Hello Ravensburger Puzzles –
The day was December 30th, 2012. I gathered with friends, near and far, in a rented vacation home on the central coast of California in a quaint city known as San Luis Obispo, Spanish for St. Louis, the Bishop of Toulouse.
We filled our cups with wine and our souls with laughter. The times were jolly.
And that’s where I first saw it. My friend – the “Mander” – brought it along and it would entertain for the better part of 4 days.
I’m of course referring to – The Ravensburger Puzzle! 3000 amazing pieces or so we thought. But more to come on this later.
Day after day, night after night we poured blood, sweat, and tears into the Ravensburger. While connecting sweet piece after piece of the puzzle we reminisced on the good times of years past. We drank fine red wine and connected fine puzzle pieces. We told jokes while searching for a seemingly non-existent piece. We puzzled until 4 in the morning. We puzzled immediately upon waking up.
We puzzled and we puzzled and when someone thought we could never finish, we encouraged them to just keep puzzling.
And then slowly the Ravensburger began to take shape. The edges formed, the horses became whole, the angels began to sing as we pieced them together. With each piece we could feel the excitement as a friend yelled out in pure satisfaction “PIECE!!!” indicating to the group that he had connected 2 sweet pieces of Ravensburger’s 3000.
And yet this story does not have a happy ending.
You see, after hours and hours of puzzling we came up short. How could you quit when you were so close you ask?
We were missing a piece! The Ravensburger 3000 was not to be. It was only 2999.
Now we feel so incomplete. What can you do to make us whole again?
Truly Puzzled,
Damon
UPDATE: January 16th
I faxed this letter to Ravensburger’s customer service office since this seems like the type of letter one faxes.
UPDATE: February 5th
After receiving no response to my fax I sent this same letter via the mail. Today I received this response from Ravensburger. Apparently, the solution is to send me another copy of the puzzle and have me search through that one to find the same piece. What if that same piece is missing again? I guess the number of hours we spent on this thing was completely lost. Ah well. I just hope one day we’ll have that individual puzzle piece replacement technology that this world needs!
Hello Damon,
I have received your letter regarding the missing piece, I am very sorry to hear that, I know how frustrating that is. At this time we are unable to replace individual pieces, we are working on the technology but we are not there yet. I can send out a replacement puzzle and the piece needed to complete the image can be picked out. Please note that the item is currently on backorder as soon as we receive a shipment a replacement order will be put on. I think you for your understanding and patience in this matter.
Best regards,
Erinn
UPDATE: July 15th
I received this in the mail today. The saga of the Ravensburger puzzle is now complete. I just hope this one has all 3000 pieces!
78 replies on “Open Letter to Ravensburger Puzzles”
Funny story here, I’ve just completed this same puzzle, with the same outcome. missing one piece. It isn’t the same piece that you were missing but still missing one.
Haha if it was the same piece that would be hilarious.
Hi, if you still have the world map of 3000 piece i lost a piece , i would happy if you can send it to me. Thanjs. Maya
Hahahah
I have bought 5each 1000 piece Ravensburger puzzels. 4 were missing pieces. They sent replacements, but the pieces are only approximate to the first puzzels, maybe a difference in cutters. As much as I like their puzzels, it is not worth the hassel. we just bought a 500 piece…missing 3 pieces, why are they still in biz…don’t they notice all the extra pieces on the cutting floor? Guess they don’t care…
So it goes with the Ravensburgers.
I purchased my first Ravensburger recently – a 1000-piece. Three adjacent pieces were missing. I was amazed at all the links online relating the same type of problem. I won’t be purchasing any more of their puzzles. Can’t believe they can get away with this and stay in business.
I just finished my 4th Ravensburger 1000 piece puzzle that was missing a piece. I called after the second one and they sent me a replacement puzzle. But it’s very upsetting to spend hours on a puzzle only to find out that you can’t finish it!
And I understand how a piece can be misplaced or lost by dropping it or having it stick to clothing, etc., but how can this happen 4 times without ever finding one of the missing pieces??
I’m very discouraged at this point. As much as I like their puzzles, I’m going to try my luck with another brand.
We had opposite problem
We had one piece too,many
We felt immediately
That some where in,world
Someone was going to be short a piece!
White dragon-1000 piece puzzle
Puzzle #
15 696 2
on,off chance someone reads this
We have your missing piece!
Hi,I’ve just seen your post,I missed a piece from the same puzzle,maybe its too late according the date of your post.But if you still have that piece(the piece that I missed),we can make a contact,i can send you a picture.
Haha my friend – the Mander – took the puzzle so I am no longer in possession of this masterpiece.
Hey guy with the dragon puzzle, I know it’s been years, but just got one and is missing a piece. It’d be funny if it was the same you got.
Welcome to the missing piece club!
