Am I Stuck With Bad KEMS?

[TrivialPiper]

I ordered a set of KEM Arrows r/b poker width Jumbo index a couple of months ago from holdempokerchips (along with some more of those SWEET Pharaoh NCVs....but....I digress). I stored them right alongside my two sets of Copags and one set of Dal Negros. So, my next home game comes up and I open up the KEMS pratically drooling at the thought of shuffling and playing with these beauties, only to discover that the first five cards (or so) of each deck are SEVERLY warped. I had a few hours to go before my game started so I took then out and put a heavy book on top of each deck. At first it seemed that it worked but as the game went on the cards became so severley warped (especially the Ah) that we had to switch decks. I contacted KEM several times to ask about replacement decks with no response. Yesterday I e-mailed Michael and he said there is nothing he can do and gave me a couple of links to USPC that I could try. Am I stuck here?? Is there no remedy for cards that cost $10+ per deck??? Has anyone had a similar experience with KEMS? if so, what was the outcome?

[BCR_9er]

USPC has a very good replacement policy. I went on USPC.com and emailed them. They had me send the defected cards and an ace of spades. Then they sent me a whole new deck.

[TrivialPiper]

Thanks for the info BCR...

Originally Posted by BCR_9er

USPC has a very good replacement policy. I went on USPC.com and emailed them. They had me send the defected cards and an ace of spades. Then they sent me a whole new deck.

I went to the USPC link that Michael provided and this is what it says..

"The United States Playing Card Company guarantees the quality of all of its playing card brands. If a manufacturing defect is found in a deck of our Bicycle®, Bee®, Aviator®, Hoyle®, Maverick®, Tally-Ho®, Squeezers®, or Congress® playing cards that makes it unusable for normal game play, and it is returned before it has been extensively used, we will be glad to replace it."

No where does it mention KEM....am I missing something??!!?? Are they the correct people to contact?

[travisjd]

My KEMs do this too, everyone on here complains about the warping. The place to contact about the problem can be found at the following URL:

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

Seriously though KEM cards seem like junk to me, I prefer $3 plastic Vegas cards from Walmart to them even. I'm going to sell my setup and get copags for replacement. USPC has to change the plastic they use and currently they act as if the polymer was mined from the moon itself so I wouldn't expect a formula change anytime soon.

[NoFear]

Whoa....I hope my WSOP 2007 KEM doesn't wrap otherwise I would have been pisssssed. My deck is not 10 or 20 dollar. Not even close. I better pray.

If it happens then I will delete KEM forever.

[K ALL IN 9]

i would store them in one of these (http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/poker-...card-vice.html) right from the get-go

[NoFear]

Originally Posted by K ALL IN 9

i would store them in one of these (http://www.chiptalk.net/forum/poker-...card-vice.html) right from the get-go

Have you ever heard of Modiano or Del Negro that need to store them by pressing them? I think not....what am I missing here. Why are we or I invest in KEM when other cards are better. What does KEM offered that other don't? They smell better

Seriously, If I need to used the method mention above then I need to reconsider deleting KEM forever. That is my take on it.

[aferr1973]

I've dealt with USPC in the past and it took about 2 weeks for them to send me the replacement decks. I never had warping problems, but I've had ink come off the cards. I wish they would just fix their major quality control problem. I recently bought a set of Black and Gold Poker Jumbo Index Kem cards and after a 6 hour game already had the ink coming off on about 5 cards. I was so disgusted I didn't even bother sending in for replacements. One thing about USPC is they stand behind their products even though they have been nothing but a pile of crap as of late...

[davejs1671]

I have several setups of Pre USPC Kems ( many new still wrapped ) and have yet to have a single deck warp. I have heard so many bad stories about the USPC Kems that I have yet to buy any. I also have many other setups from most of the other card makers and I like them all for their different attributes. I like the Kem so much because of that silky feel and how easy they are to shuffle. Anyway I did get a setup of Gemacos that were warped right out of the box. A method I used that solved the problem for me was to take the deck of cards and two round pencils. Put the deck with the bow facing up and the pencils on top. the use two books to raise the decks off the table so that just the edges are touching each book with space under the middle. Then I put more books on top of the decks and pencils so that the deck was hyper extended the opposite way of the warp. Now just leave them there for a night or two and keep checking on them. Now there is one way I know of to speed up this process and that is to use a hair dryer on a low setting to warm the cards just enough to make them ply-able so that they bend back straight quicker. Just be very careful because you dont want to use to much heat. This method worked wonders and I still have those same cards in my rotation and the are perfectly flat and have stayed that way. I hope this helps.

[NoFear]

Originally Posted by davejs1671

I like the Kem so much because of that silky feel and how easy they are to shuffle. Anyway I did get a setup of Gemacos that were warped right out of the box. A method I used that solved the problem for me was to take the deck of cards and two round pencils. Put the deck with the bow facing up and the pencils on top. the use two books to raise the decks off the table so that just the edges are touching each book with space under the middle. Then I put more books on top of the decks and pencils so that the deck was hyper extended the opposite way of the warp. Now just leave them there for a night or two and keep checking on them. Now there is one way I know of to speed up this process and that is to use a hair dryer on a low setting to warm the cards just enough to make them ply-able so that they bend back straight quicker. Just be very careful because you dont want to use to much heat. This method worked wonders and I still have those same cards in my rotation and the are perfectly flat and have stayed that way. I hope this helps.

Whoa.....after all that and we still buy their product. I was curious if we copy this post and send it to the quality manager, what would they think. I would be embarrass.

Now I know why they replace new deck every 4 hours of play at WSOP 2007.