The packages arrived packed to perfection. It's hard to imagine the product getting damaged in transit.
First off, I kept these dishes because I love the look. They are very pretty, quite sturdy and, though they don't have the same deeper red/purple hues I saw in the photos, match my decor very well. Some people had thought they'd have more of a matt finish. They do not. They are quite glossy.
The finish has some nuanced deviation from piece to piece. When stacked together it's clear that the dishes are not entirely uniform as conventional mass-produced pieces are. I happen to like these features. I am replacing dishes that were professionally hand-crafted by potters and it was hard to let go of them. So if your tastes lean to the more rustic, professionally hand-crafted look, I think you'd like these a lot. If you're all about perfection and uniformity, maybe not so much.
The glaze is rich and has a lot of dimension to it. You can see some mineral-like qualities to the colors, which changes depending on the light. To me and my peeps, the dishes (especially the bowls) had a definite purplish-red shade in the photos (both on the screen and on the box). The real color is more subtle and most of my peeps called it brown with some mahogany red and purplish hues. These nuanced colors look more apparent when placed on placemats of those shades.
Unfortunately, in the two sets I ordered, there was one chipped cup and one cracked plate. I contacted Great Offer Stock and they are sending replacements. I was pleased to find that Pfaltzgraff has replacement pieces on their website in case I break anything.
The biggest negative, though, was the fact that these dishes measure 11.5" and they do not allow the door to close in my standard 12" cabinets. I tried everything and the door remains open about 1/4 to 1/2" (depending on where they're placed in the cabinet). As a testimony as to how much I like these (with perhap a wee bit of influence by how much I would dread packing every piece back in the original packaging and lugging two heavy boxes to the PO) I spent last night trying to figure out how I could convert our cookbook shelf into a dish display rack. In the end, this switch-up will have many positives for us, but it is a lot of effort to go to to make our new dishes work. I am guessing that most people would not want to go to that much effort, or may not even have an alternative option, to get their new dishes to fit in their cupboards. In those cases, you'd have to be content with cabinet doors that don't close in a rather obvious way.
Clearly I am conflicted. It took me quite a bit of consternating to finally pick dishes because I love my current dishes so much even though they no longer match my decor. In my case, the beauty of the new dishes overcome their flaws. But this may not be the case for others. Said another way, your mileage may vary.
For reference, I posted a photos of:
* how the glaze in the cups deviates from cup-to-cup
* the space the cabinet door won't close based on the most optimal placement in the cabinet
* the chipped cup