Here’s my story! As gifts for Christmas this year I made puzzles, glued and framed them. The 1,000 piece Ravensburger “craft cupboard” I ordered from Amazon had one missing piece. Amazon sent a replacement. SAME piece was missing. I thought maybe it was a bad batch (?)…then I started reading reviews. Ugh. I emailed Ravensburger. They kindly sent another. SAME piece was missing – really?! Although they make great themed puzzles, I will never ever order from them again. Like someone mentioned above, how are they still in business?
I bought 2000 piece stamps of the world. Piece missing. Also man cave 2 adjoining pieces missing. I will never purchase a ravensburger again.
My 90-year-old mom bought Ravensburger’s A Stitch in Time 1000 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle last September through Amazon and just finally finished it after a couple of months of slowly working on it between writing stints on her novel. Come to find out after all that time that not only is one piece missing but there are five extra duplicate pieces! WTAH?
Amazon won’t deal with it because it’s way past their 90 day return period and it looks like Ravensburger won’t take responsibility either. She won’t be ordering from them again, especially after I show her this blog post and comments. It’s too bad, because they make beautiful puzzles.
Bummer! You tried contacting Ravensburger? They seem to be pretty good with at least sending a replacement puzzle when people complain about missing pieces. Especially if you include that detail that it’s your 90 year old mother!
Two out of the three 1000 piece puzzles I recently purchased from Ravensburg had pieces missing. I thought that I might have dropped them and the dogs had ate them . Then I realised that one of the puzzles had two adjacent pieces missing and the chance of dropping adjacent pieces would be a million to one. Now having read the above letters I feel bad about blaming the poor old dogs .
I have your pieces and I am holding them ransom. Some of the pieces, probably not all of them. Will you pay $20.00 for their safe return? Here is what I need… The Name or Number of the puzzle… a clear digital photo of the knot-hole in your not-whole puzzle… and a clear photo (from the box) of that exact place where the piece is missing.
That will allow me to determine whether I can help you.
Thank you.
If you are looking for ransom I can tell you I don’t have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills.
You will return my puzzle piece!!
Just finished a Ravensberger. To my confusion, I have two extra pieces left over. They fit together tho, do st least they have each other.
I’ve done many Ravensberger puzzles in the past and never had a problem.
I think that will be two frustrated Ravensburger fans missing pieces!
Same thing here… Just finished 1000-pc ‘Painted Ladies’ and ended up with 2 extra duplicate pieces for this picture (also fit together).
No problem for me, but I feel bad for whoever got the other box…
Maybe this might be out of the brand topic thru my experince Same goes with clementoni jigsaw puzzle brand…send the nearest branch in asia then suddenly they cant send the replacement part….
I guess Ravensburger isn’t the only company to deal with the drama of missing puzzle pieces.
Good day – i am from South Africa and my wife bought me the Ravensburger “Atmospheric London” 2000 piece puzzle. However missing 8 pieces, all in one spesific area. This must be due to a packaging fault.
What am i to do???
I have sent numerous emails – however without any response.
Koos it might be time to retire from puzzling. Many greats have retired in their prime.
My daughter just finished a three thousand piece Ravensburger puzzle #17 037 1 with one piece of the zebra’s back missing. If anyone out there has it, we’d be grateful for it. She planned to glue it & put it on her wall. She’s an artist, so I told her to paint a replacement piece if the company can’t supply one!
Hope you find your missing piece! Godspeed!
I didn’t realize that this was such a problem! I too just finished a 1000 piece puzzle (Christmas Stamps) and it was missing a piece. I guess that I will have to be satisfied completing a 999 piece puzzle!
But its just not as satisfying is it? Apparently, they now have puzzle piece replacement technology but haven’t used it yet.
I just completed Ravensburger 1500 piece puzzle No. 163090 Vintage Paris. There was a piece missing AND a piece that did not belong to this puzzle!!!
This is the 2nd of their puzzles where the same thing happened. One piece missing, and an extra piece from a different puzzle.
I am NEVER buying anything from that company again.
Seems harsh Peter. But as a strict puzzler I respect that decision.
Wow, I’m reading all these stories and here I was thinking I’m the only one missing 2 puzzle pieces from a 1000 pc puzzle by Ravensburger. I did contact them, not about to let this go down without a replacement. I hope they can fix this. Very un2019 like.
Extra pieces, missing pieces, pieces from wrong puzzles. Kinda makes me question the whole puzzle making process. Shouldn’t each piece be numbered so they could print out a specific piece.
Just finished a 500 piece Ravensburger puzzle – Parisian Sunset No. 81 559 with one missing piece. …..not surprised though as I have been reading about missing pieces from this company. I just hoped that my puzzle would be different. Alas, it was not to be. I thought perhaps I had misplaced a piece because I did find one underneath the couch. After we spotted it my dog picked it up before we could and ran to her bed with it. We retrieved it and it was ok. Looked everywhere for the other piece so concluded it was missing from the batch. I had been careful or so I thought. I have another Ravensburger, so hope this one is okay. I have finished a Ravensburger that was whole so all is not lost.
