The Tale of Rich Lewis Pipes Repair and Liar

In the summer of 1998 I gave Rich Lewis an extremely rare pipe to repair that is worth several thousand dollars. I did this after hearing that he was very skilled at pipe repair. While at a large tobacco trade show I placed the pipe along with the stem, which had a broken tenon in his hand. He told me he would have it fixed in a couple of weeks. Weeks turned into months and I never heard a word about my pipe. When I finally got a hold of him on the phone I was told that he didn't have any stem material to fix the pipe but he was going to try to find some. Many more months went by. I knew he and I were both going to be at the Chicago pipe show in the spring of 2000 so I called and told him that if he wasn't going to fix my pipe to give it to me at the show. He agreed. I saw him at the show and was told he forgot my pipe but would get it back to me when he got back. Of course that never happened either. I saw Rich Lewis a few months later at the RTDA trade show and he still did not have my pipe. Over the course of the year that followed I sent 5 emails asking for my pipe and I never received a response. I saw him again at the next annual RTDA trade show and still no pipe and no explanation. The only contact I had that was initiated by Rich was in the spring of 2003, just prior to the RDTA show, when he sent an email asking for the names of good restaurants for eat at while he was in town. The show was hosted in my home town. I ignored that question and replied stating that he should call me when he got to town to return my pipe. He never called me, never came by my shop and somehow managed to avoid me for the entire show. Months later I finally got a response from Rich Lewis. It came after I confronted him on the matter in a public internet pipe based chat type newsgroup named alt.smokers.pipes. He emailed telling me he was going to send back my pipe. I received the pipe a few weeks later ... not repaired and without the stem. After complaining about the stem. He said he'd try to find it. A week or so later I received a stem. It was not the stem from my pipe. When confronting him via email about this I received this reply .... "As far as the pipe sitting here all this time you only have yourself to blame." Yes, I have saved all emails over the course of this horrendous situation.

So I'd suggest the if you ever need a pipe repaired, regardless of cost, you NOT send it to:

Lewis Pipe & Tobacco
512 Nicollet Ave
Minneapolis, Mn. 55402

Be warned that you might not ever see it again and will, at the minimum be lied to while you wait.