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ixpfah

ixpfah

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Joined
Oct 8, 2001
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I seriously never though I would be doing this, but here I am, typing down some negative feedback about One Stop Knife Shop - the store that supports this forum.

Don't ask me what has gone wrong, because I'm not really sure.
It all started when Spark arranged a limited edition of Benchmade balisongs for The Balisong Forum! forumites exclusivly.

I placed my order for a Benchmade 35-SPL on November 19th 2002. Since I live in a country outside USA they don't accept me paying with VISA. Therefore I had to do a wire transfer, which was done about a month later. Since they are also only shipping with UPS internationally, which costs $85 or something, I chose to have the knife sent to someone in the US, who would then ship it to me for a much lower cost.

I thought all was good. After all, it was pre-ordered so I didn't expect it to show up right away. But after a while they started shipping, but the "middle man" in US never got mine.

(1) February 2nd I therefore sent them a mail asking what was taking so long. None replied.
(2) Exactly one month later I sent them another mail regarding my order. No response.
(3) April 10th I sent a mail to Spark personally, asking about my forum balisong. Again, I heard nothing.
(4) Lastly, I sent a mail May 25th, warning them that if I didn't get a response this time either, I would post a thread in the The Good, The Bad, The Ugly! forum. And as alway, they were quite as the grave.

So here I am. I sent at least 4 e-mails to 1SKS and the owner, NONE were ever answered! I agree, it's not good to let a whole month pass before I send the payment, but IMO that doesn't justify that I never got an answer from them.

I would call them if I could, but the phone that's currently avaiable is barred for outgoing calls abroad. After all, we have communicated via e-mail quite well before, I don't understand why we don't anymore.

I don't know the reason for this. Maybe I've sent ALL the emails to wrong addresses (in that case they should update their website), perhaps my reply-to address is wrong (pretty strange others are able to answer me, then), or it could be they have banned me for some reason (I would anyway like to know why, if that's the case).

If you see this, Spark, and finally wish to reply to my e-mails, you're welcome. Perhaps we can sort this out after all. Better late than never, huh?
If you decide to ignore this, on the other hand, I think that's a big shame. I thought you were better than this... :(
 
Here's the deal.

You placed order number 23594 on 11/19. You selected VISA as your method of payment, and because this is not an accepted method of payment for international orders, your order was suspended. Because the shipping address was a US residence, and the billing address was Norway, this set off our fraud alarms as a possible stolen card - resulting in your order being cancelled.

Our terms & conditions are posted on 1SKS.com - http://www.1sks.com/store/terms.html

You were sent an email regarding wire transfering the money, which I understand you got. Therein lies the problem - unless you call us or fax us and let us know the times, dates & amounts of the transfer, it's quite possible that we won't know it happened. Especially when you wait over a month to send payment.

Finally, the payment received was not for the correct amount. We received $87 on 12/30/02 - $20 less than the amount needed to pay for the knife. I can only guess that you did not include the appropriate wire transfer fees when you initiated the transaction. Regardless, you were again contacted about the remaining funds, to which we received no replies. With regards to your emails, I responded to you personally twice as I recognized your name from the forums. I received no response (and our bounced email is automaticly deleted, so I don't know what happened other than the lack of response).

Our policy is that until all funds have been received, no international order will be shipped, and no inventory will be held. I'm sorry this occurred, and truly wish I had another BM-35 to sell you.

The only thing I can currently offer is your choice of BM-30 or BM-10 for $80 to make up for the inconvenience. Please let me know what you would like to do.
 
So you're saying you DID recieve my mails? Because I am 100% sure I never got any from you, exept the one informing me about foreign VISA transfers.

Sorry I didn't call or fax you about the transfer, I know (now) it says so in the mail, but I'm kinda hasty when reading so much text... Definately my fault.

Regarding the payment being $20 too little, I'm terribly sorry about that. I know I wired the correct amount, but I guess it's like you said: I didn't include the fees to finalize the transaction. Again, my bad, I'm sorry.

I never got a mail about the remaining funds, though, could you tell me which mail address you used? I'm pretty sure I have entered the correct one, but a mistake could have been made. On both sides, of course. I haven't had a problem with full mail box or something, so that shouldn't be the deal, nor have I heard anything about my ISP company having trouble with e-mail accounts.

Please send me a mail at ixpfah@tiscali.no and we can work out something there instead of in the public? And if you don't get a response within 24 hours, please let me know (by writing here) and I will look into it. Maybe your address is banned or something, although it shouldn't be.

Thanks for clearing it up.
 
Just checking up...
Don't know if you've tried sending me a mail, at least I haven't received one.
Please post your status here.

Thanks.
 
I sent you a mail after my last reply. What would you like to do?
 
That's very strange indeed. I'll call my ISP company tomorrow, if they are open (it's a holiday) and ask if there are any filters on my mail address. There should be none, though... Odd.

You may want to try my "back-up" address, too: sydafrikaner@hotmail.com
Maybe we're more lucky there.
 
Just a follow up... I haven't recieved any mail on my hotmail address, so I was just wondering if you have mailed me?...
(and our bounced email is automaticly deleted, so I don't know what happened other than the lack of response)
Click to expand...
Any possibility to unset the delete option on bounced emails, so we perhaps can find out what's wrong?
I've been in contact with my ISP provider, but they didn't understand what the cause could be either... Very odd! :(
 
No, it is not possible, or we'd get a hundred bounced emails a day - and I'd have to dig through each one personally to see which one is yours. I'll try again shortly.
 
Unset the delete option and filter all bounces to their own folder. This will not clutter up the main incoming email and you can then search it in a second for a specific email address when a customer complains about not getting emails. You can periodically skim it for a list of emails, archive it, txt squashs to almost nothing, and then delete it every so often as well (all by scripts). You could also filter/flag bounced replies to customers in their own folder as these would be obviously critically important. Assuming of course you are running Unix or similar. No idea how to do these things or if they are even possible if you are on a MAC or Windows.

-Cliff
 
Present day Macs are running over Unix, so maybe it could be possible on Macs. Any propellerheads out there?
 
Cliff, Boink: Thanks for all your tips and help. Maybe it will come handy.

Spark: If you've tried mailing me at the hotmail.com address, I can't say I've recieved anything from you. I have no idea what that causes.
Do you think you're able to try out what Cliff and Boink suggested, so we could find out what the problem really is?

Perhaps I should try sending a fax or something? In that case, it may take a while, since I don't have access to a fax. But I'll try to work something out.
 
Look, I want to get this resolved, and email isn't working. Tell me the knife you want in this thread, or send a fax with it, and we'll get it sent right out.
 
Well ok. Sorry for being an ass of a customer.

I guess I'll go for a BM-30 or BM-10, doesn't really matter which. Will the funds cover it including shipping?
 
Sure, we'll take care of it - I should have done a better job and kept on top of it. Also, if there is another knife that you'd like instead in the same price range feel free to take $20 off it and I'll be happy to send that instead. Whatever you'd like to do.
 
Thanks, but there's no need to give me a discount. It's pretty obvious I'm the one that messed it up, it's only that mail-thing that's still a mysterium to me.

I'll take a BM-10, please, if that's all right.

Thanks.
 
Thanks, but there's no need to give me a discount. It's pretty obvious I'm the one that messed it up, it's only that mail-thing that's still a mysterium to me.

I'll take a BM-10, please, if that's all right.

Thanks.
 
It was suppossed to go to Mr. L in Texas, right? I know we sent it - but I'll send another one just to make double sure.
 
Seems to me that Spark is going way over the top to take care of you Ix!

I'm impressed! :)
 
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