Habanos Authenticity Checker NOT WORKING?!
The Habanos Authenticity Checker is a useful tool to verify whether your Cuban cigars are real or fake. Using the barcode numbers on the cigar box, imputed into Habanos website, it can help to tell if your Cuban cigars are genuine. The website can be found here: http://verificacion.habanos.com/
The problem is, the Habanos Verifier is often not working…
Here’s how it usually goes, you’ve got your new box of Cuban cigars, at a great price, and want to check if they are real. You head to the website, carefully enter the long, hard to read code, and the most common message displayed is:
Please correct the following errors and try again.
- Incorrect characters- please try again
So you try again, painfully checking for any issues in your barcode, but no, it won’t *BEEP*ing work. Ah, it’s the Captcha box not loading correctly. You try on your iPhone, Android, iPad, Desktop, Laptop, friends phone… before swearing a lot, giving up and heading to social media to ask your cigar group for their, sometimes questionable, judgment.
Don’t panic though, relax, here’s how to get the Habanos Verifier to work.
How to use the Habanos Authenticity Checker to Verify your Cuban Cigars
Check the numbers under the barcode on the green warranty seal. (Not the retailers barcode if they’ve put a price sticker on the box!) This is the green warrenty label with a barcode at one end, and hologram at the other - it is only on full boxes, and the outer box of packs of 3 and 5, so if you have bought a small pack, you won't be able to get this code unfortunately.
If the barcode is damaged, or unclear, it is possible to find the numbers written in microprint, in green, under the beginning and end of the REPUBLIC DE CUBA lettering. Note, it’s in 2 parts, read the right one first, then the left and only on the main warrenty seal, not smaller ones on packs of 3 and 5.
So, you’ve got the barcode correct, and tried all the different layout options, but it’s still not working?!
It’s a Captch issue.
(If the Captcha image is loading, skip these steps)
The trick is to try and get the Captcha image on the Habanos Verifier to load. So try a combination of different devices and browsers and see if you can get any of them to load the Captcha image above the verify button on this site:
Firstly, Chrome doesn’t work. At all.
(That’s right, the most popular browser is not supported. Something to do with the Cuba and America relationship I believe.)
Seems like the same issue with iPhones and iPads, on all browsers – but you could try using Firefox.
Same again for Microsoft Edge and Safari, on all devices.
If you are using an Android mobile phone, Firefox does seem to work… most times.
Windows desktop computer, if you still have Internet Explorer installed, this does seem to work… most times. As well as the newer version of Firefox.
MacBooks can be hit and miss with Firefox.
Summary
To authenticate your Cuban cigars, use IE on desktop (retro!), or Firefox on Android. If you are an Apple fan, you may have a bit of a harder time…
Captcha Image is Loading but It Still Won’t Work
Make sure you’ve ticked Input Manual and selected the correct format. If it’s still not working, try the other formats as that can sometimes work.
Check you have the Captcha correct, it can be case sensitive. If it is tricky to read, refresh the page until you get an easier one.
Still can’t get it to work? Give up and try some other ways to check your cigars.
It’s Worked, but Given a Wrong Result?
Yeah… this happens from time to time. Cuba is by no means perfect. Very occasionally you get oddities like Romeo y Julietta Churchill Box of 25 coming out as something like Romeo y Julieta Short Churchill Tubos Box of 15. Don’t worry though, the Habanos Authenticity Checker is a good gauge at best. There’s never anything as good as the “cigar aficionado’s eye”.
If you’ve successfully been able to buy authentic Cuban cigars at a great price, then sit back, cut, light, and enjoy!
