Salt’s

My experience with Salt’s earlier this year was great — an old Ronson Varaflame and also a petrol Queen Anne were brought back to life, and the Queen Anne nicely polished up, for what I considered a perfectly fair price. Would certainly use them again. I found Mr Henry helpful and polite on the phone.

Reading the other review, I can’t but feel disappointed that in my experience of Salts, the ‘old-​fashioned’ aura of the shop was not a part of the service, neither the ‘incredibly friendly’ attitude of the staff! The former resulted in irreparable cosmetic damage to two of my lighters, (one an expensive YSL, the other of great sentimental value), whereas the latter involved an unpleasant verbal/​written sparring with the one member of staff to whom I spoke, a Mr Henry! Given the paucity of true tobacconists in this country, now so hostile to the ‘fragrant weed’, it is a cause for regret that a ‘friendly old-​style tobacconists’ should fail to fulfil the promise and rudiments of all that is encapsulated by that term. Rather, would I have preferred to praise, than to criticize, one of the remaining tobacco emporiums. To not be able to do so is further cause for grievance.

My experience with this company have been altogether different! I sent two lighters (one an expensive YSL gold lighter) to Salts to be repaired. They were returned to me loose in an evelope. Consequently, both have been scratched, but the lighter one of sentimental value, has been scratched so badly, that I am no longer comfortable using it. I rang Salts, and spoke to a man called Henry. This shameless individual admitted, quite insincerely, that he was responsible (‘I hold my hands up’), but that he was quite indifferent to making any reparation to the lighter. I returned the lighter with graphic photographs showing how the lighters had been spoiled. They were returned without comment. There were several other exchanges in which this man became more intransigent, and unpleasant. Since then the lighter repaired by him that I have been able to use has become faulty, and will have to be repaired again. Thus not only has this stupidly careless individual ruined my lighters with his lack of forethought, but he has proved to be both inept, and incapable as regards the repair work that he carried out on them. I have since been informed that Strike-​a-​Light are a more responsible firm.

See my review of Salt’s elsewhere: A strange little store — to all intents and purposes it’s a standard newsagent with an old-​fashioned tobacconist’s on the back wall. Not only can you buy pipes, lighters and other items of, erm, ‘quality’ smokers paraphernalia, but also every type of tobacco and cigarette in the world, like those little skinny cocktail cigarettes that taste of fruit. Not that anybody needs them, exactly, but it’s nice to know they’re there. The staff are incredibly friendly, so don’t be put off by the stern signs on the till telling you you’ll be charged extra for paying by card, asking for a carrier bag and the rest of it. This is just a friendly old-​style tobacconists.