fumage dans les années 20.


En tant que nouvelle boutique de tabac londonienne, Dunhill offrait une garantie totale sur ses pipes, alors même que leur fabrication avait commencé en 1910.

  "Garantie – nous garantissons une satisfaction totale; de fait, nous vous remettrons une nouvelle pipe immédiatement si nous constatons le moindre défaut”

Catalogue Dunhill 1910 “About Smoke”(première édition).

Et cette garantie illimitée se poursuivit au moins jusqu'en 1917 :

  "Garantie : nous vous remettrons une nouvelle pipe immédiatement si nous constatons le moindre défaut”

Catalogue Dunhill “About Smoke” environs de 1917

A cette époque cependant, Dunhill était passé d'une petite boutique de détaillant londonien à une distribution à toute la Grande Bretagne et vers le monde entier par courrier via des distributeurs indépendants, il en résulta en conséquence une grande perte en matière de relation directe au comptoir et de conseil à la clientèle.

  “ON APPROVAL  Alfred Dunhill is always pleased to send an assortment including, when desired, the 
   expensive Straight Grains.  These are packed in a box that is ready for returning those not 
   required.  All Pipes listed are consigned postage free anywhere.” 
        circa 1917 Dunhill About Smoke Catalog,

through independent distributors and with a consequent loss of personal, over the store counter, customer relations and counseling.


In that context, together with the expanded world-wide commerce that came at the end of the Great War, an unlimited pipe guarantee must have proved problematic as more then one pipe came back through the mail for warranty return long after purchase, evidencing nothing more then repeated, long term careless smoker abuse.


In March 1919 we find what may be the first formal reference to what was to become the “White Spot Guarantee” in a one page catalog pricing revision catalog insert:

   “All DUNHILL PIPES … bear the ‘WHITE SPOT’ Guarantee”

but that reference does not provide the terms of the Guarantee.


In a circa 1920 catalog however, the terms are laid out and what it shows is the introduction of a limitation on its prior open-ended guarantee i.e., a one year return period:

   “The ‘White Spot’ Guarantee:-A new pipe given instantly if any fault develops within twelve  
    months.” 
          circa 1920 Dunhill About Smoke Catalog.

and the next year, a second limitation, an end to repeated exchanges:

    “Covered by ‘The White Spot’ Guarantee – A New Pipe given if any fault develops within Twelve 
     Months.  A Pipe so given cannot be again exchanged.” 
          1921 Dunhill About Smoke Catalog.

Changing guarantee language however, is not automatically self enforcing, especially when store clerks are no longer longstanding employees of a London shop on Duke Street but rather are found across the world, speaking hundreds of languages. Thus it was that in 1922 Dunhill began stamping its pipes with date codes to indicate when the pipe was put into retail distribution and further stamped pipes given in warranty exchange with an EX, all to the end of giving Dunhill the ability to enforce its new White Spot Guarantee limitations.


Apparently however, even a guarantee with enforceable limitations was insufficient to resolve warranty return problems, for a few years later, in 1923, a third limitation was introduced:

   “The ‘White Spot’ Guarantee   ‘A New Pipe given free of charge if the bowl should crack or burn  
    out within one year’  A moderate charge will be made for repairs necessitated by any other 
    cause.  A Pipe given free of charge cannot be again exchanged.” 
          1923 Dunhill About Smoke Catalog.

And recently, I have found some mid 1920s Dunhill American advertising copy that further limited the return period to but three months:

    “The ‘White Spot Guarantee.  If the bowl of this pipe should crack or burn-out within ninety 
     (90) days from the date of purchase a new pipe will be given in exchange.  The pipe should be 
     sent with particulars as to date and place of purchase … A pipe so given cannot be again  
     exchanged.” 

There comes a point however, when guarantee or warranty limitations begin to make the product itself sound less then satisfactory and I suspect that Dunhill came to recognize that in the wording of its third and fourth limitations it had reached that point. Thus by 1928 this third and fourth limitations were dropped or as phrased in its French catalog of that year:

     The White Spot La Garantie   La Pipe Dunhill est rempacée gratuitement si, dans un délai d’un  
     an, elle révèle un défaut de fabrication.  Cet échange ne peut se faire qu’une fois.  
            1928 Dunhill Le Fin Fumeur.

The Dunhill ‘White Spot Guarantee’ introduced in 1921 and refined in that decade then was not a new guarantee but rather a limitation on an old full warranty necessary for a rapidly evolving company attempting to grow and meet new marketing conditions. By 1928 the limited White Spot Guarantee was stabilized and with the related pipe stampings has since continued unchanged into the twenty first century.

ADDENDUM TO WHITE SPOT GUARANEE PAPER

A great deal of Dunhill documentation was destroyed in the World War II bombing of London. But among the remnants saved was a small dog eared card that briefly explained early changes in Dunhill pipe stampings. Obviously meant for the Duke Street store sales staff, it is this surviving card that has allowed us to date Dunhill pipes carved before the implementation of the 1922 numeric date code system:

(i) “A     DUNHILL
           DUKE ST S.W. “ without a round ‘stop’(i.e. a ‘o’) after the “A” indicating 1910 – May,  
           1918;
-
(ii) with an added stop after the A (i.e. “Ao”) indicating June, 1918 – October, 1918; 
-
(iii)    “ DUNHILL
           LONDON “ (both words of equal length) indicating November and December 1918;
-
(iv) an arched “DUNHILL” indicating 1919 (with LONDON within the arch indicating the first half of 
     that year and even with the arch ends  indicating the second half);
-
(v)       “DUNHILL
           LONDON “ (LONDON being shorter the DUNHILL) indicating 1920; and
-
(vi) the “D” of DUNHILL having tails (the arch of the “D” extending past the vertical stroke)   
     indicating 1921 (and with a “2” numeric date code, 1922).

I recall when I first saw this surviving remnant briefly wondering why the card existed at all given that at the time I accepted the general understanding that Dunhill’s White Spot Guarantee was implemented in 1921. Then too as I tracked the Dunhill pipe stamping changes in the 1918 – 1921 period, I recall wondering why there were so many innocuous changes, especially given that from 1910 through 1917 the pipe stamping had been consistently stable. Assuming a 1921 White Spot Guarantee implementation I concluded that the stampings changes were simply random indications of an unpredictable post war period, later recollected when the White Spot Guarantee was implemented.


Of course now understanding that the development of the White Spot Guarantee began in 1919 (and I assume contemplated in 1918) it is evident from the foregoing that the date coding of Dunhill pipes truly began in 1918 (not 1922), that initially there may have been some thought of a guarantee time period shorter then one year, and that no doubt the increasingly complex and confusing dating code begun in 1918 led in short order to the simplified numeric code implemented in 1922 .