Hello Ravensburger
I just completed my second 1000 piece puzzle made by your company. I was extremely disappointed to be missing one piece on both puzzles.
At this point, I’m considering to purchase my future puzzles from another company.
Best regards,
Barb
You tell ’em Barb!
We completed two 1500-piece Ravensburger puzzles recently and no missing pieces.
We then decided to try 2000-piece puzzle and bought the “Neuschwanstein Castle” panorama.
The first disappointment was that the quality of the image is not good. The 1500-piece puzzles had sharp high-resolution images. This one looks like it was a smaller image that they just zoomed, so it’s all blurry when looking at individual pieces.
But the biggest issue was that it looks like the cutting of the image to individual pieces was botched in several places. Some pieces had overlapping cuts such that we found small bits in the bag. Here’s a photo of some of the pieces: https://photos.app.goo.gl/TfUac3UNMNZxmW8g6
You guys are the quite the puzzler Boris! Keep up the good work.
Our 2000 pc Neuschwanstein Castle Panorama was missing One piece but the image was OK but one piece we had glued together
I am still waiting for a new puzzle
You get it?
Still Waiting
Same issue as others, puzzles with missing pieces and no way to get a replacement. The last one of theirs I bought had a duplicate piece so some poor soul has that piece missing. Pomegranate makes good 1,000 piece puzzles with good solid materials. I can roll up a finished puzzle and carry it without dropping a piece. I have finished about 30 of their puzzles with just two with a missing piece. They replaced both with no hassle. I wish they made larger puzzles. No more Ravensburger for me.
I suggest taking the missing puzzle back to the store from which you bought it and asking for a refund. Let the stores start complaining. They have a bit more clout. Send them back to Amazon if you bought them there. Imagine if Amazon stopped selling Ravensburgers.
Sad to say that I also found “Bunch of Birds” 1000 pc puzzle that was very beautiful but also missing one piece and also just learned that Ravensburger does not send replacement pieces.
I would think that quality control would be paramount to a company that makes jigsaw puzzles, but based on all these posts it seems not to be. Very disappointed.
Once they have puzzle piece replacement technology that will be a game changer!
17 pieces missing in my 1000 piece puzzle….no joke…17
Wow, 17 missing pieces? You sure some just didn’t fall under the couch?
Just finish 5000 piece puzzle of the Tower of Babble. One piece missing. 10 months of work. WOW was very unhappily. Going to contact them soon.
Damn so close and yet so far away!
Heyy! Just finished the old world map 3000 piece! Well apart from the two missing pieces!! So disappointed, was really looking forward to framing it up but now that defeats the purpose… will contact them now let’s see what they say :(.
Damn!! Let me know what they say! I hope they have puzzle piece replacement technology by now!
I just did a 1000 PC Ravensburger puzzle and it is missing over 50 pieces!! Huge chucks of the puzzle are missing. I love their pictures, but it is frustrating to have missing pieces. Next time I will count them before I start.
Wow 50 pieces?
I just finished the Fairytale Fantasia 1000 and found one duplicate piece. So if anyone out there is missing a piece, let me know. I would love to reunite it with its family.
‘Just “completed” 1500 piece Ravensburger “Picturesque Notre Dame” puzzle (#163458) and I am missing one piece.
The quality of the puzzle is great, however, it appears as though gremlins are at work in the factory pilfering pieces.
Yesterday I sent an e-mail message through the Ravensburger website to see if they can furnish the piece.
In the meantime I am researching the “Jigsaw Doctor’s” prices online.
Just finished 1000 piece lady and tramp. 2 pieces missing. Gutted.
They tell me cannot get replaced
I just “finished” Ravensburger 1000 piece Challenge Series Zebra puzzle No. 81 561. I am missing 6 pieces!!! When I realized I was missing two edge pieces I even searched through the trash and pulled out the packaging to double check that I didn’t throw them away. Nope! Nothing in the bag. Then I realized I’m missing a cluster of four! This is so aggravating! As it was the whole thing is black and white with Zebra stripes going every which way… I didn’t need the extra challenge of missing pieces. Going to email them for sure!
Just bought the Ravensburger 1000 piece # 15 9992 5 puzzle and just focused on the border. Have one piece missing on the border. Have gone through the box piece by piece 3 times and no doubt the piece was not present. Very mad. Makes me now wonder what to expect for the rest of the puzzle.
