Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Gibson Soho Lounge 16-Piece Square Reactive Glaze Dinner Set - Red I want to provide information from our experience which differs from many of the past reviews we read on the Amazon website. My wife and I rely heavily on reviews from others when making purchasing decisions on Amazon. We were somewhat reluctant to purchase these dishes after reading the various reviews regarding breakage, chipping and color variations but went ahead and ordered due to finding a very good price point from one of the sellers. We found one seller from Amazon selling the 16 piece set for an amazing $36.33 per set! For that price point, we felt it was worth the risk to order these dishes. - We are extremely pleased with our purchase. These dishes are beautiful! The colors and shading from piece to piece are consistent with no scratches on the surface. We experienced no chips and no breakage during shipment. - We purchased four sets desiring to have 12 place settings on hand and to have four additional place settings in reserve. - We think the color shown (description states red but we saw that the color looked more like a burgundy/burgundy rust) on the Amazon site and our perception of the color shown was very comparable to what was delivered. - The packaging from the manufacturer is very solid. In fact its so solid that the dishes somehow withstood the very poor additional packaging from Amazon. Amazon sent us our four sets in two separate deliveries (two sets at a time). Amazon put two sets into one larger box to ship them. Amazon did not make sure that the two inside boxes were right side up when placing them into the larger box. Nor did Amazon add very much additional cushioning packing material inside the larger box to keep the two smaller boxes from moving/bouncing around, etc. There are so many reviews discussing breakage on these dishes during shipment. I'm convinced that this is an Amazon issue and not the fault of the manufacturer. - A few previous reviewers noted that their sets of dishes were manufactured in different countries (China and I believe Vietnam were mentioned) and they noticed slight variations in the shades and shapes of the dishes from country to country. Our dishes were ALL manufactured in China so we did not experience any of those issues. - We've washed these dishes in the dishwasher and had no breakage or cracks identified in other reviews. The dishes also fit easily in our dishwasher. - We've experienced no knife or fork marks after using the plates and bowls. - We've not yet chipped or broken any of these dishes on our own. All dishes can chip or break if not handled somewhat gently. We are not too rough on our dishes so maybe we are more of the exception. We won't clank the dishes together to test their chipping resistance!! :) - More important than anything else, my wife loves these dishes and have given them her hard earned seal of approval! We hope this helps those that are considering these dishes. We'd absolutely purchase these dishes again. This was our experience and know that others experiences have often been quite different than ours.