Just completed 1500-piece Ravensburger. Missing 2 pieces, in 2 areas. And… wait for it… there are 2 extra pieces that fit together. 1 extra piece is similar shape to 1 of missing pieces, the other not–so it’s not like I goofed with pieces in wrong places. Plus, while of the same black/gray/brown/white coloring as rest of puzzle (which was REALLY hard for me), I can see no where , studying picture, that the 2 extra-joined pieces could go in this puzzle. Weird.
I bought a Ravensburger 1000-piece puzzle #15022 on Amazon a few weeks ago and I read some reviews prior to the purchase saying that their puzzles sometimes come with pieces missing but I really wanted it so I just hoped and prayed and placed the order anyway. Flash forward – I get my puzzle and I had an amazing time putting it together, honestly a really phenomenal puzzle. I’m getting towards the end and there’s very few pieces left to put in place so I decide to count how many spaces are left vs how many pieces I have left. *Sigh* my heart SANK. 8 pieces on my table and 9 spaces left to fill. I suck it up and fill the 8 pieces into their slots and stare at the empty spot left. Then I started hoping maybe it fell so I rummaged and rummaged and rummaged through my entire workspace, the floor, everything… HALLELUJAH! I found one lonely piece sitting on the floor and nearly cried some tears of joy. The satisfaction of putting that piece in its place was indescribable. I ordered two more today from the same collection and again I’m hoping and praying I have the same experience. Reading all of the horror stories on here is making me fear the worst but wish me luck!
That feeling of placing the final piece in the puzzle is a feeling not many get to experience. Savor it Stacey! I wonder how many people are really blaming Ravensburger when the missing piece is underneath their sofa all this time.
Missing 1 piece, contained 1 duplicate piece. We have 1,000 piece panorama “The Beatles” 2018 #D-88149. I contacted Ravensburger and they offered to replace it with a different puzzle because this one has been discontinued.
Does anyone have my missing piece? It is located at 4th row down from top, piece # 48 (counting from left to right). And does anyone need my duplicate? It is located 5th row down, #17 across.
If this blog post can connect two individuals who have each other’s missing puzzle pieces, then my life’s work is complete. 😀
I really wish I saw this blog BEFORE buying the Ravensburg puzzle #162024! Finished the puzzle yesterday and came up 10 pieces short 🙁
I really wish I saw this blog BEFORE buying the Ravensburg puzzle #162024! Finished the puzzle yesterday and came up 10 pieces short 🙁
Wow 10 pieces short?! That’s the current high. At least in comments on this blog post.
Just finished 17 037 1 with 3 pieces missing. Disappointed have been working on it since may seems.like a.common theme.. unfourtanely I bought the puzzle years ago so cant return it.
Hopefully ravensburger comes up.with a solution
At least email ravensburger support. They’ll give you a free puzzle but no promises that one will have all the pieces 😀
I’m sorry that so many of you have had problems. My daughter is a huge puzzler and we have well over 30 ravensburger puzzles, they are by far our favorite brand. That being said we have had a few instances of missing pieces. My daughter recently completed a 5,000 piece puzzle with 2 missing pieces side by side. The room was completely blocked off , so while I know our dog has occasionally eaten a piece this was not the case. I just found a company that will make missing pieces. The puzzle doctor out of the UK we are going to try it and see how it goes. Ravensburger has sent replacement puzzles in the past but there is no way we’re going that route this time. Good luck to all of you.
Thanks Laura!
Just finished a 5000 piece Ravensburger and missing a piece. I have done several 3000 piece with no missing pieces. So frustrating.
Welcome to the missing piece club Wendy!
I just finished a 3000 piece Ravensburger, it actually was two 1500 piece puzzles, they used the same die and reversed the cardboard mat.
I was halfway through the 1000 piece Ravensburger No. 3 Curious Cupboards (19 482 7) and started finding duplicate pieces. I couldn’t believe it when I finished the entire puzzle with nothing missing. However, I did end up with six extra pieces so other people are short somewhere. I’m a bit concerned as I bought four Ravensburgers off Amazon in March and this is the first one I’ve finished. If the others have missing pieces, it’s too late to return them. Ironically, I chose Ravensburger as a high quality company because my first Eurographics puzzle was missing three pieces and had a duplicate. I guess this is just how things go in the world of puzzling. P.S. If you bought Curious Cupboards and are missing pieces in the section on the left with the green pea pod and purple flowers, I’ll send them to you.
Extra pieces. Missing pieces. These are the risks we take we enter the world of puzzling.
Why didn’t I read this blog first? I thought Ravensburger made high quality puzzles. I just finished my third 1000 piece puzzle. ALL 3 had a piece missing. The first (most everyone is mad) I figured I must have accidentally lost it somewhere, somehow. The 2nd (168163) was baffling. But maybe stuck on my clothes and I walked away?? Now #3, fashionista, I know it’s not me. This one I was super careful, finished in 2 days. Last Ravensburger I will ever buy. Is there some sadistic employee throwing pieces around for fun?